The guides provide practical tips targeted to employers and employees, providing practical and pragmatic advice. They can be downloaded from the links below and for the first time are available in english, french and spanish.

English:    Employee     Employer

French:     Employee     Employer

Spanish:    Employee     Employer

“As a working Muslim woman I am very proud to have enabled the production of this guide. It encapsulates 20 years of personal experience as well as that of many others who have contributed to the guide. These guides provide practical advice to Muslims, non Muslim colleagues and employees. We have approached this from a very practical perspective and ensured balance between responsibilities to faith and employers.”

Saiyyidah Zaidi, Founder and CEO, Working Muslim; Executive Coach, McLean Stone.

“I see The Working Muslim in Ramadan guide as a vital tool for enhancing good relations between organisations and their Muslim employees. Fasting is a key tradition within the Christian and Muslim faiths, and Ramadan is an important time of reflection and fasting for Muslims. I would encourage all employers and employees to read these guides.”

The Right Reverend Bishop Richard Cheetham, Co-Chair, Christian Muslim Forum; Bishop of Kingston-upon-Thames

“Islam sets out very clearly the need for Muslims to find a balance when they try to fulfil their obligations to themselves, their families, society and to God. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims face the added challenge of balancing their obligations to worship God more whilst also performing to the best of their abilities for their employers. The Working Muslim in Ramadan guide will be extremely useful in providing employers and Muslims helpful information about Ramadan. I believe this guide is a must for every workplace.”

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, Chair, Mosque and Community Affairs Committee, MCB; Goodwill Ambassador, 1st Ethical Charitable Trust; Co-Chair, Christian Muslim Forum

“I confirm that I endorse the works of the Ramadhan Awareness Campaign and the Working Muslim guides. RAC is a well respected initiative that plays a significant role in the lives of Australian Muslims and non Muslims in Ramadhan and I encourage all community members and potential partners to support this work.”

Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman, Founder United Muslims of Australia.

For further information and to download the Working Muslim Guide to Ramadan please go to

English:    Employee     Employer

French:     Employee     Employer

Spanish:    Employee     Employer

For press enquires or interviews please email pr@workingmuslim.com or call 07956 081 300

Note to Editors.

Working Muslim is a UK organisation enabling Muslims, particularly women, to balance responsibilities to work, faith, family and society. The organisation is taking a lead on work issues and is providing supportive, balanced information for both employers and employees.

Working Muslim, 2nd Floor, 145 – 157 St John Street London, EC4A 1JQ

www.workingmuslim.com pr@workingmuslim.com 07956 081 300

Yes ladies, THAT interview. I started by drafting out newsletters, planning the questions I would ask….then it dawned on me…what on earth am I going to wear?!!! Franticly rummaging through my wardrobe, I try every blazer I own. FAIL.

On top of my abaya, I look like the Michelin man, and at 54kg that’s difficult to achieve. It’s just with all this fabric squished into the jacket, my reflection in the mirror resembles a scruffy woman who could eat the interviewer. Le sigh

This is something I hadn’t really thought about. I have been in my current job almost 2 years, and only started wearing hijab early this year. The dress code is smart casual so I don’t need to wear blazers or anything; I just wear my abayas on rotation. My pre-hijab suits are all fitted, none of the jackets match any of my abayas anyway, and as an over-OVER garment; it looks awful. Wardrobe malfunction to the maximum.

So. What to wear?….

Well I don’t want to work for someone or a company who would discriminate against me because of the way I dress. I will be smart, and I will beam my smile. A plain black abaya, no jacket, and a mustard head scarf for a bit of colour will do, (although I’m still debating over whether to wear my pretend glasses).I’m sure they want a bit of sunshine in the office, not fitted suits so I will keep you posted on how it goes. InshaAllah it will be good for me, and if not then that’s fine too. Du’as are always appreciated of course and inshaAllah I will be back soon.

Would love to hear your stories about your first hijab interview. Sharon x x x

To read more from Sharon look at her website http://justadiaryofarevert.blogspot.com/2011/11/first-interview-wearing-hijab.html

Women in Britain represent 51% of the population and stand for nearly the same proportion of workforce. They are better educated than ever and according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2011), they usually outperform boys at school and university. As a consequence, a great number of women are entering the labour market and accessing all industries, mainly education and health. However, even though they occupy middle management positions, they are very few to manage to get top management positions.

Only 5.5% of women are executive directors, 12.5% of them are directors in FTSE 100 are women (7.8% in FTSE 250), and 15.6% are non executive managers. These figures suggest that the higher is the position the fewer women there are. Women’s representation on the board of directors of the largest publicly listed companies across Europe.
Source: Women at the top of corporations: Making it happen 2010

“Women are under-represented in all forms of leadership positions: political leadership, the senior civil service and corporate boardrooms. At the same time, the companies where women are most strongly represented are also the companies that perform best financially.” The EU European Economic and Social Committee. October 2009
(Cited in More Women in Senior Positions, European Commission, 2010.)

You’d better hire a female manager!
Released in 2006, a French study on CAC40 firms (top 40 companies listed on the French stock market exchange) highlights the link between female representation in managerial staff and firm financial wealth.
Indeed, the study realized between 2002 and 2006 shows that the higher is female participation, the more performing the firms in terms of growth, profitability, productivity and job creation.

The 35% line
Michel Ferray is a French researcher at CERAM Business School; he studied the relation between female participation and performance. He explained that according to sociologists when a minority represents at least 35% of an organisation, it noticeably influences it functioning. Over the studied period, the CAC40 firms that have more than 35% of women in managerial staff (14 firms) succeeded to increase turnover by 23.54%, whereas the firms under this percentage increased turnover only by 14.61%.Same differences are noticed for profitability, the first group recorded less than 20%, the second merely 10%.As an example, BNP Paribas, with more than 41% female managers, is the bank group that best resisted to the financial crisis; on the contrary, Dexia, with only 18% of female managers recorded great losses. Female participation partly explains this huge gap.

As a consequence, female minority in firms has a positive impact over its performance

Female assets
Most female managers are aware of the fact that male code prevails; nevertheless, they are more and more likely to remain themselves to succeed. As a result, women chose to rely on their own capabilities and specificities, rather than adopting male behaviour at work. Libby Sartain, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Yahoo! Inc. says: “And while I was determined to be a leader, the last thing in the world I was going to do was to try to be like a man so that I could be taken seriously. I had to continue to be myself and create a leadership style that worked for me. I’m just not capable of being anyone other than who I am.” Studies show that women prove greater interpersonal skills as they use more a collegial approach; they are more flexible and pay more attention to their team situations, feelings and propositions. This kind of leadership, based on strong interpersonal skills, risk-taking and questioning attitude, with a real capacity to recover after a failure, seems to be more adapted to the current work place. Indeed, the modern and effective firm gives more importance to information sharing, collaboration and team work, which are fields that correspond to women assets.

Conclusion
During a long time, society believed that being a woman was a weakness and sometimes a disaster. Hopefully, women won the right to be first class citizens and have been actively participating to society development.

They are financially independent, have great professional ambitions and they did not give up their willingness to build a family. However, they still suffer discriminations in the labour market. In many industries, top management is dominated by men, and male codes are widely spread in employees’ mind and firms’ functioning. And a happy event in a woman’s life (giving birth to a child and growing him/her up) becomes a serious obstacle to her career evolution.

Nevertheless, many studies proved that women are a strong asset for a company. Thanks to their specific abilities and skills, they can considerably and positively impact firms’ performance. Many firms understood that they should increase women representation in managerial staff and top management.

In Norway, a law voted in 2003 requires firms to have at least 40% of women in their Supervisory Board. France also voted a law to have a proportion of 40% of women in firms’ direction before 2015. In this context, Britain is also acting to promote women representation at top management level. However, a percentage of 25% is proposed for British firms and not imposed by law. Should we impose quotas to get a fairer situation?

On a piece of paper right down all the things you want to achieve in the next 5 year, include some things that are a challenge to do, or things you think that you cant do. If you are doing this with others then give them their own paper and ask them to write down all the things that they want to achieve.

Ok, now its time for the actual 5 year plan. On the top row [column B] give each column a month for 60 months, that’s the 5 years. Don’t be scared about doing this, just do it.

In column A list each person and their activities and goals for the next 5 years. Now plan out how long these will take, if you dont know the exact time then approximate, it doesn’t matter. For example if its October 2012 now and you want to be in a new house for 2013, you could write ‘move house’ as one of your goals. If you are attending a degree that started in September 2010 and it finishes in 2013, write that down. If you want to change jobs then write that down. Anything, and everything you can think of, even if you want to have children or if you are single and want to get married- write all these down!

Example above.

Now for each item, step by step, work out a time line. It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate because you will probably end up moving things up and down, especially if you are doing it for your family. When I did this again recently there were some key things that were fixed- for example our ages, the year of the children’s school, when we would complete our degrees etc. Sometimes it is best if 1 person does this and then shares it with others.

Now is the time to have the discussion. In project management I would say look at the peaks and the times when there is some slack and try and balance your programme. Now talk about it, what can be bought forward, what can be delayed for a few months. Do you have to move house in 6 months, or can it be 9? Why wait 2  years to get married when you could do it in 6 months?

This plan is the start of your future and will enable you to have some targets.  If you have any questions- post them below and I will personally respond and help you to create your 5 year plan inshaAllah.

Wasalaam,

Saiyyidah

OK, back to the 5 year plan. Within the first 5 years of getting married alhamdolillah, we managed to do many amazing things like go on Hajj [within 6 months of marriage], have 2 wonderful children, buy a house, and also change careers and get 3 promotions between us! How is this possible I hear you ask… I am going to share with you the tips of how to create your own 5 year plan and how to make massive changes in your life that you just can not imagine.

Many people feel as if they’re just floating along in the world, watching it go by. I wanted more from life than that, and alhamdolillah Allah gave it to me. I firmly believe that if you work hard you can really get somewhere- there is no such thing as luck! A key reason why people succeed is because they invest time thinking about what they want from life, and and set formal goals and strive towards them. Would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

The spouse.

I asked my husband why he thought that the 5 year plan was a good idea. I am a programme director and run not just projects but programmes of a value of £300 million so kind of know what I am doing but persuading your key stakeholder, in this case my husband, into buying into your project plan is a huge deal! He said that he thought it was a good idea because it was practical, realistic and achievable. I explained the ambition and why I had set out a plan in such clear terms, month by month, covering all aspects of our life from financial to personal to development. I asked him what advice he has to people who can’t persuade their spouses and he said ask them why, try and understand the reason behind why they won’t sign up and agree with your proposal. This is excellent advice, the other thing I would add, is that like with any other ‘consultee’ [laugh out loud!] seek their advice and take on board their comments. For example, when we were looking for somewhere to live in London we were renting and we both decided to rent a small place so that we could save more – we ended up living in a studio flat which was just about small enough for 1 person, let alone 2, but it was a joint decision with the higher purpose, or the end goal, in mind.  When we were thinking about where to settle as a couple we worked out what we could afford to pay and how much accommodation we wanted- we looked all over London from south to west to east to north! It was an ordeal let me tell you, but we got the result we wanted. And we shared this process. Why am I telling you this in such detail? Because the preparation of a 5 year plan is not a lonely exercise, in order for you to implement it for your family unit this needs to be a joint effort.

Recently, I was reminded that I hadn’t created a 5 year plan… and I realised that while our life had moved on quite substantially, things slowed down from the first 5 years. So, I have prepared another one. And now mashaAllah, I can include my children which is wonderful. So Haleema has the goal of completing her hifz by the time she is 11, and Musa wants to beat her! We have also set out how we are going to complete our islamic studies and inshaAllah learn Arabic. Now these are items that I know are close to so many peoples hearts, and bi’ithnillah it can be done. I recently heard of a brother starting and completing his hifz in 4 months- action plan, tunnel vision and end goal! Its not just pie in the sky, this is serious stuff.

So, if you want to create your own 5 Year Plan, look at this article and it will show you how.

Wasalaam, Saiyyidah Zaidi-Stone.

PS- I know if you really want something badly enough you can achieve it if you have right intention, make the plan and them implement it inshaAllah.

]]> http://www.workingmuslim.com/the-5-year-plan/feed/ 2 http://www.workingmuslim.com/workaholic-britons/ http://www.workingmuslim.com/workaholic-britons/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:32:20 +0000 admin /workaholic_britons/ PRESS ASSOCIATION 4/9/11– Workaholic Britons are cutting down their lunch hour and skipping holidays, according to a survey. As many as 58% take 30 minutes or less for their lunch break, while 11% never go on holiday, the poll by Monarch Airlines found.

1. Almost 6% of workers snatch just 10 minutes for lunch, according to the survey of 2,011 people.
2. The poll also showed that 18-34 year olds preferred foreign holidays to trips within the UK, while those aged 35 and over were more likely to opt for a staycation.
3. Women were twice as likely as men to use their lunch hour for some retail therapy, while more than twice as many men than women take part in some mid-day exercise.
4. Meanwhile, another survey – by Hotels.com – showed bookings for ski holidays have soared in the past month.
5. Searches for ski resorts across Canada and the US have seen an average increase in searches of 124% and 91% respectively.
6. Popular resorts include Whistler in British Columbia, Blue Mountain in Ontario and Vail in Colorado, US.
7. European ski spots are also experiencing an increase in searches this summer, with Italy up 71% compared to last year and France and Switzerland both up by 50%.

I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.

When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is…,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.

I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.

My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.

On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.

As the students discuss the answers to these questions, I open my own life to them as a case study of sorts, to illustrate how they can use the theories from our course to guide their life decisions.

One of the theories that gives great insight on the first question—how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.

I want students to leave my classroom knowing that.

Create a Strategy for Your Life

A theory that is helpful in answering the second question—How can I ensure that my relationship with my family proves to be an enduring source of happiness?—concerns how strategy is defined and implemented. Its primary insight is that a company’s strategy is determined by the types of initiatives that management invests in. If a company’s resource allocation process is not managed masterfully, what emerges from it can be very different from what management intended. Because companies’ decision-making systems are designed to steer investments to initiatives that offer the most tangible and immediate returns, companies shortchange investments in initiatives that are crucial to their long-term strategies.

Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.

It’s quite startling that a significant fraction of the 900 students that HBS draws each year from the world’s best have given little thought to the purpose of their lives. I tell the students that HBS might be one of their last chances to reflect deeply on that question. If they think that they’ll have more time and energy to reflect later, they’re nuts, because life only gets more demanding: You take on a mortgage; you’re working 70 hours a week; you have a spouse and children.

For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.

Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned. I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life purpose, they’ll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered at HBS. If they don’t figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life. Clarity about their purpose will trump knowledge of activity-based costing, balanced scorecards, core competence, disruptive innovation, the four Ps, and the five forces.

My purpose grew out of my religious faith, but faith isn’t the only thing that gives people direction. For example, one of my former students decided that his purpose was to bring honesty and economic prosperity to his country and to raise children who were as capably committed to this cause, and to each other, as he was. His purpose is focused on family and others—as mine is.

The choice and successful pursuit of a profession is but one tool for achieving your purpose. But without a purpose, life can become hollow.

Allocate Your Resources

Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent ultimately shape your life’s strategy.

I have a bunch of “businesses” that compete for these resources: I’m trying to have a rewarding relationship with my wife, raise great kids, contribute to my community, succeed in my career, contribute to my church, and so on. And I have exactly the same problem that a corporation does. I have a limited amount of time and energy and talent. How much do I devote to each of these pursuits?

Allocation choices can make your life turn out to be very different from what you intended. Sometimes that’s good: Opportunities that you never planned for emerge. But if you misinvest your resources, the outcome can be bad. As I think about my former classmates who inadvertently invested for lives of hollow unhappiness, I can’t help believing that their troubles relate right back to a short-term perspective.

When people who have a high need for achievement—and that includes all Harvard Business School graduates—have an extra half hour of time or an extra ounce of energy, they’ll unconsciously allocate it to activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments. And our careers provide the most concrete evidence that we’re moving forward. You ship a product, finish a design, complete a presentation, close a sale, teach a class, publish a paper, get paid, get promoted. In contrast, investing time and energy in your relationship with your spouse and children typically doesn’t offer that same immediate sense of achievement. Kids misbehave every day. It’s really not until 20 years down the road that you can put your hands on your hips and say, “I raised a good son or a good daughter.” You can neglect your relationship with your spouse, and on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t seem as if things are deteriorating. People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.

If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you’ll see the same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most.

Create a Culture

There’s an important model in our class called the Tools of Cooperation, which basically says that being a visionary manager isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s one thing to see into the foggy future with acuity and chart the course corrections that the company must make. But it’s quite another to persuade employees who might not see the changes ahead to line up and work cooperatively to take the company in that new direction. Knowing what tools to wield to elicit the needed cooperation is a critical managerial skill.

The theory arrays these tools along two dimensions—the extent to which members of the organization agree on what they want from their participation in the enterprise, and the extent to which they agree on what actions will produce the desired results. When there is little agreement on both axes, you have to use “power tools”—coercion, threats, punishment, and so on—to secure cooperation. Many companies start in this quadrant, which is why the founding executive team must play such an assertive role in defining what must be done and how. If employees’ ways of working together to address those tasks succeed over and over, consensus begins to form. MIT’s Edgar Schein has described this process as the mechanism by which a culture is built. Ultimately, people don’t even think about whether their way of doing things yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision—which means that they’ve created a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which members of the group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool.

In using this model to address the question, How can I be sure that my family becomes an enduring source of happiness?, my students quickly see that the simplest tools that parents can wield to elicit cooperation from children are power tools. But there comes a point during the teen years when power tools no longer work. At that point parents start wishing that they had begun working with their children at a very young age to build a culture at home in which children instinctively behave respectfully toward one another, obey their parents, and choose the right thing to do. Families have cultures, just as companies do. Those cultures can be built consciously or evolve inadvertently.

If you want your kids to have strong self-esteem and confidence that they can solve hard problems, those qualities won’t magically materialize in high school. You have to design them into your family’s culture—and you have to think about this very early on. Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.

Avoid the “Marginal Costs” Mistake

We’re taught in finance and economics that in evaluating alternative investments, we should ignore sunk and fixed costs, and instead base decisions on the marginal costs and marginal revenues that each alternative entails. We learn in our course that this doctrine biases companies to leverage what they have put in place to succeed in the past, instead of guiding them to create the capabilities they’ll need in the future. If we knew the future would be exactly the same as the past, that approach would be fine. But if the future’s different—and it almost always is—then it’s the wrong thing to do.

This theory addresses the third question I discuss with my students—how to live a life of integrity (stay out of jail). Unconsciously, we often employ the marginal cost doctrine in our personal lives when we choose between right and wrong. A voice in our head says, “Look, I know that as a general rule, most people shouldn’t do this. But in this particular extenuating circumstance, just this once, it’s OK.” The marginal cost of doing something wrong “just this once” always seems alluringly low. It suckers you in, and you don’t ever look at where that path ultimately is headed and at the full costs that the choice entails. Justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of “just this once.”

I’d like to share a story about how I came to understand the potential damage of “just this once” in my own life. I played on the Oxford University varsity basketball team. We worked our tails off and finished the season undefeated. The guys on the team were the best friends I’ve ever had in my life. We got to the British equivalent of the NCAA tournament—and made it to the final four. It turned out the championship game was scheduled to be played on a Sunday. I had made a personal commitment to God at age 16 that I would never play ball on Sunday. So I went to the coach and explained my problem. He was incredulous. My teammates were, too, because I was the starting center. Every one of the guys on the team came to me and said, “You’ve got to play. Can’t you break the rule just this one time?”

I’m a deeply religious man, so I went away and prayed about what I should do. I got a very clear feeling that I shouldn’t break my commitment—so I didn’t play in the championship game.

In many ways that was a small decision—involving one of several thousand Sundays in my life. In theory, surely I could have crossed over the line just that one time and then not done it again. But looking back on it, resisting the temptation whose logic was “In this extenuating circumstance, just this once, it’s OK” has proven to be one of the most important decisions of my life. Why? My life has been one unending stream of extenuating circumstances. Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed.

The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.

Remember the Importance of Humility

I got this insight when I was asked to teach a class on humility at Harvard College. I asked all the students to describe the most humble person they knew. One characteristic of these humble people stood out: They had a high level of self-esteem. They knew who they were, and they felt good about who they were. We also decided that humility was defined not by self-deprecating behavior or attitudes but by the esteem with which you regard others. Good behavior flows naturally from that kind of humility. For example, you would never steal from someone, because you respect that person too much. You’d never lie to someone, either.

It’s crucial to take a sense of humility into the world. By the time you make it to a top graduate school, almost all your learning has come from people who are smarter and more experienced than you: parents, teachers, bosses. But once you’ve finished at Harvard Business School or any other top academic institution, the vast majority of people you’ll interact with on a day-to-day basis may not be smarter than you. And if your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited. Generally, you can be humble only if you feel really good about yourself—and you want to help those around you feel really good about themselves, too. When we see people acting in an abusive, arrogant, or demeaning manner toward others, their behavior almost always is a symptom of their lack of self-esteem. They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.

Choose the Right Yardstick

This past year I was diagnosed with cancer and faced the possibility that my life would end sooner than I’d planned. Thankfully, it now looks as if I’ll be spared. But the experience has given me important insight into my life.

I have a pretty clear idea of how my ideas have generated enormous revenue for companies that have used my research; I know I’ve had a substantial impact. But as I’ve confronted this disease, it’s been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now. I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.

I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.

As-salam`alaykum warahmatullah,
What is an Eco-Muslim?
The Eco Muslim is part of The Eco Jihad™, a Muslim’s greener effort towards self-improvement and preserving natural resources. This means changing our behaviour to minimise environmental impact. Although many Muslims view other Eco-Muslim-Activists as something novel or not as important as prayer, ecological ethics have always been deeply infused in Islamic principles.

Hundreds of verses in the Qur’an describe how nature, clay and water, is a part of us and in need of safeguarding. The Qur’an describes believers of God as those who “walk on the Earth in humility,” (25:63). What does this indicate? This is interpreted along with many others like it, to mean that Muslims are supposed to protect the Earth’s provisions from which they survive. Numerous ahadith (sayings) of a true environmentalist, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (God’s peace and blessings be upon him), also teach us to have a deep and longstanding respect for the natural world. Preservation is therefore more than a good policy recommendation – it is a commandment from God.

Environmentalism while fasting

“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, so that you may (learn) self-restraint.” (Qur’an, 2:183)

Choosing to practice the religion of Islam goes hand in hand with affirming a relationship with the environment. As part of ‘greening’ your Ramadan, try going the whole month without extra “stuff”. No more packaged foods, less use of television and computers, no more cars and fumes, no more indulgent-consumption, nothing bought from a department store, nothing with an on and off switch. Try just letting go and disconnecting from material “things”.

The whole idea of being a Muslim activist – whether in community or environment – is founded on discipline. You are in control of what you use, what you eat, what you do, where you go, and what you affect. The boundaries of halal (lawful) and haram (prohibited) are there so we are not taking more than we ought to. Ramadan is therefore the greatest training ground for consciously making better choices of what we consume, and being more earth-friendly.

Top Tips For Greening Your Ramadan

“If any Muslim plants any plant and a human being or an animal eats of it, he will be rewarded as if he had given that much in charity.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, 8:41)

1. Prayer: Nothing like prayer (salat) opens up your heart to being a steward of the Earth (Khalif). Prayer is a key which shows us the signs of God and His creation, all praying in time. Before you can treat the Earth with respect and bring the best out of your fast, you need to get your prayers in.

2. Water and Wudhu:  The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said “cleanliness is half of faith”. For Muslims, cleanliness begins with a ritual ablution (wudhu) before every prayer, no less than five times a day. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also taught against “squandering” water, even if by a river. We can make wudhu part of our green Ramadan by being mindful of how much water is used.

3. Green at Work: Remind your colleagues of fasting inspired ethics such as reusing the blank side of printed papers, and recycling cups and packaging. Let them know what Ramadan is about by hanging Working Muslim’s Ramadan guide in the staff lounge.

Take your own mug to reduce usage of Styrofoam cups and ask your managerial department what steps they’re taking towards an environmentally friendly workplace. Suggest purchasing more eco-friendly stationery such as recycled envelopes and stapleless staplers from My Eco Store. Simple things like replacing bulbs with low energy ones will significantly cutback annual electricity bills; during the summer heat everyone will want air conditioners but opening up windows and praying outdoors is healthier for the mind.

If you’re staying late after work, take a homemade iftar meal and invite a friend to share the moment. Avoid ordering out or buying from vending machines which are usually wasteful in packaging, with poor nutritional content and low energy.

4. At home: How you consume and the way you live will significantly influence family members. Begin by making an eco-plan that others can contribute to and put into action weekly. Switch all technology off when leaving for work and during prayers to reconnect spiritually. Break from your household routine to carry out community service in your neighbourhood, even if it’s just 5 minutes a day. Shop at charity stores to buy inexpensive things you need for your home and always ask yourself before buying brand new, “Do I really need this?” More often, the answer will be no.

Encourage little ones to draw food-pie-charts which they can colour in to meet their 5-a-day requirement of fruit and veg. Reward them with gold stars when they meet those goals. Learn to cook basic staple meals at home as this will motivate family dinners at the table for iftar and give more control over what you eat.

Separate your rubbish into – recyclables (paper, plastics, card) – organic (uncooked food, peelings) and – metal and glass. Order a recycling bin from the local council and start a compost heap to reduce how much you chuck. Reuse empty egg cartons to plant vegetable seedlings in the spring. And give away unwanted furniture in good condition to people in your area. Check out the Recycling Guide for more ideas.

Packing An Eco-Iftar And Suhoor

Eating organic and Islamic is not as troublesome or expensive as it’s made out. You’d be surprised at how dependent you are on shop bought food and that you could “make most of it at home for nothing”.

Eat more natural at Suhoor – the light breakfast before every fast – to provide enough healthy energy until the opening of the fast, iftar.
•    Grow your own garden of fruit and vegetables over the summer. If you don’t have a garden, a large container on a windowsill or balcony will work great for herbs, lettuces and tomatoes. Find the nearest allotment, check out Garden Guides for advice and motivate your family to join in the green spirit.
•    Buy ‘local’ produce through Big Barn for eggs, fish, milk and seasonal vegetables – from farmers in your hometown. Buy halal so you know exactly what you’re getting. Always check the full ingredients list to avoid alcohol and artificial preservatives.
•    Make fruit smoothies for a high energy suhoor and herbal teas for calming effects.
•    Wholegrain cereal and porridge oats go beautifully with honey and berries. Fruits like blueberries, strawberries and raspberries are full of antioxidants which boost your immune system while fasting.

Follow the effective 4S’s with every iftar and continue good eating habits for the rest of the year.

•    Smaller – reduce portions, share your meal and eat a variety of fresh food at iftar for a balanced meal.
•    Substitute – replace meats (a source of protein) for lentils or brown/black rice; instead of sugared desserts satisfy your cravings with fruit salads, natural sweeteners such as honey, and pack granola and oatmeal bars in your iftar-box. “White food” is stripped of nutrients – swap white bread for wholegrain as it’s more filling and nutritious.
•    Sip – The Prophet ﷺ encouraged a drinking etiquette: sitting down, taking 3 sips and ending with ‘Alhamdulilah’, praise be to God. Drink lots of water to stay hydrated and focused; cut out fizzy drinks and take bottled water with you; refresh your mind by making wudhu in between prayers. Ramadan makes you appreciate the blessing of clean running water so give back to a water project such as Muslim Hands’ Safe Water Scheme.
•    Slowly – There’s no race; eat slower to stay fuller longer and chew your food more for better digestion.

May God bless your Ramadan and accept all your eco-actions.
Peace & Eco-Jihad,
Zaufishan.
http://ecojihad.blogspot.com | Facebook.com/TheEcoMuslim | Twitter.com/TheEcoMuslim

This is why we need to ensure that we have a clear mind when we bow down to Allah (swt) and that it is truly him that we are focusing on and not other worries that may be niggling in our mind. Of course through Salah we have the opportunity to make dua and supplications to Allah (swt) to alleviate any stress within our souls and turn to Allah (swt) for guidance and mercy. It is important as Muslims especially those who are working or trying to obtain a balance between family life to work productively to maintain our focus on Salah at all times.

Many of us find that it is early morning prayers such as Fajr that is most likely to be missed due to negligence, laziness or simply not getting up in time. However it is not a good enough excuse to say we were too lazy to pray Fajr when we have to stand up in front of Allah (swt) on the day of judgement.  Praying the early morning prayer of Fajr can help us to feel refreshed and motivated for the day and create a powerful focus for the day ahead. If you do have toddlers or very young babies and you want to pray Fajr but they are crying in the background and it is distracting you do not give up your Salah. I know many mothers who find it difficult (I have also experienced this when trying to pray Salah and my little ones are crying in the background) it can be very distracting however if there is a will there is a way.

One important tip is to try and pray in a separate room and whilst you are praying let your husband or a family member look after your baby until you have finished so you would be able to complete your Salah without distraction. I know as a mother of two toddlers and one on the way that managing kids, faith, family and more can be a juggling act but Allah (swt) does not want to make things difficult and he will motivate us to worship him completely and in a submissive frame of mind.

Allah (Swt) says in the Holy Qur’an with regard to the importance of Salah that,

“Successful indeed are the believers. Those who offer their Salah (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness” [Surah Al-Mu’minun 23: 1-2).

During Ramadan we have more responsibilities and tasks to do to ensure that we have a productive holy month and fulfil our obligations in addition to managing all the other tasks. This can often leave some mothers stressed out as to how best to manage their time and often this creates worry when trying to focus on all the tasks including performing Salah without distraction.  Below I have included some tips in maintaining your focus on Salah in this holy month!

Tips to maintain your focus on Salah during Ramadan

1. If you feel overwhelmed by the tasks of the day coupled with distractions try to change your focus by redoing your wudhu. This can help you feel refreshed and back on track.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and support if you need time for undivided attention to Allah (swt) get family or your husband to help so that you can pray peacefully and without distraction.
3. Try to organise your time effectively so that you have enough time in the day to do the tasks you set out to do
4. Time management is very important for Muslims during Ramadan and in every day of our lives and creating an effective time management plan can help to organise your day. This may be in the form of creating a schedule or keeping a check list of what needs to be done and what has already been completed.

Ramadan is a special month and coupled with effective concentration on what truly matters which is our Salah it can be a month where you can utilise your time turning to Allah (swt) and reaping rewards.

by Tasnim Nazeer

Sister Wafa shared 5 super tips that are amazing masha’Allah:

1- “after driving the kids to school each morning, I return home, park in the driveway and sit in the car for 1/2 hr. Here, I listen to Islamic lecture series and take notes in my personal journal. Anything critical or wise that I hear a sheik advise is recorded under P.O.W. (pearls of wisdom) ready to be implemented throughout my day and within my ‘castle’ and amongst my family. I do the same each afternoon, only I leave 1/2 hr early before home time. I term this the school run. It’s 1hr spent acquiring Islamic knowledge, something i could never do before  My car has become my second office.”

“2- using this same journal, I record some people’s advice when i meet them and use this journal to propagate what I’ve learnt. It also helps to stay away from back biting and gossip especially in this blessed month. Also, after doing a favour for my mother, I ask her for a dua to add to my journal. So far my kids have learnt 15mins of dua to read each morning seeking only Allah’s protection and His reliance (something important to me as stated on my new mind map). “

“3- all ironing is completed Sunday night to free up mornings for worthy causes. Most mornings after suhoor are spent teaching my son Quran homework. The Prophet (s) said, ‘Oh Allah, bless my ummah in the early hours if the morning.’ body and brain cells also rejuvenate each morning. “

“4- I’ve invested in a 5 in 1 pressure cooker, slow cooker, browner, sauter, and warmer by ‘Quisinart’. Now meals take 15 mins max and more time has become available for other things in Ramadhan such as revising for my quaran halaqah and charity work. Rice takes only 3 mins!”

“5- spend an hr before Iftar to help kids with homework. Yes they’re tired, but at least the know if they work quickly enough and finish befor 5:15, Iftar will be waiting as a reward. After dinner, they can go to tarawih prayers. As for women who’ll complain they’re preparing meals at this time – then stick to one modest meal per day (no daily feasts or food wasting) and cook meals that are reheatable or stick them in a food warmer.”

Sister Maya is also masha’Allah getting the most out of her time; her super #1 tip is:

“My top time saver I found this year is if you’re a stay at home mum, don’t leave the house unless you have to! Going out to do grocery shopping or whatever with kids can take twice as long and is a waste of time during Ramadan. Pre-plan all your meals a week or 2 before hand and go with hubby over the weekend (or leave kids with him) so you get things done faster that way you’ll have more time to do 3ibade inshallah.”

My time saver tips:

“I haven’t visited the shopping center and plan not to for the entire month insha’Allah…(those who live in Bankstown Sydney I think would understand how our centro takes a lot of time from finding a parking; to doing the shopping, etc!) I do online grocery shopping from woolies once a week and it all gets delieverd to my kitchen bench for free! (Thanks to my sister Khulood for this super idea! which is also a money savert as I only get what I need only) I get my husband to buy the meat and fresh produce on the weekend (men are faster shoppers than us…they just get what’s on the list and leave!)

“My second tip is to listen to anything good while I’m cleaning the house or cooking…I got Islamic channels on TV (my favourite Iqra) and it always has something good on! I just turn the volume up really loud (which helps to overcome the kids noise!) and I get to hear it wherever I am in the house…while I’m cooking in the kitchen  I listen to Quran, lecture, etc”

“my last top tip…is to make duaa in the morning when I wake up for Allah  (swt) to BLESS my time…without Allah (swt) Blessing in time; we can do so much and feel like we did nothing…so it’s very important to remember that ONLY ALLAH (swt) Can Make an hour of equal value and productivity to a whole day’s work! so ask for barakah in your time and accept for Acceptance ”

Long list of tips…but insha’Allah it’s been of value to you…and remember sisters that for  ultimate productivity in Ramadan you need to be an outstanding planner…and planning should ususally happen the night before