CHAPTER 9: THE PROFESSOR OF DESTINY
349 Words
Ten years later, the "Prophet of Petroleum" was dead. In his place stood The Professor of Destiny.
Samad had become a global figure. He didn't work for corporations; he worked for people. He traveled to developing nations, using his brilliance to design low-cost irrigation systems and decentralized energy grids. He was doing what he and Idris had dreamed of in that dusty library basement: he was turning the wrench for the world.
He was called the "Professor of Destiny" because his lectures weren't about money—they were about the choice every person has to own their own path. He taught thousands of students that their "web of thoughts" could either be a cage or a map.
The Final Encounter
The story comes full circle in a high-tech lecture hall in New York. The room is packed with world leaders and students. In the very back row, a broken, elderly man sits in the shadows. It is Malik Al-Rashid.
Malik’s empire had finally collapsed, hollowed out by the very greed he had taught Faris to embrace. He had come to see the man the world was talking about, only to find the son he had tried to bury.
After the lecture, Samad found his father waiting by the podium. Malik looked at Samad’s simple suit and the way his students looked at him with genuine love—a look Malik had never received in his entire life.
"You won," Malik whispered, his voice trembling. "I tried to build a kingdom of glass, but you built a kingdom of souls. You are the only Al-Rashid who actually became a king."
Samad looked at his father, then at the wooden bird on the lectern. "I’m not a king, Father. And I’m not an Al-Rashid. I’m just a man who learned how to fix what was broken. I’m just the repairman."
Samad walked out of the hall and into the New York afternoon. He didn't have a limousine. He didn't have a guard. He had his mind, his freedom, and a destiny that he had finally, truly earned with his own sweat.
- Writer
