How To Become A Modern Salahuddin

Salahuddin (aka Saladin) wasn’t just a conqueror of Jerusalem. He was the ideal of a Renaissance Man, and knew various subjects and skills that shaped his legacy.

He was a genius military commander, a mathematician, an astronomer and a scholar of religion. This is what made Salahuddin, a Salahuddin.

Many people know that Sultan Mehmet II, at the age of 21, conquered Constantinople thanks to his incredible military leadership. But did you know he was fluent in Arabic, Greek, Persian, Latin, and Slavic? He also studied literature, art, history, geography, and science. He read the works of great philosophers like Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Khaldun.

All this seemingly unrelated knowledge is what made him a great leader. This pattern is common among great leaders—they aren't just skilled in one thing. They are multi-dimensionally jacked. They spend time learning and feeding their curiosity.

Only slaves are expected to do just one thing for their entire lives. The school system set us up to fail, by making us specialize in just one single area and forget about the rest.

The scientist who understands marketing and sales will do better in their field (and in life overall) than those who don’t. The programmer who knows how to create viral content will create content and create opportunities for himself. The writer who knows medicine can create unique and original work that stands out.

Information age is the end of specialized individuals and the beginning of specialized-generalists (about which we are going to talk more in a future letter).

Islam encourages the study of multiple fields The scholars of a religion interpret verses based on the information available to them. As science progresses, the meanings of the verses change to make the most sense, and this is not a problem (as some atheists may argue).

Similarly, your world view will shift when you learn electromagnetism, even though it may seem like it’s a completely unrelated field of knowledge. From my personal experience, I can tell you that any knowledge can help you get closer to the ‘right’ perspective and help you make better decisions in life.

Here’s your action plan:

The other day I came across a beautiful quote:

Now, this doesn't mean wasting your time playing video games just because you enjoy them. You don’t actually love video games; they give you a sense of comfort, which makes you want to play them.

For me, I love solving math problems. When I see a math question, I feel challenged, and I stop doing everything just to solve it. I love learning science, so I spend my free time doing math or watching science videos.

What you need to do is find an activity that grabs your full attention, something you truly love. Then "waste" your free time on that. A year from now, you'll have spent over 100 hours on something you thought you didn't have time for.

That’s all for today. I'll keep future letters short and to the point like this one. I'll see you next week, InshaAllah. Salamalaikum.

— Ali Bin Naseer