2020 in Review. Of course, a year like no other.

The overriding feeling is one of big gratitude, syukur alhamdullilah. We were very lucky to be safe, together & well. Our hearts go out to, and we try our best to help those less fortunate and those who risk themselves on our behalf, may Allah protect them, and indeed, all of us.

We made the right decision to return home in mid March from the UK and for Zayd and Tasnim too, from the US. Managed an umrah before that alhamdullilah. Adjusted to life in the time of Corona, the highlight of the year was the marriage of Sakinah & Chris on 10.10.2020, a scaled-down but every bit a beautiful and heartfelt occasion. Kiddos all made good progress during the year, alhamdullilah: Zayd graduated remotely from Georgetown in May and started his 1st job in Hartford CT. Tasnim continued her sophomore year at Columbia remotely. Aishah got promoted to product manager at Fave while Sakinah became head of Axiom KL.

We spent huge amounts of precious family time together, in lockdown, doing so many things otherwise impossible; lots of cooking, eating, exercising, spring cleaning, planting, playing games, watching movies, praying together (esp Ramadan), and even having an intense 10 session Country Heights MBA. Our family holidays were a refreshing change to #cuticutilokal to Janda Baik and Perak. Also found the time and bandwidth to connect with friends and relatives in Malaysia and around the world

While the sabattical in the UK was interrupted somewhat, still managed a dozen or so really good lectures at LSE, Cambridge, Warwick before lockdown and then remotely for MCOBA, KLBC, CIMB, Ikram, Sri Lanka among others. Advocacy work for WEF, GEFI, OCIS, MCKK also continued. Also co-founded Fitrah Capital in the UAE, and alhamdullilah it was a productive year. The lockdown gave the best chance to read, read and read, many years worth of thinking and learned so much from podcasts and YouTube and also produced my own website, useful building blocks for future documentation of thoughts.

2020 was indeed the great circuit breaker of our life’s journey: reminding us as to what’s truly important and eternal. Alhamdullilah 🙏🏼❣️⚖️

5 January 2021