Why This Blog Exists

During my bachelors I got introduced to C++ in my first year—and no shocker—I hated it. I wasn't taught how to do C++, just given some assignments and told to get on with it. These were the pre-AI days so you had to search everything online to learn. And given the stress of a full degree, learning an obscure language—at least that was my first impression—wasn't my top priority. Still, I managed to do well in the assignments. Then came embedded C, taught in pretty much the same way. But it felt more real. What I was writing had an actual visible impact on an LCD display. So given my limited knowledge of programming at the time, my mind was like—is that it? We just use C everywhere? That question lingered but I wasn't mature enough yet to do anything with the seeds being planted.

The world of software felt like a black box to me. I couldn't figure out what to do with it. It sounded interesting but I couldn't see any plausible path forward. Then I got introduced to VHDL and Verilog—hardware description languages—which made things more real. But as you can see, my entire mental model of software was very low level. I couldn't even begin to imagine what was possible.

After my bachelors and then my masters—wanted to become a chartered engineer so it was a must, and yes I'm in a lot of student debt—I had a short stint in an electrical engineering role, which is a story for its own blog. There I came across an in-house tool with a backend written in FORTRAN and a frontend in Visual Basic. It made life so much easier, and that's what started everything. I did a Udemy course, learned Python, dabbled in Swift. Then landed a software engineering role writing C.

That role changed everything. I got exposed to Vim for the first time—hated it, use it every day now. More importantly I got to work alongside some genuinely talented engineers who, probably without realising it, had a lasting impact on me. I learned the ins and outs of software development properly for the first time. In the background I was still doing iOS development as a side project, and everything coming together helped me land my first iOS role.

That period is pretty much when I fell in love with programming. I was surrounded by backend engineers, frontend engineers, and my own iOS guild. And mostly from habit built during my engineering education, I loved learning—reading articles, going deep on topics—and then sharing that knowledge with the guild every week in our catch-ups. I loved it. And unbeknownst to me at the time, it was the best thing I ever did. Because as the saying goes, you learn by teaching. I found gaps in my own knowledge and kept building on them until I could articulate things with confidence. Through those conversations with all kinds of engineers I realised something—I want to learn, and the best way to learn is to teach.

I like learning different languages. So why not write about the journey.

I know that with the advent of AI, it's arguably a superior tool for learning. But I still find real value in a well written article on a subject I care about—not one that just rehashes theory, but one that explains why something exists, how to actually use it, and when not to. As engineers, and especially as software engineers, we sometimes get so caught up in doing things that we lose the curiosity to ask why we're doing them a particular way. There's a time and place for everything—sometimes you just have to get on with the job. But in your spare time, those moments of curiosity are the most fun. That's what this blog is. Mostly Rust, something I've been learning and building real projects with. Maybe some personal blogs about whatever I find interesting. And hopefully it's useful—or at least interesting—for even one person out there. The same way countless articles inspired me to get here.

If you've made it this far I'm genuinely surprised. I didn't really expect anyone to read all of this. But for those who stuck around—you're probably wondering why the blog is called theMuslimDev.

In a lot of western societies, and some others too, we're told to leave religion out of day-to-day life. That it's a personal choice, kept private. But for me, and for a lot of Muslims, that couldn't be further from the truth. I am who I am because of my religion. Allah—God in the Islamic faith—tells us to go out and learn, to contemplate the world around us, so that we may be grateful and understand we weren't created without purpose. In Islam there is no concept of blind faith. We are encouraged to question, to seek knowledge, to ask those who know what we don't. That's where my drive to learn comes from.

I am who I am because of my religion. It's my identity, and I'm proud of it. I want people to see that it is possible to excel in your career, to question, to learn, and still be faithful to your religion. And I hope I live up to that.