Written by: Ahmad Al-Anbousi
On January 11, 2026 we commemorate the tenth anniversary of the passing of the legend Dr. Ahmad Al-Hourani "Abu Maher," the founder of Amman Private University, the first private university in Jordan and the region, and for the university's schools and all companies under the umbrella of Al-Hourani Group, where the rains of blessing during this time of year not only wash the buildings of the group’s companies and their courtyards, trees, and flowers from dust, soil, and what sticks to them, but this anniversary also washes away the obstacles and difficulties and the agendas of the climbers and conspirators, so that the caravan keeps moving forward and the compass always points in the right direction as the late wished.
The dean of the family Dr. Maher supported by his brother Omar and mother Umm Maher and sisters "Suhair, Inas, Abeer, and Reem" were all best in continuing the journey and preserving the fragrant biography of the deceased and magnifying the achievements.
Thus Amman Private University has grown greatly and now competes with the major universities in the region and the world, also the schools of the university have gone a long way in excellence and achievement, as well as all the economic companies under the umbrella of the Jordanian United Investment Company (Al-Hourani Group).
You have fulfilled the mission, "Abu Maher".. and on your path and way they are continuing.
Much is said in your memory... You were exceptional in your giving and achievements, and behind you, exceptional and on the same path.
Ten years have passed since your departure and we will not forget in you "Abu Maher" your wisdom, generosity, noble stances, beautiful smile, dignity, and poise and your "rural" sweet words.
You dealt with people with one face and one color, you despised two-faced people, who say in front of you what pleases you and in your absence what pleases others, and you did not pay attention to "sycophants" and evaluated people according to their work and loyalty. You did not judge those around you based on what you heard about them without hearing from them; you were fair and just, caring for the loyal, and you had a criterion that never failed in classifying them.
You would not punish people by constricting their livelihoods, but you were generous and kind and your capability and ability did not betray you to be unjust to anyone.
You were exceptional in everything, in your innate intelligence, your vision for the future, in your decisions and positions, and in your dealings with employees and workers and with the general public.
And here I say if artificial intelligence, which has invaded us after you, had coexisted with you, it would have paused long before the miracle of your blazing innate intelligence that created this empire in education and economics starting from scratch to the peak.
Your thinking, planning, foresight for the future, and accurate risk assessments were never in vain.
Indeed, you founded the first private university despite warnings and describing the step as risky at the time, but with the calculations of your intelligence, you decided and succeeded.
And so also through founding schools among others, it was a success followed by more success, greatly expanding the journey.
The innate intelligence of humans is what created artificial intelligence, and the latter is merely an electronic tool that gathers information and data and analyzes and programs them quickly and gives you results, but it does not necessarily make the right decisions as it does not consider human emotions, nor the differences between societies or the differences in capabilities and planning and execution together. It is quick-response programming that gathers and analyzes data and information and presents solutions, and cannot be a substitute for the innate intelligence of humans.
All this planning and analysis and future predictions and precise calculations were present in you, "Abu Maher" ... By God, how genius you were.
Congratulations to your pure soul in your remembrance and every day.. and may God’s mercy be on you, Abu Maher, and heaven be your final abode.
