By Puteri Balkish
The world renowned Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.”
Alongside many others who graced the event with their triumphant smiles with their loved ones at the recent 33rd Convocation was a graduate of Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences (KENMS), Muhammad Adli bin Amirullah (known as Adli Amirullah).
As joyful moments are better shared together, Adli Amirullah was there to memorialise his wife’s graduation during the three-day event.
Adli’s wife, Adnin Nadia, a Bachelor of Law graduate is currently pursuing her legal career and will soon be ‘his’ lawyer. They were dating since their third year of undergraduate studies and are now blithely married.
Little did any of us know a Royal Education Award recipient like Adli Amirullah had time to spare to indulge in the simple things in life like falling in love….
Often, college or university students are told to refrain from getting too engrossed in romantic relationships as they might get tangled up with their studies, but Adli proved them otherwise.
“Time is all about priority, it’s absurd when someone says, ‘I’m busy,'” he mentioned, as he went on about priority in managing one’s own time.
To boot his hectic schedule, Adli Amirullah was sure to make time for his wife (his girlfriend, back then) by having dinner dates for at least five times a week where they revel in a sharing session each time.
“If we appreciate and love someone, we will always make time for them, instead of waiting for our time to be free for them,” he added.
As a recipient of the Royal Education Award, Adli described the nomination as ‘tremendously fortuitous and unforeseen.’ His achievement was certainly cladded with the wisdom of divine intervention.
Being an ‘extraterrestrial’ dream of his, he envisioned of the award since his first semester in IIUM then casted it aside when he messed up his grades in his third year.
His wife, Adnin Nadia described him as “supportive and sincere in everything.”
“He’s not just my boyfriend, but my bestfriend,” she added.
His mother, and his girlfriend were his prime supporters and his best friends and lecturers, were his cornerstone of constant drive and persistence.
“He has a good relationship with his mother and always asks for his mom’s prayers and blessings in everything,” said his girlfriend turned wife, Adnin Nadia.
Mom was incessantly his backbone since he decided to venture into Economics back in high school after showing his disinterest in Biology.
He was the only student who dropped Biology and took Basic Economics in his school during SPM in 2010.
Friends and acquaintances often flank him as the examination season draws near, asking him to enhance their grasp on chapters they fail to comprehend.
Despite being occupied with preparations himself, declining an offer to teach was a big no no for Adli.
‘I believe that knowledge should be shared and not kept,” he said as he spoke on his love to help his friends understand their studies better.
Adli paid homage and respect to his lecturers, regardless of the discrepancies and dreariness of their lessons.
Besides having a good CGPA and an active involvement in co-curricular activities, Adli maintains a balance in spending time with his family, maintaining friendships as well as his love life.
“We dated at coffee shops while we finish our assignments and he does his club and societies work,” his wife described as he tried to make time to accommodate to her.
Once a week, on Thursday nights, he would allocate eight hours to head to the cyber café to loosen up and release his weekly stresses on DOTA2, an online gaming server.
Even so, he only plays games that enhance his agility, analytical and decision-making skills.
The Royal Education Award is given to exemplary students who maintain outstanding academic results every semester accompanied by their top-notch performance in the co-curricular field.
Adli Amirullah is currently working as an economist in a think tank named the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS). He will be pursuing his PhD in Economics on a part-time basis next year in University of Malaya.
His other achievements include:
Top Academic Successes:
- Royal Education Award for 33rd IIUM Convocation
- CIMB Book Prize Award for Excellence in Academic & Co-curriculum
- High Achievement Award for Excellence in Academic
- Dean’s List for 7 Consecutive Semesters
Top Co-curricular Successes:
- Presented an aviation policy proposal (ASEAN level) in Vientiane, Laos
- Published an academic paper under International Conference of Applied Economics 2017, UK
- President of IIUM ESports Club 2016