About Me

Independent researcher in Bogor, Indonesia, examining how physical spaces and material objects have shaped Muslim practice in the Indonesian archipelago. Staff software engineer at LaunchGood; founder of Blossom Finance & The Wide Angle Workshop; and host of Majo Jalan.

I'm an independent researcher, staff software engineer, and technical founder based in Syracuse, New York working primarily in FinTech.

I've recently relocated back to the U.S. after 11 years total years in Indonesia.

My research examines how physical spaces and material objects have shaped Muslim perceptions and practices in the Indonesian archipelago from the pre-Islamic period through colonization and independence.

The earliest seeds of my curiosity about how the designed environment shapes the lives of the people who inhabit it were likely planted during 4th grade with the history of the Erie Canal. The same waterway that delivered Euro-American prosperity westward and bound the young republic together also delivered the legal, demographic, and economic pressures that reduced Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) homelands to islands of reservation amid settler farmland.

I embraced Islam in 2010 after a year of independent research into aqidah (Islamic creed/doctrine). I was raised in an evangelical protestant household, but rejected protestant doctrine on a textual basis: the very book claimed to be the inspired word of God points clearly to an unbroken line in a prophetic tradition of calling to the truth¹ and to pure, monotheistic conception of God – not to a trinity nor to an incarnated god². For me, learning about Islam felt more like an affirmation of the truth one understands intuitively from a reading of Christian scripture and not a new religion. You can watch the full story of my journey to Islam entitled How the Haram Led Me to the Halal on Youtube which has been independently translated and re-uploaded into many other languages.

I recently joined Palla as a staff software engineer, where I'm helping build and scale the technical and product infrastructure to help everyday people send money around the world. Previously, as a staff software engineer at LaunchGood, I helped build the tools for charitable crowdfunding to empower the Muslim ummah (global community). I'm also a tinkerer and builder by disposition. The same instinct that draws me toward traditional craft draws me to small, hand-built software and hardware projects on the weekends – experiments made to organize and improve our lives, but mostly to teach me (and my four children) something rather than to build a shippable product. I write up some of the projects worth sharing here.

I'm also the founder of The Wide Angle Workshop – a media production company in its infancy.

I wear traditional menswear – from both Eastern and Western traditions – as an act of radical intention. I'm deeply inspired by the following hadith (recorded words or actions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ).

'Abdullah bin Mas'ud (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "He who has, in his heart, an ant's weight of arrogance will not enter Jannah." Someone said: "A man likes to wear beautiful clothes and shoes?" Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Allah is Beautiful, He loves beauty. Arrogance means ridiculing and rejecting the Truth and despising people."³

I view dressing deliberately as a small daily practice of that same principle. In a world that defaults to vulgarity masquerading as convenience or comfort, an insistence on beauty, craft, and care is a quiet but visible act of resistance. I'll gladly explain what a full canvas suit jacket is, clarify why batik is a process (not a motif), and demonstrate how to tie a traditional Indonesian sarung kain.

Previously, I founded Blossom Finance – an Islamic social microfinance investment platform – where I led editorial research in Islamic finance and spoke and guest lectured across Southeast Asia and the Middle East on Islamic finance, technology, and social enterprise. I have advised senior Indonesian financial regulators and taught for the Securities Commission Malaysia.

I lived in San Francisco from 2007 to 2015 until moving to Indonesia where I lived until just recently. Despite acquiring most of my Indonesian language ability passively, I've managed to reach an intermediate-level. I'm quite comfortable conducting business, lecturing on technical topics, or speaking in front of large audiences in the Indonesian language. However – somewhat embarrassingly – I still haven't learned much of the vocabulary for basic household items. I generally love learning languages, and if you meet me in person, you risk being subjected to the torture of a few broken phrases in Farsi, French, Spanish, German, Danish, or one of Indonesian's many regional languages (whichever of these we share in common).

In my spare time, I enjoy camping, bowling (still trying and failing to bowl 200), long-distance adventure motorcycle touring, and learning about classic menswear. I enjoy a wide variety of cuisine (generally, I have a brave palate) and I especially appreciate good coffees and teas – I'm a stickler for quality beans and leaves, but as a pragmatist at heart, I'm disinterested in overly fussy preparation techniques.

I ask Allah ﷻ to forgive any shortcomings of my work and writing, whether through error or by omission, and likewise to cause any benefit resulting from them to be generously added to my scales on the day of judgement.

References

1. Amos 3:7, 2 Chron. 24:19, Acts 2:22
2. Deut. 6:4, Isaiah 43:10 & 45, Mark 12:29, John 17
3. Riyad as-Salihin of an-Nawawi Hadith 611