Al Salam Alaikum 🌱 

The email arrives at 11:43 PM. Another “opportunity” that requires an immediate response. Your spouse is already asleep. Your kids haven’t seen you present- really present- in three days. But this could be the breakthrough. The six-figure contract. The viral moment. The validation you’ve been chasing.

So you open your laptop.

Again.

Welcome to the disease Allah (SWT) warned us about 1,400 years ago. Al-Takathur- the competition in worldly increase that diverts you until you visit the graveyards.

Not if. Until.

Because that’s where the chase ends for everyone. The question is what you’ll have actually built by the time you get there.

🛡️ The Spiritual Warfare You Don’t Recognize

The truth is: the endless pursuit of more isn’t capitalism. It’s spiritual warfare disguised as ambition.

Every feeling of inadequacy when you see someone else’s success? That’s conditioning, not intuition. It’s designed to keep you spiritually hungry while chasing worldly crumbs.

Every “I’ll be happy when I hit $X revenue” thought? That’s the lie of delayed fulfillment that keeps you in perpetual dissatisfaction.

Every time you sacrifice salah for a pitch, family for a launch, or inner peace for external validation? That’s not dedication. That’s being conquered by the very dunya you claim to use as a tool for akhira.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) warned us: “Two hungry wolves let loose among sheep are not more destructive than a person’s greed for wealth and status is to their deen.” (Tirmidhi)

Read that again. Your ambition for money and fame is more destructive to your faith than literal predators are to defenseless animals.

🔍️ What Success Actually Costs

Let’s talk about what you’re actually trading away in this relentless chase:

Your salah becomes rushed. You pray, but you’re not present. Your body goes through the motions while your mind calculates profit margins and obsesses over what you didn’t accomplish today.

Your family becomes a box to check. You’re physically home but mentally at work. Your children learn that dad’s phone is more important than their stories. Your spouse becomes a roomate who handles logistics while you “build the dream.”

Your community becomes a networking opportunity. The masjid is where you make connections. That brother’s struggle is an interruption to your schedule. Volunteering only happens when it enhances your brand or provides content.

Your health becomes collateral damage. Sleep is for the weak. Exercise is “nice to have.” Your body- this amanah from Allah (SWT)- is treated like a machine you can run into the ground and replace parts later.

Your soul becomes a stranger. You don’t recognize the person in the mirror anymore. The one who started this journey to serve Allah (SWT) has been replaced by someone addicted to metrics, obsessed with comparison, enslaved to validation.

🪦 The Graveyard Test

Surah Al-Takathur doesn’t end at the warning. It continues with a devastating reality check:

Allah (SWT) mentions “knowing” and “seeing” four times in four verses. Because we think we understand the consequences of this chase, but we’re operating on theory, not certainty.

Here’s the graveyard test that will reveal what you really value:

If you died today, what would your actual legacy be?

Not your intended legacy. Not your marketing copy. Your actual impact based on how you actually spent your time, energy, and resources.

• How many prayers did you make on time versus how many deals you closed?

• How many genuine relationships did you build versus how many followers you accumulated?

• How much knowledge that brings you closer to Allah did you gain versus how many business strategies you consumed?

• How many people’s lives did you genuinely improve versus how many people you extracted value from?

• How much sadaqah jaryah did you establish versus how much wealth you accumulated?

The grave doesn’t care about your revenue. The questioning in the barzakh won’t include “what was your annual growth rate?”

But it will ask: “What did you do with what you were given?”

🥷 The Hidden Cost of Comparison

Social media has weaponized Al-Takathur in ways that would be almost impressive if it wasn’t so destructive.

You see the highlight reel of someone else’s success and immediately feel behind. Less than. Not enough. So you chase harder. Post more. Work longer. Sacrifice deeper.

But here’s what you don’t see:

• The entrepreneur with the “dream life” whose marriage is held together by threads and therapy

• The six-figure launch that came at the cost of neglecting aging parents who needed their child present

• The viral success story who can’t remember the last time they felt genuinely peaceful

• The Muslim business influencer who hasn’t read Quran with reflection in months while posting ayahs for engagement

You’re competing against illusions while destroying your own reality.

Ibn Al-Qayyim said: “People are imprisoned by their desires, enslaved by their ambitions, and killed by their envy.”

Every time you measure your worth against someone else’s worldly success, you’re putting yourself in prison. The door is open, but you keep choosing to stay locked in.

💰️ Redefining Wealth: The Ghina Formula

The Prophet (peace and blessings upon him) gave us a paradigm-shattering definition of wealth: “Wealth is not having many possessions, but wealth is being content with what Allah has given you.” (Bukhari and Muslim).

True wealth (ghina) = Time for worship + Deep relationships + Health to serve Allah + Knowledge that brings you closer to the Divine + A heart at peace.

Notice what’s not in that equation: followers, revenue, awards, recognition, empire-building, market domination.

This doesn’t mean being passive or unambitious. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was the most influential human to ever live. But his ambition was anchored in pleasing Allah, not impressing people.

His “success metrics” were about character development, community benefit, and preparing for the eternal life- not about accumulation, comparison, and worldly status.

When was the last time you measured your success by any of those standards?

🔄 The Practical Path: Life-First, Business Second

Here’s what integration actually looks lke when you stop treating deen and dunya as separate categories:

1. Build Your Business Around Your Life, Not Your Life Around Your Business: Prayer times are non-negotiable anchors. Everything else schedules around them. If a meeting conflicts with salah, the meeting moves. No exceptions. No “just this once.” Family time is protected with the same intensity you protect your most important client calls. Friday dinner is sacred. Bedtime routines are present, not distracted. Your children’s names appear in your calendar as much as your customer’s do.

2. Filter Every Decision Through the Akhira Lens: Before saying yes to any opportunity, ask: “Will this bring me closer to or further from Allah?” Not “Is this halal?” That’s the bare minimum. The question is whether this moves you toward the ultimate success or just temporarily soothes your ego and bank account. If you can’t answer that question clearly, the answer is probably no.

3. Redefine Your Success Metrics: Start tracking what actually matters:

   • Days of on-time prayers versus days of missed or delayed prayers

   • Quality time with family versus hours “spent” with family while mentally absent

   • Acts of genuine service transactional networking

   • Knowledge gained that increases khushoo versus business knowledge consumed

   • Peace of heart versus anxiety levels

   What gets measured gets managed. You’re currently measuring all the wrong things.

4. Remember Death Deliberately: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Remember often the destroyer of pleasures- death.” (Tirmidhi). Not to be morbid, but to be strategic. Visit graveyards. Attend janazahs. Reflect on the fact that the only thing standing between you and that same destiny is breaths you don’t control. When you’re in a business meeting, occasionally visualize yourself on the ghusl table being prepared for burial. Does this conversation still feel urgent? Does this deal still feel like it matters? Death awareness isn’t depressing. It’s clarifying.

Here’s what this really comes down to:

You cannot serve two masters. Either Allah is your ultimate goal and everything else is a tool to reach Him, or dunya is your goal and you’re using Islamic language to justify it.

The chase never ends until the graveyard. The goalpost keeps moving. The “enough” you’re working toward doesn’t exist in worldly terms. It only exists in submission to Allah.

Your family and your soul are paying the real price for your ambition. The question is whether what you’re building is worth what you’re destroying.

Success isn’t about what you gain; it’s about what remains when everything worldly is stripped away. And spoiler alert: only your character and deeds will remain.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) lived the most impaceful life in human history without Instagram followers, revenue milestones, or viral moments. He had something we’ve traded away: complete clarity about what actually matters.

The graveyards are waiting for all of us. The only question is what we’ll have actually accomplished by the time we get there.

La ilaha illa Allah. لا إله إلا الله. There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.

Not your revenue goals. Not your status. Not your empire dreams. Not your need for validation.

Only Allah.

Build accordingly.

💌 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 🌱 

🤲 Closing Dua

“O Allah, we seek refuge in You from anxiety and sorrow, weakness and laziness, miserliness and cowardice, the burden of debts and from being overpowered by people.”

Ameen