What Is Barakah? The Missing Piece in Modern Productivity

bamum hi everybody and welcome to the Barakah Blueprint podcast for the very first time I'm very very happy to be here alhamdulillah I am very excited to take you with me on this journey where we align faith and focus to achieve success that truly truly lasts alhamdulillah for this opportunity alhamdulillah for the chance of sharing something better beneficial mostly to myself as this benefits the speaker beside the audience but also to share it with you guys so I'm very excited and I am looking forward to this journey that we're going to go on together so to those of you who don't know me my name is Ibrahim Shareef born in Sweden raised in Sweden and for a year I've been living in Dubay in the United Arab Emirates alhamdulillah and I work as a project manager in the it sector and my heart burns and passion for podcasts I used to have a podcast or two in Sweden one is called competence pden one is called suing and inan and Swedish now one was about people of different areas of competence and experience and it was very productivity focused and career development Focus while sunning in Inon or the truth within was more of a religious podcast so I'm looking forward to bring both of these topics together and we're going to be focusing on one topic today which is is going to be the topic of the entire podcast and that is going to be Baraka what is Baraka and how why does that play a crucial part in our journey our career and our success and whatever we're trying to achieve and I'll talk a bit more about that so that I give you a brief introduction both for you as a Muslim who has previously heard the term but also for you who is from a non-muslim background so that you're familiar with this particular concept that we Muslims hold very firm ly onto what I can't tell you here what what what I can sorry what I can tell you here is that Baraka is a crucial part in productivity it is a crucial part in um the success that we want to achieve now you might have read books listened to podcasts seen videos about productivity time management or even tried some tools to boost your efficiency and the quality of your outputs but what I can tell you and what I'm here to assure you of is that if Baraka is not a part of the equation you're going to be missing out on the most crucial Parts you're going to be missing out on the most vital ingredients and you're going to be missing out on meaningful and sustainable success so today I'll explain a bit about Baraka what it is and what role it plays in our lives and why it is the missing piece in today's genre of modern productivity and also how we can practically bring it into our lives so what is Baraka you may have heard of the term before if you are from a non-muslim background and there is a very strong likelihood that you've heard of this term as a Muslim so people usually translate it as blessing but what does it really mean the correct translation of Baraka is that it is a divine blessing a Divine superpower from God that multiplies the effectivity or the quality of something for example it multiplies the quality in your time in your wealth in your relationships in your power in your physique and so on and Baraka isn't just about doing more it's not just about the quantity it's about doing better it's about the better quality so what I'm trying to say with this is that if I was to compare two people one that can achieve tremendous effects in one hour and one that cannot even achieve a tenth of that in8 hours it's an extreme example I know but what I'm trying to say with that is that you're obviously going to prefer to be in the shoes of the person that rece that achieved tremendous effects or tremendous results in the shorter amount of time and that is because the former has Baraka in his time or has bar in his output now a verse that you're going to see at the very top of the cover art of the podcast is the verse from if you are grateful I will increase you and Allah subhana teaches us that gratitude is a crucial part of Baraka it is a crucial part of this multiplication that will bring you the effect and the quality that you're looking for we also learn or we see that there are certain things in life that may not appear to be logical but they work for example Allah subh T gives an example of two things it gives the example of Interest RBA or usury and he gives the example of charity so he says chter number two part number three he says God Almighty removes the Usery but multiplies charity and this is Baraka in its Essence this is Baraka taking effect now even if charity decreases your wealth numerically speaking it won't decrease the effect of the final output that you will receive for example the prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam swore a Divine oath on three things that are a reality and one of them is a servant's wealth does not decrease from the charity he provides and similarly God Almighty says and he he will surely increase and multiply to insurmountable amounts to whomever he pleases so God Almighty will bless those efforts in many ways we cannot imagine now here's one thing that I've noticed as a common Trend or as a common denominator in the modern productivity genre and it is that we should try to squeeze in as much as we possibly can in a time box and what I've noticed here is that as we mentioned in the intro this is missing or this particular approach is missing the element of Baraka now let me ask you this what is the core purpose of being productive and what is the core purpose of being productive for you now every person depending on their outlooks in life and depending on their world view they will give you a they'll give you a different answer they'll give you different nuances of answers for us as Muslims The Core Essence of everything that we do is that we should get closer to God Almighty Allah says in the Quran I have surely created Mankind and the Unseen forces for no other purpose other than worship so everything we do needs to be anchored in one way or another to bringing us closer in God Consciousness to almighty God to our creator so with that I'm trying to say many people forget that part not necessarily the part that we are that we out to spend our time with the with the purpose of worshiping God Almighty doesn't mean that you should or that you will be praying all the time for example or that you will constantly be reciting Quran or other acts of worship what I'm trying to say is that something as simple as creating a podcast can be an act of worship something as simple as playing a a game of paddle can be an act of worship and everything has to do with the intention what I mean by that is that actions are anchored in the intentions that precede them there's a Hadith that is the fat of the books of narrations as in the introduction as in The crucial part which is the Hadith from where the Prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam says every action is anchored onto the intention or preceded by the intention and every person every individual will be rewarded based on the intention they gave so with that being said we need to remind ourselves of the intention for every action that we're doing we need to remind ourselves of the intention what is the goal that we're trying to achieve and that we need to purify Our intention meaning we need to have Clarity of where we're headed and we need to have Purity in in the term that we need to connect whatever we're trying to achieve to God Consciousness there's a reason why this Hadith is the intro is the introductory piece to most Hadith books for example it's the first Hadith in the 14i it's the first Hadith in many other books and there's a reason for that the reason is that it should just like it is the introduction of the books of Hadith it should be the introduction of your life it should be the introduction of Your Action it should be the introduction every single goal you set for yourself meaning it Bears a very significant importance to put it my wildly so before starting anything before starting your project before starting your exercise before starting your work you purify your intentions oh Allah purify my intention oh God Almighty purify my intention and this seemingly small shift can completely transform your approach or should completely transform your approach and can completely transform your results and your output so what are some practical steps to bring into our daily lives number one it is very important to understand that your day needs to be purified if you want to achieve Baraka if you want to achieve blessings in your day and if you want to achieve something that is divinely ordained you need to understand that your life needs to be as synchronized with that Divine code of conduct as possible with that I mean you need to start your day right just like you need to start your goal right and with that being said start your day with start your day with the first of the five daily prayers so with that I mean just like your day starts with a morning just like your day starts with waking up as obvious as it is your productivity should start with obedience and with you starting your day it needs to be started and commence with obedience and with that you have the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam where he says oh Allah bless my nation in the early mornings God Almighty also swears a Divine oath on the qur an recitation in the F times and the Quran of is witnessed upon secondly as I mentioned it's about incorporating gratitude into your life God Almighty says if you are grateful I will surely increase you so it is very very important that we incorporate being grateful into our day and it needs to be a repetitive consistent part for example if you are a person that has it easy to journal have a crucial or have a very visible written part in your Journal where you clearly specify what it is you're grateful for so in other words or another practical step here is that start your day by remembering three things that you're grateful for and keep track on that because the more you look back to it the more you realize how blessed you are in your life and that in itself will automatically bring you better results and a better effect as you're moving forward with life so the third one three out of five as I'll be mentioning five practical steps is to limit your distractions it is very important that we try to stay as focused as we possibly can while being momentarily distracted is something that is second nature almost and it happens to every single one of us for example we end up zombie scrolling on Twitter or Twitter sorry I don't at least we end up zombie scrolling in Tik Tok or through all the reals in Instagram or the YouTube shorts even now people aren't even consuming full YouTube clips except this one I hope no but we end up zombie scrolling and it's very easy to be distracted in today's day and age so it's very important to identify what are the biggest distractions that we face in our lives and or in our in our day-to-day and how can we limit them for example starting your efforts or your day or your project or your exercise with a Bas with bis that that in of itself is a key component to your Baraka or aside from the religious lens or the the spiritual lens when you are entering a work time block use the Pomodoro Technique for example where you have short Sprints of time that you are super productive in and you take then purposeful breaks which brings us to step number four take breaks with purpose take breaks with intention take breaks with the intention of replenishing your energy or refreshing your energy to get closer to Allah subhana wa tala and to get the effect or get the power to continue with whatever initiative you have so that you can get closer to God Almighty and finally reflection it is very important that we reflect on our previous output and what we want to achieve in our next output God Almighty describes the successful folks as those who are reflective in nature he says and they reflect on the creation so it's very important that we reflect on whatever we see around us so that we are conscious and present and not spiritually absent because if we are AB absent in our minds and absent in our spiritual self we will be absent in terms of our goals and where we are and where we want to go we'll be we'll be absent in that Journey we will not be active in that Journey so with that said the essence or the concept of Baraka is that of a ripple effect so when you bring that and when you incorporate that fully and wholly into your life you'll see unimaginable results you'll see how it impacts and fully transforms your productivity journey and you your outputs in that particular day Baraka may not ensure you to work harder but it will surely ensure you that you work smarter for example Allah subh says uh on purpose verily the prayer and I'm paraphrasing the translation sorry he says that the prayer will forbid you from evil prayer will remove evil from your path the more you anchor your time around the prayers around Salah around the acts of worship specifically Salah and specifically your five daily prayers and you see them as as checkpoints in your life or in your day sorry well you'll end up seeing then is that you'll see a purified day and with that you'll see a better presentation of Baraka you'll see that you'll be able to handle challenges and be more patient through the struggles of that day why because you have eliminated you have eliminated Badness you have eliminated that which is against the code of conduct and for me I would say the biggest shift is when I started to incorporate consistency in smaller amounts meaning incorporate the daily and evening AAR every day and every night even if it is something small not so timec consuming but truly brings a an unimaginable effect or spending active time consistent timing with the Quran is in of itself a key component in my life and a key comp opponent in what I have seen in terms of blessings from almighty God so if I can leave you with any piece of advice consider acts of worship where you can remain consistent and have that with the soul and pure intention to connect qualitatively with your creator so with that said and thank you for listening to the very first episode of the Barakah Blueprint podcast the podcast where you align faith and focus to achieve success that truly lasts if you like this leave a like follow the podcast share it with someone who may find benefit in this and remember it's not about how much quantitatively or how much in quantity I need to learn how to say quantitatively is that how you say it you we need to understand that it's not about the quantity it's about the quality it's about what you get from that output or from the input of ours and you'll have a much bigger chance with Baraka playing in your favor so thank you so much for tuning in until next time stay productive stay faithful and stay focused in Baraka Style assalam allum