Knowledge is the only thing that no one can strip you of, no matter what, but how you use it depends solely on you. After I packed my bags, but not my calculator, for what I thought was another summer school, I asked myself, why Morocco, why Islamic finance, when am I going to ever use this again?

Never judge a book by its cover. The 2 weeks that I spent at NIMAR changed my mentality, the way that I look at life and the way that I perceive the things around me. I became, as I like to say, a beacon of knowledge, reflecting the hard work that our teacher, Mr. Heinen, along side with the people at NIMAR, put in for a hand-full of students gathered from all around the globe. It wasn’t tunnel vision anymore, it wasn’t just going to the bank and playing the money game, it was going to a conventional bank and doing activities that involved riba (interest), gharar (extreme risk) and maysir (gambling). It was an answer for questions that I never knew I had in me.

Weeks later, I found myself studying for my Economics exam and, in spite of my expectations, my notes contained the Arabic that I learned in order to describe financial products offered in the Islamic banks. My understanding was based on a compilation of knowledge that I was able to build because of my experience in Morocco, as they say, always sleep with one eye opened.

As life tends to pass by, we tend to lean towards the safe route, the one that doesn’t have the nice view but takes us there, I am so grateful that I decided to take the other one and I decided to join the trip. The view was gorgeous and the people that I had the honor to do it along, I hope to meet again.  Never settle for conventional, there’s always something else, take risks as that is the only way that one can learn during life.

Thank you, Morocco!

Maria Speranta