We hear it often, people say “success breathes success”. Whether it be in the context of a business, organization, or a captain of a team. Without true leaders, success doesn’t permeate. One thing that has constantly amazed me about these leaders is that they don’t show arrogance. Nor do they neglect or belittle any work that is being executed by the workers they manage. A combination of God consciousness and humbleness, keeps them in check.

One brother I know, that is a president of a non profit in NY, Masha’Allah, he is involved with every task you can think of, from strategy to tactical work, he leads by example. You would think that a president of such an organization would be busy in meetings and wouldn’t be involved with day to day tasks that are often deferred to people underneath his leadership. Or he wouldn’t find time to visit his volunteers. It’s not the case, and to me he embodies the true qualities of a leader.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) articulated this beautifully when he said:

“Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. The leader of the people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects: a man is the guardian of his family and is responsible for his subjects, a woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and of his children and is responsible for them, and the slave of a man is a guardian of his master’s property and is responsible for it. Surely, everyone of you is a shepherd and responsible for his flock.” Source: Sahih Bukhari 6719

The reason I put the verse from the Qur’an above is because often times, you find some individuals who claim themselves as “leaders”, get trapped in their own egotistic bubble as their organizations advance. They get too caught up in sending orders while chilling. Not practicing what they preach. They forget when things are going well, it was team work, or when things fail, they blame those who they manage. True leaders always thank Allah, then give others credit first when things are going well and take blame first when failures occur.

Being in a position of leadership is a big test, if you screw up, you take others with you. It’s no coincidence the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) produced extraordinary people like Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali (may Allah be pleased with them all). He wasn’t just telling others to feed the hungry, he was doing it himself. Actions speak louder than words, and when leaders rise to the occasion, they leave a lasting positive influence that continues.

I’ll end with a quote from Abu Bakr (R) when he elected as the Caliph:

“O People! I have been chosen by you as your leader, although I am no better than any of you. If I do any wrong, set me right. Listen, truth is honesty and untruth is dishonesty. The weak among you are the powerful in my eyes, as long as I do not give them their dues. The powerful among you are weak in my eyes, as long as I do not take away from them what is due to others.

May Allah (swt) give all of our leaders guidance. Ameen.

Please keep me in your dua’s. Jazak’Allah Khair.

The other day I was on the subway and I noticed an advertisement that immediately got me thinking about extremism in society. (Check it out below)

While the word “extremism” is usually talked about in the context of violence, we often fail to observe other areas in life where individuals or societies go to extremes and avoid moderation. Perhaps, the advertisement could have been even more blunt and rephrased as “Obsessive Compulsive Gambling Starts Here”.

What was even more disturbing was right next to this ad, another ad had the message “Live In The Moment”.

There’s no doubt marketers exploit human desires and directly blast messages to encourage extreme consumption. I remember a few years ago when I visited Las Vegas, thanks to a free trip my relatives took me on which was totally random.

I recall, walking through the casinos and not seeing any concept of time present in the minds of gamblers. There weren’t any clocks around and people were glued to their slot machines. The environment in these places are created to have people fully immersed, so I wasn’t totally surprised. What was even worst was if you lowered your gaze, you would see haraam fliers on the floor. Chill!

However, it wasn’t totally bad, they had a nice masjid not too far from all the fitna, where I ran into Nouman Ali Khan giving a Friday sermon. I’m never going back there again insha’Allah.

Anyway, getting back to finding moderation, Islam encourages us (mankind) to stay moderate in life and not transgress the boundaries. Allah (swt) has set up a balance in the world, and when we disrupt that balance, it only hurts us.

Personally, when I hear the words such as balance, moderation and normal also come to mind. Allah (swt) puts into context how moderation plays a role in the lifestyle of a believer in several contexts, one of which includes how we should spend our wealth. Check it:

“And [they are] those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, [justly] moderate”.

To bounce back to the casino example, gamblers are inclined to not spend their wealth moderately. Getting caught in habits like this puts a person in a vicious cycle where they aren’t conscious about consequences but rather seek immediate pleasure/instant gratification. 

In conclusion, as Muslims, we must avoid going to “extremes” if we desire to stay on the “sirat al mustaqim”.

*Insha’Allah I’ll be putting out another post related to this in the future as there is much more related to this topic. Sorry I haven’t been writing as of late, please keep me in your dua’s. May Allah swt reward all of you. Ameen.

We last left off at watching a sister handle some junior high school kids on the train. How did she take care of it, and how should you do the same in case you ever become a witness to bullying?

Well, when it comes to etiquettes, first and foremost, always keep in mind that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the best of creation and we should strive to follow his example, bi’ithnillah. For the purposes of stopping bullies, it is important to be calm, respectful of everyone equally, but it is also necessary to be absolutely stern, because the bully needs to understand the seriousness of the consequences of their actions. So in order to strike the perfect balance, one must be both soft and strict at the same time.

Things to keep in mind:

DOs

1. Stop the bullying in its tracks. Try to make eye contact with the victim. After observing from a distance, whether or not you feel comfortable, get between the victim and the bully to stop farther interaction.
2. Point out what bullying is and its harms. The victim might not even realize they are being bullied, especially if it is being done by their “friend(s).” The bully might think it is okay to behave this way, but make sure they know it is not okay. Use simple language. (See below for examples)
3. Show support for the victim. The victim should get a sense of self-control. We do not want the victim to be ridiculed on a new front. We want the victim to leave the situation with their dignity intact.

DON’Ts

1. Do not immediately begin to ask the reasons for bullying.
2. Do not try to be a mediator by forcing the two sides to come to an agreement, or become friends. This is a long term issue and, again, we don’t want the victim to lose dignity in any of this.
3. Do not give the bully an attitude. You will not only lose their respect, but you will also forfeit the opportunity to change the bully. We must respect all human beings as human beings, and advise others to good and forbid evil, but this must be done with wisdom!

Some of us might even have been bullied in the past. So when you confront a situation like this as an outsider now, remember what it was like and try to understand what the victim of the bullying is going through. Imagine how embarrassing it must be for a complete stranger to step in for you. Also, try and understand the psychological and social implications so you can better explain them yourself when calmly reprimanding the bully.
• “It is not okay to bully anyone for absolutely any reason.”
• “Bullying can ruin another person’s life. No one wants to be responsible for something like that”
• “Do you know how many young people commit suicide because of bullying? Do you want to be held responsible for that?”
• “That behavior is absolutely unacceptable, bullying is traumatizing.”

Don’t worry about not sounding cool enough. The important thing is to have the bullying stop and to get the message across to the bully while supporting the victim.

What to do you think? What would include or take out from these suggestions? Have you ever been bullied or been a bully?

Looking forward to your responses inshaAllah!

So I commute a lot. Every once in awhile I witness the loud manifestations of young adults in junior high or high school on the train. Sometimes, I laugh in my head at the things I hear. Other times, I just shake my head and wonder what this world is coming to. Nothing I see or hear ever compels me to action.

Take the good and leave the bad, I say.

Well… a sister was on the train just yesterday when she witnessed a group of co-eds bullying/sexually harassing a kid who looked like he could be a South-Asian Muslim.

They took his hat from him, threw it back and forth, until one of the girls caught it and wouldn’t give it to him. He was clearly uncomfortable with the inappropriate touching and blowing kisses, but he laughed uneasily along with their taunts anyway. He pleaded with her, trying to bring the focus back to his hat. Eventually it got to the point where he was upset and had to move far from the group.. twice. One of the boys in the group would still go up to him, talk to him, then come back to the group making fun of him for being a prude.

How many young Muslim boys in his situation might have reacted differently, acting on the taunts and participating in vulgar activities instead of running away from them? My heart broke thinking, with the lens of hindsight of the typical high school experience, how this good kid will be stuck in a group of friends later on in life that he, because of peer pressure at this age, might just accept as American and normal. It really saddens me to see young kids, especially young Muslim kids, in this hyper-sexualized society having to deal with their peers, who, for more or less, have not learned any sense of morality or value for their own well being. But even many conservative, non-Muslim Americans feel the same way about the growing sexualization of our youth.

The underlying societal issues aside, what of the bullying? It must have been really uneasy watching the kid get picked on over and over again, even when he had moved away from the group several times. Eventually the sister walked across the train car to where he was sitting in hopes of giving him some friendly advice and a show of support (with the intention of doing it in the coolest, most un-embarrassing way possible, of course!).

As soon as she uttered her first few words, the four or five kids from his group shuffled over to tease him again, continuing their vulgar taunts. So she had enough and just gave them all a polite, mini-lecture on sexual harassment and bullying. They all got off at the next stop and just before leaving, the sister apologized because she didn’t want to embarrass him. The young man, surprisingly, thanked her.

Did the bullies learn anything from the sister? With the eye-rolling one of the girls was giving her, we can’t really know for sure. At least the sister didn’t just sit there and watch…

Some discussion points:
1. Should the sister have intervened? How would you have dealt with the situation differently?
2. Are you a Muslim teenager, or do you have teenage siblings/cousins, going through similar situations? How do you handle being bullied and/or being sexually harassed while balancing your deen?
3. How do we instill a sense of self-worth and confidence in the young adults of our ummah?

Comment below insha’Allah!

(Part Two: The Etiquette’s of Not Minding Your Own Beeswax… coming soon!)

Your future self?

As Muslims, we know that it is important for us to stay conscious of our actions, manners, speech, and intentions. As Imam Khalid Latif recently said at his Ramadan Prep class,

“A Muslim is never the same person two days in a row.“

But when every day seems to slip through our fingers, how do we even know where we stand? What qualifiers and markers do we have?

A very simple solution is to keep a diary.

How do we know they are effective? Well, ask anyone who has ever been on a diet and kept a food journal– it helps them see what they really consume compared to what they thought they consumed, eventually allowing them to have a balanced, healthy, lifestyle. When you reflect on what you really did and felt throughout a day compared to what you think you did, it can help you to eventually maintain some order in your life, too.

Not too long ago, I realized how much I needed to pick back up on journal writing. I looked back at my older entries and saw what a mess my life had been compared to how much more at peace I am now, alhumdulillah. I revisited emotions of Annam-Past, the dua’s I made, and all my mistakes. I realized that getting all my thoughts and feelings out was an absolutely necessary process for me to move on, refine myself, and be where I am today. And you know how people hit a plateau when dieting? I think people can hit a plateau with personal growth, too. Dumping your thoughts and reflecting back is an excellent way to break through that so you can continue to grow.

Now, some of you may be averse to keeping diaries or journals for many reasons. The most common complaint: “I don’t have time.” There’s a neat, private online journal called Oh Life that solves this problem for you. All you do is hit reply on an email and you make an entry on the website. But nothing beats a good, old-fashioned #2 pencil with a black & white notebook!

Allah mentions in the Quran things we take for granted in our everyday lives: how the earth provides vegetation and animals for food, that people wake up after sleeping, that we are given mates, etc. The verses that mention these things are then followed by,

“verily in that are Signs for those who reflect.”

Allah wants us to reflect, even on the mundane. So let us be among those who reflect regularly inshAllah.

This is a reminder to myself first.
May Allah swt help us to be better Muslims. Ameen.

Assalamualaikum,

It’s that time of the year again! Finals are just around the corner and you probably have to deal with a lot more than just studying and writing papers. You may have to prepare for an an emotional roller coaster if things get rough. But remember Allah through it all and you will succeed, inshAllah. Even for those of you who don’t have to worry about those lovely exams and papers, this is always a helpful reminder:

“And He provides for him from (sources) he never could imagine. And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him.” -Quran 65:3

As a side note, before any particularly difficult test, a good way to boost your confidence is to repeat to yourself  “La Hawla Wa La Quwwata illa Billah” — There is no power and strength except with Allah. Oh, and don’t forget to start your papers by saying “Bismillah” !

Just some helpful reminders for all of you and myself as well.

Peace.

“And Allah has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made for you hearing and vision and intellect that perhaps you would be grateful.” – Surah Nahl, Ayah 78

Alhumdulilah, recently I hurt my foot and it made me realize how important each body part is. My initial reaction was anger but I soon after I remembered the hadith of Prophet Muhammad (S) when he said:

“No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that.”

It’s true, you don’t truly appreciate what you have until you lose it and when life is going consistently well, we may become susceptible to take what we have for granted.

And from time to time, Allah (swt) will test us we can respond to these tribulations hopefully with deep reflection and positive change. In others words, it should bring us closer to him. More precisely, as believers we should have an Attitude for Gratitude.

What you don’t want to develop is a habit of turning to Allah (swt) only in difficult times. Allah (swt) is worthy of gratitude in every instance and breath of your life and it’s important to stay conscious of this. It’s easy to recognize what you don’t have in life, but when we all recognize what we have, it will allow us to stay content and appreciative.

The most important point to remember is that Allah (swt) dosen’t need us at all, we need him! Which is exactly why we should be thanking him for everything he as given us.

5 Ways to Show Gratitude to Allah (SWT)

1. Pray Your Salat – This is the most important obligation as a Muslim. Allah (swt) has given us so much and in return he commands that we pray at least at the minimum of 5 times a day. If you happen to miss any salats, make sure you make them up.
2. Give Sadaqa – There are people in the world who have far less than they need. One of the ways to thank Allah (swt) is to share the blessings he’s given you with other people such as orphans, homeless, etc.
3. Du’a - There is a du’a for just about everything in life. Whether it’s putting on new clothes or waking up from sleep, the ability to remember Allah (swt) throughout the day shows that Allah (swt) is at the center of your life.
4. Thank others – No one is completely independent in life. We seek help from others and in return Allah (swt) enables them do so. It’s important you thank anyone that offers assistance and help because Prophet Muhammad (S) said: “He has not thanked Allah who has not thanked people.” (Sunan, Abu Dawud)
5. Live for Allah swt - It’s difficult in a world where there are constant tribulations and fitnah, but as long as you cling to the Deen, Qur’an and Sunnah you will always find your relationship with Allah (swt) constantly improving or renewed.

Conclusion

Allah (swt) makes it clear in the Qu’ran how important giving gratitude to him is when he says ”If you give thanks, I shall certainly increase you (in favor)” (Quran 14:7).

Often times we hear people say “I’m too blessed to be stressed”, this essentially captures the state of mind or attitude of how a slave of Allah swt should internalize and display in character.

Because in reality, we’re all too blessed to be stressed no matter how hard life gets for us on an individual level. “So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?” (Surah Rahman: Ayah 13)

May Allah swt give us the strength and guidance to be conscious believers who are grateful to him. If you have any more suggestions on gratitude, please share them below. Oh and keep me in your dua’s, Jazaka’Allah Khair =)

Ever had that moment where you’re sitting in class, half alert, you hear one sentence or one word and all of a sudden you have an epiphany about something totally unrelated. Well, that is exactly what happened to me when my professor asked, “What is capital’?”

While the rest of the class attempted to answer this intentionally vague and abstract question, I started thinking about all the different types out there: financial capital, human capital, social capital.

People invest socially by doing things that put them somewhere high on the social ladder and help them network with others, like going to college to get more knowledge or joining some group.

Professional schools invest in human capital by accepting students with a broad range of experiences and interests, because they can’t have bookworms becoming doctors and lawyers.

Businesses invest financially by putting their money towards things that will help it grow in the long run, like buying a plot of land for a store or providing paid training for their workers.

What if your life and soul is your business. That would be your spiritual capital. Then it would make sense to be an entrepreneur and invest in yourself.

Why, you ask?

Well, a 2007 study on Spirituality and the Health of College Students concluded that “College students integrating a spiritual component while processing decisions about risks that could negatively [affect] their health experienced better health outcomes.” Basically, people who are spiritual or religious in any way tend to live longer, cope better with stress, deal better with loss, and are more optimistic overall.

Let’s take a minute to think about spiritual capital from an Islamic point of view.

5 Ways You Can Invest in Spiritual Capital

1. Increase tawakkul –> Decrease heartache

Tawakkul is your faith and trust in Allah.

“Say: “Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector”: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust.” – Q9:51

Everything that happens to you, good or bad, come from Him. There is a reason and wisdom behind everything whether we know it or not. So don’t sweat the petty things. Everything in dunya is petty when you think about the big picture.

2. Increase taqwa –> Decrease procrastination

If your life was a movie, would you even want to watch it?

One meaning of ‘taqwa’ describes your fear of Allah. An example of this is described when Allah swt says in the Quran:

“And say, “Do [as you will], for Allah will see your deeds, and [so, will] His Messenger and the believers. And you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, and He will inform you of what you used to do.” -Q9:105

Think about this next time you spend 5 hours of your life on Facebook or YouTube when you have work in front of you. If you fear Allah, you will fear the consequences of your actions and how you spend your time. By practicing this awareness, you can help stop your own procrastination. This way you not only accomplish more in life and in school, but you can also free yourself up to worship Allah swt by putting your time and energy in beneficial activities.

3. Pray on time –> Increase discipline

As a wise person once said, “Your schedule should revolve around salah, not the other way around.” If you plan your activities for the day, you will notice that you have a ton of room to get work done from Fajr to Zhur.

If you continuously work on praying five times a day, respect the boundaries of the prayer times, and pray with khushu (concentration/presence of the heart), you will notice that this practice will stick with you and it will help you become disciplined in many areas of your life, particularly with time management and focus. This is especially important when we, as a culture, have ADD. I am generalizing here, but I personally believe that we should strive to be more conscious and focused in our lives in order to be productive human beings.

4. Recite Quran –> Better acquisition of knowledge

When I was younger, after my Quran lesson for the day, my mother would tell me to make du’a by saying Rabbeh-zidni-ilma (My Lord, Increase me in knowledge). I never understood why until I was older and came across this verse:

“So high [above all] is Allah , the Sovereign, the Truth. And, [O Muhammad], do not hasten with [recitation of] the Qur’an before its revelation is completed to you, and say, “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.”” -Q20:114

I also notice that I can understand tough reading material better when I have read some Quran or have the desire for it in my heart. Aside from the fact the Allah swt provides us with a book full of His Knowledge (and He is, after all, the All-Knowing), it follows logically that if you are able to memorize the entire Quran, you should have no problem learning anything you aspire to learn.

5. Make du’a often and for others –> Increase positivity in your life and relationships

If you are a human person over the age of 16, it is more than likely that you have faced some sort of seemingly huge “Why me?” moment. Nope, I’m not a mind reader. Astaghfarullah. I’m just really sure its a universal phenomenon. These kinds of moments make it hard to stay optimistic. But everyone has ups and downs. Make du’a to show your appreciation of the ups. Make du’a He helps you with the downs. This goes back the verse in point #1.

Get into the habit of making du’a in your heart, softly to yourself, or out loud when no one’s around. Ask Allah for a candy bar if you really want one. It sounds silly, but making a habit out of asking Allah for anything your heart desires is beneficial for so many reasons, in this particular case, it helps make Allah your first resource in any emergency. Not only do you end up airing out your thoughts by talking to Him, you gradually learn to articulate what’s really bothering you. Kind of like going to a therapist, but without the huge bill. Sometimes, just pinpointing your problem is winning half the battle. It allows you to move on and be positive about life again.

Following the same line of thought. If you make du’a for other people in your life, you gradually realize their importance to you, how much you also want them in jannah with you, how much you want their success and their happiness. The prophet (pbuh) said,

“…the du’a of a Muslim for his brother (in Islam) in his absence is readily accepted, and an angel is appointed to his side, whenever he makes a beneficial du’a for his brother the appointed angel says “Ameen and may you also be blessed with the same” (Muslim)

Also, family and friends can be a fitnah sometimes, and you can lose sight of the long term relationship in the heat of short term problems. Turn to Allah with a sincere heart and ask Him to help resolve conflicts.

Conclusion

These are all reminders to myself first. Many of us struggle in one, or more, or even all of these categories. There is a lot of overlapping, too. It is important to recognize that and invest as needed. If you do this with the intention to please Allah and you are thinking about the akhira, your investment is doubly blessed: not only can you, by Allah’s Will, have success in your life in this dunya, but you secure eternal success as well. Kill two birds with one stone.

Chill, let’s not kill any birds, but you know what I mean.

For those of you itching to know, my professor later defined capital as a means of production. So, in conclusion, let’s be productive and start investing in spiritual capital today!*

*This is NOT a gimmick.

Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan wa fil ‘akhirati hasanatan waqina ‘adhaban-nar
(Our Lord! Grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and save us from the chastisement of the fire.)

Ameen.
Peace.

One of the topics I’ve been thinking about lately is how parents or in general elders speak to young Muslims who are far from the Deen.  Often times, their tone or approach in talking ends up driving them further away from doing what is right.

I’ll give you one example:

One of my friends dad in Brooklyn goes to the masjid daily in Brighton beach. Often times he sees some of these young Muslims outside the masjid smoking. An ordinary uncle with a back home approach would generally start harassing them.

Anyways, so my friends dad went up to them one day while the Azan was being called and said “Why don’t you at least pray Salat and smoke after”?. Okay, before some of you start going all crazy, you need to remember that most of these youth have developed bad habits, and a little bit of gentleness in daw’ah can go a long way.

Yes, it’s better they at least pray and smoke rather than just smoke. In fact, when they start praying, insha’Allah that will allow them to gradually change for the better.  To make a long story short, those very same kids told my friend that they wished their parents had spoken to them in that manner.

Now this is the issue I wanted to tackle. Watch out Shatan! No but all jokes aside, there is a time to be strict and a time to be soft like halal Marshmallows. Based on who you are dealing with, whether it is on the individual or collective level, you need to be conscious of what you tell them and in what environment. By this, I’m referring to who they are around, it’s from the Sunnah to tell people their faults in a one on one setting. When you put people on blast like we say in the hood then you are in a sense humiliating and degrading them.

Alot more can be said in this article but I don’t want to fry your brains. This is something I need to work on in particular myself first. May Allah swt guide us and allow us to communicate in ways that influence people for the better in this life and in the next, Ameen.

One verse from the Qur’an before I bounce -

“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided.” – (Surah An-Nahl, Ayah 125)

Wa’salaam Yo.

Being in the entrepreneur mode lately, I’ve been thinking about what makes certain companies successful. After reading up on some which are the cream of the crop in customer service, including Amazon.com, Nordstrom and Zappo’s to name a few, I was motivated to write a post about how we can take some business lessons from them and apply them to how we approach Daw’ah.

After doing some research, it didn’t surprised me at all why these retailers were ranked at the top. All of them put customer service at the top of their core company values. In fact, Zappo’s teaches it’s employees to not have good “customer service” but “service” as they like to put it. They believe service is 24/7 and if you really care about helping people no matter where you are or what time it is then this will naturally carry over to how you do business.

It’s a philosophy which is taught from the top of the company and flows to the bottom.

See example below:

Now pay attention to this, in the Nordstrom’s employee handbook, it begins with the following statement:

“Welcome to Nordstrom: We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.”

Your probably thinking well Saad it’s obvious, have outstanding customer service and your business will take off. Well the fact is many companies don’t stress this enough which results in customers bouncing to one of their competitors. But customer service goes beyond the traditional things that come to your mind, it’s about being extraordinary and impressive. I’ll paraphrase the story of a book store owner who was also once the professor of Jeff Bezo’s (founder of amazon). Sorry can’t remember his name right now.

Anyways one day at his book store, some plants fell from the balcony onto a customers car, leaving the car covered in dirt. The customer got extremely angry so the owner came out and told the customer he would make sure the car get’s spotless. He drove the customer’s car to all the car washes that were nearby but that failed since they were all closed. Then he told her, that he would clean the car himself with all of his cleaning supplies at his book store. After full-filling his promise, this resulted in the customer purchasing a large quantity of books from his store.

Now that’s how you care about your customers. The owner could have easily brushed off the incident and not take responsibility but he took the higher road.

Lesson learned: Go out of your way to make your customer happy and they’ll support your business!

My favorite CEO today is Jeff Bezos (May Allah swt guide him), not only is he quite humble but his perspective on doing business is amazing. Learning from his professor, he says:

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job everyday to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

In other words putting people or in this case your customers before you. These are all essentially different dimensions of customer service and shaping customer experience with the products and services your selling but the main aspects of servicing others is not complicated at all. In fact, you just need be human and act according to your innate nature. Often times, shatan makes us feel that we need to cheat or be shady to get more sales. The truth is Allah (swt) has already decreed how much your going to get. So your only fooling yourself if you feel that you need to take haraam means to get there. Think about it.

To successfully serve your customers, you need to:

1. Always be honest to your customers, especially when you or your company have messed up. Don’t worry Pinocchio isn’t your boss.
2. Be gentle with your customers, even when they piss you off. In a hadith narrated by Imam Tirmidhi, Prophet Muhammad (s) said “Allah’s mercy descends on one who is gentle at the time of buying, selling, and requesting payment.”
3. Learn from the best (Zappos, Amazon, Nordstrom) Listen closely to what your customers are saying, often times they are your biggest critics. When Imam Shafi was asked once how he got great character, he replied ” I listened to my critics and took their criticism seriously”.
4. Once you receive this criticism, you need to be able to reflect upon it and channel it accordingly so there is constant improvement. It’s very likely what you learned or experienced can be helpful to another employee, so document it and share it with your team. The best way to handle heated moments is to avoid being reactionary but more importantly mentally prepared.
5. Reward your customers! This is one of the most proven methods to keep customers happy, the best things in life are free.

Applying the above lessons for Daw’ah:

As a Muslim, I figured this sort of relates to how we should strategically give daw’ah or invite people to Islam. At the end of the day, people will always remember how you treated them, especially based on first impressions, it’s that simple. Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an:

“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided”. (16:125)

Below is a chart which displays reasons for customer service complaints which was collected and analyzed by a consumer complaints firm called groubal.com. You’ll notice that many of the reasons are directly applicable to how some Muslims deal with Non Muslims, which sadly results in them having a negative perception of Islam. Which isn’t always fair but it’s the current reality.

The reasons that specifically stood out to me were:

1. Language 5%
2. Rudeness 17%
3. Carelessness 11%

I’ve witnessed several stories of people who came into and Islam and left because they wouldn’t given their expected level of comfort and support, the essential follow up from the community is too slow (same as the significant reason of poor customer serve as illustrated above) which results in this person leaving the deen. It can definitely apply to the aspect of carelessness as well. Sounds similar to a customer leaving a business? I think so!

This reminds about many ex-Muslims that were deaf who also left Islam because they didn’t have no one to teach them about the Qur’an and Sunnah through sign language, quite sad but rudeness our our side to say the least.

Along with that, is just basic language which often times you go to a Masjid in America and there isn’t a Khutbah in English to cater to the individuals in attendance. This is particularly disturbing since we’re in a country where English is the most popular language. I guess this would fall more within marketing and understanding your target audience, but nevertheless all these elements are directly related.

Conclusion

All of the proven practices discussed above must be consciously executed throughout your respective organization or business and are essential to first attract and then retain your target audience/market. There’s no doubt that carelessness, being rude and being slow to respond are critical in maintaining relationships. Along with this, the essential qualities of being honest and understanding who your engaging with are the keys to winning the hearts and minds of people.

From an historical perspective, Islam spread through the world (especially Indonesia) largely due to how honest Muslim businessmen/merchants conducted themselves through their trade and dealings.

Related to this, our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was known as Al-Sadiq (the Truthful) and Al-Amin (the Faithful). Every Makkan, rich or poor called him by these names before he received revelation and these qualities were directly reflected in his success as a businesman as well.

The best form of marketing is word of mouth and when you have a great experience with a business then it’s only natural that you refer that business to someone your close to. The same applies to Islam, if we live according to the standard and best practices outlined by the Qur’an and Sunnah knowing that we’re representing Islam for Allah (swt) sake, then it’s only right more and more people will observe and become interested in learning why we are behaving the way we are.

To wrap it up, I want to mention that companies undoubtedly have a dark side to them as well and like humans they will make mistakes because they are being operated by humans. So let’s not forget that there are always ups and downs in all aspects of life but it’s all you respond to failure that makes you truly successful and Allah (swt) knows best.

Anyways insha’Allah we can all including myself benefit from this if it’s correct. Well I’m out of here like the full moon on a clear and cold winter night. Wa’saalam Yo!