3 Rukun; a Reminder

Salam to all mahiss debaters.

Recently, after losing contact with the debater for almost two months, i came to maahad to check out on the debaters. and i cld see it was a tough time for them, as they were getting ready for their big tournaments. and I pray Allah blesses them.

alas, theres a few things that i feel i needed to remind all the debaters. and i do hope everyone cld read this and try to relate back to wats been going on.

1) A DEBATER IS A PROFESSIONAL.

on the last day of school i gathered raihan and the girls in surau just to give this piece of advice. n now its time to refresh back. during debate, never ever brought up personal issues and affairs inside training. go and find a dictionary and find the def of being professional. do u see barack obama while having his speech to the nation, suddenly he says "my wife is cooking steak for me at home and im hungry now"?! no! what i mean by mixing ur personal affairs, its either through ur talk or showing them through ur attitude. so avoid these things, b serious, easy to communicate with, n charismatic. insyaAllah He will guide u thru, ameen.

and also, what i mean by being professional is, when u have a problem within the team, please do not talk behind other people's back. instead, solve it in the ways that are most directly fair for everyone. solve it in a professional way. a debater shld think of little problems but instead think more on how to solve it.

2) 3 simple rukun that u need to abide

when i came to school on the day of my graduation day, i did mention this to everyone. the 3 rukun ukhuwah that shld b inside everyone of u.

1# salamatul sadri (berlapang dada)

u bersangka baik with ur friends, with ur debate team! with ur leader!

2# tawazun (the feeling of being equal)

the feeling of being equal, is that u accept ur friend's weaknesses and strength. u do not judge ur friend, u make them as ur equal and never somebody who is above or below u. with that, then u will reflect back to urself. u will b able to accept UR strength and weaknesses!

3# ithar (sacrifice)

u have this feeling that u wld sacrifice for ur friend's sake. in order to protect them, to make sure they r ok, uwld sacrifice. this is the hardest to follow because so many people are selfish nowadays, but its possible! remember back how the prophet's sahabat took care of their brothers in islam once upon a time. how saidina ali wld sacrifice himself and lay down on the prophet's bed on the night when the prophet hijrah.

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do not lose focus, and keep on praying. u guys will come out of this in one piece biiznillah. i believe in u, and i believe in Allah for letting u choose this path. may Allah bless u.

wanie cham.

Training till now

Yesterday at MAHISS we had a training. although some what surprise the debaters we're still enthusiastic about everything as well as the trainer.

Most of the things a I wanted to do with them was the fundamentals and technical of debate, Faiz (my own mentor) always reminded me how I should go easy and on the basics when teaching debate. You have to understand, it's not a soccer club.

It's been a long while since the last time I came and train them at MAHISS, but alhamdullilah they still remember the basics of everything (including Ulfah) and in that I'm grateful (at least they are not rusty).

In response, I told them my own debate journey, about me going to Hong Kong for my debate tournament, how I utilize my debating experience with my dakwah, and how i live my life.

fundamentals I told them, are like pillars, and anything important in this world needs fundamentals (you'll be called a fundamentalist for following it), including debate (it is important).

the five fundamentals I outlined was:

1. Burden of proof
2. Definition (Characterization)
3. Model (Mechanism/ Tactics and Poi's)
4. Consistency
5. Clash and Response

I told that if you look at it clearly, put the arguments away, this is what it takes for you to have an average debate. (although this is what I think, anyone can differ)

And this is where the training begins.

I really hope I could come and train MAHISS more after this, but alas they have exams till 26th which is the date for the selections.

Regardless of that, I'm pretty sure they'll be able to go through IIU and Musleh in one peace. 

Reminding you just incase you forgot

My debating career has never been more hectic than I've imagined it to be. with all the rifts rafts of my training, my schools training and my studies, it seems I'm getting too intertwined to debate, and I don't like that. Wani once said that I'm married to debate, I beg to differ.

Last night, I had my own debate training at Gombak, there was a lot of yelling and angry phases(faces) from my trainers about how my seniors weren't doing what the trainers asked them to do. In this I wanna remind you all.

I've thought you guys a lot actually, maybe to much even for me to do (I even made a book for you guys) so now the only thing is whether or not you guys want to apply it in debate and improve yourselves. My trainer always told me that the time during training is only the moment to see how far I've improved, the time to improve yourself is during your day to day life.

Before I go to sleep there are always 3 things I'll do

1. Baca Qur'an (Surah Mulk, Sajadah and Waqiah)
2. Go through the daily news (especially the religion section for me)
3. Look into the mirror to see how handsome I look.

the first one is for spiritual matters, the second is for information and the third is just to increase my confidence level. although you guys might see that these things are small but it goes a long way to improving one's abilities to speak. so i ask you all, start doing something about yourselves, you have to have that impetus to improve and be better. I would like to quote from Umar al-Khattab:

 "A Muslim is someone who doesn't fall into the same hole twice"

Learning from that I'm sure we all can improve ourselves for the upcoming debates.