By Nurin Najmina Zaidi
GOMBAK, 9 December 2021: The candidate of the Secretariat of Usul Al-Din and Comparative Religion, Muhammad Ariff Asyraf revealed his manifesto for the upcoming AHAS KIRKHS Election today (9 December) aimed at helping the RKUD students community.
His vision for the upcoming election is to dignify students personality excellence as a complement to academic excellence.
Meanwhile, his mission is to determine to produce graduates with the integrity of NaqlÄ« and ˜AqlÄ« knowledge by providing professional services through an understanding via the text of turÄth.
Three important manifestos made by the candidate are presented as follows:
1.Leading the RKUD community towards Intellectual Generation
2.To become a mediator between RKUD students and the department of Usuluddin and Comparative Religion
3.To enhance the ability of RKUD students in the aspects of dawah and dialogue to spread awareness on the aqidah matters towards the IIUM community.
Leading RKUD community towards Intellectual Generation
His first manifesto is that he intends to paint RKUD Community as human beings of caliber in order to be able to contribute to Islam as was done by past and present Islamic scholars.
This is due to the fact that his lecturers who taught him in Usuluddin aspire the students to be intellectuals and not just bing in an industry. Furthermore, he intends to remove the shackles of the RKUD community that aims to study for a certificate, and without any contribution once they graduate.
His plan on leading the community is by creating talaqqÄ« kitÄb turÄth classes guided by the lecturers. The reason behind this is to create an intellectual generation among the RKUD community, revealing to them the system of study and to comprehend the books written by their previous scholars, especially in the ˜AqÄ«dah or ˜ilm al-KalÄm.
Before this, he and his team have already started an initiative by reading the books of faith with Dr. Ayman al-Akiti such as al-˜AqÄ«dah al-BurhÄniyyah, Sifat 20 Imam Sanusi and al-Qawl al-MufÄ«d li Ma˜ÄnÄ« Durrah al-Tawḥīd.
The latest is the book reading organised by the department of Usuluddin which they themselves being the committee members that organised the class such as Sharḥ Ibn ˜AqÄ«l with Dr. Ayman al-Akiti to strengthen the Arabic language.
In addition, JumÄnah al-Tawḥid with Ustaz Zainul Abidin (PhD student of UD) and ItqÄn al-á¹¢un˜ah with Ustaz Abdullah Zawawi (PhD student of UD).
In the near future, he and his team will provide talaqqÄ« and seminars from other lecturers with different specializations in the framework of Uṣūl al-DÄ«n such as Maná¹iq, Philosophy, SÅ«fÄ«sm, and World Religion.
To become a mediator between RKUD students and the Department of Usuluddin and Comparative Religion
Ariff also would like to become a mediator between RKUD students and the Department of Usuluddin and Comparative Religion by organising a programme in order for the students to familiarise themselves with the lecturers and staff of the department. For example, doing a Family Day programme, and mentor-mentee programme.
Moreover, he plans to do a survey on students’ problems regarding their studies or financial problems and holds discussion on issues with the department to lessen their burden.
The reason he wanted to become a mediator was that of his concern that there are many students who still did not know the lecturers and the workforce in the department. As it is, they did not know how to reach them or whom should they contact to resolve their issues.
To enhance the ability of RKUD students in the aspects of dawah and dialogue to spread awareness on the aqidah matters towards the IIUM community
Muhammad Ariff Asyraff explained that what he means by spreading awareness which is to include the ˜aqÄ«dah matter itself on multiple platforms.
He also stated the reason why he only focuses on Aqīdah matters.
“˜AqÄ«dah is important because ˜aqÄ«dah itself is the main condition for the acceptance of practice and the guarantee of safety in the hereafter. Therefore, faith involves the field that we, usuluddin students, are pursuing now,”
“As for other fields such as fiqh and others, we leave it to our colleagues in the FQ and QS department to draft and manage the matter under them,” he mentioned.
Ariff also stated that if he is to be in the secretariat of Usul Al-Din and Comparative Religion, the first thing that he will do is to strengthen the understanding among the secretariats of Usuluddin through the ideas that were once presented by Dr. Amilah (Head of Department of Usuluddin) and Dr. Ayman (Academic Advisor of Usuluddin) .***