“I come from a very small village near the city of Msila. My Mother passed away when I was just 4 years old. I was too young but I still felt the gap she left behind her.
My father was a simple farmer who did not think school was important. He thought studying is a waste of time when the kids can be working and helping their families. Like most of our fathers back then, he did not understand the importance of education because they were deprived from it during the French colonization era.
That did not stop me from studying on my own when I became old enough. I remember I used to secretly smuggle books into the house. My father was always suspecting I was reading books behind his back but he did not say anything. I used to hide the books I had under my mattress, and I must admit that my sisters covering for me did help me a lot.
There was a one time when I got too close to getting caught. I was shepherding not far from our home, and I was reading a book and I got really into it to the extent I completely forgot about the sheep who went everywhere. My father was very upset that day and he came home after collecting the sheep screaming “I know you were reading a book. Where is it?”
A year later, my elder brother sort of kidnapped me from the house to get me to school. I was already 4 years late for school but he somehow managed to squeeze me into class. My elder brother was the first member in the family to get an education and he went as far as becoming an inspector, which was a big deal back then.
I had an interest in Islamic studies from an early age, so when I finished middle school I packed my stuff and took an unexpected route. I moved to Saudi Arabia with the goal of completing high school and University there. I was only a teenager on my own in a whole new country, but I made it and I mastered high school and finished University in Saudi Arabia as well. After that I moved back to my homeland and I did my masters in the Islamic University of Constantine, and I started working in the same University after that.
After that I moved to Adrar in the Algerian Sahara, where I completed my military service before going back to Constantine. While I was in Constantine, I got a job offer from the University of Sana’a in Yemen. I remembered reading about the history of Yemen once and all the cultural heritage and the ancient documents it has, so I decided to move there but with my wife and kids this time.
My time in Yemen gave me the chance to really focus on my studies and my research. I traveled to Morocco to present my PhD research and get the degree with excellence.
After that I moved to the United Arab Emirates where I become a Section Head and a Professor in one of the largest government-managed universities there.
Thanks to God, to this day I have published more than 50 hardcover books in my specialty “Hadeeth Nabawi” in addition to many articles and participations in international conferences. I was recently given the “Excellence Medal” by the Sheikh of Sharjah.
I sometime sit and look back at the timeline of my life, how I moved from shepherding and living in a small mud house to becoming a professor in a place far away from home. It’s all thanks to God.”
