Reflection 22 – The Legacy That You And I Want To Leave Behind

March 2011-June 2011. I’m now in my third quarter of the first year of my #PhD at #UCI. I’m enrolled in a course called #Social Entrepreneurship with my #professor Richard Matthew. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it basically addresses projects that have social (or maybe environmental) #positive effects along with the typical #economic or #financial #benefits. It’s a very interesting course with an outstanding professor, who combines both theoretical academic background with an outgoing active character concerned with doing good to others through the engagement in different #UN projects. During one of our early classes, he asked us what do you want people to remember you with as you lay in your deathbed (assuming of course that you will have the option of laying in your deathbed!). Do you want them to remember you as a person, who cared for others and tried to #help them, or you want to be remembered as that person who watched thousands of hours of #TV?! These words never left my mind.
Before going into academia, one of things that really turned me off from many #jobs in the corporate world was the pure focus on financial rewards at the expense of any other social benefits. For me, the academic setting was the best option despite not being that financially rewarding. However, you get to engage with different people all the time and your mind is constantly challenged. But the most important part in my opinion is that you are able to have a positive and everlasting effect on #students through both teaching and research. I’m also a fond of our beautiful Prophetic tradition that emphasizes in many sayings that a human being can over-last their lifetime by providing beneficial #knowledge to others. I cannot say how much rewarding and satisfying I am when I read my students comments of how much they benefited from a certain course or how it affected their personality and #future in some way. I get really overjoyed beyond any imagination!
In my concluding part, I would like to highlight some IMPORTANT remarks related to my discussion. First and foremost, each one of us needs to discover their #passion they want to pursue. I would say that this is the most difficult part and there is no one single recipe for it. Personally, it took me around five years to discover my passion. Second, I don‘t mean by #legacy here is that we have to be known public figures who people look up to although this will be the case for some of us. Maybe someone’s legacy is being a great #son or #daughter to their #parents; or a loving and caring #husband for his #wife and #kids; a strong responsible wife for her family, and the list goes on and on. Third, I would say to always think of ways that have a positive multiplier effect and their benefit can over-last your lifetime. Last but not least, our intention should be solely to please #Allah (and not people) with our pursuit of our passion, and people‘s love would come automatically if we are sincere to Allah.
Personally, I pray to be remembered in two ways. One is that I had a positive and beneficial effect on others, and second that I was a reason for bringing people closer to the words of Allah.