The Barakah Blueprint

Ibrahim Shareef

Your Friday coffee by the campfire. A short reflection every Friday morning, with the Quran as the compass. Patience when the answer is late. Trusting Allah with what you can't carry. Coming back after you slip. The dua you keep putting off for your parents, your siblings, the people who held you up. Grab your coffee and sit with us for a few minutes. Take one thing with you into the week. New episodes every Friday morning, inshallah. Hosted by Ibrahim Shareef.

  1. Oct 16

    EP48 – Your Lord or Your EGO?

    My teacher and mentor took me through a very interesting concept: ubudiyah, from abd, a servant, and yabud, to worship. It sits in Surah Al-Fatiha, the first chapter of the Quran:إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُIt is You we worship and You we ask for help (Quran 1:5). You're either obedient to your Lord or obedient to your ego, and in this episode I explain why obedience to God is empowering, not restricting. Then the analogy my sheikh gave. You want to drive from city A to city B, for me Gothenburg to Stockholm. The vehicle is your irada, your will and your capacity to do the thing. The GPS is the Quran and Sunnah. The sharia is the turn by turn directions. You still need the effort, like the Bosnian man who walked all the way to Mecca for Hajj. But effort without direction is pointless, and that's why we need to schedule our time around salah. Chapters0:00 Cold open0:22 The Barakah Blueprint intro1:23 Who I am and why this podcast2:26 What ubudiyah means5:26 Obedient to your Lord or your ego7:17 The GPS and the vehicle8:47 Effort: the Bosnian who walked to Hajj9:54 Start with a phone11:10 The Quran and Sunnah as your GPS13:12 Schedule your time around salah Mentioned in this episodeQuran 1:5: https://quran.com/1/5Quran 12:53: https://quran.com/12/53Senad Hadžić's walk from Bosnia to Mecca: https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/pilgrim-walks-from-bosnia-to-haj-1.1092752 Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barakahblueprintpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8CHOK_fxM

  2. Oct 15

    EP47 – We're All Products With a MANUAL

    I always get the question: how do you balance your time? I work full time as a project manager here in Dubai, I run Itqan Studio, I make content as Shareefico and host this podcast, I'm building my own products, and I have my Skool community. Spoiler alert: it's exhausting. And this is not a scheduling video. What decides whether my day works is how good I've been with the Quran that day and that week. We're all products at the end of the day, and the manufacturer knows best how to use the product. The manual is the Quran. Allah says:إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِIndeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing (Quran 29:45). I also talk about why I keep going when there aren't many numbers to show for it, the 950 years Nuh (alayhi salam) spent calling his people, what his son and the mountain in Surah Hud teach us about pivoting, and the three things I'd tell anyone in the same trenches. Chapters0:00 Cold open0:18 The Barakah Blueprint intro1:18 Who I am and why this podcast2:57 How I balance everything6:04 The manufacturer's manual7:15 Prayer prevents (Quran 29:45)10:06 Why I keep going with few results11:30 Building takes time: lessons from the prophets13:32 Nuh and his son in Surah Hud16:19 My only advice: three things Mentioned in this episodeEP46, lessons from rejection: https://open.spotify.com/show/6xe7clV2qEgB8XgGH2743NQuran 29:45: https://quran.com/29/45Quran 17:9: https://quran.com/17/9Quran 11:43: https://quran.com/11/43Quran 29:14: https://quran.com/29/14 Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barakahblueprintpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSgP1ztJK0E

  3. Oct 15

    EP46 – Why the BORING Work Gives You the Edge

    A prospect I was chasing chose a cheaper alternative. We were close to the next step, and it came at a time when I really needed a paying client. This one is just me. I'm building a new client pipeline for Itqan Studio, which means lead identification, reaching out to people by hand and commenting on their content. This episode is what that rejection taught me: why I don't send AI-generated outreach, what the boring work actually is, what one prospect taught me about why people archive messages that sell to them straight away, and why building rapport comes before any pitch. LinkedIn is a networking platform, and a lot of people on it aren't networking. They're pitch slapping, as Jasmin Alić calls it. Then I bring it back to the Quranic compass I build my content on. The Prophet ﷺ said:إن الله كتب الإحسان على كل شيءAllah has prescribed excellence in everything (Sahih Muslim 1955). I talk about what that means for the way we do outreach. Chapters0:00 Cold open0:21 The Barakah Blueprint intro1:21 Who I am and why this podcast3:13 Lessons from rejection4:14 The boring work5:33 Rapport over pitch slapping8:07 The Quranic compass: excellence9:53 Closing and Barakah Builders Mentioned in this episodeEP 41 with Jasmin Alić: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLuNtosf8sISahih Muslim 1955: https://sunnah.com/muslim:1955a Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barakahblueprintpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T-s-W-ldpc

  4. May 15

    EP42 - 80% of Communication has NOTHING to do with your Words ft. Shako

    Most people think communication is about what you say and how you say it.Shako built an entire coaching company to prove otherwise.In this episode, Shako — founder of Minds Eye Status and communication & executive presence coach — dismantles the myth that charisma is a performance skill. The real work, he argues, is inner. Presence before posture. Character before clarity. And in the Islamic tradition, there's a word for the exact thing that steals your presence from you: ghaflah — absent-mindedness, the slow drift away from God-consciousness that shows up as reactivity, poor listening, and a weak frame.This episode is not a communication masterclass. It's a character blueprint.What you'll walk away with:→ The one concept Shako says underlies all character development (and why it's not discipline)→ The Melbourne lockdown story: how sitting with fear instead of escaping it rewired everything→ "You can't have authority if you don't believe in an authority" — the line that stopped the conversation→ Shako's 5 Pillars of Communication — and why Pillar 1 has nothing to do with speaking→ Ghaflah, God-consciousness, and why the Qur'an mapped presence before psychology did→ The Communication Clarity Audit: daily, weekly, monthly, and the hard rule that filters your lifeFollow Shakos socials and check him out!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shakotlokman?igsh=Ym45bThkOXV6ZmN4YouTube: https://youtube.com/@shakolokman?si=20cJSNISFRQ0XEj7TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shakotlokman?_r=1&_t=ZN-96Lms6We9QcBook a call with Shako: https://mindseyestatus.com/book-a-call?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAdGRleARycgVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAadJ9n-GHTKfI-ZNXv1zdwALUYSoLHk0INsgxeeyju1iJd6eTwfwoldA__T4xQ_aem_ZtBHhfIx3VujRiirhGZ2BA📺 Timeline00:00:00 - Trailer00:01:01 - Intro00:14:51 - On Authority00:28:43 - The Barakah Layer00:42:32 - On Dunya00:56:28 - On Ihsaan (Excellence)01:10:13 - On Legacy01:23:57 - Closing Reflection📥 SUBSCRIBE!!📺 SUBSCRIBE for more Barakah-driven conversations👍🏼 LIKE THE VIDEO 🔔 Turn on the NOTIFICATIONS to stay up to date

About

Your Friday coffee by the campfire. A short reflection every Friday morning, with the Quran as the compass. Patience when the answer is late. Trusting Allah with what you can't carry. Coming back after you slip. The dua you keep putting off for your parents, your siblings, the people who held you up. Grab your coffee and sit with us for a few minutes. Take one thing with you into the week. New episodes every Friday morning, inshallah. Hosted by Ibrahim Shareef.