THE ROLE OF MADRASAH TO BUILD THE ISLAMIC CHARACTERS OF THE FUTURE LEADERS

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

John Quincy Adams.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
The honorable judges,
My beloved teachers and friends,
And to all of the amazing participants and audiences,
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

For the sake of Allah SWT, this world would never exist without His Almightiness, The God of all freckles of dusts to the vastness of the universe. Praises to Him and thanks to Him for all the things He has granted us. And may we not forget our Shalawat and Salaam to our prophet Muhammad SAW, along with his families and his fellow followers until the end of the time.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

What is Madrasah? Madrasah is an institution that educates the students based on the Islamic teaching, that teaches us: to treat all men equally, regardless their color, language, race or nationality; to be intelligent; to be rich; to maintain peace and most importantly to do everything based on Islam.  Madrasah plays a very important role to educate the students the values of Islam, in this context, the role of Madrasah is building the Islamic characters of the future leaders.

      I’m looking for someone to answer my question. What is leadership to you? Is it being a class leader? Football captain? Or maybe being a Captain America is what leadership means to you. Well, whatever you think leadership is, leadership is not only about having authority to do anything and be responsible with it, but as what Chester Nimitz said, “leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.” It already proves that we can lead by choosing the right man to lead.  But, it is best if we are the ones who lead. We, the Muslim youth, should be the leader of this world.

Brothers and Sisters,

We live in a such beautiful country where five religions are living here in peace, and Muslims are dominating this country. We know that Islam is a peaceful religion, fair and not discriminating any race and religion. Now, our country is facing big problems related to religions, which is the background of our political issue, the election. Don’t you see that many of nowadays leaders can be considered as the wrong people to lead? Are they good leaders? What happened to Indonesia after we are led by those people who don’t understand about politics and religion? Obviously, we don’t want our country to be like the US after being ruled by Donald Trump. We don’t want to be discriminated in our own country.

Well, brothers and sisters,

Unfortunately, this condition is worsen by the apathy of the students towards our country’s political condition. They don’t seem to care what happens and what will happen next to our country. They don’t even know what politics is. We, as Islamic High School students should know that it is important for us to understand how an Islamic politics is.  We should learn more about the theory of leadership. We should practice more how to be a leader without forgetting the values of Islam. But, can we do it by ourselves? The answer is, no. But don’t worry, we have Madrasah, the Islamic schools that can help us to make it happen. Then, what should Madrasah, the Islamic schools do about it?

Dear Audiences,

We, students, tend to learn only what the teachers teach us in school. Only the best people learn the subjects other than those exist in the school. Will it make any differences if the teachers in school don’t give us any lesson about politics and leadership? No, of course not. So, I believe that the solution is Madrasah, the Islamic school, should insert specific political education and leadership training in the school. Because it’s a really effective way to make the students aware of what is happening to this country. And the Islamic school should also tell and emphasize to the students not to forget the values of Islam.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let’s develop Madrasah in Indonesia. Developing Madrasah means that we are attempting to create better Indonesia by preparing the Islamic leader. As Indonesians and as Moslems, we should not see it as a-piece-of-cake-kind-of-matter. Rasulullah SAW said, man lam yahtamma bi amril muslimin falaisa minhum, which means “whoever that do not take care of Moslem’s matters, it means that he is not one of the Moslems.” Before I close my speech, let’s recall the inspiring words from John Maxwell, “a leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Madrasah is better, and it’s better madrasah.

That’s all from me, an extraordinary girl who has a really big spirit for Indonesians. Thank you.

Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.