I asked our Barakah Effect course students to practice a simple exercise. Before every action, they needed to pause and ask themselves, “How can I please Allah SWT through this?”
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When Life Gets Confusing, Clarify Your Intention
When life throws you a curveball, don’t just focus on solving the immediate problem. Step back and reconnect with your deeper intention. Let that intention be your Qibla, guiding you through whatever storms lie ahead.
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When You Just Don’t Feel Like It (Overcoming Laziness)
I wrote about ‘ajz, that feeling when you want to do good but feel powerless to act. Today, I want to explore its close cousin: kasal (laziness).
While ‘ajz is “I want to, but I can’t,” kasal is “I want to, but I just don’t feel like it.”
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When You Want to Do Good But Can’t
‘Ajz is often translated as “deficiency” or “incapacity,” but these translations barely capture what this feeling really means. It’s not kasal (laziness); when you’re lazy, you want to do something but don’t feel like it. ‘Ajz is when you want to act but feel utterly powerless to do so, whether due to personal circumstances (lack of money, time, resources) or external barriers (politics, distance, systemic limitations).
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The Sacred Art of Writing Books (& How AI Might Change It)
As I held my pen, I wondered: in an age where AI can write entire books in hours, what makes human writing uniquely valuable? And how do we honor the sacred act of writing while engaging with these powerful new tools?
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👁️ How Evil Eye & Envy Impact Your Productivity (And How to Protect Yourself)
The Quran and Sunnah don’t treat these as mere superstitions. Allah SWT commands us to seek refuge from “the evil of the envier when he envies” (Quran 113:5), and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “The evil eye is real. If anything could overtake the divine decree, it would be the evil eye.” (Muslim)
Yet many of us dismiss these spiritual realities as “superstitious” or “old tales,” especially professionals trying to “fit in” with secular workplaces.
I want us to understand this topic from a balanced perspective. There are usually two extremes: those obsessed and anxious about “nazar” and being envied, and those who dismiss such claims and expose themselves to the harm of the evil eye.
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