Philosophy and how it all happened:

Philosophy and how it all happened:

He applied for Grade 12 Biology and couldn't get into the class that semester. The classes were all filled. I called the Vice Principal pleading that my son have to do Grade 12 Biology that semester. The Vice principal tried his best for a few days, trying to fit him in and couldn't. He suggested that he can travel to another school for it or wait until the following semester. I was getting really frustrated because it is every parent's dream for their child to become a doctor or engineer and it was looking like that dream wasn't going to happen.

A few days later, the Principal called me and suggested that he registers for the Gr 12 Philosophy class in the mean time and next semester he can do Biology . He told me it's a new class and there are some spaces in it. I told the principal to go ahead, because he needed his credits to complete high school that year. I called my son and told him he is registered in Philosophy. He said, he will give it a try. He studied Gr 12 Philosophy with a teacher that totally inspired him. Insha Allah he will graduate later this year with a Philosophy Specialist Degree from the University of Toronto and hopefully with a Distinguished Honours Degree. A Philosophy Specialist Degree is when more than 10 full credits are in Philosophy.

During the first two years of my son  studying Philosophy, I keep wondering what will he do with the degree. Then, a few years ago, I attended RIS and heard  Dr. Seyyed Hossein's "Philosophy Matters" lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgGB407FHs and it  changed my thinking.

In our family, no many ventured into the Humanities and Arts field.  Most into Business, IT or Science. He was surrounded by computers from a very young age, because both of us  are IT professionals. Naturally, one would think that he would at least become a Computer Scientist. In the mid 90s, he was one of the first kids his age to own an email address, even before hotmail and gmail. I forced him into taking Computer programming courses, he tried and drop them.

Now it is a wonderful breath of fresh air to have a young Philosopher in the family. He makes sure we don't talk IT business or finance  when we are at home.

It's all the will of Allah. It just shows we can never really plan our lives