Choose Divine Alignment Every New Day

As-salamu alaykum,

Have you ever dipped into your savings for a rainy day to help a colleague, a patient or to undertake a spiritual journey?

Have you ever chosen to serve others for the sake of Allah SWT even when your time seemed sparse?

Have you ever opted to help others even when you were in dire need of help yourself?

My guess would be that as a healthcare worker, the answer to at least one of these questions would likely be a yes; this is just who we are, Alhamdulillah!...But can the answer to all three questions be yeses?

These questions speak to the idea of seeking Barakah through service or more aptly, sacrifice (for the sake of Allah).

Barakah is often translated as blessing but when we review the works of our pious predecessors and even our modern scholars, we learn that it has broader implications in all of our lives. 

Why so?

Imam Raghib Al-Asfahani, an 11th century scholar defined Barakah as “the attachment of divine blessing to a thing, so if it occurs in something little, it increases it. And if it occurs in something much, it benefits it. And the greatest fruits of barakah in all things are to use that barakah in the obedience of Allah (SWT) ”

The work that you and I do everyday in healthcare is incredibly high-value to the people and the communities that we serve. It is also work that is physically exhausting and emotionally draining. It's no wonder that the rates of burnout among our ranks are where they are today - way too high - with projections that these numbers will only continue to rise! May Allah (SWT) protect us all. Ameen

We all have a choice though - to continue business as usual or to take a step back and begin to live intentionally, cultivating spiritual resilience and attracting barakah through the choices we make everyday so that we can do more with less and be a part of the solutioning by offering our unique framing gifted to us by Allah (SWT) to help address some of the most complex problems in healthcare today - you guessed it - systems issues and the healthcare hustle that predisposes all of us to burnout.

The second option is a vastly different approach; it empowers us with the courage to respond more in the affirmative more often to questions similar to the one’s I posed earlier with the intention of pleasing Allah (SWT) through our service and this in turn helps us recognize the opportunity to better manage ourselves, the choices we make with our energy, focus and time to serve our families with Ihsan and increasingly expanding our locus of service over time by the will of Allah transforming our meager efforts to outcomes with great ramifications and impact for those around us and beyond. 

For many of us, the turn of the year  is a time that we opt-in to reboot and renew our intentions. As we do this, it is important to take a pause to consider a few things;

1. Reflect over the past year with at least 2 lenses

   1. Gratitude

   2. Opportunities for growth (what could I have done better)

2. Build on this insight productively;

   1. Choose 2 - 3 areas of your life (and don’t settle for just work…there’s more to life as you know even as a super dedicated HCW…!)

   2. Pick 1 thing to improve upon in each area for the coming year in sha Allah

Here are 2 areas to look at if you are open to considering other ideas outside of your reflective session

Life Area 1: Spiritual - For many of us, this always needs work. Rekindle your relationship with the Quran. It is a fountain of Barakah. 

Allah SWT addresses this in Surah Al-An’am v.155: 

“This is a blessed Book We have revealed. So follow it and be mindful ˹of Allah˺, so you may be shown mercy.”

Even small consistent engagement either in Arabic or a translated version can help you tap into this fountain of abundant divine support to achieve more with less in a typical day. This is well-established so why not experiment with it for a month.

Life Area 2: Social - Seek out opportunities to volunteer. Helping others helps us in more ways than we can imagine. Much of the body of research in this area has shown a direct correlation between altruism and resilience, positive mental health and overall wellbeing. 

The essence of volunteering (benefiting others) is apparent in this profound Hadith

Ibn Umar reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The most beloved people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to people. The most beloved deed to Allah is to make a Muslim happy, or remove one of his troubles, or forgive his debt, or feed his hunger. That I walk with a brother regarding a need is more beloved to me than that I seclude myself in this mosque in Medina for a month. Whoever swallows his anger, then Allah will conceal his faults. Whoever suppresses his rage, even though he could fulfill his anger if he wished, then Allah will secure his heart on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever walks with his brother regarding a need until he secures it for him, then Allah Almighty will make his footing firm across the bridge on the day when the footings are shaken.”

Source: al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ lil-Ṭabarānī 6026; Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani

The choices we make everyday have immense ramifications. They can align us with our Lord or distance us from Him and His divine support and the opportunity to lighten our burden by attracting Barakah. Let’s renew our intentions this new year to choose divine alignment every new day so that our days are punctuated by moments of barakah in our journey to cultivating resilience grounded in faith.

PRO TIP: Do this in the last 10 days of Ramadan to 10x the impact of this practice, in sha Allah. May Allah SWT grant us the opportunity to witness the next Ramadan and beyond. Ameen

P.S. For deeper insights into the Barakah culture, check out this free article written by my mentor and dear friend, Mohammed Faris. You can also pre-order his new book with a discount to you (and a commission to me) when you use my affiliate link here in sha Allah