Note: The standard openings and closings of a Khutba are not included, assuming that Khateebs are familiar with these elements.

Introduction

Allah (SWT) says in the Qur’an:

“God decrees that there are twelve months—ordained in God’s Book on the Day when He created the heavens and earth—four months of which are sacred: this is the correct calculation. Do not wrong your souls in these months- though you may fight the idolaters at any time, if they first fight you—remember that God is with those who are mindful of Him.”

(9:36)

• Many of us may have memorized the names of the Islamic months when we were kids, or taught our own children the song that lists out all the Islamic months. 
• Over time though, we forget—how many of us can confidently list the 12 Islamic months in order, the 4 sacred months, and also which month it is?
• This is because aside from a few important dates like Ramadan, Eid, Arafah, and Ashurah—the Islamic calendar doesn’t play much of a role in our lives other than as a cultural artifact.

Reconnecting ourselves with the Islamic calendar can be a way of also reconnecting ourselves to Allah and following the sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ). 

Following the Islamic calendar is a form of worship, and facilitates worship

Allah (SWT) says in the Qur’an:

“He is the One Who made the sun a radiant source and the moon a reflected light, with precisely ordained phases, so that you may know the number of years and calculation ˹of time˺. Allah did not create all this except for a purpose (haqq). He makes the signs clear for people of knowledge”.

(10:5)

Expounding on ḥaqq, al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH) states: “Allah did not intend to create the moon except with wisdom and accuracy, as a means to display His creation and wisdom, as evidence for His will and knowledge, and to reward all those who follow it.” Ibn ʿAṭīyah (d. 541 AH) defined al-dīn al-qayyim as “the law of God and following it.” Thus, the scholars did not view use of the Islamic calendar merely as a tool to measure time, but also as a form of worship¹.

• We usually find ourselves making good preparations for Ramadan. When it comes to the fasting of Arafah or Ashurah however, many times we are caught completely off guard that those important days are coming. It’s usually not until the Juma before if the khateeb mentions it that we then quickly make plans to fast on those days. 
• Reconnecting with the Islamic calendar allows us to plan for those days and other important events like the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah the same way we might plan for important holidays or breaks on the Gregorian calendar. 
• Simply knowing when the sacred months are can help us earn more good deeds when we make the intention of doing more because of being in a sacred month. Ibn Abbas (ra) said, ‘In all (twelve) months, Allah then chose four out of these months and made them sacred, emphasising their sanctity, making sinning in them greater, in addition to multiplying the rewards of righteous deeds during them’. [Tafseer Ibn Katheer]
• The Prophet (ﷺ) gave a sermon during his hajj and said: Time has completed a cycle and assumed the form of the day when Allah created the heavens and the earth. The year contains twelve months of which four are sacred, three of them consecutive, viz. Dhul-Qa’dah, Dhul-Hijjah and Muharram and also Rajab of Mudar which comes between Jumadah and Sha’ban.²
• While Ramadan has special blessing, it is not the only month in which there is extra Barakah. Reconnecting ourselves to the Islamic calendar equips us to seek that. 

Following the Islamic calendar allows us to fulfill sunnah actions we might otherwise ignore

• The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to command us to fast the days of the white (nights): thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of the month. He said: This is like keeping perpetual fast.³ We can only follow this sunnah consistently if we are following the Islamic calendar.
• It is a sunnah to go out and look for the new moon for the month, and there is even a dua associated with it—at the sight of the new moon (of the lunar month), the Prophet (ﷺ) used to supplicate: “Allahumma ahillahu ‘alaina bil-amni wal-iman, was-salamati wal-Islam, Rabbi wa Rabbuk-Allah, Hilalu rushdin wa khairin (O Allah, let this moon appear on us with security and Iman; with safety and Islam. (O moon!) Your Rubb and mine is Allah. May this moon be bringing guidance and good).”⁴
• Tracking the monthly cycles of the moon (and thus the Islamic calendar) also gives us the ability to truly practice upon the ayaat of the Qur’an that push us to reflect on the cycles of the moon, and how perfectly they move in orbit. 

Distancing us from an Islamic identity is a trick of Shaytan to misguide

Of the characteristics of those who are misguided are:

“Those who prefer the life of this world over the life to come, who turn others from God’s way, trying to make it crooked: such people have gone far astray.”

(14:3)

• One of Shaytan’s biggest tricks is to make people feel that anything aligned to guidance is somehow backwards, or unsophisticated (i.e. to make it appear crooked). 
• Alignment to a Gregorian calendar can be considered easier, and even more conducive to business. We should stop and ask ourselves why we are willing to accept another calendar as superior, or willing to compromise to make it easier for others rather than the other way around. 
• We look to convenience but we ignore the cost—what are the consequences of following a Gregorian calendar? It forces us into a consumer mentality that encourage us to constantly spend to mark occasions—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime Day, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and on and on. 
• Contrast that with the impact of following a calendar that forces you to consider your acts of worship, when to increase your fasting, when to increase your good deeds, when to increase your recitation of the Qur’an, when to plan for Hajj, and so on. 
• It may seem like a small act, but following an Islamic calendar in our personal lives is a way to reject the secular and reclaim the Divine. 

Conclusion

Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said:

“Know that whoever revives a tradition from my Sunnah if it has died out after me, he will have a reward like those who act upon it without diminishing any of their rewards. Whoever innovates a misguided heresy not pleasing to Allah and His messenger, he will have a sin like those who act upon it without diminishing any of the people’s burdens.”

Sahih Muslim

• While some may ask what’s the point, or if it is even worth the hassle, we should know that there is immense reward in reviving any sunnah of the Messenger (ﷺ). 
• We can reconnect ourselves to the Islamic calendar in numerous ways—putting one up in the house, changing our phone display to show a Hijri calendar, or even going out regularly to look for the new moon each month. 
• When we reconnect ourselves, our families, and our communities to the Islamic calendar, we all can play a role in reviving this special sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ). 

1. The Months Ordained by Allah: Reviving the Islamic Calendar ︎
2. https://sunnah.com/abudawud:1947 ︎
3. https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2449 ︎
4. https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1228 ︎

Acknowledgement

You can follow Omar’s work at http://ibnabeeomar.substack.com. To invite him to conduct Khateeb and public speaking training in your community please visit https://www.ibnabeeomar.com/speaking.

The post #GoHijri Friday Sermon appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىْءٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْخَوْفِ وَٱلْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْوَٰلِ وَٱلْأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ 
ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَـٰبَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌۭ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ 
أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَٰتٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌۭ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُهْتَدُونَ 

We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure—who say, when struck by a disaster, “Surely to Allah we belong and to Him we will ˹all˺ return.” They are the ones who will receive Allah’s blessings and mercy. And it is they who are ˹rightly˺ guided.

(Quran 2: 155-157)

My father, Abdullah Rubeya Faris, passed away last Thursday on the 5th of Sha’baan 1445H (15th February 2024).

To Allah belongs what He takes, and to Him belongs what He gives, and everything has its time.

This has been a long and difficult journey for him and for our family that started with a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2005, then increased in intensity in the last 12 months with his loss of mobility and a rollercoaster of medical emergencies until he reached his final breath last Thursday, and was buried after Jumuah prayers the next day.

When someone dies, we often reflect on their legacy and the life lessons they parted with us. And alhamdulillah, I learned so much from my dad – especially his mannerisms and kind conduct with people. However, in this article, I wanted to reflect on his death. I learned so much in this last year from him and the dying process that I want to capture these lessons firstly for myself and my family and secondly impart beneficial knowledge to any child or caregiver as they care for a dying parent, spouse, relative, or friend.

1. This is Jannah

About a year ago, my dad fell on the steps of a masjid as he was going for Isha prayer in his hometown of Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. That fall led to a host of medical complications, a move to Dubai for treatment, and making him wheelchair-bound and in need of constant care.

During the initial days after his fall, a dear family friend turned to me and said, “This is Jannah.. what you’re doing is Jannah.. don’t let go of it… stay close to your dad”. 

It was this reminder that flipped the situation for me from one of pain/loss to one of opportunity to get closer to Allah SWT. 

This reminder kept ringing in my ears as the difficulties increased over the next several months.

2. Preparing myself spiritually

When my father first fell, I had a feeling that the end was near. I called my dear friend and scholar, Sh. Khalil Abdur-Rashid, the Muslim chaplain at Harvard University for advice and spiritual counseling, here’s what he said:

1. This is a blessing from Allah that you can make it and be with your father in his final days. So, first and foremost, you should thank Allah for this blessing.
2. This is not easy, but this is part of Allah’s mercy. You can shed tears, but don’t despair.
3. Think about what you want to say to him and take advantage of these moments to say what you want to say
4. Ask him for advice on how to live life, and listen and take the advice for the rest of your life, and pass it on to your children.
5. Get his wishes and advice on how property should be handled, how his body is to be treated, and where to be buried. How should we carry on as a family after him? What Sadaqat to give. Record these wishes! 
6. In the final moments, hold his hand and say La ilaha illa Allah. This is a time when angels are descending – you’re in the company of angels. Don’t fear, and don’t be Sad. You’ll see your dad in different spiritual states. You’ll say your words of inspiration, and he’ll say his word. This is an incredible and humbling experience
7. This is a time that’s also a reminder for you that your time is next. And start getting your affairs in order.
8. Your father will finally get what he wants in Jannah – it’s only a matter of time, as Allah promises the believers.
9. We are in a sacred time – the months of Rajab, Sha’baan, Ramadan, and then the Hajj months. A blessed time to pass away. 
10. Ask what Sadaqat he wants to give. Any debts he has? Any previous zakat? Salat? Fasting? Have these discussions sooner rather than later.

I can’t say I lived up to all the advice above, but I often re-read and reflected on his advice.

3. Days are long, but the year is short

“Reflection: the hardest thing about trials is not the initial shock or drama, the hardest thing about trials is the readjustment to a new reality and endurance to keep up with new reality” – A WhatsApp message I sent to my close circle of friends

You often hear that the days are long, but the years are short when raising children. I feel the exact phrase can be applied to a terminally ill parent who requires constant care and is given a bleak prognosis. 

The daily constant requirement of feeding, clothing, cleaning, carrying, and taking care of dad (most of it done by my mother, may Allah bless her), along with mood swings and physical/mental pain, makes you feel tired/exhausted all the time. 

Days bleed into weeks and months, and there’s a part of you that thinks, “Will this ever end/or get better?” and there’s a part of you that regrets thinking of that question and realizing that the end might be sooner than you think. 

You learn to embrace the present, stop thinking/worrying about the future, and just be thankful for one more day and breath.

4. Activating Surf-Mode

Surf-Mode Definition: when life throws crazy challenges at you that all you can do is ride the waves.

Facing my dad’s mortality felt like facing waves upon waves of challenges and trials. Sometimes, the trial is medical, financial, or mental. You can’t stop the waves coming; all you can do is ride them. 

Hence, I came up with the term “Surf Mode” to remind myself that instead of trying to ‘fight’ the waves, I should learn to ride each wave as it comes, no matter how big it gets. This emoji became my shorthand to my friends, telling them I was riding a new wave whenever they didn’t hear from me for a while.

5. Difficulties and Eases

“Verily, with difficulty comes ease.” (Quran: 94:5)

It’s easy to think that I lived a year of doom and gloom watching my father slowly fade.

However, the truth is that we witnessed Allah’s Lutf, gentleness, and ease throughout this trial. 

From finding the right care team to Allah sending us the right people to remind us to be patient when we are about to fall in despair, to mini-miracles happening along that way that could not be “coincidences.”

Appreciating the “khair” in this situation has been my north star – and perhaps I won’t understand the full extent of Allah’s favor upon us during these trying times until late in my life.

6. The Jihad of serving a dying parent

A man came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), asking his permission to go out for Jihad. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) asked him, “Are your parents alive?” He replied, ‘Yes.’ The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then said to him, “Then your Jihad would be with them (i.e., in looking after them and being at their service.).” (Bukhari)

I have to admit – It wasn’t easy to care for Dad – and there were moments of frustrations and even, dare I say, resentment. 

Now I understand why the Prophet called serving parents in old age as a Jihaad and why the Quran said, “Don’t say Uff.” 

This is a message I sent to my PCM friends during this period:

“#RealTalk: Now that the “drama” of the hospital is behind us and we are entering the long-term care phase — I feel I’m being tested on this part of the verse… “say no word that shows impatience with them, and do not be harsh with them, but speak to them respectfully”…dad’s getting really frustrated with his condition and is overwhelmed with worry/anxiety and hence very sensitive/snappy… And Shaytaan is playing with my head and wants me to lose patience and utter the word “uff”…May Allah make it easy and keep our hearts pure.”

The year was a true Jihad against my nafs not to feel tired or resentful of the situation, a fight against my tongue not to express annoyance with dad’s constant demands. 

I reached low points that only Allah knows, but I came out of them by His mercy. 

May Allah forgive my shortcomings and accept the little I did for him – Ameen

7. Wanting to escape vs. being present

When someone is dying – depending on their circumstances – there’s a lot of waiting:

• Waiting for the doctor
• Waiting for a procedure to complete
• Waiting for the patient to eat, sleep, use the bathroom, etc
• Waiting for death

Our usual reaction when we’re waiting for something is to pull out our phones and scroll through social media or text our friends/check our emails.

But the day I found myself getting addicted to scrolling through pointless YouTube videos while dad was in pain, I knew that something was off, and I was trying to escape mentally from the situation. 

I realized that my nafs was not ready to be present to face dad’s mortality and the emotions that come with it; it wanted to distract itself with random Mr.Beast videos or “best goals of all time” highlights.

Over several weeks, I had to place strategies to fight this escapism, from deleting YouTube from my phone to forcing myself to read the Quran or do dhikr whenever I felt like escaping.

I wasn’t always successful, and sometimes I failed – but that was part of the Jihad. 

8. The Endurance Game 

Learning from my cycling/running hobbies, I realized that to stick to caring for dad for several months required endurance and not just sprints.

And the secret to endurance is learning how to fuel yourself and recover while putting in the effort.

Finding time to rest, sleep, eat, and even exercise was necessary to build long-term endurance for caregiving. 

Having said that, I couldn’t deny the guilt factor I felt whenever I went for a run or took a nap, knowing that dad was in pain or that my mom/brother was with dad instead of doing what they love. 

I had to deal with that guilt by reminding myself that part of caring for someone is ensuring that you take care of yourself and the care team so that we can all be there for the long haul. 

9. Having Difficult Conversations

One of the most challenging conversations to have with a dying person is what they’d like to happen after they die. 

From practical things like getting access to their bank accounts and knowing what assets/debts they have to their medical preference in critical situations. 

One of my friends recommended I take a pen/paper and have this conversation once. As painful as it would be, it’ll be done once, and you’ll be done with it.

For dad, we talked about his assets/debts, but we never reached the point of his Wassiyyah (will). This reminded me that we all need to have a clearly defined Wassiyyah (will) before we die – to make it easier for our inheritors to know precisely what to do instead of interpreting what needs to be done.

The advantage of having this conversation once is that once that’s done – you can spend the rest of the time talking about everything else but the difficult stuff. You can share memories, ask their advice on your plans, or be present in silent moments of contemplation.

10. Planning your life around a terminally ill person

When someone is dying, your time horizon fluctuates between a few hours to several months. 

Sometimes, things looked good for dad, and we were optimistic that he’d be around for several months, and sometimes, things looked critical that we weren’t sure he’d live for another day.

Trying to plan life around this fluctuating time horizon was so tricky.

Ultimately, I learned to embrace the gardener mindset and pray istikhara on every small/big decision since I had no idea what the future held and let things unfold on their own instead of trying to ‘control the situation.’

11. Allah provides as per your intention

Last Ramadan, I made a dua, “O Allah, facilitate the outer and inner means for me to serve my parents with Ihsaan.”

At that time, I was living in Dallas (Texas), my kids were in school, and my family and I were pretty set in the US. I wondered if I could ever leave all that to be with dad in Dubai for his treatment. But subhanAllah, Allah fulfilled means for me to be with him beyond my expectations. 

Initially, we planned to spend three months of summer with him, and then, depending on the situation, my family would return to Dallas while I stayed on.

However, a “random” call to a friend made me realize that I was eligible to apply for a 10-year residence visa, which meant I could rent an apartment, send my kids to school, and open a bank account locally.

Then there was a one-year contract that stalled for over a year, and that “suddenly” worked out, which enabled me to afford to live in Dubai for the year. 

All of this was unplanned and purely a gift from Allah.

Those were the outer means Allah facilitated, but the inner means were things like the ease and calm with which my family and I accepted the move and the contentment that this was the right decision to make, Alhamdulillah.

12. Keeping Intentions Pure for Allah’s sake

رَّبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا فِى نُفُوسِكُمْ ۚ إِن تَكُونُوا۟ صَـٰلِحِينَ فَإِنَّهُۥ كَانَ لِلْأَوَّٰبِينَ غَفُورًۭا 

Your Lord knows best what is within yourselves. If you are righteous, He is certainly All-Forgiving to those who constantly turn to Him. (Quran 17:25)

It’s one thing to set pure intentions, and another is to keep them pure.

When people were commending me for staying with my father, I recognized that this was a test, and my niyyah fluctuated with the situation. 

I kept asking myself: Was I truly doing this for Allah? Or just so people say, “Masha’Allah, Mohammed is sacrificing his time/life for his dad.”

Whenever I felt frustrated, I realized that my intentions weren’t pure. I had to push myself to purify the intention and accept this Jihad, no matter the consequences. 

13. Enduring Pain With Dhikr 

If there was one thing that was constant on my dad’s tongue during this whole year of trial.. it was his remembrance of God.

He kept calling to Allah through his pain; he would say “La ilaha illa Allah” often, send salawaat, recite some Quran when he was feeling better, and generally make dua asking Allah to forgive him or make it easy for him.

I remember my heart smiling whenever he made a dua or a remembrance – it reminded me of a story of a sheikh who was once asked when should doctors make a decision to turn off life support. And his response was, “Is there a chance the patient can make one tasbih? or one istighfar?”. 

Every tasbih, istighfar, and salaat my dad was able to make was a means of elevation alhamdulillah.

14. God Loves You

Death came to a man in the time of the Messenger of Allah; may Allah bless him and grant him peace. A man said, “He was fortunate,” as he had died without being tried by illness. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Alas for you, what will let you know that if Allah had tried him with illness, He would have wiped out his wrong actions.” Muwatta Malik

There was a stretch when dad felt good enough to attend Jumuah prayers in his wheelchair. After Jumuah, we would go around the park and get some sun and fresh air.

In one of these walks, a security guard who remembered dad from an earlier encounter came running to him and said: “God loves you a LOT… that’s why He’s testing you.” – it was the most beautiful reminder of the benefit of illness and trials despite the pain.

15. Dealing with constant worry

The burden of worry was shared by my family – from worrying about dad’s symptoms and overall condition to managing our finances with the mounting medical and care expenses. 

Amid a troubling period, I received this poem from a friend, which helped to keep my worries at ease:

“Some eyes stay awake, and some sleep,

Regarding matters that could be or not be.

As much as you can, keep worry away from the soul;

Weighing yourself down with worries is madness.

Your Lord sufficed you yesterday with what was;

He will suffice you tomorrow with what will be.”

(Imam Al-Shafii)

It’s true – every time I thought I was getting overwhelmed with worry (will he make it tonight? Can we afford a full-time nurse? Did the insurance get back to us)… Allah eased the worry and facilitated a way out.

16. The power of a mother/wife 

The rock in our family during this whole period was my mother. 

Although my brother and I tried our best to be with dad and help out, my mother set the high bar for what a loyal, caring, and dedicated wife can be.

From sleepless nights when she checked on dad every few hours to the selfless care she gave him.

She was so concerned about his cleanliness and physical well-being that she’d go the extra mile in things we thought were “trivial” for someone who was dying.

She would brush his teeth, cut his nails, give him a shower or warm bed bath (even when he didn’t want to), treat his skin with cream, oil his limbs, cook him multiple meals (half he refused because he didn’t feel like eating especially towards the end of his life), wash his clothes, sit with him and converse with him.

Her endurance and persistence were exemplary, and I’ll always admire her, and I pray that my siblings and I can provide the same care for her as she gets older, insha’Allah.

17. Making Tough Medical Decisions

One of the complex aspects of caring for a terminally ill person is balancing between medical interventions that would help someone stay alive and learning when to “let go” and not prolong the patient’s suffering.

I read a book a few years ago called “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Atul Gawande that helped with these decisions.

The key message of the book is a reminder that throwing medication and treatment at a dying person might be doing more harm than good. At some point, palliative (pain) management care is the best course of action for a peaceful and dignified death.

When you realize someone’s time is written, you start wondering how far do you want to go with medicine. If you can’t prolong life, then why prolong suffering? 

I often found myself going back to that book’s lessons and the central question the author was trying to address: “How do we make life worth living when we’re weak and frail and can’t fend for ourselves anymore?” 

We often grew up thinking that doctors can “fix it all” with some pills, surgeries, or a new piece of technology. Instead, I learned that death was humbling for us and everyone in the medical field. 

One of the toughest medical decisions we had to make as a family was to sign an “Allow for natural death” form. The form stated that the doctors believed no further treatment would help and that we accept the consequences. 

I felt that was the best medical decision we made.

18. The moment of death

One day I was researching “How does someone die” and I learned that people die in 4 stages: 

• Stage 1: social death: when a person retreats to his room or hospital bed and is unable to engage in social life
• Stage 2: psychological death: When a person’s personality changes, and goes through delirium, confusion, and the throes of death.
• Stage 3: biological death: when the organs start failing, and the body is unable to cope with the ‘system shut down.’
• Stage 4: Physiological death: this is the moment when the ruh leaves the body, and the person is pronounced dead.

I witnessed my dad go through the first 3 stages in the last few months, but I always wondered how the moment of death would happen – where would I be… what would I say… Last Thursday, I got my answers:

• At 3 pm, dad’s situation was getting critical, and I told my mom that we should spend the night at the hospital. So we decided to go home, have a quick bite, and rest a bit to prepare ourselves for a long, sleepless night.
• At 4 pm, my brother called me from the hospital saying that dad’s blood pressure and oxygen were dropping and we should rush back.
• At 4:30 pm, we reached the hospital, and we sat by dad’s side. Holding his hands, reciting Quran, doing athkar, and waiting…
• At 5:45 pm, I completed a khatam of the Quran next to His bedside and prayed for a beautiful end.
• At 6:10 pm, dad took three breaths.. and then he died.

This was the first time I witnessed someone dying this close.

It was a moment of awe and spiritual depth that doesn’t compare to anything I had experienced before, and I thank Allah SWT that He inspired us to say what pleased Him at that moment: 

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ
To Allah, We Belong, and to Him, We Shall Return.

19. Personal Pain vs. Ummah Pain

Going through this journey with dad was a personal journey of pain and loss for me and my family.

However, while we were dealing with dad’s pain in the comfort of a home and hospital, I couldn’t help but feel the pain of our brothers and sisters in Gaza who don’t get a chance to care for their ill or give their dead a decent burial. 

I had a year to process that dad was dying and leaving us…many of our brothers and sisters had milliseconds as their children, parents, spouses, and relatives were blown to pieces by bombs dropped from the sky and sea.

Although this was a tough time for me and my family, it was even tougher for our Ummah.

The combination of witnessing death so close and witnessing the genocide happening in Gaza has fueled my desire to continue this work at Productive Muslim- for life is short, and the Ummah needs us to step up.

May Allah SWT make us a means of victory for our Ummah, and may Allah SWT use us and not replace us to save our brothers and sisters in Gaza and beyond.

The Journey Ahead and a moment of gratitude

I’m still processing my dad’s death…as I was telling my close friends “Alhamdulillah, I’m doing ok…not sure if it hasn’t hit me yet..or my grieving process started early..”

Despite the challenging year we endured – I’m thankful to Allah SWT that He guided us every step of the way.

I’m thankful for being part of the Ummah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that taught us how to approach death, what to say and do at the moment of death, and how to treat and bury our dead with respect.

I’m thankful to my mother who showed us the meaning of sacrifice and loyalty.

I’m thankful to my brother, Rayyan, who was my thinking partner whenever we had to make tough decisions and for the many nights he stayed up while I went home to rest.

I’m thankful to my sister, Fatma, who was the spiritual rock in the family constantly reminding us to do good on behalf of my father.

I’m thankful to my wife, Farah, who eased my sacrifice and encouraged me to spend this year with my dad while she had to adjust to a new country and new surroundings.

I’m thankful to my children – who gifted my dad with so many smiles and laughter and gave me temporary relief from the burden of watching my father slowly die.

I’m thankful to my close network of advisors and friends who were there every step of the way, lending me a judgment-free space to rant, brainstorm, and express the ups and downs of my journey. I honestly couldn’t have asked for better friends.

I’m thankful to my extended family and dad’s network of close friends, who kept visiting us and showing us support.

Alhamdulillah. 

I pray Allah SWT grants my father Jannat ul firdaws for the patience he displayed and grants us all a good ending.

If you read this article and you benefitted from it – please pray for my father and if you want, please give sadaqah on his behalf.

JazakumAllah khair.

The post Lessons from a Dying Parent appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

Normally, you’d use the classic Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize tasks according to their importance and urgency. Anything important and urgent, you’ll try to get done first and then you’ll focus on important but not urgent before getting to the urgent but not important.

While the above tool is useful – however, it has two shortfalls:

1. Most important/urgent tasks are set to you by others (your boss, family, colleagues, etc). So you’re constantly reacting to the never-ending external demands on your time, leaving little room for activities you care deeply about that may not fit into other’s demands.
2. You constantly find yourself in firefighting mode, trying to get rid of urgent tasks and caught in the rat race of life – not having time for those impactful and meaningful projects that truly matter in the long run.

In our busy schedule, when do we have time to prioritize activities beyond the urgent and immediately important? When do we have time to prioritize tasks that align with our deepest intentions or have an impact beyond ourselves? 

Introducing The Intention-Impact Matrix

The intention-impact matrix is a conceptual tool we’ve developed at The Productive Muslim Company to help individuals align their tasks and actions with long-term impact and underlying intention. This is particularly aligned with our Barakah Culture approach to productivity.  

This tool encourages us to reflect on the deeper reasons for undertaking tasks and their potential impact instead of reacting simply to what’s urgent and important at the moment.

It’s a 2×2 matrix with intentions on the y-axis and impact on the x-axis. 

• Intentions can be high or low. Intentions are high when they are spiritually driven, hereafter focused, and sincerely for Allah SWT. Intentions are low when they are worldly-focused and ego-centered (I discuss this hierarchy of intentions in more detail in my book The Barakah Effect, order here).
• Impact can be high or low. Impact is high when it affects others positively or will resonate beyond one’s lifetime. Impact is low when it only impacts yourself or has very short-term consequences. 

Here’s a brief explanation of the four quadrants in your Intentions/Impact Matrix:

• High Intention/High Impact: These are activities taken with the highest intentions that have a substantial positive impact on others and/or resonate beyond one’s lifetime. It could involve social work, charitable acts, or significant projects with long-term benefits.
• High Intention/Low Impact: These involve personal practices that are important on an individual level and are done with pure intentions but may not have a broad or lasting impact on others. This includes personal rituals or habits contributing to one’s spiritual, physical, or mental development. e.g., exercise, reading, and private acts of worship like prayer and fasting.
• Low Intention/High Impact: Here, the actions have the potential for a significant positive impact, but the underlying intentions may not be spiritually driven. You might do the action for worldly gain or reputation and fame. If you find actions in this quadrant, it’s a call for you to reevaluate your intention to align potentially impactful actions with higher intentions.
• Low Intention/Low Impact: Activities that fall into this quadrant are neither driven by high intentions nor do they result in significant impact. These are often trivial or time-wasting activities that one should aim to reduce or eliminate, e.g., scrolling through social media or watching non-beneficial videos online.

How do you use this matrix to prioritize your activities?

Take stock of all your projects, tasks, and activities you have in life, and ask yourself where they fit in the above matrix.

You’ll need to ask two important questions about each activity you are engaged in:

1. What’s my intention?
2. What’s the impact?

• For high intentions/high impact activities – prioritize them and focus on them on a daily/weekly basis. 
• For high intentions/low impact activities – maintain what you can from them, but don’t go overboard or at the expense of high intentions/high impact activities.
• For low intentions/high impact activities – upgrade your intentions and make them sincerely for God and not just for worldly gain/ego satisfaction.
• For low intentions/low-impact activities – minimize or eliminate from your life as much as possible.

Compare the above to the Eisenhower matrix which focuses on just urgent/important and you’d realize that the Intention-Impact matrix adds a layer of spirituality and long-term thinking, leading to more Barakah in one’s life.

Practical tips for implementing the Intentions-Impact matrix in your life

1. Use our Barakah Journal to set daily/weekly intentions for the day. This will make you constantly think about your “intentions list” vs. “to-do list” each day/week. 
2. Try to upgrade your intentions on any activity you’re engaged in – you want to constantly connect all that you do (from the mundane to the most profound) with the higher intention of serving Allah SWT. (see discussion on how to elevate intentions in this Barakah Journal workshop video)
3. Try having at least one activity in your day in the high intention/high impact quadrant. The activity doesn’t have to be big; it can be helping a friend, visiting a sick person, or caring for an older person.

FAQs about Intentions-Impact Matrix

1. Does low impact mean low value?

No! Low impact does NOT mean low value. It means that its circle of impact is much smaller than the high-impact activities.

Moreover, you NEED some of the ‘low impact’ activities to recharge your spiritual, physical, and mental energy to handle high-impact work.

For example, a low-impact activity may be praying, fasting, or exercising… they are essential activities, and we need to do them. However, we should not use them as ‘excuses’ for not doing the high-impact work.

What’s important with low-impact activities is to keep the intentions for them for Allah’s sake and not let our intentions slide to low ego-centered intentions.

2. Can mundane activities become high-intention activities?

The short answer is yes. We discussed this in detail with Dr. Abdallah Rothman in the video below. We talked about how making coffee or doing doing the laundry can be a high-intention activity. Check it out below (starting around the 30-mins mark):

3. What if my season of life doesn’t allow me to focus on high intentions/high-impact activity?

Sometimes, you go through a season of life where you need to take care of young children or an elderly parent, or you’re going through a tough physical/financial time in your life. 

You might feel that you’re ‘missing out’ on doing the high-intention/high-impact work, especially if you’re active in social work. 

This is where you need to reframe the situation: You need to reframe your responsibility as your high-intention/high-impact activity during this season of life; so reframe taking care of kids, or your elderly parent, or the health/financial challenge as a spiritual quest that you know if you fulfill with sincerity and Ihsaan, you’ll be getting the reward for doing high impact work. 

Remember, the story of the young man who wanted to fight in the cause of Allah with the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised him to serve his parents because his parents needed him at that time.

I hope you find this tool useful and impactful. I’d love to hear your feedback on this matrix and what decisions it helped you make.

The post Beyond Urgent: Prioritizing Life Using The Intention-Impact Matrix appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

Strategies, Tips, And Tools To Design Your Next Best Self Post-Ramadan

Ramadan ended a few weeks ago, and by now you’re probably starting to settle back to your post-Ramadan routine.

You may have been able to keep up with some of your Ramadan resolutions (fasting a bit more, praying some parts of the night, giving charity often), or you may have crashed post-Ramadan and found it really hard to pick yourself up again – spiritually, physically, and socially.

If you’re someone who wants to maintain consistent improvement post-Ramadan and win the battle of life against your Nafs and Shaytaan (which seems to come back stronger after Ramadan), then you’ll find this useful.

Begin with Next Ramadan in Mind

Fast-forward to the 29th day of Sha’baan of next year, you’re hours away from knowing if Ramadan is tomorrow or not. You’re excited. Maybe a bit nervous. Busy with typical Ramadan preparations.

Unfortunately, the Angel of Death comes and takes your soul in those hours, and you’re deprived of witnessing the next Ramadan.

How do you feel?

The reason I bring this thought up is to help frame this article in your mind: Although you’re not guaranteed to live to witness another Ramadan, this does not mean that your journey of self-development and improvement should be on hold until next Ramadan comes.

There are many things you can do in between now and then and this is what this article is about.

A Framework To Develop Yourself Post Ramadan

The Productive Muslim Company is big on building frameworks that help us tackle some of our most profound self-development challenges. And one of the frameworks that we often use in our training and coaching is the following one:

This framework simply states that if we want to design the next best version of ourselves post-Ramadan, we need to think of the Mindsets, Values, and Rituals that would help us make those changes post-Ramadan.

Mindsets: How You Think Affects How You Behave

It’s common knowledge among psychology circles that our thoughts have an impact on our actions (and vice-versa. More on that later). [“How Thoughts Influence Actions”. Psychology Today]. So how you think about your post-Ramadan period will impact how you behave. Below are 3 mindset shifts that you need to think about to help you upgrade your post-Ramadan experience.

1. Think Realistically

There’s an equation that I learned from a time management expert that helped me a lot manage my stress levels:

Expectations > Reality = Stress

Simply stated, when expectations exceed the reality, you’re only setting yourself up for stress and failure.

How do we do this post-Ramadan? Have you heard yourself say things like: After Ramadan, I’ll pray tahajjud every night, I’ll fast every Monday and Thursday, I’ll give charity every day, etc.? What happens when you don’t live up to those expectations? You fall for the classic Shaytaan trick of making you feel terrible that you didn’t live up to your expectations and fall for another psychological trap called the “What the hell effect.” [“How the What the Hell Effect Impacts Your Willpower”. Psychology Today]

Here’s how the what the hell effect works: You decide to eat healthily and stop eating sugar, and for the first few days, you’re doing great. Then you get invited over to your friend’s house, and they have an incredible dessert spread. Initially, you resist, but your friend insists, and you have a small piece of Halwa. Next think you know, you say to yourself, “What the hell, let me try everything else, I’ll restart my diet tomorrow.” Next day you feel so bad that you break your new diet, and another “what the hell” moment hits you, and you give up entirely on your new diet.

Think of how many times the “what the hell” effect impacted you when it came to your prayers, to voluntary fasting, to being present with your children. Allah SWT captures this phenomenon when he tells us about not following the steps of Shaytaan in a number of verses, like:

” O you who have believed, enter into Islam completely [and perfectly] and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.” (Qur’an 2: 208)

So how do you tackle these two traps: setting high and unrealistic expectations, and falling for the “what the hell” effect? The key is to set small, realistic expectations and then guard them with all your might until they become solid habits before you set higher expectations.

Here’s how this works: You want to pray tahajjud every night? Start by committing to pray 1xrak’ah of witr prayer after Isha prayers and before you sleep. It’s a small commitment, but you want to do it no matter what. Even on days you don’t feel like it or you’re tired. Don’t get on the slippery slope of missing 1 day and thinking “what the hell, I’ll never be able to pray tahajjud in my life.” And even if you do slip 1 day, don’t fall for the “what the hell” effect and instead pick yourself up the next day, stronger than ever. Once you’ve established this routine long enough and it has become part and parcel of your life, upgrade yourself and aim to pray 3 rak’ahs of witr, etc.

2. Think Holistically

The second mindset shift to consider is to think about your personal development journey holistically.

During the Productivity Masterclass, we help individuals and teams think of how to live the next best version of themselves across all their roles, i.e., what does your next-best version of yourself look like as a Dad/Mom? as a professional? As a neighbor? As a Muslim? Etc.

Thinking holistically removes the mind-trap that post-Ramadan self-development is only about rituals. It makes us recognize that the rituals form the bedrock and scaffolding to help us build our next best version across our roles.

To help you think holistically about your self-development, complete our Productive Muslim Self-Assessment tool to figure out where you are today – spiritually, physically, and socially and where you need to go.

Launch Self-Assessment

3. Think Long-Term

One of the primary reasons people give up their post-Ramadan resolutions is that they measure their success or failure based on a very short time frame, i.e., they measure how well they are performing in the first 2-3 weeks post-Ramadan. If they see no improvement, they give up!

Someone might say, “I tried fasting Mondays and Thursdays after Ramadan, but it was too hard, so I gave up.”

What if we expanded our self-development journey beyond these first 2 weeks instead? What if we asked ourselves – how can I develop this new habit/routine in 12 months?

Here’s a thought: We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period but underestimate what we can do over a long period.

Yes, waking up for fajr might seem hard in those first 2-3 weeks, but if you focus on developing this habit over 3, 6, 9 months, you’ll eventually crack it, and it’ll become easy for you.

A good metaphor for thinking long-term is that of a gardener. When the gardener plants his seed, waters his garden, and works hard all day on his farm. He doesn’t expect to see a mature tree the next day! He understands that growing a tree takes time, and a lot of energy, focus, and time goes into becoming a tree. Similarly, new habits and routines take time to take root, nurture and grow, if you think of them as a long-term project, and work on it daily, you’re more likely to succeed.

PRACTICAL TIPS

1. Think of your long-term goals post-Ramadan across all your roles
2. Think of the obstacles you might face to achieve your goals (be realistic)
3. Think of how to overcome those obstacles – one step at a time.

Values: What Beliefs are driving your post-Ramadan life?

This section talks about a subtle but essential spiritual element when it comes to achieving a post-Ramadan goal. And that is to do with our Hearts and how connected we are with Allah SWT when it comes to achieving our post-Ramadan Goals.

Every day in our prayers we recite this verse →

“You Alone We Worship, and You Alone We Seek Help From” (Qur’an 1: 5)

This is a foundational concept in our faith that is critical for all our self-improvement endeavors. It involves two aspects:

1. You Alone We Worship: All your goals, all your self-improvement, and self-development, should be connected to the concept of you wanting to become the best ‘Abd’ (Slave) to Allah SWT. During the Productivity Masterclass, we speak in detail of the Islamic-psychospiritual model of the human being and how being an ‘Abd’ (slave) of Allah SWT is such a foundational concept that we need to revive in our hearts to help us live the best version of ourselves.
2. You Alone We Seek Help From: This is the recognition that as part of us acknowledging that we’re slaves of Allah, then we need to ask Allah’s permission and tawfeeq (success) in all the goals that we want to achieve.

Let’s be honest; sometimes, the goals we set for ourselves post-Ramadan can be all about developing our self-esteem and self-image. We forgot the ‘why’ that should drive these goals, and hence we give up on them too quickly. If I’m trying to wake up for tahajjud just because I see it as another milestone in my self-development journey, and not as an act of worship that would get me closer to Allah SWT, I need to revise my intentions.

So how can we practically develop these beliefs/values in our lives:

1. Set Good Intentions: When you set any post-Ramadan goal, ask yourself – why am I doing this? Who’s this for? How can I become a better ‘Abd’ to Allah through this goal?
2. Always Ask Allah To Help With Your Goals: Make your goals as spiritual quests. Ask Allah SWT to help you stay physically healthy post-Ramadan, to fast regularly, to pray tahajjud, etc. Don’t be arrogant and rely on your means – you need Him. Ask Him.
3. Work Hard: Good intentions and prayers don’t work on their own. Allah SWT would like to see the effort from you and He’ll take care of the results.

Rituals: What You Do Impacts How You Think and What You Believe

Earlier I mentioned that just like our thoughts have an impact on our actions. So does our action have an influence on how we think?

Here’s a simple experiment: Let’s say you’re upset, or in a bad mood. Grab a pencil and bite it between your teeth, forcing you to smile. Notice how your levels of happiness will increase, and you’ll feel better.

What does this mean for us, post-Ramadan?

This means that whether we feel like it or don’t feel like it – we need to commit to some rituals post-Ramadan that’ll help us improve how we think about ourselves and what we believe is possible post-Ramadan.

There are 3 key concepts to keep in mind though to ensure that you stick to your rituals post-Ramadan:

1. Choose To Focus on Not More Than 3 New Rituals Post-Ramadan: It’s so tempting after graduating from Ramadan to feel that you can change your life 180 overnight and introduce so many new routines in life. Although it is doable, it’s tough and I’d rather you focus on a winning strategy instead. The winning strategy is to focus on 3 new rituals post-Ramadan, and once they become part of who you are, add some more.
2. Start Small: This is critical. The smaller the change in your life, the longer it lasts. Start small but have the intention that you’ll want to grow this ritual over time.
3. Celebrate Progress: When you do your small ritual – celebrate it. Feel good about it. Thank Allah SWT that he enabled you to make one small step towards the next best version of you and being His ‘Abd.’ Celebration will reinforce this ritual in your brain as something pleasant to be done again.

What should happen when I make the above shifts in my Mindsets, Values, and Rituals?

Fast forward your life to the 29th of Sha’baan next year, it’s a few hours before Ramadan might be announced. You’re excited and giddy and can’t wait to find out.

You’ve spent the entire year, slowly but surely, upgrading your mindsets, values, and rituals and living the next best version of yourself: spiritually, physically, and socially.

You feel more ready than ever for Ramadan and for the next spiritual boost.

However, the Angel of Death comes to you in those hours before Ramadan and takes your soul away.

Do you have any regrets?

Or do you feel that you’ve done all you can to be a true Abd of Allah SWT throughout the year and you are ready to meet Him?

The post How to Pick Yourself Up Post Ramadan appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

But we don’t see this level of leadership in the Muslim world today, instead we’re seeing a rapid decay of world impact. We’re witnessing a serious inferiority complex growing in our Ummah; As individuals, we feel inferior to non-Muslims. As businesses and organizations, we feel inferior to mainstream corporations. As an Ummah, we feel inferior to other Nations.

Why is this happening and what can we do about it? Read on…

Inferiority Complex is Real

To know your weaknesses in comparison to others is to be insightful and humble but to harbour a lingering sense of inferiority as a result of this awareness is dangerous. For example, knowing that your colleague is great at public speaking is not the same as feeling that your public speaking skills are worthless and will never improve in time regardless of how hard you try.

In today’s world, we’re immersed in a culture whereby looks, wealth, status and all things materialistic are used as the metric for success. Deep down we know that our spiritual values guide us away from idolising or chasing the material world but at the same time we’re saturated on the outside by people seemingly living exciting, glamorous and beautiful lives. It can be all too tempting to compare our own lives with the façade of today’s hyper-airbrushed world and this constant comparison quickly erodes away at our confidence and spirituality.

Post-colonialism seeded the idea that our western counterparts are somehow better. Although this may not be a conscious thought, it can manifest in our thinking and action in many ways. We can look at the lives and success of our western peers and so easily be drawn into the fantasy that they have the upper edge in this dunya. Sadly, left unattended this feeling can develop into an inferiority complex not just on an individual level, but an Ummah level as well. 

Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi describes the decline of Muslim leadership and causes in his book Islam And The World (pg 173):

Dazzled by the power and progress of Western nations, Muslims began to imitate Western social and economic institutions regardless of the consequences, although they were much inferior to their own and consisted of little more than the ardent pursuit of material success. The prestige of religon was diminished. The teachings of the Prophet ﷺ were forgotten. All those ideals of life, which truthfully displayed within themselves both the spiritual and the temporal aspects of life and did not subordinate the former to the latter, ceased to impress the minds of the great mass of Muslim society. Their place was taken by ideals far inferior to them. Life was filled with frivolous desires and occupations to a degree that it had to eschew religious and spiritual craving and activities. If one were to compare the daily occupations of present-day Muslims with those of the aforementioned specimens of the old Islamic civilization, one would find it hard to believe that both professed the same ideology or that only a few generations separated one from the other.

Along with the distractions of this dunya constantly tugging at the soul, we’re also subject to the whisperings of Satan, who’s sole mission is to make us unappreciative beings.

[Satan] said,  “For leaving me to stray I will lie in ambush for them on Your Straight Path. I will approach them from their front, their back, their right, their left, and then You will find most of them ungrateful.” (7:16-17)

If we’re not mindful of his influence and don’t take precautions to fortify our heart and mind with God-consciousness, we become even more vulnerable to his evil ploys. One of the ways he tries to enter the heart is by weakening the mind.

What is an Inferiority Complex?

An inferiority complex is a feeling of inadequacy that’s not based on any rational judgements. It’s an emotionally-led feeling that holds us captive to constant comparisons which may drive us to wanting to be and act like others, and have what they have in order to feel good enough. 

This feeling turns us into thirsty travelers on a desert land, constantly chasing the ‘mirage’ of what others have but never quenching our thirst with the water bottle that’s around our neck.

We can see examples in our Islamic history of people who rather than holding esteem in their faith, turned towards external factors to find a sense of self worth. 

When Musa (as) and the children of Israel were saved from the tyrannical grip of Firoun (Pharoah), they witnessed first hand the Divine help of Allah SWT.  They were freed from oppression and could live in peace under the prophetic leadership of Musa (as). But not long after the miraculous passage across the Red Sea, they came across a group of people who had taken up idolatry worship and the ignorant amongst them turned to Musa (as) and asked him to “make for us a God just as they have Gods.”

They forgot Allah and fell prey to the insidious idea that the faith they possessed was inadequate in comparison to what they perceived the people they encountered had in terms of faith and provisions. The seeds of inferiority had taken root within them. 

“We brought the Children of Israel across the sea and they came upon a people devoted to idols. They demanded, “O Moses! Make for us a god like their gods.” He replied, “Indeed, you are a people acting ignorantly!” (7:138)

In the tafsir of Ibn Kathir (r) he said:

“It appears that the Children of Israel probably asked these people why they worshipped these idols, and they most likely told them that whenever they seek help from them they help them, and that they seek their provision from them. The ignorant ones among them may have been tempted to believe it, and so they asked Musa (as) to make a similar god for them as well.”

This is an example of how in the absence of God-consciousness we can falsely conclude that happiness and success lies in the superficial platforms promoted in a Godless society. 

We can see parallels of how the inferiority complex is playing out in individuals, organizations and in Muslim society at large today. Let’s take a closer look at each of these levels. 

Inferiority complex in Muslim Professionals

Have you ever stepped into work with feelings of trepidation? Feeling very conscious that you’re different; acutely aware that the sound of your name is different, the colour of your skin is different and that you have a set of rules and a value system that is not aligned with your workplace peers. 

If we bring sharp focus to this, what can it stir inside a person?

For my client, Aisha, it made her feel like she didn’t belong at her workplace. She was a teacher working in an affluent neighborhood surrounded by a predominantly white upper class community. Rather than seeing herself as the intelligent, capable person that she was, she subconsciously felt second-rate to her colleagues and so therefore always felt inferior. This inferiority complex rooted itself in her words and behavior; she would always aim to be agreeable even if she held a different opinion and felt the need to prove her self-worth in everything she did. 

“Never think that you’re not good enough. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.”

Anthony Trollope

As this quote suggests, we teach people how to treat us. If we see ourselves as inferior, it makes it more likely that we will be seen in this way by others too. 

Moreover, the state of the believer is to know that there is khayr (good) in every situation as related in the following hadith: 

“Amazing is the affair of the believer, verily all of his affairs are good and this is not for no one except the believer. If something of good/happiness befalls him he is grateful and that is good for him. If something of harm befalls him he is patient and that is good for him” (Muslim)

Staying mindful of this helps us to elevate our thinking by the mere act of seeking the khayr in all situations, creating awareness in the heart of the blessings and opportunities present in the moment as opposed to dwelling on the negatives and how we’re perceived. 

With this in mind, Aisha and I discussed an alternative perspective; perhaps Allah had given her an opportunity to be a role model and dispel myths surrounding the Muslim stereotype, that she showed great courage by the sheer fact that she goes in to work every day and upholds her values concerning manners and dress code. Immediately, this fresh perspective gave her more confidence in her true identity and strengthened her connection to Allah. The inner critic that would constantly compare her to others started to wane and she no longer felt the compulsion to fit in. 

This feeling of not fitting in is all too familiar for the Muslim professional working in a predominantly western environment. The term “cultural cringe” is defined as an internalized inferiority complex that causes people to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. Inadvertently, we may feel the “cultural cringe” factor with our religious orientation too. In not wanting to feel alienated from social groups or hindered from potential work opportunities, a person might dismiss some of their spiritual practices and strive to adapt to the more commonplace practices of their environment in order to fit in and feel on par with their colleagues. 

Regularly missing prayers, not requesting time out for Jumu’ah, feeling awkward about wearing a hijab or growing a beard, dropping inhibitions and placing oneself in inappropriate environments may be some of the casualties of such sentiment. In reality, this can create an internal conflict between one’s spiritual values and the desire to be like others, resulting in anxiety, stress and internal worry. Social anxiety: the fear of being rejected by others, can be one of the biggest triggers for the inferiority complex.

With these emotions brewing inside, the inferiority complex can feature front and center. Feeling that no matter what you do, you just can’t hit the mark or won’t be seen as worthy by others. Even high achievers can feel like failures and imposters. The constant second guessing and feelings of being a second-rate worker hinders performance levels. Confidence dwindles and this can branch off in two ways. 

1. Shying away from opportunities out of fear of being “caught out” and not speaking up with authentic thoughts

2. Overcompensating behavior such as bragging to mask the feelings of insecurity.

Both these positions invite the ego to lead the way and we’re then left with ego-led behavior.

The Messenger of Allah (saw), said, “The strong are not those who defeat people. Rather, the strong are those who defeat their own ego.”

Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār 1645

A sense of inferiority is not a cognitive thing, it’s an emotional sense that is carried around privately and painfully. The emotions that can arise range from hopelessness and helplessness to anger, resentment, envy and defensiveness. 

A person can feel completely incompetent at her job even though objectively they’re great at it but that’s the nature of the beast – there’s no rational thinking. You can be completely disconnected from the objective perceptions others may have of you to the extent that there is an outright refusal to see any evidence to the contrary of your beliefs, placing one squarely in the victim-mindset.

Inferiority complex in Muslim organizations

Muslims look to the west and see successful companies: The Googles, Apples, and Teslas of the world Often these companies adopt practices that are foreign to our traditional ways and sometimes these practices are against Islam – yet as mentioned previously, the generalized feeling of inferiority stemming from the idea that we are inadequate and that our ways of doing things are not good enough, can make us blindly follow in the footsteps of these companies as a result. And in the pursuit of success, we may become negligent of our spiritual obligations.

For example, we’re seeing a burgeoning growth in the Muslim entrepreneurial space. There are now Muslim companies competing in the Fortune 500 arena and the Muslim spend is now worth trillions of dollars and is a recognized sector on the world business platform. Although there is this growth, we can also see symptoms of the inferiority complex growing alongside this trend. 

In today’s world, we see Muslim organizations and companies:

• Fully immersed in hustle culture, working staff to the bone
• Relentlessly following formulas of mainstream organizations and copying Silicon Valley and corporate America in hopes of achieving the same high levels of success.
• Feeling a general sense of inferiority to the western world and as a result producing substandard products and services – believing this is all they are capable of? 

What if, instead, Muslim companies adopted sunnah practices with yaqeen (certainty) that Ar-Razzaq (The Provider) will deliver barakah-filled results? A few examples of such practices are: 

• Adopting an Abundant Mindset of mutual benefit and cooperation when dealing with competitors vs. the Scarcity mindset of cut-throat competiton.
• Adopting a Gardener Mindset with work where you set good intentions, work hard, but detach yourself from the results.
• Fulfilling the Sunnah of paying workers before their sweat dries (a concept now known as Pay On Demand)
• Working with staff to develop them spiritually, just like we develop them professionally.
• Organizing and structuring the day and meetings around prayer times 
• Organizing business plans around the hijri calendar (#GoHijri) and even paying staff and offering holidays according to Hijri calendar. 
• Being at the forefront to protect female employees from sexual harrassment and ensuring safe and mutually respective working relationships between genders whether online or in-person
• Creating time for employees to take a Qailulah (short mid-day nap) as was the practice of prophet Muhammad (saw).
• Making the intention of the business not purely about financial gain and profit but about service to the community and Ummah at large.

The above ideas may seem ‘crazy’ in our modern corporate world, and may feel “unprofessional” – but what if thinking of the above as ‘crazy’ or ‘unprofessional’ is actually your inferiority complex talking to you? Yes, maybe not all of the above ideas are practical on a day to day level – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be encouraged to explore and experiment with ways to grow our business with Barakah!

My point is this: Instead of feeling like the success formulas of corporate America and the like were the only valid ways to create successful companies, what would happen if Muslim organizations placed more faith in aligning the structure of their company and workday with faith-based practices such as the ones mentioned above? With the doors of barakah opened, imagine how this could yield even greater results. 

Inferiority complex in the Ummah on a global stage

In the same way that the children of Israel began to develop a sense of inferiority and feeling “second-rate” to the community of pagans they encountered, we can see parallels in our modern day society with the Muslims of today experiencing similar emotions. The media surrounding our religion is awash with labels such as Muslim terrorists and extremism. Muslims are under constant scrutiny, and this has made us sensitive and defensive. As a nation what impact might this have on our mindset and how are we responding as a result?

Here’s a few ways in which the inferiority complex has taken root in our ummah today. We may find ourselves:

• Desiring to imitate aspects of non-Muslim lifestyles even though it is prohibited for the believer
• Minimizing the importance of certain aspects of our religion because it’s not convenient and feel it will hinder our life goals
• Not standing up for Muslim suffering globally due to political and economic pressure.
• Judging Islamic principles through a liberal secular lens.
• Find ourselves viewing certain practices as outdated concepts and not fit for purpose in today’s world
• Only valuing a practice in Islam if the science community or an academic validates it. For example, we know that fasting Mondays and Thursdays is a highly regarded sunnah, but did we only take it seriously when western scientists concluded that the 5:2 diet was a legitimate practice?

Very often the inferiority complex is on a subconscious level, so most people are not even cognizant to it. However, we need to take a very conscious look at our intentions, choices and actions in order to determine whether we have mindlessly adopted some of these frames of thinking. 

Islam is the last Divine Message to Mankind. We have the blueprint to live a life that is the most balanced,  wholesome, and decent. Yet as a nation, we may have drifted away from this way of life because we have fundamentally forgotten who we are, where we came from and our ultimate purpose in this world. 

And in this lies the antidote. 

The antidote to the inferiority complex

An inferiority complex is fueled by the desire to attain the same levels of power, status and success as those perceived to be in superior positions. In order to shatter this complex, we need to bring our hearts and awareness to the ultimate source of power and honour. 

“Whosoever desires honour, power and glory then to Allah belong all honour, power and glory…”?!

[ 35:10]

For the sincere believer, it is known that only in obeying Allah can one find honour, power and glory in this world but more importantly in the next. Holding tight to this reality, secures the heart of the believer from ever feeling inferior to any other culture or creed. It removes the temptation to yearn for what others have in the worldly sense as faith in Allah is what brings a level of contentment that far outweighs the love for anything else this world has to offer.  

We are the children of Adam. 

We are from the ummah of Prophet Muhammad (saw).

We can call ourselves Muslims because of the greats in our history; the noble prophets, the companions of the prophet and the generations to follow who sacrificed their lives so that we can practice today. 

We have been given tawfeeq (direct guidance) to believe in the Oneness of Allah whose guidance and Help we know is always with us. 

With this identity deeply embodied in the very fabric of our soul, we can stand confidently in any environment holding tight to our values and be fearless of worldly judgement. We can navigate any workspace or social gathering with firmness in our Muslim identity. Our hearts will steer away from feeling any form of inferiority complex or victim-mindset or FOMO (fear of missing out) because there is peace and contentment found in the promise of Allah: 

“So do not become weak, nor be sad, and you will be victorious if you are indeed true believers.”

[ 3:139]

Alongside this understanding, it’s essential to create time for muhasabah (self-evaluation) in order to become more self aware, to be aligned to your fitra and increase in confidence that is rooted in Allah. 

And it is for this reason that I developed the Confidence Masterclass – a transformational 6-week journey that combines Islamic spiritual practices with modern psychology to help Muslim professionals develop spiritually-centered confidence and remove any feelings of insecurity and inferiority.

During this masterclass, you will be guided through the Belief Model framework – a systematic process designed to help you strengthen in all aspects of life pertaining to spiritually rooted confidence.  

For example, Imran decided to join the masterclass to work on his spiritual confidence using the Belief model framework. Prior to this training and despite having a good job, family and comfortable lifestyle, most days he would wake up feeling uneasy and unsettled. He was feeling the pressure of constant comparisons and spiritually weakened by the busyness of life. However, after he completed this training, he described feeling more internal peace as a result of developing a stronger reliance upon Allah and how increased self-awareness gave him more control, emotional grounding and confidence in himself and life choices.

Let’s take a deeper look at Imran’s outlook before the training and how he felt at the end of the masterclass training…

After working his way through the Belief model, Imran is a more confident, healthy, balanced individual who is still ambitiously working towards his life goals but with an active focus of how his work in this world can connect to the next. He’s no longer as concerned with external judgment or trying to fit in; his heart, mind and soul have found contentment in his deen and his feelings of self worth are rooted internally by his connection to Allah.  

“Verily, Allah does not look at your physical features nor your wealth, but Allah looks at your hearts and actions.” (Muslim)

When we keep our sight firmly fixed on Allah, the fear of others dissipates. The inferiority complex disappears and what’s left is an energy, focus and determination to create meaningful lives with the hope that the reward will come in this life and extend to the next.

The post How Inferiority Complex Is Hurting You and the Ummah (and How We Can Fix This) appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

Although there are lots of books and resources that discuss how to run successful meetings, in this article, I’ll explore how we can approach meetings from a spiritual perspective and the impact our spirituality has on the quality of our meetings. 

I’ll also try to answer the question: how can our meetings be conduits of Barakah (Divine Goodness) for ourselves and organizations and even a means of personal and team-wide spiritual development?

This article will be useful for team leaders, managers, and really anyone who wants to see more Barakah in their work meetings insha’Allah.

Meetings As Spaces Where Souls Meet

The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, “…souls are like recruited soldiers, those that recognize one another unite in harmony and those that do not recognize one another are at an aversion”.

[Muslim]

To understand the above hadeeth, we need to understand that the beginning journey of our soul is not the moment we entered this world. Instead, the origin of all souls was when they were created by Allah SWT, and made us witness His Divine Existence. Allah SWT says in the Quran:

وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنۢ بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا۟ بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَآ ۛ أَن تَقُولُوا۟ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَـٰذَا غَـٰفِلِينَ

And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we have testified.” [This] – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were of this unaware.”

Quran 7:172

So in that pre-existence world, some souls met each other while some did not. That connection carried into this realm which explains how sometimes you may walk into a meeting and ‘click’ with someone even though you never met them before, or, the opposite happens – you try hard to work with someone and even though they are a nice person, you feel some kind of unexplained aversion to them.

To be clear, this is not an excuse to avoid working with some people because you don’t like them or create in-groups and cliques with people because you enjoy working with them. Instead, we should understand this hadeeth from two perspectives:

1. When we enter a space, we don’t just bring our professional selves to work; we bring our whole soul to work. And our soul may or may not connect with those in the room.
2. Just because we don’t connect with someone at a spiritual level doesn’t mean I should shun them; instead, we should see their presence as a test of our character and spiritual development. And if we can learn to work with them with ihsaan, that can only benefit the whole team as we’ll be able to learn from each other dispite our diverse and different way of thinking and being.

When You Bring Your Whole Soul To A Meeting

Dr. Abdallah Rothman, in his article “What Islam Offers to Modern Self-Help: An Islamic Paradigm of Psychology,” shares the following structure of the soul: 

He argues that unlike popular conceptions within modern psychology, an Islamic perspective of the soul includes multiple aspects, namely: body, mind (Aql), spiritual heart (Qalb), spirit (ruh), and self (nafs). These aspects integrate together to form the spiritual being we know as a human being. 

Therefore, when a soul attends a meeting – they bring these different aspects of their soul to the meeting. Moreover, each of these aspects can be impacted by the interactions that happen during the meeting. Below are examples of how each aspect of a soul can be affected during a meeting:

• Qalb (Spiritual Heart): If the Qalab is spiritually healthy and not sick, it’ll be able to perceive the spiritual reality of what’s happening in a meeting and maybe be given insights (baseerah) that can be very beneficial to the team or organization. However, if the spiritual heart is sick with a spiritual disease such as envy or arrogance, it may filter through into the meeting in the form of office politics or toxic behavior.  
• Aql (Mind): If the mind is sound – not just mentally but spiritually sound – a person will use their Aql to make spiritually-intelligent decisions during the meeting. For example, instead of just performing a cost/benefit analysis of a project from a Dunya (wordly) perspective, they’ll consider the Akhira (hereafter) perspective of a project and its long term benefit, thus using their Aql to make a spiritually intelligent decision for this world and the next.
• Nafs (Self): Perhaps the part that is most ‘active’ in meetings is the Nafs (Self) which, if not disciplined, can be self-centered, territorial, and egotistic. We’ve all witnessed how the Nafs, if left unbridled by the Qalb and Aql, can wreak havoc in meetings. On the other hand, if we keep our nafs in check during meetings, we might go through tough conversations without feeling threatened or blamed by what is said.
• Spirit (Ruh): This is the antidote to the Nafs. The pure part of your soul that wants to pull you up to higher meaning and purpose. It wants to connect to the Divine and heavenly realities instead of earthly desires. It can be idealistic at times – but it’s precisely this idealism that makes it an important voice to hear during meetings.
• Body: Let’s not forget the physical side of our being – our bodies – which are the vessels of our soul. If we give our body its right – with rest, nutrition, and exercise – we’ll show up to a meeting in a much better state than if we are tired or unhealthy (We cover the topic on how to take care of your body in detail in our Wellness Masterclass). Also, simple things like dressing up and being well-groomed for a meeting will impact your performance and presence during the meeting vs. showing up scruffy (or wearing your PJs on zoom calls!).

Suppose we accept that meetings are spaces where souls meet and that each soul has different aspects which can be affected in various ways during a meeting. In that case, we need to design our meetings as conducive environments where we bring the best aspects of our soul to a meeting and reduce the triggers that may bring out the negative aspects of our soul. 

Moreover, let’s not forget that in addition to managing our souls, we have an archenemy that wants to negatively influence us, whom we need to be aware of – and that is Satan (Read the article: How Satan Impacts Workplace Productivity).

Practical Tips to Design Meetings for Barakah

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you’ll know that we advocate for individuals and organizations to adopt Barakah Culture instead of Hustle Culture.

Barakah Culture is God-centered, hereafter focused, and purpose and impact-driven. Whereas Hustle Culture is ego-centered, worldly-focused, and material results-driven.

If we want to fuse our meetings with Barakah – we first need to adopt the Barakah Culture worldview as a team and then design our meetings as opportunities for whole soul development.

Below are ideas for designing such meetings that we brainstormed with our community members during our weekly calls (a meeting that was in itself full of Barakah!).  

We collected ideas on what to do before, during, and after the meeting to maximize Barakah – whether we meet in-person or virtually. I summarize the key points from our discussion below:

Before the meeting 

• Set the intention for the meeting: Why are you conducting/attending the meetings? What’s the intention behind it? How can you level up your intention for the meeting, so it’s more God-centered, Akhira-focused, and purpose/impact driven? (Hint: Use the Barakah Journal to help you level up your intention for the meeting).
• What Barakah Culture mindset, value, or ritual will you fuse into the meeting? You can use our Barakah Culture Cards as a tool to help you pick a mindset, value, or ritual to practice in the upcoming meeting. For example, if you decide to practice an “Abundant” mindset – you’ll be conscious of sharing your ideas and not hoarding information. 
• Schedule the meeting outside of prayer times: Make sure meetings don’t clash with prayer times and if for some reason you can’t avoid the clash, make sure that you schedule prayer breaks during the meeting or you inform the meeting host that you’ll need a 10-15 mins break for your prayers. Meetings should not be used as excuses to miss or delay prayers.
• “Tie your camel” and prepare for the meeting thoroughly: Don’t try to wing it at your meeting; it shows a lack of adab and respect for all attendees. If you’re the host, send the agenda early with relevant documentation. Make sure that the tech equipment and space are suitable for the meeting, etc. If you’re attending the meeting, read about what will be discussed during the meeting, have your own notes ready, and ask questions before the meeting if things are unclear.

During the meeting:

وعنه عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال‏: ‏ ‏”‏ما جلس قوم مجلساً لم يذكروا الله تعالى فيه، ولم يصلوا على نبيهم فيه، إلا كان عليهم ترة؛ فإن شاء عذبهم، وإن شاء غفر لهم‏”‏ ((رَوَاهُ التِّرمِذِيُّ وَقَالَ: “حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ”))‏.‏

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Whenever a group of people sit in a gathering in which they do not remember Allah the Exalted, nor supplicate to elevate the rank of their Prophet, such a gathering will be a cause of grief to them. If Allah wills, He will punish them, and if He wills He will forgive them.”

Al-Tirmidhi

• Attend the meeting in a state of spiritual purity: Right before the start of a meeting, I recommend that you make wudu (ablution), so you reduce the influence of Shaytaan upon you during the meeting. If you’re able to – ask your colleagues to do the same and come to the meeting with wudhu. If you have more time, pray 2 rakats and ask Allah for ease and facilitation during the meeting. Also, seek forgiveness often before the start of a meeting so your personal sins don’t impact the meeting outcome.
• Say Bismillah consciously: Start the meeting with an audible and conscious Bismillah – truly internalize that you’re starting this meeting “In the name of Allah”. If you can, after Bismillah, begin the meeting by thanking Allah (hamd) and sending peace and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to add more Barakah to your meeting.  
• Start with a Mindful check-in: If you are the meeting host, ask all team members to check in and share where they are at a personal level. This helps you assess people’s emotions and spirituality and may inform how the meeting is conducted. E.g., If someone is having a bad day, as a leader, you can ease the pressure off them during the meeting until they are in a better state. (BONUS: You can try a Mindful Practice advocated by our Mindfulness Masterclass Instructor, Wadud Hassan. He asks attendees to take 3 deep breaths and then explore how they are arriving with their mind, body, and heart. 
• Be vigilant of Shaytaan: Be conscious of Shaytaan trying to create animosity between your team members or fuel anger and arrogance in the room. Saying “Audhu-billahi min ash-Shaytaan-in-Rajeem” when arguments rise helps – or asking teammates to change their positions if things get heated up can help.
• Make proper shura: The purpose of meetings is to discuss topics thoroughly and not force your ideas on the team. Make your case, but be open to changing your mind or adopting decisions you may not like. 

فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ ٱلْقَلْبِ لَٱنفَضُّوا۟ مِنْ حَوْلِكَ ۖ فَٱعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَٱسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَمْرِ ۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُتَوَكِّلِينَ

By an act of mercy from God, you [Prophet] were gentle in your dealings with them- had you been harsh or hard-hearted, they would have dispersed and left you- so pardon them and ask forgiveness for them. Consult with them about matters, then, when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God: God loves those who put their trust in Him.

Abdul Haleem 3:159

• Pause for Athan/Salah: I once attended a meeting with a leader of a large Islamic bank. When the athan went off – he went quiet and paused the meeting. After the athan, he asked that we take a break for Salah and resume the meeting after Salah. This was a  powerful example of Barakah Culture in an organizational setting.
• End the meeting with the kaffartul-Majlis dua: 

وعن أبى هريرة رضى الله عنه قال‏: ‏ قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ “‏من جلس في مجلس، فكثر فيه لغطه فقال قبل أن يقوم من مجلسه ذلك‏: ‏ سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك، أشهد أن لا إله إلا أنت، أستغفرك وأتوب إليك، إلا غفر له ما كان في مجلسه ذلك‏”‏ ((‏‏رَوَاهُ التِّرمِذِيُّ وَقَالَ حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ صحيح)).‏

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Whoever sits in a gathering and indulges in useless talk and before getting up supplicates: ‘Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika, ash-had an la ilaha illa Anta, astaghfirullah wa atubu ilaika (O Allah, You are free from every imperfection; praise be to You. I testify that there is no true god except You; I ask Your Pardon and turn to You in repentance),’ he will be forgiven for (the sins he may have intentionally or unintentionally committed) in that assembly.”

At-Tirmidhi

After the meeting

• Pray istikhara: At the end of the meeting, once you have all the key decisions, pray istikhara either as a team leader or an attendee on all the decisions made and ask Allah SWT for Barakah in those decisions.
• Thank people: Send a thank you note to people who impacted you during the meeting. Maybe they shared something that inspired you or went the extra mile with their part of the presentation. The thank-you doesn’t need to come from the team leader only; it can be amongst team members themselves – privately or publicly.
• Seek forgiveness: Sometimes, in meetings, we say or do something that may be inappropriate. Reach out to the person you may have unintentionally offended and seek their forgiveness. If it’s something that you feel impacted the whole team – write/speak to them individually or as a group and seek forgiveness. Don’t let Shaytaan run between you and cause enmity. 
• Give sincere naseeha and feedback: Sometimes, you may notice a behavior from someone they may not be aware of that negatively impacts the meeting, e.g., showing up late always, or rolling their eyes when someone disagrees with them, or constantly interrupting the speaker. After the meeting, speak to them privately about the behavior and how it impacts the meeting. Give them sincere naseeha regardless if they are the CEO or the youngest intern. 
• Take action and take responsibility for the decisions made in shura: When Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) conducted shura on what to do before the battle of Uhud (whether to stay in Madinah or leave the city walls). The decision was made to go out of Medina – which wasn’t his personal preference. However, once the decision was made, he put on his armor and prepared to leave. Even when the companions felt bad that they convinced the Prophet to do something that he didn’t prefer – he didn’t change his mind but committed to the decision made in shura.
• Pray for your team: After the meeting ends, and perhaps after your istikhara prayers, take time to pray for your team privately. Ask Allah to bless them, ease their affairs, inspire them, and not let Shaytaan come between you all. These duas will be the spiritual glue that will keep the team harmony together.
• Reflect and introspect: Take some time to reflect and hold yourself accountable for your performance during the meeting. Not only from a professional point of view but also from a spiritual point of view. How was your qalb during the meeting? How was your nafs? What can you do differently next time to improve your professional and spiritual performance? (Hint: Use the end-of-day reflections in the Barakah Journal to help you with this exercise).

The above is not an exhaustive list of things you can do to attract Barakah to a meeting. However, I hope it’ll inspire you and your team to start thinking of meetings not as dreaded time-wasters but as opportunities to cultivate Barakah for yourself and organizations, insha’Allah.

If you’re interested in cultivating Barakah Culture for your organization, get in touch with us to learn more about our faith-based productivity and leadership training for teams. 

The post When Souls Meet: How to fuse Barakah into your meetings? appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

This is what Surat Al Mulk (‘The Sovereignty’ Chapter 67 of the Qur’an) presents; it gives a powerful perspective and a means to find peace and answers to many of the fears and uncertainties ahead. In this article, we’ll share a few thoughts and lessons inspired by this Chapter.

A Mindset Shift: Give up Control to The One in Control

تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي بِيَدِهِ الْمُلْكُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“Exalted (Blessed) is He who holds all control in His Hand; and He has power over all things” (Qur’an 67: 1)

On March 29, The Director-General of the World Health Organisation tweeted one word commenting on the global pandemic, and that was “Humility”. He explained in a later conference that this pandemic made us realize how vulnerable we all are. We are not in control, so we have to be humble. Even the world’s greatest powers are humbled. Which world leader, king or CEO can come out and comfortably say, “don’t worry, I have everything under control”? None.

The first word of Surat Al-Mulk in Arabic is often translated to blessed or exalted. Yet, the word “Tabaraka”, is a superlative form for the word “Barakah” that contains all meanings of exaltation, greatness, abundance, and permanence of virtues and excellences. When this superlative form of Barakah is describing God, it means He is Unlimitedly Superior over everything else in His creation, He has complete control and the entire dominion of the universe is in His grip.

Why is this relevant?

Humility

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 29, 2020

One of the primary Barakah Culture mindsets we promote at Productive Muslim Company is: being Allah-centric versus being Self/Ego-centric. This is important now more than ever as we’ve realized how the self is limited and how incapable it is to deal with inevitable matters beyond our human capacity. If matters were strictly in the hands of our limited worldly means, we should certainly panic. But when we are directed to the Unlimited, we experience peace and tranquility knowing that He is capable over all things.

Before this pandemic, many of us were centering our lives around mini-gods we created and served with our time and utmost attention, like our work and relationships. Yet all these things are now submitting to new realities beyond their control. That career which was making us miss prayers, disconnect with our family, and be busy in the “rat race” of life is now potentially not going to survive this pandemic. Those social relationships which made us neglect our values all in the name of “fitting in” may not be accessible for a long time. It’s as if we’re being directed to let go of these ‘mini-gods’ and instead connect and pray to The One True God, Who’s truly in control. We realize the helplessness of all that we felt was important before, and we turn for help, peace and a feeling of vastness and abundance from The Vast, The All-Capable. When we align our will with The Will of the One in control, it can lift much of the fear and burden we experience.

“And it is Allah’s Will to lighten your burdens, for humankind was created weak.” (Qur’an 4: 28)

Lesson #1: Be Allah-Centric, not self-centric. The whole world from the East to the West is in His Hand. When we align with The One in control, the Capable Owner, not the limited creatures, this will give peace and alleviate much of our panic, stress, and anxiety.

Dealing with the Fear of Death

الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفُورُ

“[He] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed – and He is the Exalted in Might, the Most Forgiving -” (Qur’an 67: 2)

The modern world has difficulty processing death and is obsessed with Life.  Yet, Allah highlights in this verse that He created death before He created life. The time, date, and scenario of our death have been decreed by the Creator before He breathed life into our bodies. In a hadith, narrated Abdullah bin Mas`ud, that “The Messenger of God Muhammad, the true and truly inspired, narrated to us:

Verily the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother’s womb for 40 days in the form of a nutfah (a drop), then he becomes an alaqah (clot of blood) for a like period, then a mudghah (morsel of flesh) for a like period. Then an angel is sent to him (by Allah) and the angel is allowed (ordered) to write four things; his rizq (sustenance), his (date of) death, his actions, and whether he will be a wretched one or a blessed one and then the soul is breathed into him.” [Sahih Al Bukhari]

This is an important reminder: The Coronavirus will not create anyone’s death beyond the decree of the Creator Himself. It will not speed up or delay our death; our death date has already been decided before our souls were breathed into us. This necessitates that we don’t panic over the Coronavirus itself. But to benefit from the pandemic as a strong reminder of the closeness of death.

When we are afraid and panicking over our lives and/or our loved ones’ life, what we can do is turn to the Creator of death and life remembering that He is The Incomparably Merciful and Compassionate. And we ask Him “O Allah, if you have decreed that this is the time for me/my parents/my children to return back to You, then descend upon us Your mercy and reassure our hearts, and make our meeting with You the best day we’ve ever lived. And if you know that it is best for us to remain alive and increase in good actions in this life, then, give us steadfastness and enable us to do what is best for us to do in this life and protect us the way You protect your closest slaves”.

Acknowledging that Death has been decided for us is to acknowledge that this life is not the end. It is a phase. And the phase must end sooner or later, so we accept that in peace and get ready and look forward to the coming eternal period. This is living with an Akhirah/Hereafter-focus (another Barakah Culture Mindset).

When we die, we go back to Allah, the Creator whose Beautiful Names include The Incomparably Merciful, The Source of Beauty, Light, Peace, Affection, Generosity. Going back to Allah is not a source of panic, rather it’s the ultimate moment of peace. As the Prophet taught: “None of you should die but hoping only good from Allah, the Exalted and Glorious.” [Sahih Muslim]

Lesson #2: Be-Akhira Centered and not Worldly-Focused. When we remember that death is not created by Corona, but created by Allah, we don’t overly fear Corona, but we take the necessary precautionary measures and turn to Allah. We only need to do as much good as we can do, and surrender to Him, and He is The Most Generous and Most Forgiving towards those who surrender to Him.

Dealing with Panic over Safety & Security

أَمَّنْ هَذَا الَّذِي هُوَ جُنْدٌ لَكُمْ يَنْصُرُكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ الرَّحْمَنِ إِنِ الْكَافِرُونَ إِلَّا فِي غُرُورٍ

“Or who is it that could be an army for you to aid you other than the Most Merciful? The disbelievers are not but in delusion.” (Qur’an 67: 20)

The greatest countries of the world have spent fortunes on armies and weapons, but all of this is not helping them fight an enemy so small that it can’t be seen with the naked eye.

“Or who is it that could be an army for you to aid you other than the Most Merciful?”

There is no army, no guns and no tanks that can help anyone if Allah decided to affect them with the disease.

The Prophet explains “(There is) no ‘Adwa (no contagious disease that is conveyed without Allah’s permission).” [Sahih Al Bukhari]

This means that no disease will decide on its own who to infect beyond the permission and decree of Allah . The matter is beyond the calculated human control. These reminders are a means for people to reflect, turn to Allah and overcome their self-centeredness.

On the authority of Abu Abbas Abdullah bin Abbas who said “One day I was behind the Prophet [riding on the same mount] and he said,

“O young man, I shall teach you some words [of advice]: Be mindful of Allah and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, then ask Allah [alone]; and if you seek help, then seek help from Allah [alone]. And know that if the nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had already prescribed for you. And if they were to gather together to harm you with anything, they would not harm you except with what Allah had already prescribed against you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.” [Tirmidhi]

Lesson #3: Take the means but don’t be attached to the outcomes/results, and increase your mindfulness of Allah. This is a reminder to reclaim our sense of humility instead of arrogance over our means and resources because we’ve seen how the strongest of means can stand helpless if Allah wills.

Dealing with Fear over Scarcity of Resources & Provision

أَمَّنْ هَذَا الَّذِي يَرْزُقُكُمْ إِنْ أَمْسَكَ رِزْقَهُ بَلْ لَجُّوا فِي عُتُوٍّ وَنُفُورٍ

“Or who can provide for you if He withholds His provision? Yet they persist in their insolence and their avoidance of the Truth.” (Qur’an 67: 21)

The fear over the scarcity of resources and provision has led many people to hoard goods and empty supermarkets’ shelves. People’s fears are understandable, some have kids or old parents and are afraid of not being able to go out if they have to quarantine themselves. On a more grand scale, with a looming global recession, there are legitimate fears of losing one’s job and means of income.

It’s in the human instinct to hoard things and fear uncertainty, yet the above verse reminds us to embrace the abundance mindset knowing that sustenance is not confined by worldly resources, rather it comes from Allah .

One man came to the Prophet and he gave him until he was pleased, then this man returned to his people saying: “O my people! Embrace Islam because Muhammad gives like one who has no fear of poverty!” [Muslim]

This is the abundance-mindset. Our hearts should not be attached to what’s on the supermarket shelves or any worldly provider, our hearts should be attached to the endless source, The One who provides from the heavens and the earth, and He is unboundedly and unlimitedly Vast and never affected by any circumstances.

To bring this meaning closer, in a powerful hadith, the Prophet narrates that Allah Almighty says:

“O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, and the humans of you and the jinn of you, were all to stand together in one place and ask of Me, and I were to give everyone what he requested, then that would not decrease what I Possess, except what is decreased of the ocean when a needle is dipped into it.” [Muslim]

This is why the Prophet said that giving is a sign of faith because panic and withholding means one only sees worldly providers and disregards the Unlimited Source of Provision.

A man asked the Messenger of Allah Muhammad : ‘O Messenger of Allah, which kind of charity is best? He said: ‘Giving charity when you are in good health, and feeling stingy, hoping for a long life and fearing poverty.”‘ [Sunan an-Nasa’i]

And he also said,

“[…] charity is a proof (of one’s faith), and patience is illumination, and the Qur’an is a proof either for you or against you. Every person starts his day as a vendor of his soul, either freeing it or causing its ruin.” [Muslim]

So, this is the time to believe in Allah and adopt the abundance mindset – especially with the month of Ramadan ahead of us – and in doing so, you will see how much vastness will enter your heart and life. The Prophet said: “If you all depend on Allah with due reliance, He would certainly give you provision as He gives it to birds who go forth hungry in the morning and return with a full belly at dusk”.

Lesson #4: Attach your heart to Allah and give. ِAllah Almighty says in a Hadith Qudsi: “Spend (on charity), O son of Adam, and I shall spend on you.” [Bukhari and Muslim].The worldly resources are not our sole providers, they’re just means, our sustenance comes from above unlimitedly through Allah. Allah can open and create means where you couldn’t imagine and couldn’t expect.

Remembering our Ultimate Destination and Moving Steadfastly Towards It

أَفَمَنْ يَمْشِي مُكِبًّا عَلَى وَجْهِهِ أَهْدَى أَمَّنْ يَمْشِي سَوِيًّا عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

“Who is better guided: someone who falls on his face, or someone who walks steadily on a straight path?” (Qur’an 67: 22)

Because of the fear and uncertainty of the global pandemic, many people have found themselves panicking or feeling low and depressed. We need to challenge ourselves and truly recognize that this world is not the end. We’re not going to stay here forever. This shall pass, like everything else.

Life is a journey; any journey has paths. And the straight path has a clear beginning and an end. In Islamic theology, Allah reminds us that we come from Him and we’re journeying back to Him; this reminder in times of difficulty is important because it brings to our attention the destination and that whatever we’re in is just one stop, not the final point.

“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. And give good news to those who patiently endure—who, when faced with a disaster, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah and indeed to Him we will [all] return” Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are rightly guided.” (Qur’an 2: 155-157)

Additionally, the straight path is in the middle of two extremes. one neither reacts with extreme hopelessness nor extreme indifference and obliviousness. The straight path is about balance and moderation in feelings and actions while moving steadily towards our ultimate destination.

The emotional and spiritual impact of remembering the destination is that one feels a sense of relief from sadness. Not necessarily because the situation has ended, but because regardless of how bad it is, it’s not the end. Therefore, the person gets internally strengthened and comforted due to connecting their hearts and souls with their Creator and remembering the vast relief that He has prepared in the destination to come.

“As for those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and take the straight path towards Him, the angels come down to them and say, ‘Have no fear or grief, but rejoice in the good news of Paradise, which you have been promised. We [angels] are your allies in the worldly life and [are so] in the Hereafter. And you will have therein whatever your souls desire, and you will have therein whatever you request [or wish]” (Qur’an 41: 30-31)

Lesson #5: Look up to Him and have hope in Him and keep moving towards Him. Try not to spend too much time looking down in this world and getting absorbed in sadness, stress, and anxiety over matters beyond your control (and certainly don’t look down to your phones and get sucked into endless cycles of negativity). Do as much as you can and leave the rest to Him.

Finding Mercy and Peace in the Trust & Submission

قُلْ هُوَ الرَّحْمَنُ آمَنَّا بِهِ وَعَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْنَا فَسَتَعْلَمُونَ مَنْ هُوَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ

“Say, “He is the Most Merciful; we believe in Him and we put our trust in Him…” (Qur’an 67: 29)

The Name of Allah that He chose to use in the above verse is Ar-Rahman, it is a superlative form of Merciful. It means the incomparably Merciful. The name of the womb in Arabic الرحم is extracted from this specific Name of Allah, Ar-Rahman الرحمن. 

‘Abdur-Rahman bin ‘Awf’ said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah saying: “Allah, Most Blessed and Most High, said: ‘I am Allah, and I am Ar-Rahman. I created the Rahim (womb) and named it after My Name.…'” [Jami’ at-Tirmidhi] 

In the aforementioned verse, we are asked to say that we rely upon and put our trust in Ar-Rahman. If we reflect on this early stage of the womb: who was supporting the child in its mother’s womb? Who was feeding it and moving it around and taking care of it completely? It is Ar-Rahman. Even the mother, the most merciful upon her child, was not able to plan and do that on her own. It was a matter left to Allah to create all conditions of comfort for the child’s sustenance and survival in the mother’s womb, and He completely took care of that. 

This is The One we believe in and trust now. And He is perfectly capable of taking care of us now like He’s taken care of us before.

Lesson #6: In remembering the vastness of His mercy, one can submit and trust in peace.

Does this mean we ignore public health measures?

Of course not. We are rewarded to take the means. And all the means that Allah has presented to us are part of His Mercy. The Prophet has instructed quarantine, not placing a patient with a healthy person and regular hygiene as precautionary measures. Another holistic perspective is what the Prophet taught in this hadith, for example, narrated ‘Uqbah bin ‘Amir :

“I asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), “How can salvation be achieved?” He replied, “Control your tongue, keep to your house, and weep over your sins.” [At-Tirmidhi].

The advice here can’t be more relevant today:

• ‌Keep to your house/Stay at home: This is the global request of health officials, and it has been recommended by the Prophet 1400 years ago. Staying at home allows one to collect his thoughts and emotions, and protect himself and others from any potential harm. ‌
• Hold‌ ‌your‌ ‌tongue: Neither flood others with every thought you have, nor open your soul to receiving every thought they present thus overwhelming and stressing your soul. Phone addiction and 24h exposure to media can be very troubling to the soul. Instead, make it a time of peace by unfollowing toxic/unfruitful content, and embrace the quietness and what it’s meant to bring internally.
• Regret your sins/Cry over your sins: Just like the body is purified with water, the soul is purified with tears; the sincere humble tears of acknowledging one’s weakness and shortcomings. This humility brings in the powerful aid of The All-Powerful, The Most Merciful Himself. As the Prophet said, “no one will humble himself for Allah’s sake except that Allah raises his status.”

The imposed confinement and quietness we’re in calls for introspection and self-accountability. It opens room for reflection on one’s purpose in life, shortcomings ‌and‌ ‌the way forward to mend one’s ‌ ‌affairs‌ and evolve from this situation as a better version of oneself. ‌

The purpose of this article is not to negate the importance of taking the means, rather it’s about balancing between taking the physical means while‌ ‌connecting‌ ‌the‌ ‌heart‌ ‌to‌ ‌The‌ Wise, All-Capable ‌Healer‌ ‌Himself. This is a holistic approach that serves the body while attending to the needs of the soul, thus providing the much-needed balance, peace, and tranquility.

Final Thoughts

Before this pandemic, we were hustling. We were rushing, we were not being present in the moment. But now we’re in lockdown. The whole world is in lockdown. Allah has limited our bodies so that our hearts can move.

This is the time to return home in the physical and spiritual sense. Return home with our bodies, and return to Allah with our souls, because our souls too need to connect with its home.

“Indeed we belong to Allah and indeed to Him we will return”

“Those who have faith and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of Allah- truly it is in the remembrance of Allah that hearts find peace” (Qur’an 13: 28)

The post Surat Al-Mulk: A Spiritual Antidote to the Global Pandemic appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

When you read about personal and professional development from just about any perspective or approach, the concepts and ideas are rooted in psychology. Modern psychology and its offshoots of personal development and self-help trends offer a lot of pertinent ideas and resources that all people, including the Muslim community, need desperately as societies become increasingly globalized and disconnected from the ancient wisdom that was inherent in more traditional, local communities and holistic lifestyles. But what these strands of pop psychology also bring with them are foundational assumptions about human nature, some of which are not aligned with the values and principles of an Islamic paradigm, which are baked into the cake. Without realizing it and/or without being fully aware of the repercussions of such philosophical and paradigmatic differences we can open ourselves up to hidden, often unintentional misguidance that can lead to a spiritual crisis, or worse, distance from our inner connection to Allah .

While this could be seen as a dilemma of whether to benefit from the good that these personal development resources have to offer and balance the potential pitfalls that they may present the Muslim trying to walk the path of Islam, fortunately, such a dilemma is unnecessary. There exists within the Islamic tradition an entire “science” of the soul or self which is completely aligned with and based upon the Qur’an and Sunnah and which offers practical solutions to everyday struggles faced by people in the modern world. In fact, this science of the soul is so advanced and comprehensive that it stands to offer entirely new insights to the popular field of self-improvement that even non-Muslims can benefit from. This is the legacy of the turath al Islam (path of Islam) as exemplified by our Beloved Prophet, peace be upon him, and is the birthright and heritage of every Muslim. Unfortunately, this knowledge has been all but lost and forgotten in the collective consciousness of today’s ummah. In this article, we want to share a glimpse of this turath and its impact on modern life and self-help.

The inherent psychology within Islam

Our perspective of Islam can often be one dimensional, especially if we have not done our own deep exploration of the teachings within the context of traditional Islamic spiritual education (tarbiyyah). As many followers of a religion, whether accepting that of their parents’ beliefs and rituals or individually choosing to follow the path set out by religious teachings, there is a tendency to see religion as a set of prescriptions that one must follow in order to be in God’s good graces. Religion has become institutionalized to the point that we make edifices out of the religion as a thing in and of itself, rather than understanding it as a path of guidance to follow in order to grow developmentally as a human being. What this can amount to is a relationship to the religion that is more transactional than it is transformational. We do what we have understood we are supposed to do with a belief that certain behaviors and actions or inactions will result in us being in God’s good grace, without necessarily transforming the state of our being or doing any work from the inside out. However, the Qur’an is replete with messages of the need for personal transformation and accountability within our innermost selves, as it says:

“[…] Allah does not change a people until they change what is in themselves” (Qur’an 13: 11)

What does it mean to change what is in oneself, what does that amount to, and how does one do this? These are all questions that could be assumed to be confined within the domain of the field of psychology, and yet the answers are all detailed within the Islamic tradition. What we have come to know as the academic discipline of psychology, a word which literally means the study of the soul, was not traditionally conceptualized as such in Islamic teachings because the study of the soul is embedded within the content of the entire Qur’an and Sunnah. The knowledge of the soul and its development is spread throughout the many branches of knowledge within the Islamic tradition, as there was previously no distinction or separation between the following of the religion and the individual effort to work on oneself in the process of inner transformation. We have become disconnected from the inherently holistic worldview which Islam posits and have adopted a disaggregated way of thinking about life and ourselves to the point that it is now necessary to present the Islamic knowledge of the soul in a condensed form that lends parity to that of modern psychology. Thus while our predecessors may not have needed to use terms such as “psychology” to distinguish such endeavors from other parts of the deen, it now becomes imperative for us to understand and define “Islamic psychology”.

An Islamic perspective of the self

Unlike popular conceptions within modern psychology and the dominant discourse of self-help and self-improvement which identifies the notion of the self as being centralized in the mind and in thought, an Islamic perspective of self includes multiple aspects of the whole being. Cartesian philosophy, which posits the notion of “I think therefore I am” has pervaded contemporary thought to the extent that most conceptions regarding the self within popular psychology are framed around the mind as the central location of human identity. We see this represented graphically in just about any poster or textbook that references psychology being accompanied by a picture of the brain, and by the name of the clinical field being termed “Mental Health”.

Often we see this brain or mind pictured in isolation, seemingly severed from the rest of its body, as similarly there is a tendency to see the body only as a housing for the mind as the core identity of the person. An Islamic perspective, conversely, necessarily posits that the human is a whole, integrated spiritual being which includes the body, mind, heart, and spirit.

Based on the writings and teachings of our learned scholars who have maintained an unbroken chain of transmission in how to interpret the Qur’an and understand the Prophetic tradition, we learn that within the Islamic ontological paradigm the true identity of a person is their soul, which is one integrated spiritual being, including the body. Thus an important distinction in Islamic psychology is that the central identity of the person is the soul, rather than the more narrowly defined notion of the self which is primarily conceived of as the construction of identity-based on personality and memories, which are confined to the temporal world, or dunya. A fundamental aspect of the Islamic conception of the soul is that the starting point in the soul’s journey is not limited to the moment of birth, but includes pre-existence. This goes back to the point of origin of all of the souls when they were created and Allah asked them “Am I not your Lord?” (Qur’an 7: 172). As the Qur’an narrates every single soul that will ever be created was there in that moment and replied: “Indeed we witness” (Qur’an 7: 172).

“And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam – from their loins – their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we witness.” [This] – lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, “Indeed, we were of this unaware.” (Qur’an 7: 172)

This critical moment in the trajectory of every human soul distinguishes the human identity as a soul that is in a state of witnessing that Allah is One and that they (each human being) are servants of the Lord. In other words, it is within our true nature to be dependent on the One God for subsistence and to recognize that Allah is in control of everything, a very different picture than the self that is in control of its own destiny as many popular narratives go in the self-help industry.

Fitrah: The soul’s true identity

The soul’s trajectory becomes a challenge or a test the minute they enter into the dunya in human form as that innate witnessing of their true nature becomes veiled to them, thus beginning the journey back to this witnessing. As Islam narrates, at the end of the temporary state of human life in the dunya all souls will again be made aware of Allah’s omnipotence as the veil is lifted from us, but what each soul has done in terms of their striving to uncover that witnessing in the time they had in the dunya will determine their relative state in the next life. Thus, an Islamic paradigm of psychology is not limited to this life, as contemporary psychology is, but rather includes both pre-natal and post mortem realities. The concept of fitrah, the innate natural disposition of the human being as this soul from its point of origin as a witness of tawhid (Oneness of God) is crucial to a conception of psychology from an Islamic worldview as it fundamentally defines both the picture of healthy functioning and a mechanism for understanding unhealthy functioning. Thus the definition of what we call mental health and wellbeing is connected to the spiritual state of the person, not just their relative level of comfort or happiness in the dunya.

The optimal state of the person then is to be in alignment with fitrah and to uncover that true nature of witnessing which is constantly being veiled and challenged by multiple factors within this life. When we are in a state of submission to the will of Allah we are in our optimal state of functioning and aligned with our fitrah. However, this is a difficult state to maintain as we have several factors impacting our ability to be in the state of remembrance of that true nature which is necessary to maintain optimal functioning. In addition to the external factors in the dunya that distract us from the remembrance of Allah , there is a constant struggle inside of us that we must engage in that amounts to a battleground in our soul. In order to be better equipped for the battle, it is important that we understand the terrain of the soul and how to navigate it.

The structure of the soul

The soul in its pure state, before being covered and veiled from Allah’s reality, has the spark of the Divine breath that was breathed into us, known as the ruh. The ruh, or spirit, is the pure aspect of the human soul that is always there and which cannot be corrupted or misaligned. It is this pure and good aspect of our soul that allows us to always come back to the witnessing of Allah and provides the human being with a direct connection to Allah . While the ruh cannot be corrupted it most certainly can get covered over to the point that we are unaware and disconnected from this part of our soul. When we came into this world our souls were manifested in a physical form, in our bodies, in which we have the nafs, or lower self- the part of us that is bound to our temporal existence here in the world. This is the same self that most of the contemporary psychology deals with exclusively and is what we tend to be most familiar with, as it is how we experience ourselves in the world. This is the part of our self that likes what it likes, has desires and sways us in one direction or another. While it is not bad in and of itself, it has a tendency to lead us away from our fitrah and into a state of ghafla, or forgetfulness of Allah , because it is the part of ourselves that is oriented to the dunya and lives purely in this realm.

The ruh and the nafs can be conceived of as being two opposite poles of which we are constantly being pulled between in the battleground of our soul. We are spiritual beings having physical experiences here in this life and we are pulled between identifying and living in this seemingly separate reality where we are in control of our actions, through our free will, and our innate nature of knowing that we come from Allah and are dependent on Him for everything. The struggle between these two poles is essentially the manifestation of the paradox of experiencing duality in the temporal world while possessing an innate sense of the reality of Oneness (tawhid). Our work here in this life, and therefore our work in our personal and professional development, is to stay engaged in this struggle to constantly strive toward the remembrance of our fitrah to unlock or uncover our true potential as servants of Allah and the akhira as our end, rather than servants of our nafs and the dunya as our end. The central crux of where this battle takes place and what determines our relative outcome is located in the qalb, or heart, which, in an Islamic paradigm, is the center of the self/soul.

The word qalb in Arabic is a linguistic root that indicates turning one way or another. The word taqalab means “to turn”. So the function of the heart is that it can turn, either toward the ruh, or toward the nafs. The extent to which we are consciously able to turn our hearts toward the ruh and thus toward Allah is determined by several factors that cloud, block or impede our ability to do so. When we have unresolved emotional trauma from our experiences in life, whether real or perceived, it can manifest as blocks in our heart that further veil us from being able to witness Allah and turn to our higher nature. What we would normally conceive of as psychological imbalances are therefore not only cognitive but can be traced down deeper into our hearts, our qalb, where certain experiences have essential knocked us out of alignment with our fitrah and put our system out of balance. In addition to these internal manifestations of forces that pull us away from witnessing Allah and submitting to His tawhid, we also have external factors that are inherent in the dunya reality which distract us and pull us toward our nafs, or lower self, when we are in a state of an-nafs al amarah, or the soul that incites to evil. But here the evil can simply be the evil of forgetting our true nature and being subsumed in the illusion of individuation or self-direction.

Self-development as the development of the soul

The work of self-improvement or personal development is the work of constantly staying engaged in the effort to uncover the blocks on the heart, essentially cleaning the heart, and striving and struggling to stay in remembrance of Allah amidst the distractions and downward pulls of the dunya. One aspect of the structure of our souls that can help us in this struggle is the aql, which can be conceived of as the cognitive function, but which is a more Divinely connected kind of reasoning. In the Islamic model of the soul, the aql is not understood as the central driving aspect of the self but is actually better understood as a function of the qalb. In addition to the normal kind of logical reasoning that we attribute to the mind, the qalb has the ability to perceive and to see things as they are. The form of the word aql that is used in the Qur’an is an active verb y’aqiluna and it is used as a descriptor of a function of the qalb, so that the heart has the ability to perceive. It is in using this ability to perceive that the qalb possesses that we can effectively turn our hearts away from the veils of the dunya which result in a state of ghafla, and turn it toward Allah and the akhira, accessing through the point of Divine connection within us, the ruh.

We experience different qualities or characteristics of our soul depending on our relative position in the battleground of our soul. When we are subsumed by the covering on our heart and are in a state of an-nafs al ammarah, we can manifest character qualities that are destructive, such as anger, jealousy, and envy; these are called the muhlikat, or destroyers. And when we are engaged in the struggle of the jihad an-nafs (struggle of the self), attempting to reign in our lower tendencies toward individuation and self-direction, we are in a state of an-nafs al lawwamah, or the self-reproaching soul, where we take ourselves to account and make an effort to doing the work of turning our hearts. This can involve a process of thadhib al akhlaq, or the refinement of character, where through self-awareness we consciously try to change the muhlikat and attempt to emulate good character traits such as courage and wisdom and justice, called munjiyat, or saviors and were exemplified in the perfected character of the Prophet . These manifestations of muhlikat, or negative character, are signs of where we need to do the work on ourselves in our process of personal development with the goal of aligning with fitrah and evolving to our higher self, or the next best version of our self. When we have moments of success in this process we can experience the soul in a state of peace, which is the an-nafs al mutma’inah, or the soul at rest. While it is rare to fully achieve this state, we can get glimpses of it that keeps us motivated to do the work of striving toward that next best version, having more frequent experiences of the state of the soul in an-nafs al mutma’inah. This is the goal of personal development in an Islamic paradigm and there exists within the Islamic tradition a whole host of tools and guidance in the pursuit of the purification of the heart and soul.

An Islamic model of the soul

Click to download the full-sized image

The Islamic model of the soul presented here was developed as a result of the input of 18 scholars with expertise in various branches of knowledge within the Islamic tradition, the details of which are reported in Rothman and Coyle’s (2018) report of the research findings. According to this model, the human soul has an innately pure and good nature, fitrah, that comes from and is connected to God but that becomes covered over and forgotten as a natural part of life in the dunya. Throughout its life in the dunya, within the soul, there exists a dynamic interplay of conflicting forces that affect the psychological state of the person and determine relative levels of alignment or misalignment with fitrah (this process is represented by the purple elements in the middle of the model).

The qalb, which is the spiritual center of the person, and where the faculty of intellect is located as the aql, has the potential to turn in either of two directions which shapes the relative, transient outcome of this conflict. It can turn toward the lower impulses of the nafs and become further misaligned with fitrah by the influences of the dunya and shaytan (satan), resulting in increased negative characteristics of the muhlikat and a state of ghafla, (this process is represented by the red elements toward the bottom half of the model). Or it can turn toward the higher, Godly nature of the ruh with the remembrance of Allah and the akhirah (afterlife), resulting in increased positive characteristics of the munjiyat, and come more in alignment with the soul’s state of fitrah (this process is represented by the blue elements toward the top half of the model).

The relative state of the soul in relation to either of these two poles at any one time is articulated in three distinct stages of the soul’s development throughout life in the dunya, namely: an-nafs al ammarah bil su’, an-nafs al lawwama, and an-nafs al mutma’inah. The model posits that the soul has an inherent inclination toward growth and an upward trajectory in relation to this model, due to its primordial nature of knowing God, and that the Islamic tradition, as guided by the Qur’an and Sunnah, encourages and maps out a path for the human being to pursue this trajectory. This is demonstrated in the description of processes along the path that act as mechanisms for exerting effort in the dynamic interplay within the soul as it struggles between the two opposing forces, namely; jihad an-nafs, tahdhib al-akhlaq, and tazkiyat an-nafs.

Implications for Personal and Professional Development

If we locate our identity within our soul rather than just our self, or the persona that we project in our life, we have the opportunity to take personal transformation to a whole new level. Breaking through the barriers and limitations of our mind and mental worlds is often a critical and necessary step in unlocking our potential and getting to that next best version of our self. However, there are still limitations to our growth if we only conceive of and interact with the cognitive aspect. As the Islamic model posits, the cognitive aspect is one part of a whole, and by recognizing and opening to a more holistic vision of the self, that of the soul, we can access our deeper inner reality and grow in a more profound way.

By adopting an approach to personal development that is informed and guided by the Islamic model of the soul, we have an opportunity to unlock the secrets of the meaning of life and integrate our religious belief system and worldview with our daily life struggle. In fact, this is the necessary pathway to both deepening our understanding of and relationship to Islam and truly advancing our psychospiritual development. This involves not only reorienting our approach to the deen of Islam to be that of a path of self-development but reorienting our notion of self to be one that is centered in the heart.

The Prophet Muhammad said, “there is a piece of flesh in the body and when it is sound the whole body is sound and when it is corrupt the whole body is corrupt and indeed that is the heart”[Sahih Al-Bukhari]

While this certainly has implications for physical health and the physical organ of the heart, our learned scholars teach us that the main intention in this statement was in explaining the nature of our spiritual heart as the center of the human being. The Qur’an tells us that our hearts have the ability to reason and perceive and it is only when the heart is polished that a person can truly see things “as they are”. And yet we rarely operate from a place that is centered in the heart in our orientation to our life in the dunya. We suffer from the nature of the plight of the human being in this life which is that we perceive ourselves as self-directed, individual units who are in control of our own destiny.

How can we possibly work toward achievement and productivity in our lives if we believe that we are not in control? This is the fundamental dilemma that philosophers and critics of religion have debated, and is the same paradox that many Muslims often do not find satisfactory answers to. How do we balance our free will and self-determination with a belief in qadr (destiny)? Self-help guidance often says that we need to have an internal locus of control in order to master our self and take control of our personal development. And yet deeply embedded within the Islamic paradigm and the worldview of a Muslim is that we have an external locus of control, that Allah is the One who is ultimately in control of our outcome. The secret to success in this endeavor of development as a Muslim is to embrace both of these realities, rather than choosing one, it is to embrace the paradox, by which we can witness tawhid (Oneness of Allah).

The post What Islam Offers to Modern Self-Help: An Islamic Paradigm of Psychology appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

So I started wondering: What would that better version of myself be like? How would I feel daily? How would my day start? What would people notice once they see the new version of Me? Those were the questions I pondered on when I decided to join The Productive Muslim Masterclass a year ago. Now, 12 months later, I ask myself how did I live any other way before the Masterclass!

The impact of the Masterclass spiritually

I am now more in tune with my real purpose in life and how beautifully everything would be arranged and managed around that purpose. My main purpose right now in this world is to worship Allah , praise Allah and be Allah’s best ‘abd ( slave). I was worried about everything else in life forgetting about this critical aspect. Just praying and doing the ritual was not enough, 12 months later, I understand and reflect my true WHY in motion.

1. I am going to sleep immediately after I pray ‘Isha (evening) prayer and witr (last night prayer). I am keeping up with all my prayers right on time, or at least within 10 mins from the adhan (call to prayer). I am also completing all the sunnah and nawafil (voluntary prayers). I am building up an army around my kingdom (i.e. my heart – an analogy I learned in the Masterclass)-It’s what my wife and I tell our children to get them to do their Sunnah prayers as well.
2. What is amazing and mind-blowing, I cannot even leave any washroom (public or private) without making wudu (ablution) and needing to make two rak’at nafl after wudu. If I cannot find a spot where I can conduct two rakats after wudu, I make the intention to make the two rakats nafl as soon as I reach a clean and appropriate spot to conduct them.
3. Since the Masterclass and learning about the sleep cycles, I sleep after ‘isha around 10 pm and Allah is automatically waking me up between 3:30-4:30 am for tahajjud (night prayer). I find myself mimicking a similar routine as the Prophet ; waking up, reaching for my siwak (organic toothbrush recommended by the Prophet) by my bed table, using my glow in the dark watch to tell the time instead of my cell phone and making a dua (supplication) and thanking Allah for His Mercy and Blessings. I don’t flinch at the time anymore, I am constantly persevering and being consistent in doing my tahajjud.
4. Moreover, I hired a Qur’an/Arabic teacher to keep me accountable in reading my Qur’an 3 times a week with him and daily on my own. It’s really great because I set my environment so that I can create triggers to keep me on task and on schedule. My Qur’an teacher is abroad so his time works perfectly with my Qur’an reading after tahajjud and before fajr (dawn).
5. My teacher moved on to helping me focus on reading Qur’an in Arabic with tajweed (the set of rules governing how the Qur’an should be pronounced during its recitation). Now I have to find time to practice reading Qur’an in Arabic. (i.e minimum read Qur’an daily + 3x weekly with a teacher).
6. As I move on to putting into practice my new-found routine ( the Prophet routine), I’m starting to read books on seerah (Biography of the Prophet ), and other Islamic topics to help purify my heart and soul even more.
7. I am working on memorizing Qur’an daily and hadith (blessed sayings of the Prophet )
8. I am scheduled to do some khutbah (Friday sermons) at some of my local masjids and since I learn to manage myself better versus to manage my time instead, I am getting barakah (Divine blessings) to do more Islamic studies and reading.

I am more at ease remembering the Prophet’s saying:

“What comes your way was meant for you, what did not come your way was not meant for you” [Sunan Abi Dawud]

I have embodied the notion of “ tie your camel” also taught by the Prophet and explained in the Masterclass, to be worry-free, doubt-free of my actions as long as I follow the teachings of Islam, and the Sunnah (teachings of the Prophet ).

Moreover, I created a life that helps me to journey through this world with Islam as my core vehicle and the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad as my compass, my guide, and my GPS.

I have totally adopted the ‘gardener mindset’ vs my ‘carpenter mindset’ that I had before. My wife and children think that I am always happy and never get mad about the change of plans anymore and are now feeling awkward about my calmness. I am now constantly referring to the equation of: “will power+ Natural laws+ Allah’s permission(duas)= outcomes” which was taught in the Masterclass.

I am making dua and talking to Allah every second as if Allah was in front of me. Whenever I need something or going to do something I sincerely express it in my prayer and ask for His permission. This true feeling of freedom and positive attitude is euphoric, almost surreal for my physical heart and for others to comprehend.

The impact of the Masterclass on me physically

Because everything is related and connected to my WHY, to my purpose in life, I am able to instinctively tell myself to do a better job at taking care of the amanah (trust) that Allah has given me to praise Him and worship Him; my Body- the vessel that houses my soul!

I got rid of my destructive mindset of “ it’s all or nothing” either I do my full P90X3 workout every day consistently or I don’t do anything at all. I tossed that thought process out of my mind, and 12 months later after the class:

1. I have incorporated SafeNet triggers to help me to exercises, not as a mode of losing weight or reaching a goal to lose a certain amount of weight but triggers that remind me to exercise as a lifestyle. Not a burden but a duty, a way of life and responsibility.
2. I am keeping up with my fasts on Monday and Thursday but now I am incorporating the white nights( 13-14 and 15 of every Islamic month) and focusing on eating two meals a day and water throughout the day.
3. I am pre-planning the weekly meals for my wife and I so we can maintain a good energy level and sustainability with the two meal maximum that we have daily.
4. My new eating habits have increased my cost for groceries financially but we are buying and making healthier eating choices without feeling guilty of poor eating choices or overweight.
5. I am exercising daily, at least 7 mins to 15 mins, my max is 30 mins; I usually mix my exercise with other outdoor sporting activities such as running, which I plan them not by time but by the number of miles I want to accomplish for that day/week.
6. I even find myself exercising when I am traveling as well; using the hotel gym or my hotel room  without losing the routine because of traveling or Satanic/lower self whispers saying “ it’s too late, don’t worry about it”
7. I am not the type to go to the doctor on a regular basis, I didn’t even have a primary care physician for the longest time but this past year, I became more conscious by being proactive, visiting my primary care physician and checking my overall health (i.e regular physical, dental, and vision check-ups) annually.
8. Amazingly enough, learning about my sleep cycle and my energy levels throughout the day, I have better sleeping habits and a napping habit that works to keep the body healthy. My worship has improved by 10 fold, I am living a more balanced more productive life. I no longer feel like my work is mediocre.
9. Because I work from home, I am napping during the day. This has helped me stay and operate at my full potential daily.
10. Since the Masterclass, I have adopted running as my main physical activity and I have run since January of 2019 to date 390.1 miles.

After one year of putting these habits in practice, using a gardener mindset to help me overcome some of my pitfalls, my duas and my efforts truly created the lifestyle that I always dreamed of having all my life. I have been praying for a positive and happy permanent lifestyle like this: flexible, free from whispers and an environment that molds me into being the best version of myself daily, It’s no longer sporadic life like the seasons come and go!

And socially, that is another story.

The impact of the Masterclass on me socially

I am not a social butterfly like my wife. I don’t call and bring anyone or everyone into my life whenever I meet them.  Byt after the masterclass, 12 months later, for the sake of building a legacy based on sharing and companionship of brothers in my circle and my community, I am starting to meet with one brother for halaqa. For instance:

1. I am doing more volunteer work with the non-profit organization I used to work for and I am getting more involved with them (food pantry, fundraising and more).
2. As a member of MGA-for ICNA, I got more involved with them in setting projects that are beneficial for the community. Dawah booth and picnic event where my wife and children and I volunteer.
3. I found more time for me to read books of interest and sharing the knowledge gained from them with others.
4. I am conducting khutbas in some masjids as they invite me and or as the non-profit needs me to conduct to help at fundraising events and so forth.
5. I started a halaqa group, for a band of brothers can share thoughts, struggles, and successes with each other while we learn the best way for us to conduct ourselves to keep up with the world we live in and our daily life.
6. I am happy to see I started my small consultancy side business.
7. I am managing myself to create quality time with my children, my wife, and my community.
8. I am attending a networking gathering where I learn and share my beliefs and field of work.
9. Making better and growing strong-rooted relationships with family and acquaintances ( i.e neighbors, co-workers)
10. Most of all I now have time to read books and learn from them notions, tips, and tricks to help me become a better consultant and a better servant leader in my field of study and my peer circle.

My goal is to be the best version of myself daily and push myself to its limitless stage where only Allah would know that endpoint. I want to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet . I am doing my best in following how he journeyed through this world. I intend to continue to surround myself with the people, the tools and the processes needed to become that better version of myself daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

I strive to work and to live in this world to reach and enjoy the Akhirah (eternal afterlife) and not live and work for this world only. Let’s just say, I do only the activities that promote the notion that I am ‘tying my camel’ so that Allah would have Mercy and Compassion on me as I work toward trying to please Him . As a slave, I want to be the best SLAVE to my MASTER . I want and will continue by Allah mercy to do my very best and leave the rest to Allah . Inshallah khair ( God willing) I pray that I can be filled with noor (light), be a source of noor (light) and share that noor (light) with the people around me by the Grace, Mercy, and Compassion of Allah .

One of the most important intentions we have at the Productive Muslim company is the holistic impact our programs should have on participants’ lives. So we’ve gathered some of the most inspiring stories that highlight the impact of our 6-week Productive Muslim Masterclass on graduates’ lives on a new dedicated page: Masterclass Graduates’ Stories.

If you feel this Masterclass is what you need to start upgrading to your next best self holistically, then BismAllah, check out the details here. The next masterclass will begin on Saturday, 28th December 2019 (1st Jumadah 1441H), insha’Allah. For any questions, call us at +1 (214) 530-0023, or email us at contactus@productivemuslim.com

The post A Year After Attending the Productive Muslim Masterclass: What Changed in Me Spiritually, Physically & Socially appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.

The Barakah Culture Cards will help you develop the values, mindsets, and rituals that attract Barakah in your personal and professional life.

Designed for Muslim professionals, families, and teams, each card will help you have deep and meaningful conversations with family, friends, and colleagues on what it means to live the life of Barakah.

This product is a great companion to the Barakah Journal.

Each deck contains 17 mindsets, 17 values, and 17 rituals that are drawn from Quranic verses, sayings of Prophet Muhammad , and Islamic tradition that promote Barakah Culture in a person and team.

It is our intention that with these cards, we can equip individuals and organizations with the tools to have a meaningful conversation on how to adopt Barakah Culture in their lives and fight the madness of Hustle culture.

Getting the Cards

How to use the Barakah Culture Cards for yourself and your team?

There are several ways to play with these cards, and you can use your imagination and creativity to come up with imaginative ways to make the most of these cards for learning and training purposes.

Below is our recommended ways to use the cards:

Step 1: Give each individual a set of cards.

Step 2: Ask each person to go through all the cards and divide them into 2 piles:

PILE 1: Place here the mindsets, values, and rituals that you’re currently adopting/implementing in your life.

PILE 2: Place here the mindsets, values, and rituals that you need to work on (or adopt in the future).

Step 3: From PILE 1, pick 3 mindsets, 3 values, and 3 rituals that are MOST important to you (this is not to say that the rest are not important, but these 9 cards are your non-negotiable ones, no matter the circumstances you face in life).

Step 4: If you’re playing these cards with a team, share your top three mindsets, values, and rituals with the rest of the team and explain why. This would lead to eye-opening discussions on what’s most important to each individual team member, and how all team members are complementing each other on Barakah Culture.

Step 5: From PILE 2, pick ONE mindset, ONE value, and ONE ritual that you’ll focus on as an individual in your personal/professional life in the next 3 months.

Step 6: If you’re playing these cards with a team; after everyone shares their one mindset, values, and rituals that they need to work on. Decide on what would be the ONE mindset, ONE Value, ONE Ritual that you’ll work on together as a team.

STEP 7: REGULAR CHECK-INS.

At this point, the exercise is over, however, to ensure that  Barakah Culture becomes part and parcel of your personal and professional development, it’s important to set up regular “Barakah – CheckIn” days with yourself and team to discuss the progress and challenges of adopting Barakah culture in your personal/professional lives.

A FUN AFTERNOON WITH BARAKAH CULTURE CARDS

Here is a fun and educational way for using the Barakah Culture Cards in your organization.

1. Divide the team into 2 teams: Team A and Team B.
2. Place one deck of cards face time in the center of the room divided into the 3 sets of mindsets, values, and rituals.
3. Ask for a representative from team A to come forward and pick one mindset, one value, and one ritual from the deck.
4. The Challenge: They have 1 min to get Team A to guess what is the mindset, value, and ritual they picked up without saying those 3 words! They can give clues or share a story, but they can’t use the 3 words they picked up.
5. If Team A gets the 3 words correctly, they get 5 points. If they can’t guess all 3 words correctly by the end of the 1-minute challenge, Team B will have one chance to guess the 3 words and get the 5 points.
6. Switch to Team B and repeat the challenge! The team with the highest scores wins the game.

The keyword here though is “play”. We want people to engage with these cards as a playful, yet meaningful and thoughtful, exercise.

Additional Discussion Prompts

1. Connecting Barakah Culture Cards to Issues: Identify issues affecting the team and organization. Connect the cause of the issue to a lack of any Barakah Values, Mindsets or Rituals. Discuss actionable steps.
2. Connecting Barakah Culture Cards to Experiences: Ask team members to share one Barakah Mindset, Value, or Ritual which they learned through experience and the impact that experience had on their personal and professional development.
3. Connecting Barakah Culture Cards to Family: Identify a card that represents a Value, Mindset or Ritual you have learned from a parent or grandparent, or that you have taught to your children. Share the value and what it means to you / your family.

We’d Love Your Feedback

We’re excited to release these Barakah Culture Cards globally and we can’t wait to hear stories from individuals and teams on how these tools have helped them bring tangible success, motivation, and Barakah in their personal and professional lives. To share your story (or any feedback) you have with these cards, please email us at contactus@productivemuslim.com with the subject line: Barakah Culture Cards.

Acknowledgments

All praise is due to Allah for enabling us to produce these cards and peace and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad who is the embodiment of Barakah and role model for the Ummah. The following Productive Muslim Company team members and partners were involved in the development of these cards: Dina Basiony (Author), Aneesah Satriya (Designer), Mohammed Faris (Editor), Quratulain Tariq (Illustrator), Khadijah Alston (Logistics Coordinator), and Mohamed Hendi (Printing & Production). The cards are still a work in progress and we’d love your feedback to keep improving the quality and content of these cards with Ihsan.

The post The Barakah Culture Cards: A Practical Tool to Cultivate Barakah Culture Mindsets, Values & Rituals appeared first on ProductiveMuslim.com.