ISDEV DIRECTOR: TAQWA IS CORE TO ISDEV SUCCESS

ISDEV Monthly Supervision for July was once again held at the University Conference Hall (DPU) of Universiti Sains Malaysia. More than 50 ISDEV members consisting of ISDEV lecturers and students as well as prospective students attended this monthly programme on 18 July 2014. Dr. Fadzila Azni Ahmad served as the Chairperson throughout the session. 

Prof Syukri speaks on Taqwa (Piety) during the Tarbiyyah Pengarah ISDEV session

This month's supervision was divided into three sessions. The first session started at 9.30am with the “Tarbiyyah Pengarah ISDEV” series delivered by ISDEV Director, Professor Muhammad Syukri Salleh on “Teras Kekuatan ISDEV- Dinamika Taqwa” (The Core to ISDEV Strength - Dynamics of Taqwa). This time Prof. Syukri stressed the importance of ‘Taqwa’ (piety) as one of the elements to success for the Muslims. In supporting his points, Prof Syukri presented various verses from the Quran to highlight the close relationship between Allah SWT promises of help, guidance and the attainment of success with those who are muttaqeen (pious). Allah SWT is with the muttaqeen (Surah  al-Taubat,9:36 & 9:123 and Surah  al-Nahl, 16:128), Allah SWT loves those who are muttaqeen (Surah  Ali 'Imran,3:76 and Surah al-Taubat,9: 4&7) and with taqwa and patience Allah SWT will help (Surah Ali 'Imran,3:125) are some of the examples of the verses mentioned.

In addition Prof Syukri also capped off his talk with the effects of taqwa. What he means is that when a Muslim is embued with taqwa only positive consequences will ensue. Among them is that there is no feeling of fear (Surah Yunus, 10:62), in the Hereafter would be untouched by pain and despair (Surah al-Lail,92:17-21) and the promise of Jannah (Heavens) as wide as the skies and the earth (Surah Ali 'Imran,3:133).

Before he ended his talk, Prof Syukri shared his observations that by making Taqwa as core to ISDEV strength has contributed to a number of positive outcomes. Among them are within ISDEV members there is unity and brotherly love, uniformity in thoughts, actions and understanding, diligence, ease of organizing various activities, impressive achievements and due recognition given to ISDEV.

A serious looking Dr. Zakaria Bahari presenting on a serious topic "Research Design"

Dr. Zakaria Bahari, ISDEV Deputy Director, then led the second session with his explanation on “Reka Bentuk Kajian’(Research Design). He stressed that research design is of importance because it represents a systematic planning to determine the method that would be used by a research so that the research objectives could be met. He presented four types of research such as fundamental research, applied research, evaluative research and action research. Then he proceeded with the details of two of these types of research. Some students took the opportunity for further clarification on this wide ranging topic to help them with their thesis writing.

Nurul Ilyana presenting her PhD Thesis related to Micro Credit and Zakat

The third session which is the last session was a presentation of the draft to the PhD Thesis by Nurul Ilyana binti Muhd Adnan who is supervised by Dr. Zahri Hamat. She had worked on “Mikro Kredit daripada Dana Zakat di Baitulmal Aceh dan Potensi Pelaksanaannya di Institusi-institusi Zakat di Malaysia” (Micro Credit and Zakat Fund in Baitulma Aceh and the Potentials of Its Implementations in Zakat Institutions in Malaysia). Her thesis was evaluated by Dr. Jasni Sulong from the Islamic Studies Department, School of  Humanities. Besides that, her presentation also received positive comments as well as new ideas that could help her to improve her PhD thesis before the final submission to the Institute of Post Graduate Studies (IPS). All ISDEV lectures and members unanimously agreed that she could submit her PhD thesis after rectifying some minor corrections as well as the inclusion of some necessary information that were discussed.