Reflecting on my Mid-Life Decision to Study Law

At 45 years of age and just prior to Covid, I was inspired to embark on the Juris Doctor.

For anyone who has embarked on such a challenge, I suspect you may relate to the reflection that the learning journey is a gift. I am taking my time, savouring every morsel, and with each knowledge bite I am nourished in ways I could never have imagined.

I am getting to know myself at a deeper level.

It's not the finishing line that matters, in fact I hope this journey allows me to meander.

As a mid-life mature age student in law, the experience has provoked a combination of feelings. I have imagined myself standing in a great library surrounded by knowledge, yet I am also standing at the base of many mountains and narrow pathways, sometimes in flip flops. It’s exhilarating and it’s hard, but the pursuit is incredibly rewarding.

However, one critique I have about the study of modern law, is ethics. I am constantly thirsty for inspiration and I'm rarely satisfied when it comes to seeking the evidence of ethics in the teachings. This makes me feel disappointed sometimes — at the ‘industry’ as a whole — what happened and when? From tort to equity and ethics of course — all the Priestley 11 — the expectation that ethics is interwoven into the very fabric of law feels, for the most part, unfulfilled.

This is where life experience, which is as diverse as our thumb prints, comes in to play to enrich and nourish the learning.

Temet nosce - "Know Thyself"

I rise before dawn. Since 2004, part of my daily routine is to observe a morning spiritual practice. This sacred quiet time involves a ritual where I listen deeply, part of listening deeply is to read.

At present, I am reading Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure by Camille Adams Helminski. When I picked up the book there were plenty of connections to my life before law from my time living in Muslim communities to studying a Masters in the same, but seemingly no link to law. I was quite wrong.

The book introduced me to a female Muslim legal scholar who lived over 1000 years ago. Like all the women in the book, she was a Sufi mystic but she was also a scholar in Islamic Law and many men and women sought her counsel. Her name was Lubaba and she was from Syria and Jerusalem.

Lubaba was known for her spiritual wisdom and depth of character, her self sacrificing service to the greater good of humanity and her sound advice on the pathway of law and order.

This morning at dawn I sat to read.

I learned of a man who sought Lubaba's counsel. Upon his request for guidance, she gave him the following advice which I have reinterpreted into a modern secular context.

“Knowledge of ethics bequeaths an appreciation for ethics, an appreciation of ethics bequeaths a desire for ethics, a desire for ethics bequeaths an intimacy with ethics and an intimacy with ethics bequeaths constancy in serving with ethics as the centre and foundation of teaching, practicing and upholding law.”*

Imagine Lubaba, a tenth century female legal scholar knowing she would be nourishing an Australian woman’s’ journey into law more than 1000 years later.

There’s a profound level of depth and grounding offered in her wise counsel and it is a depth that struck me as uncommon yet timeless.

Having taken a serious decision in the middle of my life to study law - financially, available time, family compromise, career change to name a few - it's the life experience which has irreversibly widened my lens and has enriched my study of law. The wisdom gathered over the years gives depth, context and meaning far beyond the parameters of the learning imparted in the classroom.

Only life experience can nourish and bring (back) to life a richer meaning of the present. In my case, studying law has and continues to have a profound way of validating life experiences, awakening and integrating the knowledge of the past into the present (and not simply my own) all the while moving me forward to new horizons.

* The original quote which Lubaba is said to have advised the man was;

"Knowledge of God bequeaths love for Him; love for Him bequeaths longing for Him; longing for Him bequeaths intimacy with Him; and intimacy with Him bequeaths constancy in serving Him and conforming to His laws."

Sourced from Camille Adams Helminski, 'Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Writings and Stories of Mystic Poets, Scholars and Saints', (Shambhala Publications Inc, Boston, 2003) 37