Friday 23 June 2023 / 5 Dhuʻl-Hijjah 1444 AH

as Salaamu Alaykum

Welcome to the Optimized Muslim Newsletter on all things self-development from a Muslim's perspective.

This is a mini-newsletter of sorts as my last one went out 3 days ago. The usual, more dense email will go out next week in sha Allah. Btw, Alhamdulillah the newsletters are garnering a really good response. Thanks for reading and feel free to share your feedback.

Total read time: 3 minutes ( I think)

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Image by @akhitweet in response to an Islam hater highlighting that Japan now has 113 mosques compared to 13 in 1999 - ALHAMDULILLAH I KNOW YOU DON'T LIKE THIS 🙂

We know what to do but why don't we do it?

"You know, sometimes I do think about what we'll say to Allah SWT when He asks us about how we spent our time."

Often times, people will say to me how they want to do more charity work, learn Arabic, work less and spend more time in ways that they feel is more aligned with Islam.

However, more often than not, they don't take any action. I recently had a similar conversation with a family member, which mirrored our discussion from last year. I tried to shift the conversation towards practical solutions rather than dwelling on the repetitive nature of the problem. So, what is the primary obstacle preventing practical steps in that direction? Fear

Fear holds people back because it is uncomfortable to confront the exact nature of their fears. It lingers as an ominous cloud over them. But there's an exercise that can help: Fear-setting.

Fear-setting is a powerful exercises popularised by Tim Ferris (check out his TED talk on this). Here's how it works

Step 1: Define your fears. Take a moment to identify the specific fears that are holding you back. Is it fear of failure, judgment, or financial insecurity? Pinpointing these fears is the first step towards conquering them.

Step 2: Quantify the risks. Now, let's evaluate the likelihood and consequences of those fears coming true. Rate each fear on a scale of 1-10 in terms of likelihood and impact. You'll realize that most risks are manageable, and the potential consequences are often less severe than we imagine.

Step 3: Plan for prevention and repair. Develop a strategic plan to address each fear. How can you prevent or reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes? What steps can you take to recover if things don't go as planned?

When examined in this way, you'll realise that the perceived fears are no longer as intimidating.

I really like this quote from Seneca:

"Here’s a lesson to test your mind’s mettle: take part of a week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantly in shabby clothes, and ask yourself if this is really the worst that you feared?

It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind, the soul can build defences against her ravages. So it is that soldiers practice manoeuvres in peacetime, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight and exhausting themselves under no attack so that when it comes they won’t grow tired"

Needless to say, if, as Muslims we properly internalised the concept of Qadr, this exercise wouldn't be necessary. However, it helps make it into a practical exercise for people who would not otherwise engage in such metacognition.

قُل لَّن يُصِيبَنَآ إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَنَا هُوَ مَوْلَىٰنَا ۚ وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ

Say, “Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us. He is our Protector.” So in Allah let the believers put their trust.

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Aadil

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PS

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