First week of employment

Al Hamdulillahi rabbil 'aalameen, wasallahu wa sallim alaa nabiyyina Muhammad.

So it's been my first week at LUMS Business School and I guess you might be wondering how it the place.

Al Hamdulillah, it's a very good working environment. The Dean of my school is a graduate of MIT and has his PhD from U. Penn. He's been at LUMS since 1992. But the catch is he is with the TJ's and, yes, he does wear the uniform everyday. The same is the case of another senior lecturer in my group, again PhD & MSc from the States and 10 years of MBA teaching. The guy responsible for the very popular executive programmes is also an openly practising Muslim (with the number plate very visible behind him reading "TEXAN MUSLIM 85"). With a PhD and MBA from Texas, he's a cheerful guy Ma Sha Allah and assigned as my mentor. The shalwar kameez comes out on Fridays though, so I don't know what leaning we're talking about. In a nutshell, the people who are heading my school's faculty are very practising, senior people. Hence, at Asar prayers time the office is virtually empty. And there are many more practising people in the university. It seems the profile of 50% of faculty coming to LUMS are Pakistani's returning from the west due to a religious preference for Pakistan. Otherwise, with the qualifications these guys have, it seems puzzling why they persist to stay here.

But as far as the students are concerned, especially the undergrads, then one sees the creme de la creme of Fahsh on campus. Things are going from bad to worse in terms of women's fashion as half sleeves, no dupatta, or just plain jeans and shirts is becoming more and more common street wear. And this is worse at LUMS, given the fees they charge.

So it's interesting contrast between the profile of the faculty and the profile of the student population. Al Hamdulillah, myself, I would only be teaching the more maturer students in the MBA programme (insha'Allah), and my office and my research is a nice sanctuary away from all of this.

Nawawi Circle still taxiing along the runway

Al hamdulillah, have attained some regularity with the hadith circle. It's being held on Saturdays from 3-4pm (thus can't tune into Shaykh's morn. circle). We're half way through
the second hadith of Nawawi's forty. I'm not getting too much interaction going during the circles. It's hard steering the thing away from the slightly technical look that one find's in Zarabozo's book. Requires a lot of reading and synthesis to get to the issues that stimulate the minds and the hearts.

And what's new in Manchester?