Lubna of Cordoba

Lubna of Cordoba

My name is Lubna.

It is pronounced as Lub-na and has its origin in Arabic roots. I have always liked the sound of my name. I am originally from Pakistan, where Lubna is a popular name.  

In my mother’s words, “I think it means something silvery”. My aunt, my mother’s older sister, named me, and while doing so, she had shared the meaning of Lubna with my mother.

As I grew older, I started to search for the meaning of my name, hoping it had some historical significance, like a word from our Holy book, or maybe a figure from Islamic history. My wish became stronger when I found that the person I married had his given name from the Quran with a beautiful meaning attached to it. Well, my wish persisted.

A few years ago, I had the chance of visiting the beautiful Cordoba Mosque in Andalusia, Spain. Learning about the history of Cordoba, I came across a famous Muslim woman - “Lubna of Cordoba”. Here is her story:

Lubna was born a slave girl in 11th century Spain, within the royal court. From an early age, she had an important role as an organizer of the library. With her brilliant mind, she impressed the royals, earned her freedom and was given the title of "Personal Secretary." Lubna taught herself calculus, languages and more, with more than 100 other women that were in the court. As a result of her work, the library Medina of Azahara was created which had more than 500,000 books; she translated ancient texts hidden among the library's books. Lubna even started writing her own poetry about life in the palace. She died in 984, but before her death she achieved her ultimate dream, as she was able to turn the library into a school, where both young boys and girls would visit for her famously compelling lessons in math, philosophy and more.

Not only was I enthralled by Lubna of Cordoba, but to find out that such accomplished Muslim women existed in those times, who had the full opportunity to flourish in the society by sharing their academic intellect, was amazing. 

This made me think about how I would like to be remembered: would it be as “Lubna of Edmonton”?

Then I realized that I would like to be remembered by my relationships with all the wonderful people I have been around, from my childhood to adulthood, with whom I grew and evolved, built wonderful relationships, shared love, kindness and my limited acumen.

I know I would like to be remembered as Lubna,

• Beti (daughter) of Farhat and Sameen

• Behen (sister) of Uzma and Azfer

• Ammi of Zoya and Zohaib

• Naani to Aasiyah Noor Hussein

• Saheli to lovely friends

• Trusted colleague of Ifssa team

• Very liked psychologist of my so many beautiful resilient clients.

My identity will always reside with the people and relationships around me.