-Advice from the youngest law lecturer in IIUM, aged 33. Hope it can be useful to us as a student regardless where we are from.
The meaning of being IIUM student.
Seriously, what is the real meaning of being IIUM student? Graduation? Yes, it must be wonderful if you finally get a scroll, a certificate confirming that you are now a graduate, qualified to work. But maybe being IIUM student is not about getting a certificate; it’s about learning how to live a good life.
Maybe it’s not about graduation. It is good to have an end to your journey as a student; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. Life in IIUM can be colorful and challenging. Everything happens for a reason. Life here doesn’t give you the people you want, it gives you the people you need. To help you, to hurt you, to teach you, to love you and to support you become the person you know you can be. In the end, your friends, lecturers and family can help shape your environment, but you alone are resposible for who you become.
Sometimes, I might seem to be critical on some of my students. This is because I carry the weight of the world on my shoulder. My students are going to become leaders eventually when they graduated. They will help shape the world. They will lead the world. And we lecturers are supposed to lead them to goodness and help them find their ways. It’s a heavy burden..
The Muslim society, for many reasons, has this very high respect towards IIUM students. This is because the university carries the word ‘Islam’. Society believe that IIUM students must know the religion much better than them, since IIUM students spend more than half decade learning subjects related to Islamic study etc. They will have faith and trust the students.
For example, when IIUM graduates decided not to cover her aurah and decided to wear sexy and revealing attire, she is sending a message that it is ok to do so. This is misleading as the Prophet warned that Allah threatened to hang those who like to show their hair to others forbidden to see it will be hanged in hell with their hair and their brain will be boiled. If we decided to profess Islam, it makes sense for us to follow the teaching. Prophet warned that at the end of days, there would be woman that wears clothes but they are actually naked. They are astray and will make others go astray as well. The Prophet said that this group will never go to heaven and will never smell it. Wearing sexy and revealing clothes is an issue. But, society, being the way it is, will still trust IIUM students because IIUM students are supposed to know better. They will believe that wearing sexy and revealing attire is actually ok and free and unrestrained mixing between genders are actually tolerated. The society will be misled. It is ok if you’re not the girl that everyone wants as long as you’re not the girl that everyone’s had. A good muslimah should learn modesty and avoid tempting others by wearing tight and inappropriate attire while a good muslim should not encourage her. Good people bring out the good in other people.
Students are so worried about exam. The biggest fear is that they will fail their exam or get expelled. They are wrong. Life is the most difficult exam. And I am afraid some are failing. For example, if we are in our final years as IIUM students, and we go around hugging our boyfriend or girlfriend in public, and we like to upload indecent pictures on the variety of social apps, we are sending a message to our juniors that this is ok. And the juniors will follow.
I am sometimes very disappointed with some of my students. This is because I know that they have so many potential and I hope that they will learn to behave and become better. To embrace the values that this religion holds so dear, like modesty and manner.
I know that if you expect nothing, you will never be disappointed. If I just focus on making money and ignore students’ issues, I am sure that my life will be much easier. But I am not looking for an easy life; I am looking for a meaningful one.
I do not pray for an easy life, I pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.
Life is like a coin, you can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once. You only live once in this world, but if you do it right, once is enough.
I am not as young as I used to be. I am now a middle-aged lecturer that often whines about how his students can actually improve and become the great person they are meant to be. I hope that I can share some of my thoughts to the younger generation because maybe life is about sharing.
I hope that my students will accept it with open heart. I’m not telling you it is going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.
Wassalam