Productivity 2: Charity, Stress, Kinship Ties & Fears

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PREVIOUS – Productivity 1: Prayer, Decluttering, Relationships & Dua

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We started this 7 month Pre-Ramadan Productivity Course in the start of October (And if you will be reading this afterwards, this is the second month of #preRamadanProductivityCourse – as a detailed guide on the PRODUCTIVITY JOURNAL FOR MUSLIMS – although you can choose any topic in any month or week, this is simply how we did it and we hope that it helps make things more clear and doable for you in shaa Allah).

Since we pick out 1 section from each category in the journal each month (we will do this till April 2018 in shaa Allah): 1 from Spiritual Development, 1 from Personal Development, 1 from Strengthening Relationships & 1 from Goals and Dreams

In November 2017, We picked Charity Chart ((to help us develop the habit of giving and not hoarding – so as to avoid having to declutter again and again as well (as we discussed previous month in the 2nd challenge), Stress Manangement ((to help us manage the stressors in our lives by tracking our moods for better self awareness of our triggers), Maintaining Kinship Ties (to improve relationships beyond our very closed loved ones – to build a community within our blood ties) and Facing Fears (to take risks by putting trust in Allah and achieve the dreams we’ve been praying dua-e-istikhara for).

The reason we are doing it all publicly with YOU is because we are struggling as much as you are in this life and this will help us stay accountable if we lose the motivation somewhere in the middle! 

Also, we want to enter Ramadan as a better Muslim and experience the blessed month on a whole new level in shaa Allah. 

We did a detailed post on each section in this month and in shaa Allah will be doing so for the next 6 months as well – collaborating with different bloggers and entrepreneurs who are experts/researchers of those topics! Here are some of the examples of people from different parts of the world doing the challenge with us ❤

1) Charity Chart

(spiritual development)

Challenge 1 from *Spiritual Development* was “Charity Chart” in #preRamadanProductivityCourse – Our task this month was to make a list of things we LOVED! And then see what and how we can give it in the way of Allah! We simply made a chart with division of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals of sadaqah.

DAILY goals could have intangible things like smiling, a good word, tasbeeh/tahleel/tahmeed etc. – all of which is sadaqah.

WEEKLY goals could include volunteering somewhere or giving da’wah etc.

MONTHLY goals could include financial sadaqah, planting a tree etc. – considering it as a seed that will grow and bring its fruits back to you! In shaa Allah.

while your YEARLY goals could revolve around zakat! For which we are offering a free extended printable for the journal so you can educate yourself about Zakat in shaa Allah and perhaps teach your kids this important pillar of Islam as well.

Free Online Resources to Learn About Zakat (Obligatory Alms)

2) Stress Management

(personal development)

Challenge 2 from *Personal Development* was “Stress Management” (through tracking your moods) in #preRamadanProductivityCourse – to start tracking our triggers & our whys!

In the productivity journal – It’s been sectioned into 2 columns –

1) TODAY I FELT…

2) BECAUSE…

*What are the differences between stress and depression?*

1) stress tends to resolve if life events change vs depression can last up to years

3) Maintaining Kinship Ties

(strengthening relationships)

For some reason, Mus’ab bin Umair’s story kept circling around my head since we started the challenge of Maintaining Kinship Ties (especially after so many people talked about how painful their relationships were with their very close family members – mother, father, children, siblings etc.) – although story of Ibrahim (A.S.) &  Yusuf (A.S.) are very relatable in this scenario as well.

What struck me was, they didn’t let the bitter relationship they had with their mother, father, siblings etc. come in their way of life. They carried on with their enthusiasm – with Islam – without it affecting them emotionally – although it very much physically affected them:

*Mus’ab Bin Umair (R.A.) – his mother took away everything from him when he became Muslim and he went from an elite young boy to a boy who didn’t even have a cloth for his own funeral.

*Ibrahim (A.S.) – his father was one of the people who threw him into the fire because of his acceptance of Islam and yet he prayed for him and requested Allah to not disgrace him on the day of judgement by throwing his father into fire.

*Yusuf (A.S.) – his brothers threw him into the well out of jealousy and he lived most of his life as a slave (without a family), spent his youth in the prison and yet forgave them when he became a king. 

So yes, even though you may have an extremely difficult relationship with your parents or children or siblings etc. Let it not stop you in your path of righteousness. Let it not affect you in a way that you give up on everything khair in life (refer to the 2nd challenge *stress management*). Do not become hopeless of the mercy of Allah that you lose sight of aakhirah.

Free Resources on Stories of Companions of the Prophet

Since many of you asked for free resources to read up on lives of the companions when I shared the story of Mus’ab Bin Umair, here is a starting list:

1) Audio Lectures (urdu) on lives of Muslim Heroes

2) Audio Lectures (urdu) on lives of the Female Companions of the Prophet (SAWS)

3) Free Islamic (English) Books on Companions of the Prophet (SAWS)

4) Facing Fears

(goals & dreams)

A post shared by Muslim mom Bloggers (sisters) (@ayeina_official) on Nov 21, 2017 at 3:08am PST

Challenge 4 from *Goals and Dreams* category was “Facing Fears” in #preRamadanProductivityCourse – The task was to trust Allah and TAKE AT LEAST ONE RISK you’ve been wanting to take all along! The reason why we did the challenge of “dua diary” last month (defining your goals and doing istikhara for them) was to face THIS challenge this month! The challenge of finally putting your vision into action! The challenge of finally DOING IT! (For those who have the Productivity Journal, this detailed exercise is on page 81 & for those who don’t have the journal, we don’t mind you copying this in your own diary if you prefer it that way! Although buying the journal will save you much time and organisation in shaa Allah 💞).

Taking risks doesn’t always mean taking a step forward, it sometimes also mean taking a step back – when you’re not supposed to (according to the world). Sometimes it means to stop and watch others go forward because you have different values, different priorities…When you step back at times, that’s also called “Facing your fears”.

So the challenge was to not only take one step forward towards a risk you WANT to take but also take one step back as a risk from something that you were doing as a form of ‘fulfilling expectations and norms’ – Something that may have served you on the outside but haven’t served your soul & one thing became sure – if you put your trust in Allah, you won’t be disappointed ❤

So as a part of the challenge, I re-started my Intensive Arabic Program as a risky step forward! and took a break from social media as a risky step backwards (which meant the overall reach dropping a great deal, but it felt great to take both of these steps! alhamdulillah)

BONUS CHALLENGE 

(Educating Yourself through a Zakat Chart)

We have created a bonus printable bundle for our subscribers which includes:

So, If you have done the challenges of this month, how did it all go for you? If you didn’t manage to do it all, then how do you plan to work on them? Share with us your experiences so everyone in the journey can benefit in shaa Allah. BaarakAllahu lakum!