This is the story of someone raised by an illiterate mother to lead the most literate domains of society.

Professor Al Lily was born and raised in Saudi Arabia to an illiterate mother who could not read even the expiry date on food products. His childhood was shaped by modest income, strong convention and limited horizons. As a boy, he memorised the whole Quran and served as an Imam in his community. He attended a local public school with modest resources. His family never travelled beyond their hometown.

Oxford was not something he chose or planned to go to; because he lacked the luxury and privilege of choice, inspiration, and long-term planning; such luxuries lay well beyond his family’s means and imagination. The turning point in his life came when he secured funding and training from the Saudi government to pursue postgraduate studies abroad. That opportunity allowed him to walk a path that neither his extended family nor his social circle had ever imagined.

Despite his social background, noble Oxford did not judge, exclude or discriminate against him. He did not psychologically feel out of place, despite competing with peers whom elite families had provided every possible advantage to ensure that their children remained among the best of the best. Instead, he found acceptance, mentorship, encouragement, and warmth, expressed through English politeness and dignity of academic fairness. Oxford professors saw him not as a product of limitation, but as a person of potential.

For him, Oxford was not just an academic journey; it was an empowering rebirth, a degree of transformation less often associated with higher education experiences outside Oxford. It dismantled the boundaries of his former self and rebuilt him with confidence, cultural literacy, and a global outlook. Oxford re-socialised him into a different intellectual and cultural world and trained him to become a genuinely global citizen. This transformation extended into his personal life. he married a German woman he met at Oxford, and their intercultural son stands as a living symbol of the diversity and openness that he first encountered there.

When he returned from the UK with a doctorate from Oxford, he joined King Faisal University, expecting to slip into academic life—teaching and researching. But his employer stopped him with a remark that has stayed with him ever since: ‘One cannot help but be a symbol of the university from which one has graduated—you are, whether you like it or not, a symbol of Oxford now.’ This sense of duty shaped everything he did afterwards. His employer entrusted him with various managerial positions, setting him off with a mission: ‘Make King Faisal University a global leader like Oxford.’ The mission has been fulfilled: King Faisal University has become a nationally and internationally top university in various domains.

His dad once said: ‘My dream is to have at least one of my seven children earn a bachelor’s.’ His father once said, ‘My dream is that at least one of my seven children earns a bachelor’s degree’. Instead, he watched his son return with a PhD from Oxford at the age of 28, become a full professor by 37, and become a university vice president of master’s and doctoral programmes. He jokes: ‘I doubt you are my son’. For him, the distance between his world and mine felt too vast to belong to the same lineage. Oxford left him alien in his own family.

His illiterate mum raised a kid now entrusted with leading the most literate domains of society—research, innovation and graduate studies. She could not read yet raised one who directs institutions of knowledge. This irony became the foundation of his mission: to inspire. In human psychology, however, it is often difficult, even embarrassing, for one in senior positions to speak openly about modest upbringings. Leaders are expected to project prestige; not vulnerability. Yet, he chose to share his story and break this convention, convinced that honesty in storytelling empowers younger generations to transcend inherited limitations and exemplifies what he believes to be ‘authentic leadership’.

Still, inspiration alone is insufficient. Many gifted young people are prevented from pursuing higher education due to financial hardship; no matter how inspired they felt. In response, Professor Al Lily has, over the past several years, secured millions of dollars in scholarships for students in need. He has also launched business incubators that produced startups valued at millions of dollars. In this way, his personal journey evolved into a sustained institutional commitment to empowerment.

Professor Al Lily does not regard his Oxford degree as the conclusion of a struggle, but rather as a debt owed to the society that nurtured his early beginnings. His journey (from leading prayers in a modest neighbourhood mosque to building a global innovation district) offers a replicable model for turning the impossible into achievement and for rewriting destiny itself. To document this journey and transform it into a written source of hope, he authored an Amazon bestselling book titled ‘Life Is Suffering: 34 Facts’.

Professor Al Lily wishes to assure potential employers that an Oxford degree is not merely an academic qualification, but a social contract rooted in trust, responsibility, credibility, and merit, and he remains persistently committed to honouring that contract throughout his career.