How Usrah Transformed Me

USRAH BUDI E-PORTFOLIO

 

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatuh,

 

My name is Muhamad Arif Aiman Bin Che Ariffin and I am currently 19 years old. Ever since the early days of my youth, I have always loved Urban and Regional Planning primarily because it allows me to serve millions of people in a tangible and an intangible way. So, the constantly lingering question has always been on where I wanted to Study. I had always admired UM for its educational prowess and significance but the fact that I took IGCSE made that dream too expensive. I then entered into a dilemma as I simply could not decide on where I wanted to study until one day when my friends suggested IIUM to me. At first I was completely hesitant due to the amount of extra subjects I had to study such as Usrah, CCLM and UNGS but something opened my heart that day and I accepted.

 

For the first few weeks of CFS I completely dreaded Usrah to the point where I would constantly skip it to either go eat or hang out with my friends. This cycle would repeat itself for weeks before I finally decided to just attend the session. To my surprise however, I thoroughly enjoyed the Usrah session primarily due to the fact that it allowed me to open my eyes on the deeper insights of Islam and the session even allowed me to give an input on in regards to what my thoughts and opinions were. Slowly, week by week, Usrah was no longer something I dreaded but it was actually something I was quite looking forward to. Honestly, I seriously owe a debt of gratitude to my old Usrah Naqib for making Usrah so exciting.

 

The end of CFS concluded my journey with Usrah as I was not able to register for Usrah Budi for my First semester of Degree. However, I was presented with a grand opportunity to relinquish my thirst for more Usrah sessions for my current semestser and I was fortunate enough to be led by my current Naqib who coincidentally shares the same name as me, Arif. I was quite disappointed however after finding out that the Usrah Sessions would be fully conducted online as that would eliminate the possibility for me to make new friends through Usrah. In fact, one of the most exciting elements of Usrah was to actually be able to make new friends and that was one of the reasons why I loved it so much before.

 

However, I will not allow the impossibility of conducting physical Usrah sessions stop me from actually benefitting and enjoying them. I would also like to praise brother Arif for making our Usrah sessions so interactive. Unlike other Naqibs, he was able to invite us to give our own opinions and insights which was extremely exciting to be able to hear multiple perspectives from people from all walks of life. As a result, this has also allowed me to improve my communication skills to voice out more on things that actually matter.

 

Furthermore, our weekly Usrah sessions has also allowed me to become a better leader for my community. On one particular session, we were talking about the importance of Ihsan in our daily lives and how we can actually elevate our lives to a much greater level if we can strive for perfection instead of settling for mediocrity. This has eventually inspired me to be a beneficial member of the community to the extent where I even conducted a large scale charity event with my own money at such a young age that benefitted around 80 homeless people around Chow Kit. It also inspired me to clean up the city as our Usrah sessions has also opened my eyes on the importance of cleanliness in Islam to the point where I was even featured in a World of Buzz article.

                                                 (Contents of The Donations)

                                                                        (Articles I was Featured In)
        

 

As a result, I sincerely hope that I will be presented with the opportunity to enroll in more Usrah sessions in the future until the day I graduate as Usrah has allowed me to become a better member of the society and it is comprehensively applicable in our daily life. Finally, I would like to extend my greatest appreciation to Brother Arif for guiding all of us for this semester.