The Shaykh’s account of the trade he learned in his youth.

The Shaykh : Then, at the same time, I was practicing the trade of carpentry, which is called Arab carpentry today. I graduated from two carpentry teachers: one was my uncle, named Isma'il (may Allah have mercy on him), with whom I worked for two years; the other was a Syrian known as Abu Muhammad, with whom I also worked for two years. My work with them was mostly in repairing and restoring old houses, because the old houses in the Levant were made of wood and mud brick. Over time, due to rain, snow, and the like, some sides of those houses would collapse, requiring an Arab carpenter to fix them. So I would go out with him. In the winter days, we usually could not do any work. I would pass by my father, who practiced the trade of repairing clocks from his homeland. One day, after I had returned from my teacher and he sensed that there was no work that day because the weather was cloudy, he said, "It seems there is no work today?" I said to him, "Yes, there is no work." He said, "What do you think? I see that this job is not a job or a trade. What do you think about working for me?" I said to him, "As you wish." He said to me, "Come, go up." His shop was slightly elevated from the ground; he was afraid of the humidity. From that day, I stayed with him until I graduated in the trade from him, and I opened a shop of my own, and so it was.