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For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?
![For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQ5M3TJXYAAqV6N.jpg "For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?")
![For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQ5M3paWoAAPWS1.jpg "For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?")
![For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQ5M38_WoAAzuUa.jpg "For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?")
![For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQ5M4Q1WoAIcqtu.jpg "For those of you doing a PhD or teaching #history (and premodern Islamic[ate] history more specifically), how do you overcome the doubts of the efficacy of what you're doing and remain motivated, especially when those around you appear to be making more money and having more fun?")
My intention is this: a vision to teach Islamic history as a private, community initiative (like http://tawfiqonline.org does for Shariah sciences) so people can have a truer, more accurate knowledge of the past and become wiser (i.e. to know reality as it is and to act》
》accordingly), and to be wiser is an imperative that requires no justification.
By God's grace, I have a financial base to make this risk possible.
Arguably, a post-Brexit Britain may be economically precarious with the collapse of the NHS, legal aid and other state welfare》
By God's grace, I have a financial base to make this risk possible.
Arguably, a post-Brexit Britain may be economically precarious with the collapse of the NHS, legal aid and other state welfare》
》we've taken for granted. To remedy this, one can look at other means to make an income online or investments that can be compounded for the long future.
I have hobbies and pursuits that provide pleasure to remedy the anguish of a work that is unrecompensed and whose merit》
I have hobbies and pursuits that provide pleasure to remedy the anguish of a work that is unrecompensed and whose merit》
》will perhaps only be best appreciated after I die. I think how many people I cite are dead. I have in the past found angles to make pleasurable school courses thrust upon me.
My fear is I am occupying myself at the expense of what is better. Apart from Ustadh Adnan Rashid》
My fear is I am occupying myself at the expense of what is better. Apart from Ustadh Adnan Rashid》
》and Ustadh Uthman Lateef, I don't see people who have formally studied history teaching it. It's disappointing to see even "practising Muslims" so ignorant about the basic outline of Islamic history, including preachers and the like. Some may argue that a knowledge of history》
》isn't essential to salvation, which is perhaps true to an extent. However, to have no knowledge of the past means one cannot make claims about it and since some discourse on living Islam today requires claims about the past ("decline", "revival" etc), it appears a knowledge》
》of history is inescapable.
There is also an argument that there is no market in teaching Islamic history like I've envisioned, and since my criminal conviction ( http://freetalha.org ) will mean it will be very difficult (though not impossible - God is my》
There is also an argument that there is no market in teaching Islamic history like I've envisioned, and since my criminal conviction ( http://freetalha.org ) will mean it will be very difficult (though not impossible - God is my》
》provider and capable of all things) to find an academic job that is difficult in the best of times, I am wasting 3-4 years and hemorrhaging money that I could be investing in a business or property instead. I have to look after myself and my family first, right?
It would be good to hear advice from mashā`ikh and the godly so that others can benefit too: @joebradford, @DrShadeeElmasry, @HaroonSidat, @mnizami_uk, @ShahinRahmanUK, @Abu_Aaliyah and anyone else who is qualified to give good advice. I dislike being so personal online but at》
》the same time I appreciate when people share their difficulties with dignity publically, so that a discussion can be a learning experience for others. I think of those warming anecdotes in the chronicles whose troubled protagonists share their pains and eventual redemption.
There are mixed messages out there to young Muslims about earning and ambitions. On the one hand, @ShahinRahmanUK describes how he got married even after losing his job (perhaps he wants to paste those tweets below) and on the other hand, I hear @joebradford advising people to}
}delay marriage until more financially stable. I am not trying to play off two virtuous people. For a start, we all have different contexts: Sheikh Shahin lives in Manchester, Sheikh lives in Texas and I live in London.
The questions that haunt me are: am I doing the right}
The questions that haunt me are: am I doing the right}
thing? What is enough money? What are my priorities and responsibilities? I have tried to structure my life around Agenda to Change our Condition (by Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir) and #ProductiveMuslim ( @ProMuslimCo) by @MohammedAFaris. Yes, I know HY has gone on to make some}
}troubling choices recently but the work stands as a Ghazalian model for our times. I have made a Trello for the remaining 40 years of my earthly existence according to government statistics. My poetry (some of which have won awards) and perhaps this PhD can be my legacy}
}along with my descendants, inshalllah.
