A Return to the Qur'an

Bismillah. Asalam alaikum. Welcome to the Balaka Blueprint podcast. My name is Ibrahim Sharif. I am a graphic designer, brand strategist, project manager and alhamdulillah I am a h of the Quran. [sighs] I started this project because I believe that every single Muslim needs to strive for excellence. Excellence in every affair in their lives. be it in their goals in or in their goals in this very dunya. The reason why I started this also is because I believe that I am very far from this. I'm very far from that image of attaining excellence or trying to attain excellence. So I created this project to serve as a learning experiment for myself. [sighs] I include I include myself as a test subject so that my followers and my audience and my subscribers can listen to the lessons that I share and that my guests share and so that they can learn from our mistakes and from the lessons that we have attained during this life. So, this marks the finale of season two as we've uh aimed before to always record a 20 episode season. Uh second season in a row. Let's see if we're going to continue with the same format. But this still mark this will mark the finale of uh Baraka Blueprint season 2 in terms of us taking a little bit of a break, stepping back specifically from the podcast. I'll continue with the content creation inshallah. But uh I want to repivot and realign my intentions and realign the intentions or the goals that I've set out for this particular podcast. The reason why is because I and it's it's it's not merely for the performance of the podcast. If I'm going to be very honest, this is more because I've realized something and I've realized something especially after Omrah. Yeah. So, we started the year with long hair and now we we are like this. Um, as I've been to, Subhan Allah, there's something that I've realized especially when reflecting with a near and dear friend of mine and that is that as I was giving him advice about the importance of aligning ourselves with Quran, I realized something. I realized that I am very very far from my mission because the reason why I started this particular podcast is well I mean it's in the name the baraka blueprint. I wanted to talk about the blueprint the blueprint for success in that will also automatically result in success in this material life. And I felt so distracted because of all the noise around me. See, I see every single person uh and their uncles who are into content creation, they have a monetizing funnel or a way of converting their audience into paid clients. And I actually had the intention of doing the same. And I'm not excluding that if I'm going to be very honest. I do believe that I have um competences and skills that are worthy of not only being shared but can also be turned into digital products that can further be sold and benefiting people worldwide. And I was so stressing like this particular funnel and how to sort this out that I I I didn't I didn't really stick to my mission. And like for example, I'll give you an example. The the the I'm recording this episode today on the 2nd of January 2026, the day I'm releasing the episode. All right? this is sort of just to remind myself that the reason why I started all of this is not to end up monetizing my personal brand or to monetize the content that I am doing. That's not the goal. That is a means. That is not the ends. And that's why I wanted to talk openly about the progress of not only Baraka Blueprint but also at the same time well my personal brand that I've been building because those of you who have been following me for quite a while you would you would have noticed that I started out with a particular handle or name even for the channel be it for the channel or for my uh social media pages. Um, then I changed to another name, then to another name, changed focus, changed direction, and so I I want to talk about a couple of things. I've taken some a couple of notes here. So, let's start out with the highlights, like the proper highlights, not the Instagram version highlights, the proper highlights. What has actually happened? Um, I'm going to start with some benefits and positives. So because because like we said the purpose of this podcast is for it to be an experiment just like my content outline as a whole. I want it to be an experiment and I want people to have access to what I have learned. Now I I decided for some reason right uh I was convinced by someone very near to me myself that I should start creating content more seriously. I've done that like what 2 years ago like what is it 2023 2024 done that slightly but not so seriously uh I tried to do some dwa content on short form level but I didn't stay consistent with it so I I decided to be very serious 2025 okay so what did I learn uh number one I learned that there's no right time to start because this is something that I've wanted to do for seven years and I've been putting it off for seven years because it was not the right time. I I learned that that there's no right time technically. Uh because if you compare the first episode of Baraka Blueprint to now episode 40, season 2 finale, you're going to find that the style, be it the presentational style of the content or the art direction or the the production level, you're going to see that there's it's a night and day shift. you're going to notice a big paradigm shift and I consider that an improvement. Alhamdulillah. I believe that during this year, it's the year that I started and also the year that I greatly improved my content style. Alhamdulillah. I also thanks to thanks to the of Allahhana tala and also the people that I have access to the skillful people the the the brands that I have access to the people that have expertise in the area I've been able to understand personal branding on a different level on a much deeper level I would even say like I had I had a certain idea of what a personal brand meant and I applied my bias as a brand strategist ologist or a graphic designer or a branding pseudo expert, let's call it that, right? But subhan Allah, one thing is that I've noticed is that I've learned that this is something completely different and I'm still navigating through this maze that I that I'm yet to figure out. In all of that, like in the midst of all of that, alhamdulillah, I've launched uh my company together with my business partners called focused specifically on uh branding and also other professional services within automation and graphic design. And uh that too has been a journey that has been a hectic journey to say the least. Still is to be honest. And subh it's something that I uh I've beenve I've I've been teasing a little bit about it both in Instagram and on well the podcast and now alhamdulillah as of yesterday I've uh started to create content in the page. So, if those of you who are able to, please check out Made by Khan on Instagram, cuz that's that's the only place we're at right now. Uh, and if you can give us a follow, that would be greatly appreciated. And finally, uh, Baraka Blueprint grew beyond what I expected. Like there's literally I could not even how do you say calculate what would have happened from this wonderful and beautiful journey. Now alhamdulillah I've also had uh and this is I think I think this is the most impressive thing for me on a on a personal note. I've been able to have collaborations and conversations in the Bodaka Blueprint podcast with and even outside of the Bodica Blueprint with people that I used to just watch behind the screen, people whose content I I used to consume. And today these are alhamdulillah uh people I can call guests to the Baraka Blueprint podcast, collaborators, some I can even call friends. Alhamdulillah. I pray all of which uh and alhamdulillah all of that really but also learned one thing. See, you know, as you grow, your shadow grows even bigger, right? Because even growth has a shadow. Right now, like I have this light source that is staring at me right now. Like the closer I approach that light source, the bigger the shadow was going to seem. Now, why am I saying all of this? Wait, hold on a second. Is that really the case? Is it? H I think so. No, I'm I don't know. Maybe sorry this is post fudger people. Uh two hours post fudger. So I'm still uh waking up in a way. If this is wrong those those of you who know this science just correct me if I'm mistaken. Anyway um but okay why am I giving this analogy? All right. Why am I saying that? Well, the more you grow, the the the more your shadow grows as well. Well, because now the the shadow in this particular metaphor is specifically the challenges and the the growing pains, if you may. I've had some of those and I want I want to share what I didn't expect to see and what you maybe don't see as much behind the screen, right? I want to be very honest say that this journey has been very, very heavy on me. It's been very difficult. Very difficult because I had to take decisions that I didn't think I would have to take. Uh I I felt more misaligned and confused than aligned and clear. And even though it's very ironic because what I'm preaching is clarity and alignment. And yet here I am being very misaligned and unclear. the reason why is because uh there are many things that I have to consider in this balancing equation, right? [sighs and gasps] When you have a project that is somewhat sort of how do we what do we call it? Let's say I'm not going to say dependent but I'll say has something to do with external validation content creation is in a way like that right I mean usually success is in a certain I know it's not exactly like this but in a certain way equated with well your engagement or your reach so in a way there is there is external or public validation right [snorts] so as such a project grows, there are a couple of things that grow with it. First of all, responsibility. Well, Uncle Ben, Spider-Man's uncle, used to say, "What with great power comes great responsibility." Now, I I really don't consider this particular brand great power yet, uh, but it's still greater than day one, right? day 366 or 365 or whatever still still has a more uh influential power let's say so the the responsibility grows as well and this is something that Allahh will ask you about right just like he'll ask you about your families and or your employees or whomever you have a responsibility over Islamically speaking uh there are more things that grow with it as well like imposttor syndrome for example so your self-doubt is growing your ego ego can automat or automatically grows with it as well, right? Something we talked about in uh two episodes ago about the digital hijra about the danger of the ego and confusion grows as well and all of these things I felt them. Yes, including the ego part. So one uncomfortable truth that I realized, subhan Allah, is that this journey has been much more difficult than I anticipated and also that I have a long way to go. like I'm far I'm far from having figured out my path, right? And the moment I thought I figured out my path was the moment that I realized that, oh, I need to take a step back and, you know, go back to the drawing board, right? what did I realize? Subhan Allah. Um, let's talk about the um let's talk about the biggest pain point. I at least I consider this the big the biggest pain point which is like pivoting my focus compared to my goal or aim to launch monetized content. Right? So I thought about that and I tried to pivot to content where or that I could monetize easily. two things or one of them at least one of these two either project management I talked I talked about it for example with Bakr Muaj and Roto Hijra and I talked about this with brother Abdullahim in the Medina project as well project managing your life right it's still a sentiment that I live by and it's still a sentiment that I would preach of course don't get me wrong But I wanted to I wanted to talk a lot about project management because this is where I wanted to pivot because there's this is where I saw potential in monetizing content, right? I then later tried to do the same thing with graphic design and branding. Like I I have for example the series Branding Over Coffee. Not that I want to stop doing it. Of course, I want to continue with Branding Over Coffee. Are you kidding me? It's a it's it's it's an excuse to feed my caffeine addiction. and I can talk about something that I absolutely love while I sip on something I absolutely love, coffee. So, uh, okay, why why I bring all of this up? Well, it's because in doing that, in pivoting to content that I felt is easier to monetize, I lost clarity. I forgot my mission. Something that I realized subh while I was doing or in my Omrah trip, not while I was doing but in that trip when I was sat in the uh in the masjid in Neo in the prophet's mosque sallallahu alaihi wasallam in Medina and I realized that I realized that subhan Allah I am so far from my mission. I talked about this a little bit earlier in this video uh which is that my mission from the very very beginning was to bring people closer to the blueprint Quran to connect people to Quran. This is like this is the mission. Anything that isn't aligned with that mission is something that I should directly discard. I'm not saying that branding or project management content is misaligned or like uh or contradicting the mission. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is this is where my focus should have been. I shouldn't disregard the original intentional focus that I aimed to have. Uh so this I think no from everything that happened in 2025 subh I think this is the most important discovery that I've made which is that I strayed from that mission and I need to I need to get back to it. I need to focus on this mission and this mission alone. Everything else is secondary. Like for example uh branding, project management, whatnot. This all falls under the main mission which is aligning with Quran. This the project management and branding is what alignment looks like in practice. How does it look like practically speaking or how does it look like when it's being implemented in your professional career and life [sighs] for example this is how the alignment looks practically speaking from an individual point of view. How does it look like when you implement it on yourself as an individual, on your brand, as a person, right? this is where my focus should have been and this is what I wanted to share with you. And I guess the key takeaway from all of this people is that always remember the like the mission that you started out with whatever it is whatever the intention was whatever you intended to do for the sake of Allahh you stick to that you don't pivot away even if there is a chance to reach better numbers right even if there is a chance for that like this is still not something that you should too. I tried it, didn't work out very well. Don't recommend you to do the same. Stick to your mission, people. That's that this is this is the one key. This is the one takeaway you need to take from this particular point and arguably the entire video. Right? So inshallah in 2026 and even though my chat GPT in the background is maybe not going to like this but uh again I'm again I'm repivoting refocusing realigning myself with the very same mission that I intended from the from the very very beginning with Quran right and I'm not just talking about it from a content point of view yes of course I mean very important to say the least this because this is the content that I want to deliver to people. But I'm saying that this is what I want to focus on from like from an individual point of view as well. I feel like I have been very far from the Quran personally and I think I should get back to this particular journey and in effect what I am learning of course I'm sharing with my audience. I want to do much more with Quran. Like for example, I posted the other day about You know what? Let me let me bring it actually. Give me a moment. I'm going to bring the one thing that I was given. So, in here we are. Okay, perfect. Let's see if it refocuses. I think it should refocus. H Let's hope I'm not out of focus. We're going to see this afterwards. If if I am then yeah I'm going to release this anyway. But I got this thing right here. Okay. This is a uh from or this is this is a simplified from and I why why am I showing you this? Two things two two reasons why. Number one uh I posted the video on Instagram and Tik Tok as well. But on Instagram, I had this poll where I said, "Should I have a community about the Quran?" And like vast vast majority said, "Yes, absolutely." So to answer your wishes as well, inshallah, I'll be creating much more uh community content about the Quran as well. Perhaps not under Hijra hackers school community because that has a very very different purpose. Uh I'll keep this as a repository of all of the um material that I will be collecting inshallah and any future uh live episodes with the baraka blueprints is going to be there. the entire methodology inshallah is still going to be excellence oran as a matter of fact is something else is the uh brand that we're the brand that we're building for our company but also also in a way means excellence but excellence in this case I mean specifically the wordanan okay and we talked about this before the the the the intention or the purpose Allah has prescribed on every single thing as we mentioned a couple of episodes back. And this is still going to be the signature and the uh the common thread that unites all of these points together because we want to attain excellence. We want to be. We want to be people ofan. And we can only attain that level ofan if our well worship towards God Almighty is done in excellence. I don't know of many acts that are more beautiful than being connected to the Quran and to have excellence in that relationship. And I believe that if you have excellence in your relationship with the blueprint of God or the divine blueprint, surely everything around you is becoming excellent as well. At least spoken from experience. So let's talk about let's talk about one more thing as well. um [snorts] what we can expect from this coming year inshalla. All right. First of all, next week in I'm attending the 1 billion follower summit in Dubai. Uh as a creator, inshallah, my goal is to very very soon because hey, I'm a guy that loves talking. You guys are hearing this, right? Uh my goal very soon I actually want to be someone who joins in as a speaker. I'd love to present I'd love to talk about the concept of baraka. Right. I believe it's a concept that is not being talked about often. I see words. Okay. I see some things come up about it. I feel like the concept of vodka is very misunderstood generally speaking and I think we should talk about this and understand the concept of vaka and if we understand the concept of baraka many things can be resolved like egoism and selfishness I believe we'll become more selfless and less selfish if we understand the concept of baraka like for example the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says if there's if there's food for one there's food for two and if there's food for two there's food for three uh Uh and the reason why this is happening is because of baraka. So if you understand this and if we truly live by it, we're not going to be hoarding our you know things and keep them to ourselves. It's a reminder that I'm giving myself before I'm giving to other people. Uh but let's see. But for now I'm attending as an observant as a as an audience member and my goal in is to learn as much as possible and to implement that in the Shuriko brand and as well of course in the Baraka Blueprint podcast. Uh, I want to have much more engagement with the community. I feel like my engagement with the community has not been the best and it's because there's been so much to do, right? There's been there's been a lot there's been a lot to keep track on and as a as a single person handling all of this, of course, it's not very easy. I am the production studio um designer, the the brand designer of the this entire ordeal. um speaker, script writer, um whatever everything, right? Marketing expert, whatnot, or not even an expert, but you know, pretending to be at least. So, doing all of this, I'm like, where are all of these different caps, making it into this cap sombrero that uh we end up putting in our heads, something that project managers very much uh relate to. So, if there's a project manager listening to this, I'm sure you're going to understand what I mean. I still want to have um I still want to have much better alignment when it comes to what do I want to say uh when it comes to engaging with my audience as far as hijra hackers is concerned. This is my takeaway. I feel like this serves as a perfect perfect perfect place for all of the resources that I have gained and built. I want to put them there. I want people to I want the community to still exist and for people to benefit from it. Having that said, I don't know how much more I'll be doing besides the courses that already exist. Still going to be the hub for all of my free courses. One thing that I am considering is I am considering with pivoting uh HRA hackers to and I'm going to ask you guys this as well. So those of you who disagree because usually I don't get many comments on my YouTube so or my Spotify or even like in ter generally speaking in the podcast the one getting many comments. So I'll do this. Those of you who disagree feel free to say so in the comments. If not I'm going to take your silence as agreement. Anyway, one thought that I had actually and this is me taking inspiration from Freshly Grounded as they have the FG tribe. So for a very very very low sum on a monthly basis you can support the podcast and at the same time you still have access to these resources and much more and you also have a more engaged community and I actually think this is a great idea. I think I should be implementing that blueprint as well. So those of you who disagree speak now or forever hold your peace. Good. Nobody. Nice. Great. I'll do that. Uh as far as guests are concerned, you're going to see some new faces in this I'm very very excited for and there are going to be some recurring faces, some recurring guests, uh some favorites that people have asked me to bring back and I I'll I'll pose the question to you my wonderful uh Baraka Blueprint fan base. Uh if there are any specific people that you want me to interview or people that I have interviewed they want me to bring back to the podcast, I am much more than happy to do that. Uh I'm not going to spoil who we've already locked in. But uh those of you who have any specific guesses, let me know and I'll do my best for my wonderful audience to get them on the podcast that Sean had. like I said and this is going to be one of my goals in this coming year of Shambla is to build a place or a community or a platform that is centered around the Quran. I tried to do this earlier last year. Really couldn't do much. Uh mainly because my my my target was set elsewhere and that's I'm I'm I'll take this uh for myself. But I really want to do this and especially because there's been popular demand for it. So that being said, this is something that you can inshallah expect from me. And one thing I'll continue to do, subh something that I still advise everybody, including myself, is to stay sincere and remain completely transparent in terms of um well this and like I told you to be completely transparent and sincere and honest with you guys. Many of times I really don't know what I'm doing. I really don't know if this is the right uh direction or if I am executing things properly and correctly. I have no idea. Um but one thing I can tell you, alhamdulillah, is that I will still keep trying. I've done that before. Worked out well. Alhamdulillah. So I think I'm going to continue I think I'm going to continue and um deliver the exact same thing in ask for and to bless us in this journey and to give us baraka in our affairs and in our projects in our wealth and in our health. So that being said, thanks so much for tuning in to the Baraka Blueprint podcast. Uh those of you that are watching that have not subscribed and not followed, first of all, why? Secondly, please feel free to subscribe and follow the podcast and follow me on my socials or this particular journey. If anything that I've said that is beneficial and good, it's only from Allah and his prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And whatever I've said that is uh incorrect or incoherent is from myself, my own desires and I ask Allahh to protect us and forgive us and to bless our path to success all of us. So until next time and until next episode and next season and until the next time you see me wherever it is on your well the on this particular device or uh on big screen in whichever content type you know just remember your path to excellence remember that ultimately we're all headed to Allahh and God is excellence and expects nothing else except excellence from us. And as we as we said before, excellence is not equal to perfection. Okay? Perfection is only for God. Excellence is you frequently doing your absolute best to give your absolute best. That's it. This is what this is what excellence really is. Excellence is constantly sinning. Yeah. Exactly. Excellence is constantly making mistakes but it's connected to correcting yourself and making you know this is excellence. Excellence has a lot to do with the fact that you're imperfect. Excellence has much more to do with imperfection than perfection. The difference between those that strive towards excellence and those that don't is sincerity. So be sincere with yourself. I continue in bada style. Right. So until next time, take care of yourselves.