ProductiveMuslim almost got shut down forever!

[strivingobserver98]

:sl:

Your website or business idea may not be a success overnight! Keep going, keep learning and keep moving forward :). You don't know if your idea will work or not unless you TAKE ACTION and test it.


Here is the story of brother Abu Productive below:

There was a time when I shut ProductiveMuslim for 6 months because I thought it was a stupid idea!

Before I tell why and what happened, let me know tell you the backstory of how ProductiveMuslim started..

It started early morning, on a cold November morning in 2007..

I woke up for Fajr after a particularly well-rested sleep and these two words hit me as I rose to begin the day.. "Productive Muslim"..

They seemed so suited for each other! I loved the phrase so much I immediately booked the domain name and started writing my first blog posts..

I remember writing anything and everything I knew about productivity..

I enlisted the help of my flatmate and we were so excited about the blog and dreamt big that this blog would become the lifehacker of the Muslim world!

Fast forward 2 months.. and our initial excitement fizzled, I shifted my focus to earning a Master's degree, my flatmate moved on, and we just thought that ProductiveMuslim was a stupid idea and hence it must be shut...
Well, once I completed my Masters degree and the "real" world hit me with all its expectations and responsibilities.. I was completely daunted by how unfulfilling post-graduate life was..

I wanted to work on something so big that it could become my mission in life..

The thought of restarting the Productive Muslim blog crossed my mind at first but the disappointment of my first attempt quietly made me park the idea in the back of my mind..

Until a young boy.. not more than 10 or 12 years old perhaps.. gave me the push I needed with a short sweet e-mail..

The email said "Hey, where's your blog? How come you guys took it down? I used to enjoy reading it!"

I was stunned. My site had a true fan! Someone believed in the concept of a Productive Muslim!

It's funny, but it was this glimmer of hope that kick-started what has become one of the largest Muslim Lifestyle blogs in the blogosphere today, Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God)..

But I knew that a small motivation from a 10 year old won't be enough to keep me going.. I needed a new focus, a new motivation to make ProductiveMuslim truly worthwhile..

But I realised that I needed to shift ProductiveMuslim's focus to something more meaningful..

You see, when I started ProductiveMuslim, I was simply relaying what I was learning from modern Productivity gurus (David Allen's Getting Things Done, Stephen Covey 7 Habits, etc) and regurgitating them to the Muslim world..

At that time, I wanted to become the platform where Muslims could learn all what I was learning from modern productivity gurus..

But one hadeeth made me re-think this position..

I came across this hadeeth for the first time in 2007, it said:

Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said: "The early hours are blessed for my Ummah" [Abu Dawud].

You should have seen my face when I read that hadeeth..

I kept reading, and re-reading it..

As an early riser myself, and one who believes in the power and blessings of the early hours to get work done, this hadeeth struck me like a brick!

I couldn’t believe that one of the secrets to productivity was laid bare in a simple beautiful hadith..

It made me wonder if there was more in our religion that can teach us about productivity..

And there was..

Everywhere I looked--within the Quran, the Seerah, or the history of Islamic civilization--I found countless examples, ideas, tips, and techniques to boost one's productivity..

And that's what I wanted the focus of ProductiveMuslim to be.. a website that was focused to inspire the Ummah to be productive based on our traditional Islamic values and concepts, as well as the best of what modern productivity has to offer..

Hence, ProductiveMuslim 2.0 was born with a new intention and new focus..

[crimsontide06]

Nice post!