Productive Muslim 1447H Annual Review: The Barakah of Stability

Alhamdulillah, as the Dhul-Hijjah moon wanes and 1447H draws to a close, the team and I are preparing for our annual retreat reflecting on this Hijri year and planning for the upcoming Hijri year. If you've been following the Productive Muslim journey for a while, this one is for you.

If there was a theme for 1447H, it'd be 'The Barakah of Stability in an Unstable World'. It wasn't easy to run an online training company in the Muslim space with the huge technological and political shifts happening around us. Between AI flooding the world with content, and geopolitical wars that are reshaping how we travel and day-to-day economic realities. The fact that our company is still running in these difficult times, is a huge blessing, alhamdulillah.

Below are some key highlights and reflections I wanted to share on 1447H.

The Barakah of Writing

For years I'd told my wife, friends, and colleagues that writing was what mattered most to me and it was the most impactful thing I could do.

However, when I reviewed my calendar at the end of 1446H, it was clear that I only spent 10% of my time writing. Most of my time was spent on day-to-day running of the business and everything else but writing.

I knew that writing is clear thinking; when I write a book, an article, or a newsletter essay, it's a chance for me to wrestle with some of the ideas and concepts swarming in my mind and try to articulate them clearly. Moreover, I've never experienced a better 'ROI' (Return on Intention) than with writing. There's a form of Barakah in writing that's hard to express. Part of me is not surprised as Allah swore by the Pen in the Quran:

1447H was the year I rearranged my life around writing. I committed to spending 30–50% of my time writing or in writing-related work (researching, editing, wrestling with ideas).

Alhamdulillah, this rearrangement paid off. Within the last 12 months, by Allah's tawfeeq, I was able to complete the first draft of my next book, send 44 newsletters, and write some thoughtful articles such as:

• The Weight of Time (written in Madinah)
• How to Decolonize Our Muslim Corporate Cultures
• How Islam Helps Us To Think in the Age of AI (co-written with AI expert, Dr. Waleed Kadous)

But reclaiming time from a calendar is only half the equation. The harder half is letting go of what used to fill it.

The Barakah of Trust

To reclaim 30–50% of my time for writing, there's something structural that had to change in the way I led the team.

For years, I was involved in multiple Slack conversations, team meetings, and every program launch. And all that time, even though I enjoyed it, was taking me away from writing.

This year, I handed the operational running of The Productive Muslim Company to my dear friend and business partner, Amine Imanssar, and made him CEO of the company, and entrusted him to lead our amazing team: Aneesah Satriya, Leena Imam, Latifa Mak, Najam Ali, Khadijah Alston, and Ghufran Khan.

Alhamdulillah, I can honestly say that this was the best decision I have ever made in the last 18 years at the Productive Muslim Company.

Amine and the team delivered an incredible set of programs for 1447H, including:

• 13 programs and cohorts such as the new Productive Muslim program, the Barakah Effect program, the Book Writing Program, and Barakah in Sleep, and 2 live certification cohorts.
• 100+ live teaching and facilitation sessions across every major program throughout the year
• A new paper product: The Sabr Notepad in partnership with Hafsah Adham
• The Arabic version of the Productive Muslim program, facilitated by Dr. Mohannad Hakeem.

With their support, I delivered workshops from Nairobi to Saudi Arabia. Held virtual training sessions with Google Muslim employees and charity sector employees. I spoke at the Qiyadah Conference and GEMs Summit in Doha where we formally launched the Barakah Culture Company, and held workshops in the Netherlands, and Houston.

Our Productive Muslim Trainers community grew through two certification cohorts in 1447H. Farah Jamil, Latifa Mak, and Dr. Mohannad Hakeem - our key facilitators for many of our programs made them richer than I could have made them alone.

We stepped up our game on social media platforms with thoughtful carousels and reels that are getting far more likes and shares than our usual posts. We also got on popular podcast shows, including:

And then there's the quieter infrastructure work: launch of the brand custom-built ProductiveMuslim website (thanks to my brother Rayyan Faris), lots of back-end optimization and tech improvements, and the formal launch of BarakahFlow as a virtual coworking platform for Muslim professionals.

The Barakah of Community

All the above events would not have taken place without the support of people like you - our readers and students - who read our articles/emails, like/share our social media posts, join our webinars and sign up for our programs.

More importantly, this year, I felt that we finally cracked the code of what it means to have a 'community' with our Barakah Culture Community that has reached 5000+ members strong.

We put together the following flipbook of members who really shined this year.

JazakumAllah khair to all our community! Truly. The fact that you read, share, and show up to the webinars and the live sessions is honestly the reason we're still going.

Looking ahead for 1448H

A lot of seeds planted over the past few years are about to come to fruition inshaAllah.

I want to resist over-promising, but here's what I can tell you to look forward to:

1. A new book is coming insha'Allah - stay tuned!
2. A new leadership program insha'Allah
3. And perhaps a return to some form of retreat… perhaps. :)

Alhamdulillah, it's an honor for us at The Productive Muslim Company to serve you and I ask Allah to continually use us and not replace us as we continue on this path until we meet Him.

See you in 1448H insha'Allah.

P.S. Have ideas for what we need to do in 1448H? Please let us know in the comments below.

P.P.S. Want to do a deep annual review like this with yourself or team, come and join the Annual Hijri Reset. We'll spend 2 days looking honestly at 1447H and setting powerful intentions for 1448H. More details here.