“Marahil ay naranasan ninyo nang malagay sa isang sitwasyon na hindi ninyo inaasahan. Isang sitwasyon na kung saan ay nakita ninyo ang matagal na ninyong hinahanap, mapabagay o mapatao man ito. At nagdulot ito ng kasiyahan sa inyo. Ang tawag dito ay serendipity.”
These were the opening words of Prof. Julkipli M. Wadi, Dean of the UP Institute of Islamic Studies (UP IIS), during his presentation of the UP IIS extension project “LIHAL: Library of Islamic Heritage, Arts, and Language” at the Saliksik Diwa Symposium held on September 15, 2026, at Aldaba Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City.
For Prof. Wadi, the conceptualization of LIHAL was itself an experience of serendipity. What began with an unexpected encounter eventually became a vision for a space that would preserve, promote, and make accessible the rich Islamic heritage, arts, and language of the Tausug community in Sulu.
Prof. Wadi’s presentation was a story of encounters—many of them unexpected, yet each eventually becoming part of a larger journey. During his childhood, Prof. Wadi lived in Sitio Poblacion, a small coastal village in Indanan, Sulu. It was there that he received his first informal religious education from a guru who taught him to read the Qur’an. The Qur’an was placed on a lihal, a traditional stand used to elevate the sacred text and symbolizing reverence and respect for the Qur’an.
His early education, however, was disrupted by the conflict that affected Sulu beginning in the 1960s. His village was among those affected by the war, and access to education and books became even more difficult. Libraries were virtually nonexistent, further limiting opportunities for young people to encounter books and other sources of knowledge. The experience left Prof. Wadi with questions that would remain with him for years—most notably, why there was war in Sulu. That question eventually became part of his motivation to seek knowledge and understand the history and circumstances surrounding the conflict.
Although he passed the UPCAT in 1986, Prof. Wadi enrolled at Mapúa Institute of Technology, now Mapúa University, in consideration of his family’s decision. During his college years, he carried with him the questions he had been asking since childhood. Having grown up with limited access to books, he developed a particular fascination with bookstores and libraries. He would visit them regularly, searching for books that might help him understand the questions he had carried since childhood.
Then came another moment of serendipity. In one bookstore, the first book he picked up was Muslims in the Philippines by Cesar Adib Majul. It was the first book by Majul that he owned and read. The encounter gave rise to another question: Who was Cesar Adib Majul, and how could he meet him?
Prof. Wadi began visiting bookstores and libraries around Mapúa and eventually those of other universities, looking for more works by Majul and other materials that could help him understand the history of the conflict in Sulu. The more he read, the stronger his desire became to meet the scholar whose work had helped him make sense of the questions he had carried for years.
In 1995, Prof. Wadi joined the faculty of the UP Institute of Islamic Studies. By then, Cesar Adib Majul, the founding dean of UP IIS, had already retired. Although Majul occasionally returned to the University for events honoring his work, Prof. Wadi was unable to approach him during one such occasion because many people were gathered around him. Majul eventually returned to the United States, and the opportunity to meet him seemed to have passed.
In 2002, Prof. Wadi was invited by the United States Embassy to participate in a month-long cultural program under the International Visitors Program in the United States. During the trip, he was also invited to visit Majul at his home. When they met, Majul gave Prof. Wadi a book. It was the same book that Prof. Wadi had first encountered years earlier in the bookstore—the book that had opened a path toward understanding the questions he had carried since childhood.
The books he had sought, including Majul’s works and studies that cited them, had helped Prof. Wadi explore the history of the war in Sulu. Decades after first encountering Majul’s work, he finally met the scholar himself. But their conversation went beyond history and conflict. The question that had once been “Why is there war in Sulu?” eventually led Prof. Wadi toward another question: What is divine love?
Their discussions turned to tasawwuf, or Sufism, an area of Islamic Studies concerned with spirituality and the search for a deeper relationship with the Divine. Majul continued the conversation by sharing his own collection of materials with Prof. Wadi. Although Majul had migrated to the United States in the 1980s and Prof. Wadi entered UP in the 1990s, their paths eventually crossed in a way that transcended time and distance. Their relationship grew close, with Majul eventually treating Prof. Wadi like a son.
As Prof. Wadi reflected during his presentation: “Serendipity can really be a strong force of connection. Between two persons, even if they are separated apart, they can continue their friendship, their conversations, even after his death.” For Prof. Wadi, his encounter with Majul became one of his most profound experiences of serendipity.
Prof. Wadi also recalled other moments in which books unexpectedly became bridges to people and opportunities. He shared how his love for books eventually contributed to meeting his wife and how friends and institutions would, at different times, send or donate boxes of books that eventually filled his home.
These encounters may have seemed incidental at the time. Together, however, they formed a pattern: books were not merely objects of knowledge. They became bridges–to people, places, questions, memories, and new possibilities. It was this continuing journey with books, knowledge, and heritage that eventually led to LIHAL.
In 2022, the UP IIS received extension funding for its project Peace, Development, and Microfinance (PDM), a pilot study implemented in Barangay Siunugan, Indanan, Sulu. One of the key findings of the project was the community’s need for a dedicated library and museum that could help promote, preserve, and enrich Tausug culture.
From this need emerged LIHAL. The project takes its name and inspiration from the lihal, the traditional stand used to hold the Qur’an. Just as the lihal supports the Qur’an during recitation and learning, LIHAL envisions a space that supports the community’s pursuit of knowledge while helping preserve and pass on its cultural heritage.
At its heart, LIHAL is also a return to a childhood memory. For Prof. Wadi, the image of a child learning to read the Qur’an placed on a lihal is both personal and symbolic. LIHAL seeks to recreate that sense of wonder and possibility for the children of Sulu–not simply by providing books and a place to read, but by creating a safe, peaceful, and sustainable space where learning can flourish.
Prof. Wadi ended his presentation by returning to the questions that have shaped his own journey. From asking why there was war in Sulu, he now hopes that young people will have the opportunity to ask different questions–questions shaped not only by conflict, but by the possibility of peace.
“Let’s help the students so that their question is not only why there is a war, but how can we maintain peace here in this place. And you know, maybe their serendipity is also there.”
His words brought the story of LIHAL full circle. What began with a child, a Qur’an, and a lihal in a coastal village in Sulu led to a lifelong search for knowledge, encounters with books and people, and eventually to a project that seeks to make those same opportunities available to another generation.
Saliksik Diwa is an annual event organized by the Office of Extension Coordination (OEC) of the University of the Philippines Diliman Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development (OVCRD). It serves as a premier platform that brings together Extension Grant recipients, researchers, faculty members, community partners, and stakeholders from various disciplines to showcase exemplary extension initiatives that embody the University’s commitment to public service (OEC, 2026).
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