Hussein’s life story in defining his own identity is a glimpse into understanding pluralism or diversity. Hussein, like most people, did not make history. But rather it was history that made him.

He conditionally interacted with the changing outside world using the ideas he inherited from the past. He was also evolving with his adaptive responses to the changing environment. Amongst the history of ideas that affected him, the religious ideas seemed to have had more influence on the nature of his self. This interaction between his self and the changing world he lived in defined who he was. History made him in the sense that it conditioned his perception of the world and his choices. In that sense, the self is predetermined and not free.

But historically the ideas evolve and therefore are open ended. Even after his demise, he lives on as part of the evolving ideas. In that sense, one does not die. In religious language, the soul is eternal.

The self may be defined as free in so far as adapting to new situations and absorbing innovative ideas, experiences, and ways of thinking. This creative self is thus free but conditioned by the inherited ideas and experiences of the past.

Historical determinism furnished the self with propensities or inclinations to respond to the outside world. Each person’s response is thus unique. The diversity of responses is an indication that history of ideas acts upon each human differently.

The attempt at examining one’s history reveals an understanding of the layers posited by the changing social, political, and economic environment in which a person is born and raised. Phenomenology thus attempts to perceive the self in its essence by mentally eradicating the posited layers or lenses one by one. Only then is the self able to achieve the ultimate freedom or nirvana. The Buddhists call it nothingness. The Sufis call it pure self.

Hussein meditated all his life. There were no hesitations or fears about starting different ventures, migrating to different continents, or welcoming death. The fearless personality trait is concomitantly tied to humility in initiating social interactions and adapting to shifting horizons. He did not see faults, blame others, or pass judgment. He lived to leave his legacy to define his children’s selves. In this sense, death certainly is not the end of life.

Relatively, a person’s existence is just a speck of time compared to the time and space of the universe. Also, the existential self is ignorant of the future. The past cannot be revisited. Yet the history of ideas is essential source of who a person is now. The self is conscious of the present only. Mental stress is caused by past phenomena, and the unknown future, which is essentially ephemeral, imaginary, and nonexistent.