amanina hussaini: kisas : my journey as a pkb. (part 2)

hello and salam.

friends-! thank you for your support for my lastest post, i appreciate you all very much :')

honestly, i felt unconfident, i suppose. it was a huge leap to really share my life experiences and what i've been through because i would write an entry in my blog and think, "welp, i don't really think anyone would read this" and leave it just- for me, i guess. but actually thinking back, i'm happy you actually read and give comments because that way, you are able to relate and understand what i'm conveying and i'll be able to receive comments, remarks and criticism for my writings (which is essential for my growth and improvement!) thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart <3

i'm planning to write a bit before continuing to study, alhamdulillah today my class starts at 4pm so i have some time to reflect and just contemplate on life. sit back and enjoy(?) hahahah i hope you are somewhat entertained and hopefully, you'll be able to take something and reminisce on your school days from these experiences too, insya-Allah...

my journey as a pkb...

[in the previous episode] i went to kisas for the first time and got elected as the pkb.

now, what's next, you may ask?

i always think of this as sort of like kifarah (or karma, in the english term). when i first went into kisas, there were a lot of things i criticised and i told my mom ALL ABOUT IT through the public phone. i remember vividly my mom once said, "[translated in english] you can change the school for the better, kakak. don't worry, it's always the system that messes up everything, so as a student you can have certain authorities to change that. there's a reason why you are there, kakak. so just be patient and be you." ahhhh i was like, "insya-Allah mummy, i'll try my best."

putting this here because this is a cute picture.

when this happens, it was like- shoot. the power of change is in my hands, what should i do now? what's the next step? i started to think of what i really want to change, there are a lot of things really. not saying that kisas is a bad school, on the contrary, it is one of the best schools i've ever been into (if i have the chance to say that every school i went to are the best schools i've encountered, i would want to shout it from the top of my lungs). of course there are always pros and cons to everything, so the same to kisas, i would like it to change for the better.

i would like to recall back what i did during this journey, so... hopefully this sums up everything. friends, do tell if i missed anything, i'll it add them up here!

so- like, what did i do?

first of all,

our batch's name is "sofwah mukhtarah" which translates to the chosen saf (succession).

i think it's beautiful hehe.

1- COMMUNICATION. i've repeated this word a lot of times, until now actually, when it comes to leading. communication is very very important. so i think, what i did immediately after being elected as the pkb is rapid contemplation- "SHOOT. SHOOT. SHOOT. WHAT DO I DO NOW. WHAT DO I DO." then, i consulted the form 5's pkb, kak aqilah (their batch is called janahunnajah, translated from arabic as the wing of success). i asked her about how to handle meetings, what problems i might face and what i can do to improve in the future, it was a fruitful conversation indeed.

i consulted a lot of people actually. aside from kak aqilah, i also consulted kak bushra (the president hawa or the president of all the muslimats), kak abby (one of the most amazing and powerful stayers-students who stayed from form 4 until form 6, 4 years of studying in kisas, normally only 1.5/2 years), a lot of my seniors too, just hearing stories from the former batches, their perspectives and trying to learn about ways i can improve. i consulted some wardens and teachers as well- what i should incorporate in my batch and what the "old kisas" used to be.

we also have a special book where anybody from the batch can write anything, their concerns, suggestions and any remarks they want to give to the whole batch. in the batch meeting, i'd always save the last moments for anybody to speak up and it turned out, a lot of people wanted to say something from their behalf. i understand though, the comments were for the betterment of the batch, so a friend of mine- jannah suggested this idea and i was like- yeah okay! that's a really good idea. i don't know where the book is now though hahahahaha, if you're a kisas student and you found the book, yeah- that was ours hahahaahah hopefully the content is sort of beneficial.

outline for one of the meetings- i think it's so cute.

one of my 'before meeting' planning notes. keeping this here for memories... (click to enlarge)

fun fact ;

kisas was the new term given to the school. it used to be called as kolej malaya, then kik or kolej islam klang (the most famous- literally i go anywhere and say i'm from kik and the uncles and auties would say- "OHHH KIK why didn't you say that in the first place...."

2- MEETINGS. i swear ever since i took this position, sleep is nowhere in my dictionary. i guess this is unnecessary but i'd always have meetings with my friends, discussing about what i could do better. sometimes not even about the batch, just listening to their problems, trying to become a shoulder for them. it is hard really to live your life in a boarding school, especially when it's your first time being away from your parents, but i believe that the strength comes within. we need to support each other to be able to survive, so yes, motivate and be together <3

3- MAHABBAH TRACE. okay this one, don't get me started. i didn't know kisas came with this package so i'm going to spill all the tea, coffee, milo, orange juice, everything! okay so in kisas, there's a tradition where the form 4 students have to memorise every one of the students' names, old schools, where they live, classes and dorms. IT WAS A LOT, but they gave us time to do it, i think from february until before the trial spm examination started. however, the downside is that we had to spend a lot of time to memorise each other's names while also memorising our studies. which one is more crucial, you think? hence why, it was a struggle to really memorise everything all at one.

we would have countless meetings with the tjn (tjn- or tanzim jabatan nuqaba' is like a group of seniors who are in charge of the form 4 students). sometimes we would get scolded by them but no physical alhamdulillah no no no we don't tolerate physical abuse here. but yeah, it was sort of a hassle (i'm being transparent here okay, i'm so sorry). sometimes there are things i don't agree with when the meeting is conducted but i've learnt that everyone has their own views and we have to tolerate with everyone respectively to maintain harmony, consult them personally to really resolve the problem instead of causing chaos in the middle of the meeting, right?

but at the end, we would recognise and learn about each other in our batch by heart which is a big plus from this programme. nobody is left behind, really.

i have a book dedicated to this- specifically to this programme.

and the saying there, "sesungguhnya pipit di bumi kami akan menjadi helang" translated to the pipits here on our earth will be transformed into majestic eagles (kinda funny listening it to english ahahaha) is very famous here in kisas. hopefully, we'll transform into beneficial eagles to the forest of society insya-Allah...

one of the layouts of my book, seriously i wrote a lot about everyone to ensure i memorise everything.

sometimes i fail to remember and i would feel bad. right now too- the memory seems to be fading away, but i can always go back to this book and refer back to everything. although this programme has its downs, its ups are very clear now after going through the journey, and i'm very grateful to be part of this programme. however, now i don't think it's being practised rigidly due to covid-19 and students having to do online classes so students are not able to do f2f programmes so much. so hopefully, through my writings you can feel the vibe of our times in kisas.

4- COLLABORATION. one thing i'm most proud of is the collaboration of my batch and other batches. i cannot deny though, there were a lot of conflicts (of course in any school- always a lot of seniority issues). but alhamdulillah thankfully, it is quite subtle in kisas and over time i think our batch did a good job in being such loving seniors to the juniors. one of the most memorable programme we organised is called the "US programme" (not the united states of america but ukhty sayang programme) where the sisters from form 6 will have a few sisters from form 4, mainly because when we become form 5 students, we have to collaborate a lot with form 6 students, so i thought we should strengthen the bond between us. so we did, alhamdulillah, i think this programme went well and we got to collaborate well with the form 6 students the next year.

i think one of things i would recommend the batch after me to do, is to do a meeting with every leader from other organisations to allign everyone's view and perspectives towards things. that way- a lot more of collaborations can happen and the bond (especially between muslimin and muslimat) will get closer. we are not living in separate schools you know! one thing i really am sad about is that muslimin and muslimat are not really incorporating well, because we always misunderstood each other. of course, ikhtilat must be perservered accordingly, however we need to work together to create a wonderful biah (environment). i didn't have the opportunity to do this- so hopefully! somebody who reads this will get to do it, insya-Allah...

5- TOGETHERNESS. this one is my favourite one ever, being a pkb. aside from having "love and care" as the core of the batch, i get to see the wholesome-ness of my batch being together in a lot of occassions. although during form 4, we always get bullied a lot from hawra' day to teachers' day, a lot of injustice occurred (we'd always have to clean up although the mess is not ours, you know what i mean? because we're the juniors we had to do a lot of things- with the justification "you'll do these things to your juniors too." which i think will create more injustice towards the other batches other than ours. a bad tradition to carry in boarding schools, in my opinion, i'm afraid), kinda sad but it's okay, we struggled through the hard times. until now, alhamdulillah our bond is strong so i'm happy <3 truly.

do you remember the manifesto i gave in the beginning? yeah, we plant trees in our garden (not literally, though). more like concepts, i tried to inculcate good values in the batch and one of the trees i suggested us to plant is the "tree of love and care". show love to everyone regardless of status, to the aunties in the dining hall, to the aunties and uncles who clean, to the school staffs, to the teachers, to our peers, to the juniors and to the seniors, everyone! show kindness no matter how tired you are, show interest and curiosity towards everything you see. show care towards everyone, you'll feel better i assure you, because you are manifesting love to everyone and as a result, you radiate love in yourself.

also, another things is that especially in the girls' dormitory we have our official songs we sing together during meetings and we have a lot of selawat and qasidah (i'll elaborate on these in part 3), i'll put the lyrics below, if you know these songs, yeah you're a legend hahahahaah.

selamat datang

selamat datang kawan

ke dunia batu kaca

usah resah dan gelisa

kerna neonnya terpadam

jalan ini sibuk

siapa pun takkan berhenti

mobil silih berganti

sekalipun kau melintasi

ada asap hitam memedih (x3)

lagu ikhtilat (like literally hahahaha)

bermula di bumi waqafan

kita mula dikenalkan

"jaga ikhtilat, jaga, jaga ikhtilat"

sikit sikit kita merungut

kata susah nak buatlah

tapi sebenarnya

benda ni senang saja...

buat bentuk L bila jumpa

kasi barang guna benda

jaga pandangan, hati terjaga

cermin sini, cermin sana

babul liqa', ana enta

lekat di dinding

bila bertemu muslimin

moga biah kisas dapat kita pelihara

kata nak jadi zaujah solehah

moga-moga usaha kita

allah pandang, allah sayang,

syurga firdausi, destinasi kita akhirnya

dalam menjaga ikhtilat

jaga adab, jangan lupa

tapi jangan pula

dengan muslimin kisas sahaja...

puisi buat teman

di saat diriku

ketandusan kata-kata

kau datang menjelma

membawa cahaya

engkau memberi sinar

untukku teruskan

kehidupan yang penuh

dugaan cabaran

indahnya ukhuwah

tanpa terpalit rasa

sifat mazmumah

antara kita

kerdipan cahaya

akan ku kenang jasa

kenangan bersama antara kita

(x2)

di saat diriku (x3) hoi! (hahahaha seriously getaran dapat rasa sampai sini ya)

aspuri's favourite

stayers

ku hanya manusia biasa

yang bisa melakukan kesalahan

namun harus ku tabah demi

menghadapi cabaran di hadapanku

(chorus)

akan ku tinggalkan masa lalu

tenggelam seperti matahari

ku tidak akan pernah

menangisi pemergianmu

dan ku akan tetap berdiri teguh

demi mencapai impian yang satu

redha-Mu ya allah

mengiringiku ke syurga

dan ku akan sentiasa di jalan

yang telah ku pilih sentiasa di sini

oh teman...

(repeat chorus)

dan ku akan tetap berdiri teguh

demi mencapai impian yang satu

redha-Mu ya allah

mengiringiku ke syurga...

i think that sums up about the highlights of my time being a pkb in kisas. it was tiring for sure, but it was filled with wonderful memories and experiences i definitely don't want to forget. contact me if you want to know the songs' notes hahahahaah, they are my most favourite highlights being in kisas for sure. insya-Allah, after this maybe i'll write about my experiences becoming one of the badar committes in kisas, but i have to study first hahahaah. it's fun reminiscing these memories, really.