I talked about the miserable Taaruf Week held in June 2008, where we had to stand under the hot scorching sun, singing the 'CFS song' again and again as ordered by our merciless seniors, the taaruf committees.
In fact, I still remember that one memorable week.
It was my first time away from my family. I mostly spent the hours left crying. Crying in the car, crying in my great aunt's house, crying in the restaurant, crying when walking to the mahallah with my family members carrying my bags, crying when they bid me farewell, leaving me in a strange place with unfamiliar faces (NO ONE from my old school. NO ONE).
I cried as I sorted out my stuffs in that tiny room of which I had to spend one year of my life in. I only stopped crying when my roommate entered my room, LOL. In short, it was a week of crying. Well, not really. I only cried on the first night there. I later made friends with many people and the feeling of homesickness slowly disappeared.
Back to our conversation in the car. We tried to recall the lyrics of the CFS song. The opening line, the first sentence, to no avail. We only remembered the famous chorus "We are the Torchbearers for the Ummah, (for the Ummah!)" hahaha.
Mun searched for the song on youtube and as soon as I heard the opening music, I began to sing "Let us come along and get together," to which Mun and Fatin exclaimed 'Aha! That's it!' and what do you know, the three of us sang the song together in the car with so much spirit, each of our mind playing the memories of our lives in CFS.
Let us come along and get together
Affirm our faith in God and the Messenger
Light the flame of love in Him, warm and brighter
Hold the rope, and trust in Him forever
Divided we will (we’ll) fall, United we stand
Unity bears the fruit of unification
Triple I.C.E is ever our mission
Excellence in all we do is our vision
Chorus:-
We are the torchbearers, for the Ummah
Guided by the Qur’an and Sunnah
Foundation Centre of IIUM
Gateway to the Garden of Knowledge and Virtue
Divided we will (we’ll) fall, United we stand
Unity bears the fruit of unification
Triple I.C.E is ever our mission
Excellence in all we do is our vision
The music was so familiar, so close to our hearts.The lyrics greeted us like an old friend. It seemed like it was just moments ago that we gathered at the field in front of UKC for the Taaruf Week opening night, taking our bai'ah as fellow students of CFS IIUM. I remember walking from one place to another, rushing for the next class located at a different building, I remember our weekly trips to Jaya One, Metro Bus no 12 and City Liner no U95 taking us to Mid Valley Megamall. I remember studying for exams, the Al-Malik Faisal Hall usually being our main examination venue. I remember the Annex building, the library, the tiring hike up to the 4th floor of Mahallah Zainab after coming back from an outing, the infamous Pakcik Guard Misai, LOL.
The song ended. We smiled in satisfaction. But we were not done reminiscing the memories yet. I searched for the IIUM Main Campus song. "Leading the Way' and played it for the three of us to sing.
I love this song. The first time I sang it was during the Opening Night of Taaruf Week held in the auditorium of Kulliyyah of Medicine. They showed the video clip of this song, of which a scene shows an IIUM graduate receiving the scroll from the Chancellor on stage during convocation. I didn't know why I felt attracted to that one particular scene. The way the song weaved in with that scene made me felt so inspired. I was only about to start my first year degree and yet I couldn't wait for the day where I will finally graduate from IIUM with my Bachelor of Pharmacy.
And the last time we sang this song was during our convocation day. Us in our convocation robes, marching into the hall with our parents proudly smiling at the sight; for after 4 years, we had finally finished our degree and had officially graduated as students of IIUM! In fact, as we were the only degree holders on that day (the rest being the Masters' Degree holders),we were the ones who sang this song the loudest and with most gusto. It was such a beautiful song.
So, presently, 2 years after the convocation (with one year plus of harrowing working experiences), the three of us sang this song again.
Lets lead the way
Enlighten the future
Share the wisdom
Through the spirit of Islam
Revelation and Reason
We shall excel, we shall prevail
Merging faith and knowledge
We 're the khalifah
We will fulfill the Amanah
Chorus:
Together,
We make the world a better place
Forever,
Expand the culture of Iqra
IIUM,
Is to realise, the meaning of
Rahmatan lil-Alamin
I don't know why. My eyes got all watery as I sang this verse. And I realised I wasn't alone. Mun suddenly started shedding her tears, overwhelmed by this familiar old feeling and the beauty of the very meaningful lyrics. I was surprised. I laughed at first. But tears started streaming down my cheeks too. We finished the song.
Together,
We make the world a better place
Forever,
Expand the culture of Iqra
IIUM,
Is to realise, the meaning of
(Mercy to all the worlds)
For all mankind
After 2 years leaving UIA, we had finally realized the meanings of this song. Singing this song again reminded us of the amanahs that had been entrusted upon us, beginning with the taaruf week when we started our journey as IIUM students there and finally during the convocation day, when we were officially leaving IIUM to serve the mankind (as what this song denotes) armed with what IIUM had taught and given us. This song keeps on reminding us of who we are, the purpose of our journey, the meaning of being an IIUM student.
Life after graduation is really different from life as a student of IIUM. I miss the sheltered environment we had back then. Almost everyone was treating everyone with kindness and respect, no bullying whatsoever, no cases of double standards or discrimination. At least, not that I had heard of or experienced. But in the working life, I have to admit, you have to be emotionally and physically strong. You are no longer a student. You have to make your own decisions, you have to face your own problems. Your parents couldn't help you if you have problems at work, your lecturers are not there to guide you. You will encounter many sorts of people from different backgrounds, with different attitudes that might irk you sometimes, those people who looked at you differently just because you have different opinions on what is right or wrong (you know, being an IIUM student and such, people might perceive you as being narrow-minded). Whether you like it or not, you have to be strong, force yourself to be strong and take up the challenges that life had thrown towards you.
You will feel stressed and frustrated when things don't go in your way. You will feel that other people are being unfair, what's with you doing most of the job and them, just relaxing and goyang kaki most of the time.
With you once being an IIUM student, you might have a different perception towards life. You believe in the concept of 'Keberkatan'. Whatever you do, you must do it right. You must not slack off. You must come to work on time. You must not cheat. You will rather own up and face the consequences of your mistakes rather that lying about it. You were paid to do your job. It's okay if everyone else didn't do much as you did, but you have to do it anyway, because you don't want the salary that is given to you every month be tainted with 'Ketidakberkatan', meaning that Allah is not pleased with you.
You must learn to accept that this world is not perfect. The same goes with everything in it. The people, the workplace. You can't change others. But you have to stick to your own principles and identities. You are an IIUM graduate. Your university had given you the amanah to change the world. For you to spread the good virtues of Islam and to fulfil the purpose of your existence, which is to become a Khalifah on Earth.
Dear brothers and sisters, whenever you feel emotionally tired or physically drained, remember the amanah that had been given to you. The amanah that Allah had commanded you to fulfil. That is your goal in life.
As we reached home, we talked about how grateful we are, to had been studying in IIUM.
I am very grateful for this. I don't know who will I end up as, if I were to go to other places (like overseas, maybe? Perhaps Allah had known that my iman back then wasn't strong enough for me to resist the temptation of life outside and so He didn't grant me the chance to study there back then). IIUM had moulded me to become someone better, inside out. The strict rules that were once so strange and foreign to us had now become our everyday norms. For example, wearing socks to cover your feet whenever you went outside, and wearing tudung that covers your chest when what you usually did back then at school was just to 'selempang' your tudung right and left. And oh, wearing handsocks too. Not forgetting to observe the ikhtilat between the brothers and sisters. There were various posters on this issue back in UIA, LOL.
I miss walking to the mosque for prayers, and to join the usrahs, talks and forums that act as supplements to our souls. I really miss this kind of environment. I really do. IIUM is the place where I learned to know and get closer to my Creator, to the point of experiencing the feeling of loving Him. (But you must be consistent in your effort to experience and gain this love. Iman asyik naik turun, you know). The place that taught me to be fully dependent on Him, the place where I experienced his Love and Him answering my prayers and pleas. When I was at school, I never thought that I would go to IIUM, until I did.
My brother had mostly bad experiences in IIUM, but I'm glad that I had mostly experienced sweet memories there.
So come on torchbearers, remember the amanah. And let's lead the way! May our Iman keeps on increasing and may our heart never wavers from remembering Him. Ameen.
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