Productive Muslim’s Guidelines for Contributors
“And that there is not for man except that [good] for which he strives
And that his effort is going to be seen –
Then he will be recompensed for it with the fullest recompense” (Qur’an 53: 39-41)
Productive Muslim is a pioneering faith-based personal development company that helps individuals and teams live the best version of themselves: spiritually, physically, and socially. Our work draws on our rich Islamic heritage and combines it with the modern science of productivity and peak performance to help working professionals win more days, overcome stress, and live a meaningful impactful life.
Our main audience is the busy working professionals who are struggling to balance between their spirituality, family life, careers, and personal development. These are individuals or teams who find that their Nafs (selves) and Shaytaan (Devil) is making them stuck in the rat race of life, losing the battle for their soul every single day. Throughout our work, we try to arm our audience with the practical knowledge and frameworks to effectively lead holistic lives and avoid regret here or in the hereafter.
We have four main categories of content:
- Spiritual Productivity: This focuses on linking spiritual life to day to day life challenges; How does Salah help us be the better version of ourselves? How does reciting the Qur’an each day helps us live balanced lives? What was the Prophetic model for success? The goal of the articles here is to help individuals and teams realize the power of spiritual mindsets, values, and rituals to achieve success in this life and the next. Our goal is to reject the notion that spirituality is simply a hobby or something we do on the side, instead, we firmly believe that it is core to our existence in this life and can help us live meaningful/impactful lives.
Examples:
How Being Chronically Late for Salah Affects Your Productivity & What to Do About It
The Daily Routine of Prophet Muhammad
How Faith Can Help You Strike Work-Life Balance: Qur’anic Inspiration for Self-Development - Physical Productivity: This focuses on how to hack our brains and bodies to optimize physical & mental health for higher performance across all our roles (not just for work). How does eating better, sleeping better, staying focused, and exercising more help us become the best version of ourselves at home, at work, and in our community?
Examples:
How Fasting Can Make You More Disciplined in Your Career
[Fitness Series]: Nutrition Hacks to Keep Energy Levels High All Day
Here is Why Sisters Need to Exercise, Eat Clean & Become Healthier Today! - Social Productivity: This focuses beyond the individual to the relationships we have with others and the human community at large. It shows how to lead a meaningful social life (starting with our families, relatives, neighbors and beyond) that leaves you with an honorable legacy that lives on in this world and reaps continuous fruits in the hereafter.
Examples:
8 Ways Your Siblings Can Be A Source of Barakah for You
What I Learned from My Grandfather, Rubeya Abdullah Bin Faris, Who Just Left this World
[Raising a Firm Believer – Part 2]: Faith, Strength, Leadership, and Action - Ramadan Productivity: This focuses on how Ramadan can be a catalyst for growth and development, how to reach your own best performance every Ramadan spiritually, physically and socially, and how to use this month to actualize your best self and reach your goals here and in the hereafter.
Examples:
The Ramadan Debate: Spirituality vs. Productivity
Are You Panicking Yet? Here is How to Master Your Mind in Ramadan
3 Steps to Supercharge Your Health, Energy & Productivity this Ramadan!
Ramadan is Just the Beginning: How to Plan for Lasting Changes
Guidelines
- All pieces must answer our main question: How can our reader live the best version of himself/herself, spiritually, physically, or socially
- Originality: Submissions must not have been published before.
- Timelessness: Make sure your article stands the test of time. Imagine your children, grandchildren reading it 100 years from now :)
- Universality: Make sure your piece appeals to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Our content is not exclusive to Muslims only, we appeal to a wider audience and showcase the beauty, relevance, and practicality of the Islamic tradition to the world. So please explain any Islamic terminology you use, and don’t assume that your audience understands some of the Muslim/cultural nuances.
- Practical tips are a must: We aim to provide more than just a nice-read or feel good article for our audience. We make sure each piece provides actionable tips to help our readers practically transform to the better, intellectually, spiritually, physically, or socially.
- Multimedia is welcome: If you have audio, video, or imagery that you feel would make your article pop, we welcome that!
- Write with sincerity: We’re giving advice throughout our articles, and the best advice is the one encapsulated in sincere compassion (and not being judgemental or making others feel bad or that they are worthless).
- Readers should be able to scan the article easily: Break down your articles into bite-size chunks. No essays or bulky content, please. Our readers are busy, reading their articles on their phones between meetings, or while commuting, or just before sleeping. They spend an average of 1 min and 30 seconds reading an article. You want to deliver the maximum value for the short time they are on your article.
- Add real-life stories or get personal: Share real-life stories from your own life or those whom you know. We don’t want theoretical/impossible to achieve ideals on our blog.
- Length: This depends on the topic and the depth of your research/analysis. We’re not aiming for short/long pieces per se, but we’re aiming for the richness and quality of the content and the value it adds to our readers. So, as long as it’s justifiable, long pieces will be accepted.
- Expertise: Show us why/how you are well acquainted with the topic you’re discussing. The more expertise you have in the field/topic you’re writing about, the more credible/effective the piece will be. We don’t necessarily expect all authors to be well-known writers/experts, but we expect them to have adequate knowledge of the topic they’re writing about.
- Back up your argument: we expect information provided in the pieces to be backed up with research, data and/or statistics to make the points stronger and more relevant.
- Properly cite Islamic information: Whether you derive your inspiration from the Qur’an or Sunnah (sayings/actions of the Prophet), please include proper references. Verses must be referenced from www.quran.com and hadiths must be referenced from www.sunnah.com or www.islamqa.com
- Plagiarism is intolerable! If plagiarism is detected in an article, we will delete the article and halt all future interactions with the author.
Process notes
- We highly appreciate your time and your sharing of your knowledge with the audience. Kindly please note the following:
- We receive quite a large volume of submissions every month.
- We will not accept submissions that don’t fit our guidelines above.
- We might not be able to personally respond to every rejected submission. If you don’t hear from us within 6 weeks, please assume that your article is rejected and feel free to publish elsewhere.
- If your piece has been accepted, we will get back to you within 3 weeks.
- If your piece has been accepted, you will be updated about the editorial status.
- We edit content for flow, professionalism, and/or accuracy and select appealing headlines to make sure articles reach the targeted audience.
- For maximum benefit to our audience, we may add important announcements/ads about our other services in relevant articles.
- You can send us your piece through the submission form below. Word doc or google drive attachments are accepted.
- If you have questions, you can email: content@productivemuslim.com
We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
Contributor Responsibility Post Publication
Reader interaction: Once your article is published, please interact with comments left for your article on ProductiveMuslim.com. We ask you to:
- Respond to every comment (if possible) as an appreciation to readers’ time and contribution.
- Avoid digital fights.
- if you’re challenged, please have patience and explain your position politely.
Sharing the article in relevant circles: You are encouraged to share the link to your published article in your own relevant circles as well to make sure the message reaches those who need it.
How do I submit an article?
Does your article help our reader live the best version of himself/herself spiritually, physically, or socially? If yes, great! Please fill the answer below and submit your piece.
