Reeza Marriage 19 July 2025

 Alhamdulillah dah selamat dah abang kite @ Reeza

Congratulations to our brother Reeza for his marriage last night 19th July 2025. 

Alhamdulillah, now the entire team at @thebarakaheffect are all married dudes. Welcome to the club, my brother. It's about time 😁

 

بارَكَ اللّهُ لَك،

وَبارَكَ عَلَـيْك،

وَجَمَعَ بَيْـنَكُما في خَـيْر

May Allah grant barakah upon you, shower His Blessings upon you, and enjoin you both in goodness. 

Alhamdulillah it was an honor for Emceeing on your big day, and professionally, a was an exciting new stretch challenge for me as an Emcee too, working with tightly coordinated Professional wedding planners, combining Nikah and wedding reception in 1 night (settled everything in 4 hours - talk about efficient!), and it was quite a thrill conducting the ceremony in dual languages of English and BM.

The event was very well managed, and it was quite the sight to witness Sheikh Hussain conduct his portion of the ceremony, with a special tazkirah, du'aa and milk serving for the bride, groom and their families. 

Special thanks and appreciation as usual to my Pantun Master, Husaini Md Rasid, for helping me out compose so many Pantun, in both Bahasa Malaysia and in English. Banyak positive review! 

May Allah grant continuous khayr, barakah and Rahmah to our newly weds, Reeza and Fatimah 

Bumping into Dan Henry @ WhiteMuslimGuy at KLCC

 Bumped into @danhenry AKA @whitemuslimguy at KLCC today. Nice guy masha Allah, heard his talk for the first time last weekend at @gmcsummit on the topic of “Cracking the Instagram Code: 0-100k Followers in 60 days”. Loved it!

I told him, i really enjoyed his talk. Then he asked, “what did you gain from it?”

Oh, man. Why you put this introvert on the spot, man? 

Then I remembered the first big takeaway that came to mind: “Find your unfair advantage”

Everyone has a unique gift that Allah granted. You probably don’t realize it. But we have it, we just have to see it. In Dan’s case, his unique thing was that he whenever he hung out with his Muslim friends, he was known as the “white muslim guy”. Which he later realized, was kind of rare, and surprisingly, was available in Instagram and other platforms!

 

He added: “Find your niche. Find something that makes you stand out from the crowd, that differentiates you. Then hone on it and make the best out of it. 

My first social media brand took me 7 years to build, and once i found my new unique brand, whitemuslimguy, it took me 1 month to achieve the same results.”

Second big takeaway I got from his talk: The definition of a “Hook”. 

When it comes to the world of influencers and social media, everybody talks about mastering the art of creating a hook. 

Now, first thing’s first: What IS a hook?

People will typically say, a hook is what gets people’s attention. 

Clarification: That’s what a hook DOES. Not what a hook is. 

A Hook is, “something someone sees that CREATES MULTIPLE BURNING QUESTIONS in their mind, that they can’t stand to leave unanswered, therefore they keep watching”. 

I introduced myself to him, telling him I work in Engineering in Oil & Gas and do content creation part-time with our podcast, but we kind of feel stuck in our channel. 

He shared some good advice: You gotta have the blueprint before you start building. 

Many of us wanna jump straight into content creation. 

But How do you build a house - Do you just start building? 

There’s a lot more that goes into it before a single brick touches the ground.

Awesome to meet you brother! Enjoy the rest of your stay in Malaysia 🇲🇾

Global Muslim Content (GMC) Summit: 12-13 July, 2025 @ Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur 🇲🇾

I paid over RM3000 for my ticket to Attend this GMC summit @gmcsummit this weekend - the most expensive weekend course I've ever paid for.

At the time I purchased the ticket, it seemed like a crazy idea and I wondered if it would be worth it. 

I was expecting to learn a few new tips, get to meet a few new people, and as an engineer, feel awkwardly out of place in this crowd of content creators, influencers, media professionals, and people of knowledge.

And yes, it kinda was that. AND, on top of that, a few unexpected experiences along the way, too: 

 

✅ inspired by the humble beginnings from  authentic personal journeys of the influencers, how they recovered from failure, self doubt, and haters 

✅ opened up a whole new world of possibility and inspiration, as I marveled at the amazing work people have done all over the world with millions of followers which I had no idea about, until now 

✅ Gained practical, actionable insights that provided genuine A-ha! Moments that made me realize why I always feel stuck 

✅ changed the way I see AI and technology in general, and feel that we left behind as our speakers

✅ huge diverse background of speakers and multiple creative formats to their keynote

✅ an amazing multi-feature conference mobile app that enables us to connect with fellow attendees, get conference updates in real time, systematically book workshops, and so much more

✅ getting to know new people from all over the world, and the different areas of expertise, opening the door for complimenting each other's strengths and niche 

✅ feel a sense of courage and empowerment to double down our efforts even further towards collaboration and creating positive impact

Was it worth it? 

Absolutely. It is one of the best conferences I've ever been to, and I'm glad I made that investment to experience this inaugural summit. 

Alhamdulillah for the taufiq to join this wonderful event. May Allah grant us the strength and steadfastness to implement what we learnt and continue to benefit the ummah with this newfound knowledge and wisdom. 

Faisal Latif 🇲🇾 meets Faisal Latif 🇺🇸:

🧠 Zero-Based Design Ideation Workshop, 1 July 2025 @ KL Convention Centre

Alhamdulillah — we’ve successfully completed our first multi-disciplinary engagement workshop, bringing together Technical Professional SMEs from all key facilities engineering disciplines: process, instrumentation, mechanical, structural, pipeline, technical safety, front-end, cost, and reliability.

The goal? To ideate around a bold question:

How can we collectively reduce Facilities CAPEX by applying the ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) philosophy?

We explored how to embrace higher risk tolerance, strip designs down to the essentials, and holistically assess the impact of these simplifications.

💡 Reflections from the Experience

1. Team Recruitment – Building the All-Star Lineup

As the appointed team lead, one of the most exciting parts was assembling the right mix of SMEs across disciplines. It took time, but in the end, it felt like we had formed a powerhouse team. I couldn’t help but imagine myself as Nick Fury in a post-credit scene — except this was a strategic initiative, not "the Avengers" initiative. 😄

2. Challenging Norms – Redefining Boundaries

The ideation session opened up a world of possibilities. Our experts brought forward bold — even “radical” — proposals. Will they work? We’re not sure yet, but we’re excited to test them out and learn from the outcomes.

3. Small Wins, Big Impact

Some ideas may seem minor in isolation, but when combined across disciplines, they stack up to create significant collective impact. Every contribution counts.

4. Facilitation – Connecting the Dots

Ideas don’t exist in silos. Every engineering proposal affects others — often in unexpected ways. Workshops like this provide a transparent, collaborative space where SMEs can challenge and support each other toward a shared goal.

👏 Kudos to the entire team for a strong start to an exciting journey ahead. Let’s keep the momentum going!

#FacilitiesEngineering #CAPEXReduction #ALARP #ZeroBasedDesign #StrategicInitiative #EngineeringLeadership #CrossDisciplineCollaboration #InnovationInAction

Live as though you will live forever?

 

"Strive to work for your worldly affairs as if you are going to live forever,

And work for your Hereafter as if you will die tomorrow"

When I first heard of this quote*, I didn't quite understand the first portion. We hear the advice about death: that it can come at any moment, and hence the Prophet ﷺ said, "be in this world as you are a traveler or a wayfarer" (Al-Bukhari, Muslim) 

But to "work as if you live forever?" 

Think about it this way: what if a person was going to resign and leave the country in 1 week. How would he treat his job, knowing he's going to leave anyway? 

Compare that one who aspires to stay with the company until retirement: there's a higher tendency that the person would have big ambitions, a strong sense of ownership to drive the company to greater heights. To be more mindful on relationships, knowing they would be collaborating long run.

Likewise, when we live our lives in this world in this mindset, knowing that we are here to stay and have the space to shape our collective future, the beauty is that we have more motivation for higher ambitions to improve ourselves and make the world a better place, knowing that we - and our children - will be reaping what we sow in the future. 

Also, we tend to take more responsibility of our actions, more mindful of the consequences of our relationships and decisions, considering how it affects others, since we will be around to feel the impact later down the road. 

But there is a flipside to it. If we think like we are going to "live a long time", we may start taking things for granted, lacking in a sense of urgency and procrastinate from taking action. 

And hence the second part of the advice: from the spiritual side of things - your religious obligations - live as if you will die tomorrow. Act immediately, don't delay, because there may not come another chance. 

In summary: aim high, make the best out of this life, and take action with pace!

*some say this is a Hadith, and others attribute it to companions like Umar ibn Al-Khattab or Abdullah bin Amr in Al-Aas. However, there are no authentic narrations that prove this.