So Good They Cannot Replace You

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Baraka Blueprint. This is the podcast where we talk about the optimal balance between deed and the perfect combination of faith and focus and the compass that you need to build truly lasting and impactful success. I'm your host, Ibrahim Sharif, and you're listening to episode 20 of the Baraka Blueprint Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Bodaka Blueprint. You're going to find this on Spotify. You'll find this on YouTube. You'll find short clips on Tik Tok and Instagram and YouTube Shorts and where whichever platform we're going to get our hands on because we want to spread this very important message to everybody we can get our hands on, which is that the the only GPS and the only compass you need is the instruction that Allah subhana t gave us, which is follow God and follow the messenger of God is that we follow Allah subhana wa ta'ala by following the scripture and the book that he sent down to his beloved messenger and to follow that very same messenger. Today I want to talk about the art of standing out in such a way that people will not be able to put you aside. You won't be benched like in the uh football pitch, right? Or when in a football game, some players get benched, but you are not going to get benched. Why? Because you're going to be so good that you can't be ignored. The reason why is because I want to combine a few concepts that I've come across that from knowledge that I have borrowed from uh kind brothers of mine and from wisdom that we find in the Quran. So number one erh from one of Cal Newport's many works you'll find something that he says be so good that they can't ignore you. Now one thing this actually reminds me of is the following. There's a hadith where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wrote on everything. He commanded perfection on everything. That means that you, my dear viewer or listener, if you're capable of performing at 100%, you got to give 100%. All of those that are listening to this and feel bad because, I don't know, because they're pushing that deadline or they're pushing that task because it's not up to their standards. I'm here to tell you to not feel bad because there's there's absolutely nothing wrong with you having high standards. You should have high standards. It's your work at the end of the day. It could be that paper that you're writing. It could be that interface that you're designing. It could be that YouTube channel that you so wanted to go out with, but you're waiting because you're still tailoring it to perfection. I was there. And by the way, this channel is far from perfect. All right. And still I'm making the content and I'm telling you who's going through that. Don't feel bad about it. Why? Because you have a concept of thean already. This is really, really good stuff. I thought about this because I was asking myself how the Baraka blueprint started, what I've gone through, what I've gone through in in this journey all the way from starting from a system that gave me videos at 24 fps and horrible audio. The audio audio is still not the best, but it's still much better than it used to be. I hope so, right? uh it's not the studio setup that I am imagining or the content that I ideally want to provide. The ideal me has a far higher standard or a far higher list of requirements. But that doesn't really matter. Why? Because I'm not telling you to wait until your setup is perfect. I'm not telling you to wait until your paper is perfect or until your interface is perfect or until your product is perfect or until your business is perfect to launch your business or to launch your product or to or to write your essay or to send your report. I'm telling you that keep that mindset, keep thisan mindset and use that as fuel to start start with your work and keep developing. You need to be at a mindset and at a journey of continuous learning. The learning never stops and so does the development. The devel development also doesn't just stop. Now this is the let me see how much I've recorded so far. Roughly five minutes, right? Okay. So this is the five minute summary of this episode. If you don't want to listen to anything else, I'm going to tell you this is the only thing I'm going to say. But anyway, let's let's get this started. So, in today's episode, we will talk about Let me see if my it's recording. Okay, perfect. Nice. Uh because I'm using a different setup today because my camera is not working as I want. So, I said, you know what? I'm going to record from my phone instead because this is something that I really want to have said. Um, one thing that I was thinking about a lot, especially as talking to some beloved friends of mine, is the concept of and our understanding of this is in no way a a synopsis of religious concepts. By the way, for this, you listen to people who are knowledgeable. You don't listen to me. You're listening to a brother who's reflecting. That's it. And if you find any wisdom in that reflection, take it and further develop on it and make it even more wise. But one thing I thought about is how we approach and how we approach perfection. And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he was asked the question and he was asked the question by the archangel Gabriel in the second hadith that we find in the 40 Noah collections. And he says, "You worship God Almighty as if you're seeing him." As if you can see him. And know that just because you can't see him, he still can see you. All right? Or perfection was connected to ibada. It was connected to the act of worshiping God Almighty and worshiping him alone. All right? We learn a couple of things from this and this is one thing that I wanted to share in today's episode. The first thing that we learn is that the best thing you can do is act of worship. Literally the best thing you can do. Why? Because it's your core mission. It's your it's it's your why. Simon Synynic says in his book, start with why. Knowing your why, understanding your why, working with your why, and perfecting your why, and making with your why will lead you to have that successful business. Okay? or build a successful brand because you're able to understand your why and working with your why. Now, if you want to succeed as a human being, you need to understand your why. Your why as a human being is answered in Allahh says I I created mankind and deankind for no other purpose except worship. That's it. We have the why. Okay? So the best thing you can do is the thing that is closest to your why which is iada acts of worship. Why I am saying this is not to limit you to only do what you think is act of worship. It's not that we play we pray all the time and that's it. It's not that we read Quran all the time and that's it. No because and I I hope this is something that can be the case and I pray that Allah accept this even recording a podcast. Okay. Even recording a podcast can be it can be an act of worship. Now why I am saying this is because everything has to do with the nia the intention the crux of this entire podcast that we have gone through from episode one until now in episode 20 your why is amplified or muted based on your intention based on your nia. If your NIA is for the sake of Allah subhana wa ta'ala boy your fruits are going to be amplified to the max to the max my dear listener because playing football can even be an act of worship. All right. Creating content can be an act of worship. And even to the point of why because uh as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said when the believer passes away everything will be cut off from him except three. He says, "So the first thing we talked about this before in the I don't remember which episode it was, but previously we talked about the episode of leaving a legacy. So he talked about continuous charity. We mentioned the hadith there as well. uh continuous charity uh knowledge that benefits after their death after the person's death and righteous offspring that make dua and supplicate to God for that person for the deceased. So the content that you create can be your it can be if you think about it right because you're leaving impactful content impactful material that people will benefit from honestly as much as I wish and hope that this content is going to take off and that this podcast is going to be on the on the billboards right I mean dream dream big right aim for the stars Uh, and as much as much as I want that, but I'm going to give you an honest reflection. Uh, because I want this to be as raw as possible, I will be very satisfied. Actually, no. I will feel fulfilled, completed if this podcast, if one snippet from this podcast benefits one person and they make dua. This for me is mission complete, mission successful. The thing that we learned though aboutan about perfection is that you repeat the mission successful as many times as you can because it is called continuous charity. It continues. Same thing with knowledge. Continuous knowledge. You have to continuously acquire knowledge. So similarly reminders should be continuous and remind for verily the reminders are beneficial for the believers. So what I can do from my part and the reason why I am staying consistent on this course and something that I am able to produce and publish every single week I believe in one or two days I missed a Friday but I made sure to publish the day after. Every single week since January 2025 I have alhamdulillah published an episode of Blueprint and I've stayed consistent. Why? Because I understand the why. I understand why this is happening and why this is being done. I can continue to be in a 200 view jail for ages and ages to come because we're not doing this for the views. We're not doing this for the verality even though we aim for it. Okay? We can aim for something and we can have that as a goal but it doesn't have to be the why. All right? Why am I saying all of this to connect that to the topic be so good that they can't ignore you? Because and I'll tell you something something that I have noticed about this particular journey when you understand your why it will help you remain consistent. Okay. And let's mute the computer so that we don't get any more uh how do we do that? Let's see here. There we go. Okay. Apologies. We have it on do not disturb and now let's mute it al together. Where where was I? Yes. When you understand your why, it eases the consistency. Okay? Now, you still need to have the discipline to continue and to remain consistent, of course, but what you need to keep in mind is that while you're doing this, you are not just performing and producing content on a weekly basis or on a daily basis or whatever it could be or whatever basis. Okay? While you're doing this, you're going through a school. And the lessons that I have learned from this journey, I can't I can't even begin to describe them and structure them. I I will give you a few. Number one, it taught me skills that I never thought I would acquire. Be it in terms of networking, in terms of bettering my speaking skills, even becoming a better editor. And yes, to all of you editors who are still writing to me on a near daily basis, thank you so much for offering your services. When it comes to editing, it's something that I like to do myself. And actually, I've improved because before I started the Baraka Blueprint, this is something I thought I thought it was my Achilles heel. I'm not I'm nowhere near perfect. I am nowhere near good enough for video editing. Absolutely not. But I never thought I would be in this level of skill. I thought this is this is a doom for me. I was doomed. I will never be able to uh perform uh in that field and look at that. I was able to edit videos. Why? Because I went through a continuous learning journey. And what you do is when you understand your why, for example, you want to build an agency. Okay? An agency where you deliver AI automations for example. Now do you need do you need to have some basic knowledge? I would say not honestly even though it's a it's a logical yes not necessarily because what you can do if your why is very ground very well grounded and founded and it's something that you can bet your life on that this is something that I am very very sure of. I know my mission. I understand my mission. And my nya is ultimately for the sake of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Be it to provide a better living standard for your family. Be it to acquire status and power so that you can influence the ummah positively. Whatever it is, because this your ultimate ultimate intention has to be has to be for the sake of God. Now when you have all of that, you don't need to have prior knowledge. Believe me, because I didn't have prior knowledge of graphic design when I started delivering graphic design services. I learned it along the way and I was able to better my skill time and time again and throughout the journey. You can do the exact same thing. So with that being said, but like I said, it requires you to understand the why. So like sim like like Simon Synynic said in his book, start with why. And soon I'm going to give a challenge to myself to say the name Simon Synynic 10 times fast. because I was able I was about to slur it and what happens in the time with that consistency you'll have a strong competitive advantage in your field with a well-grounded wellfounded why it adds to the competitive advantage ultimately you you will become at a level so good and so spot-on that you can't be left aside you can't be benched suddenly and especially if this is something that you love doing, right? Not everybody does and works with something that they love and that's completely okay by the way. You're not forced to love what you do. Uh unlike what the cliche says. But when you do that, when you stick to that, when you continue to improve and hone your skill and sharpen your sword, you're going to become absolutely unstoppable. We're doing what? We're doing 17 minutes of time. I don't think I'm going to cut any of this. I'll keep all of that to so that you can follow along with this raw and baraka style. I also mentioned I didn't say barakaly in the beginning but because everything is baraka style inshallah. Now I want to relate all of this to the the nucleus of this beautiful construct. What is our why? I can tell you what my why is. My why is the following. I want everybody to know. I want everybody to understand that the Quran is your key to worldly and metaphysical success or success. It's your key to success in saying that you out to master the Quran for the purpose of succeeding in no please understand this correctly. I am saying that if you want success in both worlds, Quran is going to be your ultimate blueprint. Because that discipline, the understanding of the why, if we go through all of them, let's go through them one by one. Starting the why or understanding the why, the why is mentioned in the Quran. Now there's one thing to recite the verse and there is one thing to understand the verse and live after the verse. You can't live after the Quran if you don't have a relationship with the Quran. The relationship doesn't necessarily mean that you read three Jews every day. No. But you still need to have that relationship in order to understand the content and the context of the Quran. Right? And I want to bring this to a to an interesting reflection and not to take a tangent and to divert from the topic. There's a couple of friends that I talked to about this specific topic, my closest and best friends. And I I had a Tik Tok live once and I asked the question where to to to to the to the people that are that were watching, where are you in terms of your Quran? Every single person was telling me their like I'm in this surah, I'm in this jo. But these friends, subhan Allah, they wrote to me something. At first, I mean, I I I I left and because I I I thought there was banter behind it. But they said, I'm I'm at fata. I'm still trying to learn fat. And that hit me in a very special way. Subhan Allah. Because fat and I realize this fat is something I don't think we will ever understand it until we die. Honestly, the more you reflect on fat, the more lessons you will unlock and the more lessons you unlock, the better you understand life. All of that just from imagine the rest of the Quran. And this is how powerful the Quran is. Subhan Allah. So with that being said, building a relationship with the Quran will help you understand your why. It will help you see different paths in different possibilities and different paths because it will paint life in such a beautiful construct for you. Something by the way tried and tested okay it will it will it will show you life in a very artistic way. I know, please excuse the cliche, but I stand by every single word in every single letter when I say this. Try it yourself. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. You, you yourself are going to see the power behind having a relationship with the Quran. This is coming from somebody who's faltering in his relationship with the Quran, by the way. All right? And furthermore, the act of doing that, the act of repairing, restoring, building, and protecting the relationship with the Quran is going to be an act that will only be successful and will only lead or yield maximal results or maximum benefit and value if you have the discipline. All right? So, you need to have the discipline. You need to have that discipline in order to succeed in that journey. When you get all of that from Quran and just like I said in the previous episode when we were talking about skilling up, right? This is only going to be possible if if you have that discipline and that discipline you get from Quran. The discipline that you get from Quran will help you master skills. Will help you master skills you would never imagine that you would master. Even monetiz monetizable skills is what I'm trying to say. So with that being said and you don't know, subhan Allah, approach this journey, my dear listener, and I'll end by saying this. Approach this journey my dear listener with the intention that you want to come closer to Allahhana tala. You don't want anything else from life. You you don't want anything else from any action that you're doing other than coming close to Allahh and getting close to him. All right? Everything that you're doing is worship for him and him alone. To him and him alone. You don't worship anyone else. You don't provide this level ofan to anyone else except to almighty god. And the best way you can do that is you build a relationship with his words. All right? You build a relationship with the Quran. You build a relationship with the words that he sent on his beloved messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And just like I mentioned in the previous uh in the previous episode, Allahh says, "So you want in life, you want goodness in life." Okay? And Quran is hikah is wisdom. Whoever is given wisdom is given a lot of you. And I'm assuming I'm assuming that the one who's listening to this either has basic reading skills to under to read either the Arabic of the Quran or the translated Quran. Okay? Or the basic listening skills to listen to Quran recitation. Whether you understand it the first or the third third time or the 300th time, it doesn't matter. Okay? Because again, remember, we're not talking about the synopsis of the Quran. We're not talking about giving of the Quran. And we're not talking about memorizing the Quran yet. We're just talking about building a relationship. Okay? Establishing rapport, building rapport, building that relationship, right? What I'm trying to tell you is you do that. And this is literally the best thing you can do, the best first step you can take. to change your life for the better. And this, my dear listener, is going to be my and my advice to you. The Quran gave me purpose. The Quran gave me discipline. The Quran and bettering my relationship with the Quran gave me a blueprint in life. This is actually the entire reason behind the baraka blueprint. Okay, this is the blueprint. The Quran is the blueprint. Inah fat. You will find the blueprint. Okay, throughout the entire Quran, you will find the blueprint. All right, this is the vision. This is the mission of the baraka blueprint. And I pray that whoever listens to this, that one of you guys out there, that one of you finds benefits. If you do, there's only one thing I'm going to ask from you. Only one thing. And this is coming from a selfish guy because I'm selfish, okay? I will selfishly ask you share this with people. Please share this so that they can benefit as well. If you benefited, if you didn't benefit from this, give me advice. Give me because I want to improve. Okay? If you benefited from this though, share it with people so that they can benefit. So that you can get the reward. And I'm saying this selfishly because I want the reward. Absolutely. Help me get the reward. And ultimately what we do is that we have to understand that for any act of worship we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to accept it. We ask Allahh to accept our efforts to accept our good deeds to accept our actions to accept our sacrifices financial and time for everything that we do for his sake and his sake alone. And with that being said my kind and dear listener I want to thank you so very much. This is the second to the last episode of the Baraka Bluepit podcast. Next week, you will listen to the final episode of season 1. Uh, as you can see, if you're if you're following me on Tik Tok or Instagram, uh, and make sure to do that. Make sure to follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok to stay tuned. I will still continue to produce content, inshallah. I'm not going to stop producing content just because Baraka Blueprint is on a season uh, on a seasonal break. uh but you'll see that there's a lot of interesting things in the work. Uh I have lined up some very interesting collaborations, some very beneficial, very valuable collaborations that are going to come your way inshallah. And I promise you one thing that you're going to find with this podcast is that the intention is only going to be to add aggregated value and for us to learn from one another and for us to benefit from one another. And I want this more for myself than I want it for anyone else. Of course I mean I want the value for myself. I want the benefit for myself and I want for myself. That's why then a friend of mine used to say when you point one finger three point back to you. So, you got to give your reminder yourself the reminder three times before you give it to someone else. But with that being said, make sure to follow and uh subscribe to the Baraka Blueprint on YouTube and to Hijra Hacks on Instagram and Tik Tok. This is where I uh post the teasers and the content that is coming out inshallah. If you like what you've heard, please make sure to leave this podcast a subscription and a follow on Spotify and YouTube and Apple Podcast and Overcast and Google Podcast or whatever you're listening to, whatever you fancy, right? uh leave or press the bell notification to get notified for every video that I'm posting if you want to stay tuned to the Bodaka blueprint and leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform so that number one I know what I'm doing that is good and what is beneficial so I can continue on that and double down and triple down and quadruple down on that and to maximize the the we're sharing or maybe there's something I should avoid that I'm not aware Because what we're doing here is we're especially for us that produce the same content over and over and over again, we have we tend to have this tunnel vision, right? So tell me tell me if there's something that needs to be improved. Uh be it uh in the review or if you want to write to me directly, I tend to answer very quickly on uh Instagram and Tik Tok. So with that being said, I will leave you with Until next time, uh take care of yourselves. Remember, remember to strengthen that connection with Quran. Remember that this is your path to success, your path to all types of success. Uh and this is your path to elevate and be elegant in your life and the life hereafter. Thank you for tuning in. Stay productive, stay faithful, stay focused and in baraka style and remember your