Episode 0: Introduction to Building with Barakah
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What are the intentions behind Building with Barakah? What even is barakah? This introductory episode seeks to answer these questions.
🔗 Check out the interview between Mohammed Faris and Peter Gould: peter-gould.com/interviews/building-with-barakah
Transcript
Bismillahi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Alḥamdulillāhi r-Rabbi l-'ālamīn, ar-Raḥmāni r-Raḥim. Wa ṣ-ṣalātu wa s-salāmu 'ala sayyiduna Muḥammad wa 'ala ālihi wa s-Sahbihi ajma'īn.
As-Salāmu ‘alaikum!
Welcome to Building with Barakah. This is a podcast about institution building in the Muslim community — specifically, and this is an important qualification, those organizations that seek barakah from Allah. So before I go into the podcast, this word barakah is an important one to define. The definition I'm going to use is one that I'll be borrowing from Mohammed Faris, who is the founder of Productive Muslim which is an organization that teaches the science of productivity through a Muslim lens.
And this is taken from an interview with our mutual friend Peter Gould, whom you'll get to know in a future episode insha'Allah.
I like Mohammed Faris's definition because it's not overly "academic", and it's easy to grasp for a layperson.
Mohammed Faris's example goes something like this:
imagine that you invite your friends over for dinner and you're only expecting like a handful of people, and then one of them shows up with their whole family in tow, and now you're a little bit worried is they're going to be enough food for everybody. But subhanAllah, as a result of your good intention to feed people, there is enough to feed everyone and even send them all home with some leftovers.
This kind of increase is one aspect of barakah that is quintessential and mysterious.
I'll link the full article to the show notes, the interview between Mohammed Faris and Peter Gould. It's definitely worth a read and it's definitely going to, I hope, enrich your understanding of this word.
But for now, suffice it to say that when we undertake something that has barakah in it, our intentions are oriented towards the Hereafter and the thing we are undertaking has Allah's pleasure. That results in a level of khair, a level of impact and success that would not otherwise be possible.
With that definition of barakah in mind, let's talk about the intentions behind the Building with Barakah podcast. There are three worth mentioning here.
The first is to inspire Muslims to think more about institution building in general. Masha'Allah, we have a lot of very intelligent, very talented men and women in our community. We, of course, have our doctors and engineers. But we also have our social workers, our nonprofit workers, our teachers, our creatives, our inventors, our executives, our public servants. A lot of the focus, and I think this is in part because of the broader culture that we are all immersed in, is on upward mobility and climbing up the corporate, career ladder. I'm not arguing against a career. But I do feel that it's a waste if a person spends all of their life and their expertise solely on enriching the Amazons and Apples of the world. And that's why I want to get people excited for either building their own organizations to fulfill a truly important need. Or to contributing to one that already exists and is in need of their talents. And I pray that Allah makes this podcast a catalyst, even if it's only for one person.
The second intention is to gain and share knowledge of institution building from a Muslim perspective. A lot of the books, podcasts, journals, influencers and even university courses, they all operate from a worldview that is different to the Islamic one. And at times it's counter and even antagonistic towards it. Where some wisdom exists in the secular, we can certainly take it, but often even that is lacking a depth of perspective and a spiritual dimension that an Islamic worldview can provide. And I hope to do this in the podcast by combining both the theoretical and practical through interviews, not only with people of knowledge, but with those who have actual experience in the trenches doing the work. And I pray to Allah, the Generous, that the knowledge is beneficial and for a fair portion of the reward that comes about as a result.
And then the third intention is to serve those institutions that exist. By being a bridge between people, between efforts. One of the things I have come to experience is that there already exist a kind of Muslim ecosystem of organizations. And so what this is about is that through networking, through partnerships as well as having a shared belief in the abundance of Allah. People talk about abundance versus scarcity mindsets. This idea that we can all benefit, that there is enough to go around. Through these types of efforts, I hope to play some kind of role in bridging efforts, such that they can accomplish a lot more than they would have otherwise. That is the third intention, which is to bring these institutions closer together.
There are, of course, other more personal intentions that I have. I hope to make this type of sadaqah jāriyah or a continuous charity and source of helpful knowledge.
I've already been blessed to connect masha'Allah, with so many sincere and compassionate and very inspiring brothers and sisters in our community. May Allah put barakah in all of their endeavors.
So I'm very excited to share these conversations with you. I have to of course mention that anything of benefit comes from the Almighty, the All Knowing, the Most Generous. And anything wrong comes from my own lack of understanding, my own flaws. I pray that this podcast is a beneficial use of my time and of yours. Allah says in the Quran:
By time,
verily mankind is in loss
except for those who believe, do righteous deeds, enjoin towards the Truth, and enjoin towards patience.
