South Chair - Feb-March 2011

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatuAllahi wa barakatuh,

I start by praising Allah (SWT) and then sending peace and blessings upon His messenger Muhammad (SAW), the Companions and all the righteous believers until the Day of Judgement.

Brace yourself for a well over due update from myself and the FOSIS South committee – it’s been 5 months since my last blog update and by the Grace and Generosity of Allah we have had 5 months jam-packed with events, campaigns, lectures and ISOC competitions!

The Opening - October!

As freshers weeks spilled over throughout the South we had an enlightening month filled with excited ISOCers who were keen to kick-start the year as best as possible. Imam Muhammad Ibn Ismail visited Portsmouth ISOC’s freshers week dinner and delivered a powerful reminder on eeman and planning your year to achieve at university whilst pleasing Allah. We had Nasser Karimian tour the South and deliver a series of dawah workshops at Southampton, Sussex and Surrey to get ISOCers prepared for a successful year of “inviting to all that is good; enjoining what is right” [3:104]. We had two ISOC 101workshops held at Surrey and Exeter where Islamic Society ‘heavy-weights’ Rashid Ansari and Amandla DTJ trained ISOCs with essential skills in leadership, team-work, event management, community engagement and student welfare – Alhamdulillah the weekend was excellent and the feedback even better:

"Jazakum Allahu kheiran for your efforts and hard work…really subhanAllah it was a mind opener and it made me personally think in a different way and from a different aspect. It not only taught me how to deal within my ISOC and become an effective leader but also how to organize my time, how to deal with different societies on campus and with the student union. Sharing your experience with us was the best part of all, also printing out the presentations helped us focus a lot along with the videos which were just fabulous. Thank you very much and may Allah (swt) reward you all, and I’m looking forward forISOC 102 :p" – Sussex ISOC President, Muhammad Al-Jishi

A time for the Needy - November

From the 1^st November – 7^th November we held Charity Week for the first time across the South. After weeks of preparation and hype; buckets, t-shirts, posters and flyers were distributed across the South with one mission; to raise as much money as we could and therefore to "feed, for the love of Allah, the poor, the orphan" [76:8]. The week inspired amazing brotherhood and sisterhood within ISOCs and the effort was simply outstanding – ISOCs dressed up, sold krispy kremes, had tea parties, did bucket collections, took business donations, organised lectures and raised almost £20,000! Below is one of the articles written on the success of Sussex and Brighton ISOCs' Charity Week:

We also organized two ISOC competitions, to make sure everyone was still on their toes after an epic Charity Week: theSisterQuest and ISOCCER tournament. SisterQuest saw the ‘toughest’ ISOC sisters from across the south battle it out with laser guns and of course only one sister was left ‘standing’ – Aneesa Rahman of Portsmouth! ISOCCER , lead by Muhammad Saddiq, saw different ISOC football teams and their equivalent ‘Ronaldos, Rooneys and Messis’ go head to head for the title! Surrey ISOC came out victorious with Sussex in second place and Portsmouth in third. 

At the end of the month we held the FOSIS South Inaugural Charity Week and ISOC Awards Dinner at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Brighton. The turnout was brilliant and the evening’s line up included Hamza Tzortzis and Imam Muhammad Ibn Ismail who both honoured us with inspirational speeches on unity and power of charity. ISOC awards for the previous year were distributed and Charity Week efforts were recognised and commended. We had a somewhat ‘delightful’ 3 course Indian dinner served with a special FOSIS South Charity Week Cake fit for a king! All in all, the evening was spectacular and was certainly one of the highlights of 2010! Click here to see the full photo album!

Winter Spirit - December

On the back an epic month in November and despite travel difficulties due the massive amount of snowfall (which included getting stuck in Portsmouth with all trains cancelled and no phone :s) we rolled out a deeply spiritual ‘Saviours of Islamic Spirit’ tour to Southampton, Portsmouth, Sussex and Brighton. Step by step Mufti Abudurahman Ibn Yusuf took us through some of the giants of Islamic history: Ahmed Ibn Hanbal, Omar Bin Abdul-Aziz, Salahuddin Ayyubi and Imam Ghazali. Such characters of whom Allah raised as leaders of our Ummah and who lead their life by the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) – truly inspirational journeys with much to learn.

We finished the first academic term with a trip for our committee and many of our ISOCs to Cambridge for the FOSIS Winter Conference.

Discover Islam, the Blueprints - January

After the turn of the New Year the South committee and myself set about the momentous task of travelling to ISOCs for Discover Islam Week preparation meetings and the organisation of speaker tours. I visited Sussex, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Reading and Kent numerous times putting together plans (FOSIS DIW guide) to host the best DIWs the South has ever seen, inshAllah! I have to say that on my many journeys across the South the brothers at all ISOCs have been nothing short of amazing with their hospitality (all the dinner invites) and it is that brotherhood that helps to motivate myself working fesabilillah. 

January also saw the first ever National Executive Committee meeting take place in the South, at the sea-side resort of Brighton where NEC brothers and sisters got together to discuss the busy months ahead. Alhamdulillah the University of Brighton hosted our meeting at their Falmer Campus with great success. 

Lights, Camera, Action! – February

So as February embarked it was time for all of our hard work to materialise. Yusha Evans spent the weekend with Brighton and Sussex ISOCs on the 4^th and 5^th. On the 4^th he took us through his astonishing quest for ‘truth’ and how the Bible ultimately lead him to Islam and on the 5^th we went through a systematic approach to giving dawah on campus. On the 6^thYusha and myself travelled to Heathrow to meet up with Abu Hafsa to shoot some FOSIS promotional videos (watch this space!). Personally the weekend spent with Yusha was fascinating – not only because of his story but also because knowledge gained in his company.

“From the Vatican to Al-Azhar” was the title of our next tour with Idris Tawfiq which saw the ex-Catholic priest travelled to Reading, Exeter, Plymouth and Southampton sharing his story of how he came to embrace this beautiful religion of Islam.

Our first iERA dawah workshop also took place at the University of Southampton with Abdur Raheem Green delivering the course. Alhamdulillah, the brothers and sisters at Southampton are now set and ready for the call of dawah in their Discover Islam Week taking place in March.

Next on stage was Abu Hafsa Abdul Malik Clare’s tour: “Blind Eyes, Not Hearts”. To say that ISOCs were excited is a complete understatement. Abu Hafsa is nothing short of immense and it was that humour and inspirational that led me to spend most of my week attending all his talks (I may have memorised his story after hearing it so many times). He visited Reading, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Sussex and mashAllah, each talk only got better and better. One of the responses we had from the event at Portsmouth:

"Meeting Abu Hafsa has made me realise, we will never able to truly comprehend the unseen until we cross the barzakh. Just like a person who has been born without sight can never comprehend what this world looks like and what colours are. Just like this; the beauty of jannah, the punishment of the hell fire & the greatness of Allah can not be comprehended by our minds in this dunya- but it is the faith in our hearts just like the faith in a blind man that lets him live.'For indeed it is not their eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are in their bosoms, that grow blind.' Al Quran 22:46" FOSIS South Media Rep, Mayda Arshad

At the end of the Abu Hafsa tour we held a joint fundraiser event with iERA at the University of Greenwich called, “The Path to Guidance” with an awesome line up: Abdur Raheem Green, Hamza Tzortzis, Abu Hafsa and Yusha Evans. All in all the event was fantastic and by the Grace and Guidance of Allah the event culminated with a shahada by our new brother in Islam Toby (may Allah grant him everlasting faith).

Other tours that our committee and the absolutely amazing FOSIS Services Committee helped ISOCs with many more events during this month including Myriam Cerrah’s tour on “Women in Islam” at Kent, Brighton, Southampton, Exeter, Portsmouth and Reading. Adam Deen has gone on to speak and debate on the “Existence of God” at Kent, Portsmouth, Brighton and Southampton. Hamza Tzortzis has also spoken at Reading and Southampton. Yusha Evans has spoken on his “Quest to Islam” at Kent and Dr Jamal Badawi has also delivered a lecture at Exeter.

Alhamdulillah – All praise is due to Allah the Magnificent, the Sustainer who has blessed our region with an abundance of success and unity! Most ISOCs have now had their Discover Islam Week with great success (we have even witnessed shahadas already!) with only Southampton and Brighton left to deliver the message.

Apart from the amazing ISOC work that has taken place – we have also stood up in solidarity with our brothers and sisters across the Middle East in Egypt and Tunisia and now in Libya during their time of hardship – may Allah grant them justice and freedom. Indeed the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “The example of the Believers in their mutual love and mercy is like the example of a body. If one part feels pain, then all of it is affected by sickness and fever.” [Bukhari, Muslim].

I ask Allah to accept our work, “Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing” [2:127]and I ask Allah to increase us in guidance and protect us from misguidance, "Our Lord! (they say), Let not our hearts deviate now after Thou hast guided us, but grant us mercy from Thine own Presence; for Thou art the Grantor of bounties without measure" [3:8].

May Allah reward all those involved in the hard work up until now especially Sisters Khadeja, Hunsa, Maimuna, Saduf and Brothers Usman and Muhammad.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at south.chair@fosis.org.uk

Please sincerely remember myself and FOSIS South in your dua's.

Wassalamualaykum

Omar Ali

FOSIS South Chair 2010/2011