Wednesday 22 July 2020
POST #1 for CCUB 4621
An honest sharing; What I've gained and Learned from this Course.
Assalamualaikum and greetings to each and everyone of you. I hope everyone is surrounded with happiness and positivities, and even if you're in the middle of tough moments, I hope you find strength knowing that Allah is always with His patient and grateful believers <3
Today, I am going to write about the things and values that I've gained and learned from this course. Before I go in depth towards this posting, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my beloved instructor, Sister Fida for her undying effort and passion to share her knowledge and making this course as interesting and beneficial it could be.
As we all know, we are now currently on our ERTL classes due to Covid-19 pandemic. Despite various troubles and circumstances, we all made it to the end (almost, :p) Throughout this semester, there were a few synchronous classes conducted through Google Meet and there were also asynchronous classes due to the some circumstances that couldn't be avoided. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every single of them with all of my heart.
On our first class, there weren't much to tell as basically, it was a taaruf class with the intention to know each other better and build rapport within the instructor and participants. Next, in our second class, Sister Fida' asked us to briefly introduce ourselves again before proceeding to share our favourite letter and justify our reasons for the choice we made. As for me, my favourite letter is G because of the word Gratitude. You'll find more explanation on why gratitude is my favourite word on different postings. After all, I am determined to practise the act of gratitude even much better that I did before as I believe it is essential to make my life more meaningful. Before ending our second session, Sister Fida' instructed us to watch a video on Yasmin Mogahed's lecture and write a reflection from it. You can find the reflection that I wrote on this link: Maryam's reflection on Yasmin Mogahed's lecture.
On our third class, unfortunately Sister' Fida wasn't able to conduct a synchronous class due to unforeseen circumstances but she assigned us to write a reflection on another Yasmin Mogahed's lecture, titled as Spiritual First Aid. From that video, I noticed that Yasmin Mogahed emphasised on the importance of maintaining the relations of the religiosity/spirituality (heart) and actions. Quoting from her, "There is no way we could separate spirituality in whatever we do in our lives." She then further added that by strengthening spirituality, it doesn't mean that we need to perform salah and fast all day long because once we put our hearts and minds towards achieving Allah's blessings, then its also considered as strenghtening our spirituality. From this video that took up to one and a half of hour, I learnt that we should remember Allah in everything we do and make His blessings as the sole purpose of life.
Unfortunately, I missed the fourth class because I was down in fever and was hospitalised for 4 days due to stomach ache :(
Moving on, on our fifth class, we discussed about the Community Engagement Project that we were supposed to carry out. I found myself so excited about this project because of the objective of this project which is spreading positivity and good vibes to others. Anything that makes everyone happy will always intrigue my interest :D Next, on our sixth class, we discussed about SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) in relation with Islamic Perspective and apparently, this is my favourite session out of all because the title managed to capture my interest. I enjoyed every bits of this discussion and was more than delighted to listen to my classmates' opinion on this topic. At the end of this discussion, Sister Fida' mentioned that all of the goals that had been laid out in SDG are all great and will benefit us all but sadly, there is one thing that had been overlooked, which is the religion. This made me realised that religion is still and will forever be important in our everyday lives and it should be the prime purpose of living. Religion will keep us being humane and appreciating other things even more. Lastly, on our final class, Sister Fida' wasn't able to conduct a synchronous class so she assigned us to write another reflection on Yasmin Mogahed's lecture, titled as The Heart of Women; Unifying your Roles in Life. The video is an hour long and I managed to reap out a few important things that I should always keep in mind. From this video, it teaches us the way to achieve balance when juggling between your roles and responsibilities as a daughter, sister, student and friend with your life. I learnt that by rectifying my relationship with my creator Allah, He will rectify my relationship with His other creations. I also learnt about on how to balance between deen and dunya, which is to use dunya to get to the deen. With this, I tried to become more mindful and purposeful in what I am doing in my everyday life, and I put Allah's blessing in whatever I do. I vow to myself to become a better servant while not forgetting to enjoy the joys that this life could offer me.
To sum up, there are various things and values that I learnt from this course, whether I realised it or not. I found myself to become more grateful for the privileges that I was born with as I am able to go through this ERTL period without any difficulties like limited internet connection or time-constraint. I made reflections on many aspects of life and checked up on the privileges Allah has gifted me with which I realised that all these privileges and abilities will be questioned by Allah in the end. Therefore, I am determined to make use of all of them in the best manner and help as many people as I can. I learnt to be more emphatic and thoughtful towards people. Not only that, this course has become a safe zone for me to express my opinion and ask questions regarding our respected religion. I felt welcomed, appreciated and happy with this class and I couldn't thank my instructor and classmates enough for that. This course had been nothing but a great help for me to learn to balance between dunya and deen, to enjoy and brave every joys and bumps the world could offer me while strengthening my relationship with my creator, Allah and striving to become better servant of Him every day.
That's all for now :)
That's all for now :)
Love always,
Maryam
POST #2 for CCUB 4621
A Look in the Mirror
Reflection on Yasmin Mogahed's Lecture
Assalamualaikum and hi, everyone! I hope everyone is doing alright and happy with your loved ones. In this posting, I am going to write down some of the insightful and beneficial input that I've gained from a lecture by Yasmin Mogahed, titled as A Look in the Mirror. My beloved instructor, Sister Fida' had asked me and my classmates to watch this video during our second session to come up with our very own reflections.
From this lecture, there are 3 major points that had been emphasised by Yasmin Mogahed. The first point is about YOLO mentality. YOLO is an abbreviation for You Only Live Once and unfortunately, many people (especially youngsters) nowadays have been religiously incorporating this mentality in their daily lives. Apart from living in current Covid-19 pandemic, we're also facing an epidemic loss of purpose and meaning, as if everything we do in our lives is random and impromptu. Not only that, we're also bound to do things that are prohibited in Islam in order to live up to this mentality because apparently, leading a life that's purposeful and meaningful doesn't appeal to many of us right now.
However, this YOLO mentality is completely against the teaching of Islam. Allah S.W.T mentioned this matter in our holy Quran, which will be simply worded as below:
Oh my believers, have taqwa in me and let everyone see your plan for Tomorrow. (Quran)
Notice how the t-letter in tomorrow is capitalised?
This is because the tomorrow is referring to our lives after akhirah.
I love how Yasmin Mogahed used the concept of moving from our old house to a new one as the analogy to explain this part better. What happened during the process of moving? Of course, we prepare and pack our things (ex: furnitures, clothes, plants) or perhaps, we buy new furnitures for the new house. From this analogy, the new house is actually the final destination after our death and the moving process is actually our preparation to live there. Some of us furnish the new house beautifully but sadly, some of us messed up the process and burned down the house.
This one hits me real hard. I wonder after my 21 years of living, have I been preparing and packing my things nicely for my new home or have I been wasting time and destroyed the things? Afterall, I would want my new home to be fully furnished with beautiful things only. Upon wishing this, I realised that I should strive to become a better version of me every single day.
The second point emphasised by Yasmin Mogahed is about relationship or friendship, in order to be specific. As mentioned by her, our company could actually be the poison that we sip every single day, without we realising. She also added, it may not be our closest friend as it could also be the things that we follow religiously or the people we look up to/idolised. The people or things that we surround ourselves with will affect us internally. The closest companion that we take in our lives will either help us furnish the new house, or burn it down.
This made me think so deeply on who and what did I let myself to be attentive for. I have a lot of friends from different backgrounds but I think it's better to become choosy and particular on whom I choose to be close with. I want my closest companion to become the person that I am aiming to be. For that, I will try to be a better person everyday so that my closest friends will have someone that they deserve to be with because what true friends do is complete and compliment each other in every aspect of life.
The third point emphasised by Yasmin Mogahed is to become more spiritually healthy. We often overlook the fact that we spent too much effort including time and money to become healthy and beautiful externally. There are various choices of organic and healthy foods we can consume for our bodies and there are vast choices or skincare and makeup to doll ourselves with. Without we realising, the body and beauty will give up on us and pass away anyway, but there is only one thing that will remain forever, which is our soul.
It is sad to realise that I had spent too much on my temporary body and beauty but forgotten about my soul that will live eternally. Upon realising this, I want to become more spiritually healthy and spend more time in nourishing my soul. I am going to change to what I am looking everyday in to something that will help me in furnishing my new home beautifully and completely.
Before ending her lecture, Yasmin Mogahed gave us 3 meaningful advices that we all should heed for.
1. Perform solat everyday as it is the spiritual oxygen of our heart and body.
2. Make sure to download an app called MyDuaa as it offers daily supplications.
3. Stay connected to our holy scripture, al-Quran.
I think that's all for now. Thank you for reading, everyone!
Monday 20 July 2020
POST #3 for CCUB 4621
Contributions on Community Engagement Project
Assalamualaikum and hi, everyone. I hope all of you guys are doing well during this RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order). Today's posting is about the contributions that I have done in our community engagement project which the initial target audience is IIUM community that consists of students and staffs.
Before I begin, I would like to recap on the project that had been carried out by me and my classmates of CCUB 4621 section 213. Each and everyone of us had been assigned to make one posting (picture or video) on our class Instagram account. The posting must include positive encouragement for everyone but the topic must be varied. As for me, I had chosen 'Practising Gratitude' while my other classmates came up with other wonderful and insightful topics like How to Manage Financial Wisely and Getting through Difficult Times'.
During our recent synchronous class last 2 weeks, our instructor (Sister Fida') asked for more recommendation on how to gain more followers on our Instagram account so that the messages and positive encouragement could reach more people. I was unsure with my idea but I decided to speak up which I suggested to change the username of our account. I came up with the idea based on my personal experience as an avid user of Instagram since 2013. From my experience, I was much more interested to follow an account with catchy and trendy usernames rather the ones that are basic. So, we changed our username from 'Ub4_213' to 'fromsisters4you'. Alhamdulillah, all of my classmates agreed to the idea and we decided to proceed with the suggestion.
Besides that, I also shared the profile of our Instagram account on my personal account so that it would get exposed and noticed by other people. Since many of my friends from IIUM are following me on my personal account, they kinda noticed the existence of fromsisters4you. Some of them were interested with the account and the content it offered so they decided to give it a follow in order to receive more positive encouragements on different aspects. From that, our Instagram account gained a few followers and the messages could reach a wider range of audience.
Last but not least, the topic that I've chosen is an essential matter in our everyday lives. Practising Gratitude might seem unimportant and doesn't contribute much to the society, but actually it is one of the things that makes life more colourful, purposeful and bearable. When someone starts to incorporate the act of gratitude in his life, he will notice the smallest yet significant thing in life that will make him feel happy and content with it. Once someone is happy, he can spread and affect the people around him with the positive vibes which later will make up a community that's happy and grateful with what the life could offer. When more people gradually practising gratitude in their lives, a positive and less-stressful circle can be established.
I think this basically sums up the contribution that I've done in our community engagement project. They might be not much, but I am more than delighted to be able to help. Thank you everyone for reading and may you have a great day ahead.
Best regards,
Maryam.
Sunday 22 December 2019
Updates for Usrah Budi 3
For this time around, we had been informed that we need to conduct a programme that can give benefits to IIUM community. Several ideas had been proposed by me and my usrah-mates until we finally decided to settle down with a gotong-royong programme. Since we have a lot of people in one class, we decided to divide ourselves into 5 groups so that each of the group could operate in different places inside IIUM. I was grouped into the fourth group and alongside with 4 other members, we decided to do our gotong-royong at Surau Mahallah Asma', which is near to all of our mahallah. Surau Mahallah Asma' is frequently used by many sisters and we figured it'd be best to help to clean and organise the area to accommodate and provide comfort to everyone.
On the 29th November, 10:30 a.m., we all went to the surau. When we first arrived, there was no one inside the surau which made it easier for us to start on our cleaning session. The surau was not in its best state because we could see that some things like prayer veils and hangers were laying around which made the surau looked messy and unmanageable. Luckily, some cleaning tools like broom and dust pan were nearby so we started the cleaning session right away.
After one hour and a half later, we finally done with organizing and cleaning sessions. As we all know, our religion really puts forth the importance of cleanliness as being said by our beloved Prophet (SAW) said, "Cleanliness is half of your imaan" which indicated how being in the state of clean is really important. This is because we are deemed to do our ibadah only when our surrounding and us ourselves are clean to do so. When we finished our gotong-royong session, we were happy to see how the surau transformed into a managed place that looked absolutely pleasant for us. We were also happy at the thought of how other sisters will feel happy and comfort when they use the area.
Saturday 27 April 2019
portfolio for usrah budi 2 (CCUB 2621)
Assalamualaikum and hi, everyone :)
Nothing much, really. Just dropping by at my blog because i need to finish my usrah budi 2 assessments, and it happened that I need to create another blog post, duh :)
Before that, here's the most recent picture of me.
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| This pic was taken during my visit to ISTAC, IIUM. The place is really beautiful, I'd love to go again in future |
I was told that I need to introduce myself again, so here it is. My name is Maryam Shofia, and most people call me Maryam, or my internet friends would address me as 'Mars', though i am sometimes embarrassed by it lol. As far as I remembered, I didn't have any talents that deserve recognition or praise whatnot, but I know I have the ability to imitate the way Mr Bean's aunt laughs and I also could stay in bed all day long (with foods) hehe :P I don't have any specific or permanent hobbies as I am very much a flexible person and I don't usually stick to a routine. But there are things that I always do out of boredom, like watching some episodes of K-dramas, binge watching Harry Potter or Twillight series, or watching any videos related to my favourite Korean boyband, Seventeen.
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| Impromptu photoshoot session during sunset |
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| I swear this one isn't filtered, Subhanallah |
Coming from religious based school, I was introduced to usrah ever since I was 13. I didn't complain when i knew i had to continue with this activity when I entered IIUM, as I know this activity will bring positive impact on myself, whether i realized it or not. There was one time during my CCUB 2621 class, my naqibah, Kak Sakeenah unfolded about the power of ikhlas by letting my usrahmates to join into the discussion. I learnt so many things regarding Ikhlas that day and promise myself to be a better person in future. From what I learnt, it is okay for us, a mere servant to hope for good things in return after we do some good deeds, but make sure to put hope and faith only to our God, the one and only Allah. This is because of the essence of a servant, who is always dependent to his God. Don't ever put too much hope, or trust towards human beings because they're just like us, prone to sins and mistakes every single day. Therefore, keep on doing the good deeds and believe that Allah will reward us according to our truest attention, and rewards don't always come by money/worldly properties, as good health, happy family, wonderful friends and teachers are also a part of reward from Allah, the most merciful and helpful towards His servants. Keep in mind that Allah always know best.
Last but not least, I would also want to share about my group trip to Darul Eslah Rohingyian School on November last year. It was a volunteer work handled by IIUM student and we were so excited about it. We needed to teach the children some mathematics stuffs and also English :)
When we arrived at the academy, we were greeted by numbers of children and a few of people that we assumed as their caretakers. At first, we were quite baffled by the very loud atmosphere and numbers of children that filled the room. During our visit, the building was on the renovation process therefore the children was placed in one room and it looked so crowded. The children later were divided into their own groups which was assigned to all of us.
From this community service that I’ve completed, it opened my eyes that not everyone is privileged to have formal education. Although the children were eager to learn and had fun with us, it saddens me that their country couldn’t offer them justice and provide them with all the privileges and opportunities most of us, the Malaysians experienced. We should consider ourselves lucky because we have a country to call home, and to be able to acquire knowledge in a conducive ambience. Considering the fact that education is the only tool for them to gain the dignity they lost, looking at the children, having a dedicated and an inspirational teacher is the way to encourage them to change their future. We went back to our mahallah with hearts full of contentment and warmth the children filled us with.
I think that's all for today's post. Wishing nothing but the best and wonderful things for all of us, including you. Love, maryam
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| Group picture! :D |
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| A selfie with two cute Rohingyian kids :) |
Sunday 2 December 2018
it’s been a while
Wow, it has been so long since the last time I wrote and posted something on my blog. Creating and posting on blog was really a thing back then when I was 14, and I remembered regarding my blog as my online diary where I alternately updated it when I felt like it. But the thing is, as times flew and I happened to find something to revert me from blogging, I finally realised that not all things could be delivered and conveyed through words and writings, and maybe some things are better left unsaid, I guess? So I stopped posting and ended up deleting all my previous posts. Fast forward years later, I’m currently 19 years old, majoring in English at International Islamic University Malaysia, and happened to take a subject (usrah budi 1) that requires me to create a blog and post something on it, and here I am. I might end up deleting this post when the semester ends but anything for assessment, yeah?
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| Anyways, here’s a current pic of mine 🤠The task was to write something about yourself and gotta admit that I suck at that. Of course the basic is your name, birthdate, your family, favourite food yadda yadda but i feel like there’s more to write and describe about yourself. (y’all I better stop spurting nonsense here bcs it’s currently 2:41 am and i got early morning class tmrw) p/s: i really talk a lot. Okay Name given is Maryam Shofia bt Mohd Nasir, and i prefer people to call me Maryam. In my 19 years of life, only a few people (not more than 10) call me Shofia hence I’m still awkward if people call me by that name 🤪. I’m a 03-ic holder, and was born on 13th July 1999 (july babies are cool). I’m the fourth child out of seven, and is the eldest daughter of the family and my family calls me ‘kakak’ because I’m the eldest daughter (redundancy but go off yeah). Family is everything for me, and making them happy is what all matters for me. And oh, i love cats too. Dropping off a pic of my cat below, his name is Tom and he’s a good boy plus a cutie. Not being dramatic but I’d take a bullet for him. My fav boy; 
I find solitude in writing things and listening to music, and I often get it from people around me that I’m quite an emotional person (I hope it’s not in a bad way) you can see me weep and being sensitive over some sad, sappy songs and seeing my mood and energy boost up after listening to any upbeat songs. My favourite band is Seventeen, and if you’re free please check up their songs (
Btw, for this subject, my group was assigned to make an info-graphic poster about our lessons and ours happened to be the week 4 lesson; which is about Surah al-Fatir, verse 15-28. These
verses contained so many inputs from it which can benefit us with.
Attached above is the picture of our poster which has been made by my amazing groupmates. I hope you like it! It’s getting late now and i need to head out to bed. Thank you for sparing some of your time to read this. I hope everyone is happy and may Allah ease everything that awaits for you. Better days for everyone ahead, assalamualaikum and bye bye 💛
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