(Presidential's Remarks at Brotherhood Night)

“And hold fast, all together, by the Rope of Allah S.W.T., and not be divided among yourselves, and remember with gratitude Allah’s favour on you ; for you were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His grace, you became brethren ; and you were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His signs clear to you ; that you may be guided.”

(Al-Imran, 103)

Our distinguished guest, Dr. Uzaimah Ibrahim, the Advisor of Ma’ruf Club, Sister Nur Shahidat Mohamed, Vice President 2 of Ma’ruf Club, together with the office bearers, representatives from (SRC/Kuliyyah Based Society/Clubs), all the fellow members and last but not least, brothers and sisters in Islam.

Praise be to Allah S.W.T., the eternal Guardian of the heavens and earth, the Most Greatest in His self-decorated universe for blessing us with Islam and Iman. Him do I praise and from Him do I beg increase of His kindness and His generosity. Peace and blessing be upon the master and seal of the Prophets, and upon the rest of the Prophets and the Messengers, upon the families of them all, and upon all the believers.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam,

When Allah created this universe, He has appointed human being to become His vicegerent that bestowed upon them to uphold the sacredness of the religion and to administer the earth in compliance with His rules and regulations. Being in the university, whether like or not, we should bear in our mind that we are the next generation that will inherit the earth and be the future leaders, as our government itself always emphasizes on this too. This university has all it takes to produce pro-active students and agents of change of the Ummah. The rule is very simple ; we have to change ourselves before we can change others. So let us take things one at a time, beginning from our attitude. Charles Kettering, a Western philosopher once said, “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”

We believe that in order to achieve this noble objective, we should remove the gaps and barriers between us. Without taking this active action, unity and integration will just become a rhetoric and utopia. We must get rid of egoism or selfishness and replace it with the spirit of brotherhood, togetherness, tolerance, ukhwah, love and friendship so that we can create a caring community in the campus that will, insya-Allah, become the foundation for ummatic solidarity. ‘One Allah, One Community’.

When dealing with concept of unity, we must bear in mind that the most fundamental part to be highlighted first is to held fast with the rope of Allah. Only then, the question of not to be divided among us should takes place. This is the lesson that we could benefit from the history left by Prophet S.A.W. during his time. When he introduced Islam, the kafir Quraisy has accused him causing the disunity and dispute among the Arabs. It was in fact in contrast as they themselves should be shouldered the blame for disobeyed the teachings of Allah S.W.T. Therefore, the unity that we are all aim at it must be based on Islam not only as the guidance but also as our way of life. Unity based on nationality, tribes, language and whatever concept it is other than Islamic teachings is fragile,static and unresponsive to the society interests.

Unity is one of the biggest challenge yet to achieve by the ummah today. We are least to learn from the history for it seems Muslims nowadays has forgotten that more than 1,400 years ago, Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. had successfully united the Ansars and the Muhajirin on the historic occasions of Hijra.

At one time, it was unity that put the Muslim in the apex of power and civilization. The Muslims dominated the world politics and commercial trade ; they were known for their endless quest of knowledge ; but these stories of victories and success have now only become part of the history, kept in the libraries and museums.

Therefore, it is our obligation and responsibility to restore the glorious days of our ummah and this effort should start by uniting ourselves, the students of IIUM, despite the differences of our culture, ethnic and background. It is in the name of Allah and Islam that we should stand united. Let us pray to Allah S.W.T. that this Garden of Knowledge and Virtue will become the cradle of ummatic unity. Set aside our differences and rivalries and let us concentrate on our ummatic agenda. Allah S.W.T. says in verse 110 of Surah Al-Imran ;

“You are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah.”

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam,

Our life is short, but our dream does not have to be. This dream is shared by every one of us and had been continuously in progress since the time of Prophet Adam A.S. None of us know when we’ll be asked to leave this world. As we are given with the benefit of doubt, we have to utilize all means within our capacity He had given to shoulder our task. In the Day of Judgment, Allah S.W.T. only ask what we have done with our life ; He never ask whether we succeed or not, because the outcome of our efforts is in His hands. Therefore, let us not lose hope and faith in him.

Lastly, Ma’ruf Club would like to offer its service by all possible means within its capacity to put the ummah at a better stage. Let us all answer the call for we are looking forward to witness this new generation of IIUM turn up to be the greatest generation in this country in future, as desired by founding fathers of this university. To achieve that, we are always ready to work hand in hand with all of you for the betterment of the university community and society at large.

Remember ; united we stand, divided we fall.

With that, I end my speech.

Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabaraktuh…

By : Muhammad Zaki Bin Sukery,
       President,
       Ma'ruf Club IIUM,
       http://www.silentreformer.wordpress.com/