As Jameel scholars, we have the opportunity to engage with the\nlocal community. The community engagement programme offered me an opportunity\nto utilise my skills within the local community. I had the honour to help a\nnewly-arrived learned Arab scholar improve his English in order for him to\nconvey his knowledge better. Using my Arabic language skills, I was able to\nhelp him with area specific lexicon; I hope my little effort will contribute towards\nmany locals benefitting from the learned scholar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the year, I\u2019ve been invited to deliver some public\nspeeches. The Islamic Society of Cardiff University invited me to speak on\n\u2018Recharging the faith\u2019 in December 2018 and share some advice with fellow\nstudents. It was nice way to end the term, and the meal after was not too bad\neither. I was also invited to speak at a few mosques around Cardiff, sometimes\nto deliver the Friday sermon and on other occasions to deliver a public talk.\nCardiff ISoc also run enjoyable football sessions for both competitive and\ncasual players. A knee ligament injury sustained in October put me on the\nside-lines for three months, but from January onwards I regularly attended the\nweekly Thursday night football. Aside from the game, it was an enjoyable\nopportunity to get together and relax at the end of the week with fellow students\nof Cardiff University. Fellow students were always curious to find out what I\nwas studying and surprised that such a bespoke degree was available at their\nown university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The centre organises a Public Seminar Series<\/a> which, along with being informative, pertinent and engaging, allowed us students the time to sit with the guest speakers before and after the event. Having dinner with the guests offered us the chance to gain more insight into their knowledge and experience in the field. Our final speaker, James Fergusson<\/a>, gave a stimulating talk on his book Al-Britannia, My Country<\/em> in which he highlighted the positive contributions made by British Muslims. As with all the seminars, we went for a meal after the talk during which we discovered that James and I don\u2019t live too far apart in Edinburgh. We had a wonderful discussion and decided to meet in Edinburgh when I was next up. So in June 2019, whilst I was up in Edinburgh for my Eid holiday, I contacted James and we had a lovely chat over some Eid food (of course).<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a couple of months left to work on my dissertation, I reflect back on an eventful year both in terms of formal study and extracurricular activities. I\u2019m extremely glad to have made the decision to apply to the MA Islam in Contemporary Britain and grateful for the Jameel Scholarship which has facilitated my study and stay in Cardiff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.cardiff.ac.uk\/islamukcentre\/files\/2019\/07\/Bilal-1-1024x429.jpg\")