“Invest in a Partnership that never loses”!
I recently had an interesting conversation with one of my friends about business and entrepreneurship. At that moment, I was in desperate need for an insight and mindset upgrade, especially when it comes to adapting to this new life without a consistent paycheck. In a sense, this might be the only thing I miss about corporate life, when I used to complain about living “paycheck to paycheck”.
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My friend, for what it’s worth, is a very successful CEO who was able to grow his company’s performance 10X over the past few years, Ma Sha Allah.
Just Find that One Partner
He explained his strategy to me: “Success in this world is easy my friend, you just need to find a partner who is very good at business and invest your money with Him!”
My eyes widened at this brilliant idea, and I inquired: “Where do you find such a partner?”
He smiled and replied: “He is easy to find. This partner is none other than Allah. Simply said, make God your partner in business, donate His portion of the profit, and expect miracles and growth to happen.” He went on and on to explain how this strategy helped him grow his business at times when everyone else in his industry was struggling.
I had mixed feelings about what my friend said:
- I felt disappointed about my being a little bit materialistic, and forgetting basic tenets of our faith and the Hadith that I have heard 100 times:
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Allah said: Spend in charity, O son of Adam, and I will spend on you.”
Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5352, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 993
- I also reflected on how I tended to believe my friend more, because I needed that extra proof and demonstration in real life.
- By the same token, this discussion gave me more reassurance that the path of entrepreneurship gives you a closer connection to elements of the unseen. This was shown in a study that was featured in HBR: “Entrepreneurs Feel Closer to god than the rest of us do”. In the corporate world, it is easy to forgot who the provider is when that sustenance gets packaged in monthly or biweekly installments.
At this point, I was fully aligned that I need to take my relationship with Allah to the next level. Now that the “middle man” who was channeling Allah’s sustenance through him is gone, I need to trust the process, and follow my friend’s advice to the fullest extent.
Aggressively Invest with Him
Excited about this new advice, I suggested that I give 10% of my profit to charity as soon as I receive any new payment. The idea came from my business coach based on a book titled “profit-first”, in which you try to divide your income into different buckets: expenses, education, profit, etc. (This may require its own article later on). So I expressed my willingness to create that 10% budget to charity right after every payment. This is when my friend looked me in the eyes and said:
“10%?! Seriously??”
Then he said in a voice that only CEO gurus have: “Do you want to grow your business with your partner?, or do you want to just fool around?!”
Then he added: “I am not going to ask you to be like Abu Bakr Al-Siddique and donate all of your money in your partnership with God, but at least be like Omar Bin Khattab, and donate half of it, my friend!”
This was the shocking part of the conversation, when my friend spoke with full confidence about his secret to business growth: in addition to hard work, planning, and grit, he would split his profit according to a simple formula: 50% goes to his ultimate partner: Allah, 25% to invest for his kids’ education, and 25% only for his own leisure and personal expenses.
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The Barakah Multiplier
While this is a very aggressive approach that may be too idealistic to many, what my friend demonstrated is a tiny example of applying Barakah in business. A simple definition of Barakah is when Allah attaches His divine support to things in your life: to your time, to your relationships, to your sleep and nutrition, to your goals and aspirations, and clearly: to your wealth and income.
With barakah, you expect a 10X multiplier to your human and worldly effort.
With barakah, you achieve more with less by seeking partnership with the One who has real influence over your affairs.
With barakah, you understand that Allah’s work does not give you a free pass to not complete yours. You know that divine blessings need a miniature level of human effort to be attached to, it’s a 10X or a 1000X multiplier, but that multiplier cannot influence the equation when the human effort is equal to zero.
It goes without saying: Barakah is not a new concept to Muslims. Many of us experienced it first hand, when we donated money and got something in return, when we started our day early in the morning and got more work done. When we spent quality time with a family member of a friend and got way more than what we invested.
But the real question is: how can we slow down, like my CEO friend, and start observing Barakah in our lives and be more intentional about it?
How can we understand human free will, natural laws, and divine intervention, and maximize these three ingredients of God-centered productivity ?
How can we apply these concepts in our day-to-day activities, with our families, and in our personal and professional goals ?
How can we, as an Umma (global Muslim community), understand the barakah framework better, and implement its multiplier effect to collectively lift the burden that has continuously sought to keep us separated, divided, and ineffective?
May Allah fill our days with Barakah, and our nights with His worship, and our wealth and lives with Impact!
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