Wales Blog - May 2008

Asalaamu alaykum wr wb.

The sun is shining, the weather is good – and the majority of students and cramped up inside revising for their next exam. The past few months have been busy as always, and having started full-time work while still having exams, I found myself unable to always devote as much attention as I would have liked to FOSIS Wales and the Islamic Societies. That said, there has been plenty going on masha’allah, despite students going into hibernation.

The next month is perhaps what can be considered the final month of the Islamic Society calendar. Post-Exam socials, Annual General Meetings, a final lecture or two, and then the FOSIS Annual Conference to round it all off nicely, masha’Allah. May Allah grant all our endeavours success, and shower us in his pleasure. Ameen.

AGM’s always bring up thoughts and planning for the next year, and I sincerely pray that we all build upon what we have achieved this year, using it as a stepping stone to success. I always hope Islamic Societies and FOSIS learn to believe in their ambitions, balancing the realism of a pessimist with dreams of an optimist, and aiming for the seven heavens while keeping our feet firmly on the ground! Our greatest resource as an ummah is no doubt the Muslim youth, who have zeal, enthusiasm, motivation and ideas – although not always in the right way.

One my most beloved hadith is the one in which the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) instructs “if you have in your hand a seed and you hear the trumpet being blown [signalling the end of creation], if you are able to plant that seed, do so”. Even in these difficult, testing and trying times, I hope as Muslims we can plant that seed.

Jazakumullahu khair,
Abdul-Azim Ahmed
Wales Chair