Lifelong learning
English Essays
These are my English writings on how I practically think about life. I update them as I learn, so older essays may still hold my most current thoughts.
Start here
- Finding Meaning through Learning
تعلمت العلم لنفسي — I learned knowledge for my own soul.
- Why Lifelong Learning Beats University Degrees
My students and I were laughing about how they forget things I taught them in earlier semesters.
- Happiness Lessons from Harvard’s Research
Harvard scientists have tracked 724 men throughout their adulthood for a study on happiness. The main lesson: good relationships keep us happy and healthy.
All essays
- Why Think for Yourself When AI and Social Media Seem to Have the Answers?
Before passing on a claim from AI or social media, pause to check its source. A reflection on thinking for yourself and being honest about what you know.
- Hijrah, Perception, and the Psychology of High Performance
Hijrah is powerful in high-performance psychology, even if you’re not a Muslim.
- Preparing Your Family for Life After You
Their passing affected me deeply because it happened so fast, so suddenly, and without any warning at all.
- The Sacrifice: Lessons from Prophet Ibrahim for Young Adults
The Prophet Ibrahim’s sacrifice is a heart-wrenching story that seems absurd and dangerous.
- Build Emotional Immunity and Free Yourself from Opinions
As you grow older, you develop a quiet freedom: ‘I care less about people’s opinions than I did years ago.’ But this freedom isn’t automatic.
- Why Lifelong Learning Beats University Degrees
My students and I were laughing about how they forget things I taught them in earlier semesters.
- Set Goals, Face Fear or be Controlled by Others
Are you setting your own goals, or letting others decide for you?
- How a Husband or Wife Boosts Your Lifelong Learning
Choosing a husband or wife creates ripple effects in your lifelong learning.
- The Surprising Way Successful People Budget for Lifelong Learning
If you’re poor, should you spend money on lifelong learning?
- Is Your STEM Degree Worth It?
‘I stumbled upon your LinkedIn post regarding science graduates complaining about their salary and is it ungrateful. I’m a second-year biomedical science student and for the past few months I’ve been almost…
- Are Science Graduates Ungrateful about Salaries?
‘Science graduates complain too much about their salaries. They should be grateful for what they have.’
- Unlocking the Psychology Behind Keeping Career Dreams Alive
When you are starting out, you rarely get the life opportunities you genuinely want.
- The Silent Saboteur: How Your Surroundings Can Lead to Failure
Sometimes you fail not because you are not good enough.
- Why Your Science Degree Isn’t Landing You a Job
Getting a job is hard, even if you have a university degree.
- The Gift of Failure: Discovering Your Path
Failure can be a gift. And I don’t mean it in a motivational, positive thinking sense.
- Acing through Fasting: How Ramadan Makes You a Better Learner
To outsiders, Ramadan fasting seems gruelling. You deprive your body of food and water for – depending on where you live – up to 18 hours.
- The Study Quran for Non-Muslim Learners of Islam
When The Study Quran project was first offered to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, he declined.
- Semester Breaks: The Untapped Resource for Superior Learners
Semester breaks are psychological lines. These lines separate the learners who study only for the exams and the ones who seek meaning in learning.
- The Interstellar Paradox: Saving the World but Losing Your Family?
Exploring the alien planet was a risk; it was too close to a black hole.
- Your Life Story: Learning from the ‘Unsuccessful’ in Life
As university students, one of the most useful habits is listening to each life story that others share with you.
- Navigating Faith in Your 20s: Becoming a Less Bad Muslim
Being less bad Muslims does not sound inspiring. It is, however, a fair starting point for many, especially if you are in your late teens and early twenties.
- People You Don’t Like Make You Better
The more you interact with others, the more you will find people you don’t like.
- A Learner’s Guide to Mastering Forgiveness (When It is Bloody Hard)
Embodying forgiveness is difficult at times; our mind knows that resentment is a cancerous aspect of the ego, but our heart refuses to let it go.
- Adverts, Gruen Transfer and Being a Better Thinker
People think adverts don’t make us buy things; they just inform us about products. When we regret that purchase, all the blame is on us.
- Happiness Lessons from Harvard’s Research
Harvard scientists have tracked 724 men throughout their adulthood for a study on happiness. The main lesson: good relationships keep us happy and healthy.
- Why Children Are More Than Life’s Problems
Children are troublesome. If we take spirituality out of the equation, children become sources of unnecessary life problems.
- Five Lessons from Doing a PhD
My PhD life was fraught with challenges: my lab caught fire, I ran out of money because my scholarship was discontinued, and I was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance.
- What Should You Do After Graduation?
From conversations with university students, many of you have not thought much about what comes after graduation.
- How to be Kind Despite the Lucifer Effect
Imagine being kind to a lifelong friend. And then one day, you pay a gang to beat him up.
- The Sister of the North
This writing is distinct from my other essays. It is an allegory: a story with lessons that are as true and as old as time (a master of this genre is Paulo Coelho).
- Finding Meaning through Learning
تعلمت العلم لنفسي — I learned knowledge for my own soul.
- 33 Lessons on Self
When studying, repeatedly reading your lessons is inefficient. Close your notes, then say what you have learnt out loud, or write about it on another piece of paper.