FAMSY Newsletter - Victoria

Edition 6 of the FAMSY newsletter can be viewed here

FAMSY BBQ 21-2-2010

‘Be at my house tomorrow at 11.30 on the dot. I have the meat!’, Rifat warns me. I knew that this meant about 12.30 due to the additional M.S.T (Muslim Standard Time). So the next morning, I get up early (10.30am) and realise that I was actually going to be early. Amazing! Or so I thought that is. After getting ready, my brother and I decided to leave. This was when the inevitable occurred. My brother lost his keys. It turned out to be inside his bonnet (don’t ask how), but that was after searching the house for 30 minutes. So we did end up late.

As we arrived to his house, we see a guy lying on his driveway with meat all around him. It was Rifat. Luckily, he was smiling, but we didn’t know if it was of happiness or anger. We decided not to ask. So we finally get there. We ended up being one of the first ones there. It turned out that Rifat was already one step ahead of us. His genius act reminded me of Frank Abagnale.

So as the people arrived, the smell of sausages started to fill the air. There ended up being about 30 brothers and it was great to meet all the familiar faces we met during the camp once again. However, the best part of the BBQ was when we all prayed inside the Botanical Gardens. The beautiful garden allowed us to appreciate the creation of Allah and the feeling of tranquillity was felt by all.

From all the brothers, I would like to thank all the people who organised the BBQ, and maybe we can have another event of some sorts in the near future.

Salam.

Fadli

“Salam brother, are you coming to the BBQ”? It was 1 oclock when Rifat called me to deliver the bad news that the bbq had started at 11. I rushed to put my shoes on as I ran to the station to try to catch a train on Sunday. As I got to the botanical gardens I followed the signs to go to kings domain, only to find no one was there. Then using my smart cunning skills I walked down to the yarra as i predicted they would be there. Sadly I could not find them so I went home. Only later did I find out that they were in fact along the yarra river, somewhere near Toorak.

Then I cried myself to sleep.

Jibreel

FAMSY Blood Drive - VIC

On the 14th of February 2010, under the umbrella of the Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth, its members and friends of saved 75 lives! How do you ask? By the simple act of donating blood.  Each blood donation can save upto 3 lives, and so with 25 willing participants, such a noble act was achieved.

Alhamdulilah the Muslim community has done a small part in transforming the lives of those unfortunate in our community to have cancer, be involved in a terrible accident or have a severe blood condition.
Although the wait to donate was longer than expected, a patient 3 hours, new and old faces alike waited to do their part. The Red Cross was kept on their feet in their efforts  to clear the halls of the volunteers of this mass donation.

A big thankyou must be passed on to the members of the Bangladeshi community who were present in large numbers , as well as the President of FAMSY and members of the Shura for their encouragement. Organised by Salahuddin for a second year, we hope that FAMSY continues its donation for years to come.

FAMSY Anglesea Camp 2009

Things change a lot in one year. This time last year, my otherwise boring holidays were interrupted by a phone call from a friend, trying to convince me to join him for the FAMSY camp in Anglesea. Having never been to FAMSY camp before, I didn’t know what to expect but decided to go along with my friend’s recommendation. One year later, and I was the one doing the recommending. I was looking forward to catching up with all the new people I had met in 2008, and to spend 3 days eating great food, playing lots of sport, and increasing our iman which inevitably goes down over exam periods.

Arriving at ICV early on Friday morning (8:30am being very early for summer break), I realized that there were many new faces joining us for the camp. Their first surprise was that our very first activity would be a two hour hike to the campsite. There were grumbles and complaints as the buses left us at the start of the walking track and drove off, but they soon disappeared as we took in the views of the beaches and the ocean along the way. Arriving at the campsite, we prayed then tucked in to a well deserved lunch. One thing we learned at camp was that young men can have huge appetites.

Along with the great food that we had over the three days, the YMCA campsite in Anglesea has a wide range of activities and sports facilities available, and we certainly made the most of them. Aside from the hours of soccer, basketball and table tennis that we played, the camp leaders had organised for us special activities such as high ropes, archery and canoeing (which suprisingly did not end up with everyone in the water as it usually does). There was much fun to be had and many rivalries developed, and it was inspiring to see everyone showing Islamic qualities of kindness, generosity and brotherhood throughout everything that we did.

The camp leaders also had a surprise in store for us that would test our creativity; as teams we were given 30 minutes to prepare a comedy sketch on one of 3 zany topics. Chaos and hilarity ensued as each of the teams had their turn on stage. Everyone was surprised and impressed by the level of creativity displayed.

Not to be overlooked of course was the spiritual component of the camp. Two hour long workshops were given on Time Management and Quran memorization by brother Amr Foda. They proved to be a great choice of topics which we all found useful and interesting, and which provoked some thoughtful responses from everyone. These sessions were followed in the evening with a talk by brother Muhammad Helmy on loving the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which was very moving and definitely increased everyone’s Iman.

At the end of the third day, we boarded the buses feeling tired but very happy, and already we were discussing our plans for next year’s camp with our new friends that we had made. We would like to thank the organisers of the camp who made it such and enjoyable time, we can imagine how much work they had to put in to make everything run so smoothly. I highly recommend FAMSY camp to anyone who wants to relax and have some fun during the summer break!

Amir Zayegh