It’s been an interesting and I must say rejuvenating 3 days of learning as I sit through CIIF’s Chartered and Fellowship Masterclass (CFM).
While revisiting the fundamental bits and forming a helicopter-view of Islamic finance remained the core objective of the masterclass, it was the indirect yet basic lessons that really caught my attention.
Among the pleasant reminder was on the foundational humanity need to be socially responsible. This should be the anchoring objective in whatever we do, including (obviously not limited to) shaping the Islamic finance industry – to help human beings regardless who they are live a better and dignified life. Indirectly and probably unintended, this would also satisfy human being’s personal need of finding their “meaning to belonging”.
Without a doubt, there is no better time to answer this honorable call to revisit the way we do things and rebuild it based on this noble objective – in this day and age where the world is facing so much crisis and calamities. However, the reality is that changing a system that is so matured and rooted for hundred of years, be it economical, political or social, is not an easy feat; more accurately – extremely difficult.
There are tall walls of challenges that needs to be climbed and overcome, hard deadly battles that needs to be fought, before any changes can actually happen. But these hard truths doesn’t take away the need for this long overdue change to start somewhere, even if it first starts in the smallest, limited and exclusive form.
Fueled by impatience, a lot times, when wanting to drive change or introduce something new into this world, we look for the next “big” and “sexy” thing, thinking we could make that quick “noisy” impact. In most instances, these big ideas never gets off the ground, ironically because it was too big to begin with.
I’m a firm believer in “just doing it” when I set myself to do something. During my younger days, this habit usually comes out a bit negative as I tend to rush into things. But as I matured through life, I’ve realized that starting small or breaking the actions into smaller steps is a better (and probably safer) approach – it gets things going. There’s a chapter in the book I wrote dedicated to this particular concept: “Small Improvements, Big Difference”.
But this particular sharing during the masterclass gave me a perspective that I never thought of before, which itself is a strong statement of inspiration and motivation:
“Start change and it will start its own momentum.”
So – have faith and take those steps towards making that good and positive change, even if you are not able to see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. If it starts with the right intention and done in the right way, it will get there some way or another in only a matter of time.