Best Ramadan Ever Alhamdulillah

 

Alhamdulillah, in hindsight this has been one of the best Ramadan ever, as the first Ramadan since our team of brothers started The Barakah Effect

In spite of the crazy daily schedule and struggling with my increasingly difficult full-time day job, Alhamdulillah the team managed to consistently keep the podcast alive, with 2 live episodes (alongside our scheduled weekly releases).

Just these alone completely elevated my personal experience throughout Ramadan. It has always been our intention since day 1 for #thebarakaheffect to be a community of like-minded individuals to learn from each other: our life-hacks, tips and tricks, lessons learnt, and pitfalls to avoid - on how we can make the best in our lives - so we can make the best of our lives, given the constraints of time and resources that all of us face every day.

And Alhamdulillah, for me, it really fulfilled that objective. Learning from the brothers, bringing together their experiences from different lenses, brought a deeper perspective of "what we should do", that "we really CAN do more", and even bitter-but-needed realizations that "by the way, that's not the most efficient or productive way of doing things".

One thing I really enjoyed was how my tadabbur (personal reflection and contemplation of the meanings) of the Qur'an throughout Ramadan had a different profound experience this time around since we started the podcast. Recitations of the Qur'an almost feels like an adventure: an exciting discovery of "how I can apply this in my life", especially in the context of future podcast discussions and topics, giving it a much needed sense of renewal to the relationship with the Qur'an.

If that alone was the benefit of the podcast - with zero views, listens or followers - it would have sufficed as a huge benefit. But we made a conscious decision to make these discussions public - because we have always felt that "if I can benefit from it, I'm pretty sure someone else will. So let's love for others what we love for ourselves."
We always remind ourselves, keep our niyyah pure: Don't pay too much attention to the number of views, likes, shares, or subscribers. That is irrelevant. Don't look at the results; look at the efforts. If we can help ONE person become 1% better - and if Allah adds His Barakah to enhance that 1% - then that will be better than the whole dunya and everything in it. 

And despite the innumerable doubts that we used to have, Alhamdulillah by His Grace and His Mercy, ever since we launched back in February, the podcast has opened up many doors of khayr as we are able to connect with many like-minded individuals and organizations (such as Qalby APP , the Mindset Kitchen podcast, IT Learning Academy ), and we received numerous personal heart-warming testimonials of how our discussions have been able to benefit others. These affirmations mean a lot to us, and we appreciate every single one of them. And we do certainly welcome your constructive feedback on how we can improve ("it's too long" is by far the most common comment we received so far. Can't argue with you there.. working on it! Miskeen 🤣)

May Allah keep the team steadfast, ikhlas, and continue improving our craft - and may Allah accept and grant His Barakah to all of our good deeds, Ramadan and beyond.