Undergraduate Life

November 2, 2026

Bismi Llāhir Raḥmānir Raḥīm Meaning: ‘In the name of Allāh, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful’. Allāh is the name of God Almighty.

I decided to write a small reflection about my undergraduate life. I used to hate the syllabus progression of my subject a lot. I still do (kind of) but, in retrospect, it’s actually pretty good. My classmates who graduated at the top of the classes with good GPA and are pursuing higher academic studies have to be appreciated for making their way through it. I hope they’re all winning.

Also, my undergraduate life was heavily marred by my personal spiritual problems at first, and then by some people (from the university and beyond) who also had very serious spiritual issues. May Allāh taʿālā guide us and forgive us. ʾÃmīn.

After completing my undergraduate, I came across a video where Dr. Tareq al-Suwaidan shared his perspective on studying Engineering (may Allah ta’ala preserve him). He described it, if I’m not mistaken, as learning about systems and how everything is a system. Before I heard this, my undergrad felt like a jigsaw puzzle with scattered pieces (like the beads of a pearl necklace with a broken string). To be absolutely frank and sincere, it still does – but to a lesser degree. His description really helped put things in perspective for me, Alḥamdu liLlāhi taʿālā. I don’t know why I didn’t see or understand this wisdom before but I’ve benefited from hearing it now. This must have been written, ma sha Allāhu taʿālā. May Allāh taʿālā bless Dr. al-Suwaidan. ʾÃmīn.

⊕
Here’s a photo of Dr. Çengel, collected from his website. Attached it here because I thought there might be others like me out there who may have benefited from his works but had never seen a photo of him too.

Because of this newfound perspective/wisdom and other things, I can now appreciate Dr. MA Islam sir’s insistence on learning the Problem-Solving approach presented in Dr. Yunus Çengel and others’ books on the Thermal Sciences (and beyond). It’s a structured and systematic approach. And, of course, that reminds me of how Dr. MQ Islam sir taught us to solve Fluid Mechanics problems so nicely in a structured and systematic format. May Allāh taʿālā bless our teachers and the authors of all beneficial books. ʾÃmīn.

As always, thank you for reading. Bāraka Llāhu Fīk. May peace be with you. ʾÃmīn.