My name is Claudia Azizah Seise. I am originally from Germany and currently live in Berlin.
1.Tell us a little about yourself: your experience as a student, your areas of study interest, what you love about teaching, what are you excited about teaching at Ribāṭ.
As a student and researcher, I like challenging tasks and topics. I don’t like to swim with the current but always try to follow my heart and, of course, Allah’s commands. As a student, I like to complete assignments early. This gives me peace of mind and energy and creativity for new ideas and projects or just time to go for a walk, read an interesting book, or travel the world.
My core areas of study and research are Southeast Asian studies and especially Islam, history, and art in Indonesia. I love teaching because there is this hope that my words might impact a person in a positive way. In addition, as a lifelong student, I also feel that I can learn a lot from my students. That is why I see my role as a lecturer more in terms of mentoring than in terms of teaching. I like to support students to reach their full potential. I am extremely excited to start teaching at Ribāṭ University for many reasons. One of them is the possibility to include our Islamic worldview in the teaching, learning, and researching process. The other reason is being able to connect with inspiring women from all over the world. I am sure that I will benefit tremendously from working at RU.
2. What brought me to Ribāṭ University? This is quite a long story. I met Anse Dr. Tamara Gray in Malaysia in 2018 when I was teaching at the International Islamic University Malaysia. Ever since, I have followed Rabata and have also taken several courses in Arabic. I also published my book Finding God with Daybreak Press. When I saw the advertisement for faculty positions, I just felt I had to apply. And alhamdulillah, it was written for me to become part of this amazing project and journey.
3. What’s one lesson that has stayed with you throughout your studies? One lesson that stayed with me throughout my studies is to have a goal and keep moving toward that goal. There will always be things we struggle with. However, we need to keep going. Better to begin early and to finish early. Avoid procrastination.
4. What’s a book you recommend to every student? The book I recommend to students is the Quran. Keep it close to you on the physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional level. Only if we are close with the Quran, keep it close, and try to understand it, can we hope to understand other books, also nonreligious books, from within the Islamic worldview, and they will not impact us or our deen negatively, inshallah.
5. What’s something students might be surprised to learn about you? Students might be surprised that I like to read books about historical Japan and the Samurai and Ninja culture. 🙂 Plus I like white Chinese tea (besides coffee of course).
What stands out about the Samurai and Ninja culture is the fact that they have ethical codes embedded in their very Japanese way of viewing the world that we can compare to Islamic teachings on adab (etiquette).
Bushido is the spiritual way of the Samurai.
Ninjitsu is the spiritual way of the Ninja. Bushido stresses honesty, honor, righteousness, politeness, sincerity, loyalty, courage, and benevolence.
6. Share one piece of advice for students beginning their learning journey. To students just beginning their journey of spiritual learning, I recommend that they think of and establish a spiritual routine that will support them during their learning. You will be surprised how much baraka (divine blessing power) is found in the early noon prayer (ṣalāt al-ḍuḥā) or in reciting a portion of the Quran in the morning before you start your studies or work. Have a dhikr routine and send blessings on our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be with him). And of course, as Anse Dr. Tamara Gray always reminds us, if possible, make it a habit to pray tahajjud. Don’t let setbacks in your studies deter you and remember to fulfill the rights of others over you.
7. Is there a project you’re currently working on that you’re excited about? I am working on several projects that I am excited about, but I think the most exciting project at the moment is preparing my courses for the fall and spring term and contemplating how to best serve my students.