Reviews

 "And we shall wake up from this life suddenly as we wake up from a dream" "A reminder to keep our intentions in check and always pray to Allah to accept our acts"

 

"Thought provoking: Ibn Mas'ud said each and every person in this world is like a guest and his wealth is only on loan. The guest leaves and the loan is eventually repaid." "Love for this world is why people do despicable things all in the name of being successful or making history in the world" 

"Hoping is only after you've done all you could in your own capacity." "Contentment is accepting Allah's will. It makes situations bearable for us rather that strain us mentally. 

Humans are not equipped with unraveling why things happen, not being content exposes our mental weakness." "Allah is more deserving of our love than any lover or even our own mother."

By Sis Mutiat, REVIEW of The Principle Of Love And Desire. 

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You're so right! The book is full of insightful messages Ma Sha ALLAH. From the little I've read, I can say that there are lots of messages embedded in it Ma Sha ALLAH. First, it brings to our consciousness, the significance of HIS Mightiness. 

How HE azzawajal is not just our ROBB but the CREATOR of all creations. And most importantly, how HIS Mightiness is far beyond our imaginations. Also, the book exemplifies the perfectness of HIS azzawajal words, which HE has mercifully passed down through HIS Prophet (SAW). In addition, the book exposes the desirous nature of man and how these desires of his could lead to his doom. Consequently, it reveals that desire is connected to ignorance. And in fact, (more often than not) stems from it (ignorance). 

 It also reveals ALLAH'S warnings about how dangerous, hypocritical, insatiable and unworthy the desirous humans can be, that is those who act according to their desires, those who've allowed their desires to control their sense of reasoning, etc. And as Muslims we should be weary of either becoming like them or taking them as allies. Also, it emphasizes the love for ALLAH azzawajal and HIS Prophet (SAW) as one of the fundamentals of tawheed.

Exactly. The verses of the Qur'an cited in the book are full of important messages that can not be ignored. And from what I've read, I could deduce that desire could be good or bad for man, depending on how he chooses to control it. And more importantly, what exactly fuels his desires. So for the one whose desires control him or his sense of reasoning, then no doubt, he's of those whose desires stem from ignorance.

In other words, ignorance is the sole breeder of these sinful desires. And the ones with these sinful desires would always always seek excuse, either to justify their desires or to ridicule the truth (which they're not oblivious of), but have however chose not to adhere to, because of their overwhelming desires. The Qur'an verses cited in the book, such as Q28 vs 48-50 explains this.

By Sis Halimah Babatunde review of The Principle Of Love And Desire 

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Our last week read talks about linking our productivity to our goals & vision.

 The author developed a framework for this where *Purpose* is the base. As we all know that as Muslimaat, our purpose in life is to worship Allaah, and that should be the foundation of all our actions. All other steps should be fulfilling this main purpose of life. The next step is *Vision* which is important in order for us to live meaningful lives. It makes us to be steadfast, think clear, and be focused because we have what we want to achieve. 

 The next step he talked about is *Roles* which is also connected with others. We should think about what our vision should be in each of our roles. As a mother, whats your vision? As a wife, whats your vision? As a daughter, as a neighbor, ..... our roles should always align to our vision. The next is our *Values* as a Muslimah, as an individual. 

Our personal values should connect our roles and vision and guide all our decisions. And the last step is our *Goals* which are connected to all the previous steps above. Our set goals should be towards worshiping Allaah which will be of benefit to us in the Dunya and the Aakhiroh. How we want to see ourselves and what we want to be in the nearest and farthest future in our personal lives, Spiritual lives, Physical lives, our Islaam, our family, our work, our Community, the entire Ummah should all harness with our purpose in life and in being successful in the Aakhiroh also.

The Next Chapter talks about Developing Productive Habits. Habits are actions we develop over time which have become part of us. We do not think before doing them most times because we are already used to them. There are the good habits and the bad habits. He talked about the habit loop which is made up of 3 parts which are: 

1. Trigger 

 2. Routine

 3. Reward 

 For us to be able to adopt a good habit or let go of a bad habit, we need to tackle each of these elements. We need to be able to spot and identify the triggers, then control and decide on the actions to take (routine), and think about the reward we get from our actions which can be either intrinsic or extrinsic.

It takes discipline and determination to change a habit, and this can be achieved with the following 3 techniques: 

1.   *30-day challenge*: Since habits develop over time, we can train ourselves to change a habit using the following steps: - Choose a habit you want to adopt, change, or break over the next 30 days e.g observing Solaatul Duhaa, Reading a page of the Qur’an after each Solaah, etc - Write down the habit and give yourself a tick everytime you do the habit - Continue the steps above after the 30 days until the habit becomes part of you. This technique helps us to be able to cultivate good habits over time and let go of bad habits, but it takes self-discipline and determination. 
2.  The 2nd technique is *Cracking the habit loop* which we have explained above. Identifying the triggers, controlling our actions, and rewarding ourselves. 
3. The 3rd technique is the *replacement theory* which is about replacing our not too good habits with better ones which might be more fulfilling and rewarding. For us to be able to change our habits, we need lots of willpower to stick to our new habit. Tips: 

•   Intention - our intention drives our willingness to go on with our actions, always remind yourself of your intention, and this keeps you going. 

•  Small changes at a time, don’t rush yourself, take it easy with yourself. 

•  We should set *Clear guidelines* for our new routines and behavior, have a well written plan and strictly following it.

•  Public pledge: Tell someone or a get an accountability partner to embark on this journey together and report your progress to. 

•  Above all, Make Dua to Allaah to ease the journey for you because He only can make it all achievable.

REVIEWS By Sis Ammatullahi  excerpt from The Productive Muslim. 

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*The Productive Muslim* _where Faith meets productivity_ Physical productivity..

....hmmm The author talked about how physical well being is essential to our overall wellbeing. Some of his enlisted questions below, is thought provoking to me: 

 *1. Why would you want to suffer before you die due to poor food decisions?

*2.Which is better - voluntarily giving up unhealthy food or being forced to give up unhealthy food?

*3.Are you being selfish in your food decisions and not thinking of the people around you who’ll suffer because you’re suffering from preventable food-related diseases?(and this make me remember a yoruba adage which says 'ti ara ile eni ba n je kokoro...ti a so fun, kurukere e ko ni je ki a sun ni oru': and I can relate to this..Subhannallah) He also talked about how what we consume affects how active our body gets. Then again, as Muslims, *our body is a TRUST: which is obligated on us to care and protect*. 

 He went further to make relation to how we can create a link, a connection with our Creator, "I suggest the following exercise: Next time you sit at your dinner table, pick a single food item lying on the dinner table, e.g. an apple or grain of rice, or a cucumber from the salad bowl. Then ask yourself “How did this get to me?” Think about the entire journey of that food item from the moment the seed was placed in the ground to when it ended up on your plate. 

Let’s take the apple as an example: it began as a seed that grew into a tree; the tree bore fruit; it was harvested, shipped, distributed, packaged, shelved and finally bought with your hard-earned income at the nearest supermarket. How long do you think it took for it to get into your hands? How many miles has it flown to reach you? How many people worked on this apple to get it to you? It’s overwhelming when you think about it! This carefully organised orchestra of people working behind the scenes in different industries to get food to you is a true blessing from Allah. This exercise will warm your heart and make you feel grateful to Allah for blessing you with so much abundant food within convenient reach. This exercise also puts a responsibility upon us to be conscious of our food. As you become more conscious of where your food came from, you are more likely to choose ethical, wholesome, organic, fresh, local produce as which is closer to your fitra–your natural disposition. You’ll be paying fair prices to farmers from developing countries so they earn what they deserve. 

This is the holistic understanding of halal and tayyab. Working towards an improved consciousness of your food, based on a spiritual and intellectual understanding of where our food comes from will help you make you better nutrition choices and in effect improve your health and your productivity." He wrote, and I quote.

And I pray that our source of living and earning not be our source of earning Allah's wrath. Do have a great week. And we await other reviews next week. IN SHA ALLAH.

By Ummuh Aiman,  review of The Productive Muslim