On the 9th of January 2009 in G06, Brookfield Health and Sciences Bulding, UCC, Majlis Syura Muslimun (MSM) had quite successfully (alhamdulillah) held the much needed laid-back program for the Muslimah in Cork. The main theme for the night was ‘Keranamu Gaza’, as the humanity crisis in the small strip of land is reaching a most alarming state and is causing the human rights activists from all over the planet to reach their highest pitch of hysterics – all of which is falling on deaf ears.
As much as we want to do a relaxing program, it is not entirely possible to achieve it. With the current fiasco the world is currently in, we just had to do something to urge our sisters to act – to wake up from a deep slumber and realize that Gaza is counting on us.
The program kicked off with the recitation of Surah Ar-Ra’d, verse 14 – 24. This was followed with a sharing session from Izyan and Farah Wahida, UCC first year students. They presented a short summary of their personal favourite slot from MSM’s Winter Retreat 2008. It was refreshing to hear their thoughts on the “Awakening of the Soul” talk, as they explained it from their own point of view. Kudos to them :]
Then came the ROBOTS pantomime that never fail to lure tears from my eyes every time I see it (I had to held them back in fear of smearing my face with bleeding eyeliner). It is a very real interpretation of how the world is today. There are many Muslims out there who are wholly ignorant on the Palestinian issue. We have to be the ones to wake them up from their deep slumber. I can’t describe how the pantomime is acted out here in this article, it wouldn’t be the same (and because we might want to stage it again because of the huge impact it is able to impose).
We also offered a slot for people who went to the Pehimpunan Ukhuwah Insaniyyah Seluruh Ireland (PUISI) to share the knowledge they got over their winter break in the gorgeous Killarney. Their presentation was on Aqidah, which I found quite interesting and engaging. Well done to Fatin, Azira and Hidayah for doing a wonderful job on the presentation and slides.
A performance of Outlandish’s Look Into My Eyes followed suit, and then the last performance was of course the main highlight of the night – the singing of Ireland’s National Anthem (in Gaeilge!), Rukun Iman, Rukun Islam and Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan by Kak Ida’s kids. It was obviously uber-adorable and their harmonies tasted like strawberry ice cream for my ears :]
Throughout the night we also did all we could to raise funds for Gaza – we sold cupcakes, we held a mini carboot sale, and we also passed around a bucket throughout the night for people to donate money. 100% of the sales revenue will go to Gaza insyaAllah, via Muslimhands. We managed to collect more than 250euros in one night, Alhamdulillah. I’d like to urge everyone to use the money, creativity and time that they have to generate funds to be channeled to Gaza. InsyaAllah, no matter how small the outcome, if we carry the task out with our utmost sincerity, it will not appear small to Allah s.w.t.
All in all it was definitely a night to be remembered, and a night that must be experienced again in years to come insyaAllah. Thank you to all who made it possible, either by performing, participating, attending, or cooking the delicious spaghetti goreng :]
Assalamualaikum.
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Majlis Syura Muslimun Ireland 