By Shukran Abd Rahman and Jusmawati Fauzaman
The word -Ma’a- in the phrase Ma’al Hijrah means Together With, hence the whole phrase may mean Together with the Spirit of Hijrah. In conjunction with the commemoration of the Prophet’s Hijrah, about 1,443 years ago, let us together internalise the spirit of Hijrah in leading our life, especially as academic professionals.
In a higher learning institution or university, academics are core academic professionals who are the scholarly talents entrusted to generate and disseminate knowledge, as well as to educate students with values so that they are useful, relevant to their context of time and space.
Academics are being led by academic leaders who plan, guide and inspire university community by serving as university officials for a certain period of time, such as the Dean, Deputy Dean, Head of Department or Coordinator. They form an essential part of a university ecosystem, assisted by academic administrators (registrar/director, librarian, hostel manager, etc) in running the university.
Academic leaders play leadership roles and at the same time accomplish all academic activities, including developing young academics and students. They shoulder enormous amanah that many of them are reluctant to accept or question their capabilities to take up the leadership roles, especially in guiding other academics to fully function as knowledge workers.
At this point of Ma’al Hijrah time, it might be good for us to assess if we have oriented the University and her members in the right direction. It is pertinent for us to be aware and, in turn, accept the fact that we are the murabbi who are here to fully embrace the ethos of the University which is accounted for by holistic philosophy of education. For one, it lies on our shoulder to reorient the academics and students in the right direction, especially the rising young academics but not to exclude the experienced ones.
As academics, besides being prolific in the domain of knowledge we specialise, the research work that we do, the writing work that we endure, and the managerial work that we accomplish, it is also essential for us to allocate the “me” time in our daily routine to strengthen the relationship with our Creator.
The stronger the relationship we built with our Creator, the better we know ourselves, and consequently the better we can understand other individuals as well as the hikmah behind the many occurrences in our surrounding. Only then we will become better murabbi. Subsequently, successful completion of tasks, accuracy of decisions made, meaningful interpersonal connection, and a plethora of other rightful concerns will set in inevitably.
It is sine quo non in that we change our way of doing things befitting the real way of charting our lives as guided by our Creator in the religious scripture. In this trying time, our Creator is asking us to contemplate our lives all this while. Are our pace and concentration too worldly that we hinged loosely on the ultimate endpoint of our lives?
Being murabbi is not a privilege (e.g., getting to be recognised and sought after in the field). It is an amanah. Thus, our intention should be oriented towards fulfilling the amanah. In deterrence from being astray of the rightful intention, it is vital that we continually strengthen and steer ourselves towards the direction as depicted by our Creator.
We have to stay honest to our intention of being murabbi and stand united to materialise the goals of knowledge generation and dissemination we undertake here. Additionally, the success of a leader in steering an institution depends on the team spirit of its members. It is the collective effort that would enable us to charter our lives in the right direction. Indeed, a strong collegiality union from all team members is important in turning knowledge beneficial to our stakeholders.
Thus, in unity we shall stand, steering towards the rightful direction. In unison we shall develop, change, and improve our attitudes and actions as murabbi, creating more refined academics that will induce well-being (hasanah) to the community we lead and serve. This shall be our Hijrah.***