Al Salam Alaikum 🌱 

⏳️ The Tyranny of the Short Term

Modern capitalism has trained us to think in fiscal quarters. Three months. Ninety days. Thirteen weeks. That’s the unit of measurement for “success.” Miss your quarterly targets and watch your stock price tank. Hit them and get a temporary high before the cycle resets.

This is more than just an investor problem. It’s infected how Muslim entrepreneurs think about everything.

We celebrate the quick win. The viral post. The big launch. The revenue spike. The inbox zero. The sold-out webinar.

We panic at the slow burn. The relationships that take years to build. The community trust that compounds over decades. The character development that happens in the unseen hours. The legacy that won’t be visible until after we’re gone.

We’ve become dopamine-addicted entrepreneurs in a culture that rewards immediate gratification, then we wonder why our businesses feel empty even when they’re profitable.

What we’ve forgotten is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) planted date palms.

🌴 The Date Palm Principle

There’s a powerful hadith where the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

Read that again.

If the world is literally ending- If Qiyamah is moments away- and you’re holding a tree that won’t bear fruit for years, plant it anyway.

The date palm takes 4-8 years before it produces fruit. That’s 16-32 quarters in business terms. Most investors do not have patience for that ROI.

But the Prophet wasn’t thinking in quarters. He was thinking in centuries. He was building for generations he would never meet.

🔭 What Akhirah-Focused Vision Actually Looks Like

Let’s be brutally honest: most of us say we’re building for akhirah while optimizing for dunya.

We use “leaving a legacy” as a hashtag while making decisions that maximize short-term extraction.

We talk about serving the Ummah while structuring our businesses around serving ourselves first, community second, if there’s anything left over.

An akhira-focused business vision isn’t about being less strategic. It’s about being strategic on a timeline that makes earthly quarters look like background noise.

But when you adopt this akhira-focused vision, here’s what you’ll notice:

• Your definition of “growth” transforms

• Your hiring criteria changes

• Your product roadmap evolves

• Your exist strategy disappears

❌ The Malcolm X Question

Malcolm X once said: “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.”

He was talking about narrative- about who gets to tell the story and frame the reality.

The same applies to how we think about time horizons in business.

We didn’t choose quarterly capitalism.

Quarterly capitalism landed on us. And we’ve internalized its rhythms so deeply that we’ve forgotten there’s another way to measure a life’s work.

When Malcolm stood before audiences, he wasn’t thinking about the next week’s news cycle. He was thinking about the literation of a people. That’s why his words still reverberate sixty years later while most of his contemporaries are forgotten.

In a market that wants you addicted to instant metrics, building for the akhira is revolutionary.

In an economy that commodifies everything, treating your business as an amanah is dangerous.

In a culture that worships speed, choosing the slow work of depth is spiritual warfare.

🎭️ The False Choice

What most people get wrong is that they think that long-term thinking means ignoring short-term needs.

That’s not what this is about.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) tied his camel AND trusted Allah.

The akhira-focused mindset isn’t about ignoring quarterly results. It’s about refusing to let quarterly results become your god.

You can (and should) set intentions. You can (and should) track metrics. You can (and should) set goals. You can (and should) celebrate wins and course-correct on losses.

But here’s the filter: Every short-term decision must serve the long-term vision. Not the other way around.

Every day, you’ll be tempted to trade your akhira-centric vision for a dunya-centric one:

• When your competitor gets that feature out faster

• When your peer’s business “blows up” overnight

• When the algorithm rewards the shortcut you refused to take

• When doing things the halal way costs you the opportunity

• When building slow feels like falling behind

This is where sabr (patience) becomes jihad (struggle).

The greater jihad isn’t against external enemies. It’s against your own nafs that wants validation NOW. Recognition NOW. Results NOW.

Patience is pursuit of an akhira-focused vision is an act of worship.

Every time you choose the longer, harder, more principled path- when the shortcut is right there, gleaming and profitable- you’re saying: “Ya Allah, I trust Your timeline more than the markets.”

That’s tawakkul in motion. That’s faith first in practice.

💬 Final Word

The Prophet Muhammad transformed Arabia in 23 years. But he wasn’t thinking in 23 years. He was thinking in forever.

That’s why Islam didn’t die when he did. That’s why his Sunnah guides us 1,400 years later. That’s why his character is still the measure of human excellence.

He built with the telescope, not the microscope.

He build with the akhira in mind.

You have a choice in how you build your business:

You can optimize for the next quarter, chase the trends, worship the metrics, and end up with a profitable venture that evaporates the moment you stop grinding.

Or you can plant date palms.

You can build for generations you’ll never meet. You can make decisions that honor eternity over expedience. You can create something that makes the angels smile when they read your book of deeds.

Your business is either an amanah or an anxiety.

It’s either something you’ll proudly present to Allah (SWT) or something you’ll desperately wish you could erase.

This mindset isn’t about being unrealistic. It’s about being aligned with reality- the reality that this dunya is temporary and the akhira is forever.

The market will always pressure you to think small- to optimize for quarters instead of centuries, for profits instead of your divine purpose, for speed instead of substance.

Don’t let quarterly capitalism colonize your imagination.

Build something that matters when the markets crash. Build something that serves when you’re no longer here. Build something that makes your great-grandchildren grateful.

Plant the date palm.

And if the Hour is established while you’re holding the sapling, plant it anyway 🌱 

This week, I’m giving you one exercise that will radically shift how you see your business.

Sit down with a notebook. No devices. Just you, paper, and pen.

Imagine it’s 100 years from now. You’re long gone. Your grandchildren’s grandchildren are alive.

Write answers to these questions:

1. What do I want people to say this business contributed to the Ummah?

2. What problems did this business solve that sill matter a century later?

3. What values did this business uphold that are worth preserving?

4. If this business disappeared tomorrow, what would be lost?

5. What would I be ashamed for future generations to discover about how I built this?

Once you’ve answered these questions, review your last five major business decisions.

Do they align with your 100-year vision?

If not, you know what needs to change.

💌 I’d Love to Hear From You!

If this reflection sparked something in you, I’d love to hear it. You can reply directly to this email- I read and respond to every message. Share your thoughts or tell me how you’re planning to start using leverage in your own life! 🌱 

🤲 Closing Dua

“O Allah, we ask You for beneficial knowledge, lawful provision, and accepted deeds. O Allah, make us among those who work for their Hereafter as they work for their worldly lives.”

Ameen