The Productive Muslim: Where faith meets productivity

by Mohammed Faris

Yes, we’ve boosted our productivity as a human race but we’ve also lost three things along the way: our purpose, our values, and our soul.

Values such as amanah (trust), sidq (honesty) and ihsaan (excellence) help us be truthful in our lives and uphold the highest standards of morality. Other values include adl (justice), rahma (mercy), and rifq (gentleness). All these values help maintain human dignity.

Moreover, Prophet Muhammad (s) taught us that a person would be asked about five things on the Day of Judgement: his knowledge and how he used it, his youth and how he spent it, his life and how he lived it, and his wealth (where he got it from and how he spent it).

This is how our sabr should be - not a passive act of waiting, but an active fight for survival, growth, development and results.

our number one priority even when the world is about to end is to make the earth a better place - even with one last plant sapling.

While the Islamic definition of worship is very broad and encompasses everything that God is pleased with, we can easily extend the concept of ihsan to day-to-day life, striving to achieve excellence and perfection in all that we do. Imagine approaching your work with the understanding that Allah is watching you. What sort of spiritual energy would you be filled with?

Prophet Muhammad (s) said: “Whoever does not argue when he is in the wrong will have a home built for him on the edge of Paradise. Whoever avoids it when he is in the right will have a home built for him in the middle of Paradise. And whoever improves his own character, a home will be built for him in the highest part of Paradise”.

“The most successful people use their mornings for these things: 1. Nurturing their careers - strategising and focused work 2. Nurturing their relationships - giving their families and friends their best 3. Nurturing themselves”.

“I warn you from procrastination for it is a soldier from the soldiers of Iblis”. Ibn Abbas has a great quote saying, “Slackening married laziness and they gave birth to poverty”.a