Wanting to do everything perfectly for the sake of Allah.

You tell yourself you are seeking ihsan.

You want the highest standard. You do not want to put something into the world unless it is worthy. You want your work to represent Islam properly, your intention is good, and because of that, perfectionism almost starts to feel righteous.

But sometimes that pursuit of perfection achieves the exact opposite.

The khayr gets delayed.

You keep improving the idea before beginning it. You keep rewriting the script. You keep waiting until you are more knowledgeable, more articulate, more skilled, more ready.

Eventually, something that could have benefited people never leaves your head.

I have experienced this myself.

Shaytan did not always need to tell me, “Don’t do the good.”

Sometimes the thought was much more subtle:

“Do it properly.”

So I would raise the standard. Then raise it again. Then convince myself that what I had was not ready yet.

What I thought was a desire for excellence slowly became a reason to delay.

Some ideas were delayed for months. Others I eventually abandoned completely.

That made me realise something:

Perfection can actually be a very low standard, because perfection leaves no room for growth.

If everything you produce has to represent the best version of you, how are you supposed to become better?

You need bad drafts.

You need work that you look back at two years later and think, “I could do this so much better now.”

That is evidence that you grew.

Absolute perfection belongs to Allah. We were never asked to become flawless human beings. We were asked to strive, correct ourselves, seek forgiveness, improve and continue.

There is an important difference between ihsan, excellence and perfection.

Ihsan

When Jibril عليه السلام asked the Prophet ﷺ about ihsan, he said:

أَنْ تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ، فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ تَرَاهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاكَ

“To worship Allah as though you see Him, and if you do not see Him, then indeed He sees you.”

Ihsan begins with your relationship with Allah.

It is not simply another word for “make your work extremely good.”

It is that awareness of Allah while you act.

And this changes the way you work.

Think about something simple.

If your boss suddenly walks over to your desk and stands behind you while you are working, your attention immediately changes. You become more careful because you know you are being watched.

ولله المثل الأعلى

Allah is far above every comparison.

When a Muslim lives with the awareness that Allah sees him, sincerity changes. Laziness changes. The way he treats his responsibilities changes.

Then even ordinary halal work can become worship through sincere intention, provided the work itself is permissible and done for a good purpose.

You are no longer trying your best because people might praise the outcome.

You try your best because Allah sees the effort.

That is a completely different standard.

Excellence

Islam does not teach us to be mediocre.

There is a narration:

إِنَّ اللهَ تَعَالَى يُحِبُّ مَعَالِيَ الأُمُورِ وَأَشْرَافَهَا، وَيَكْرَهُ سَفْسَافَهَا

“Indeed Allah loves lofty and noble matters and dislikes lowly matters.”

So the answer to perfectionism is not lowering your standards until you stop caring.

You should care.

You should improve your craft. Learn more. Become more capable. Take your responsibilities seriously.

But excellence is different from perfection.

For me, excellence means doing the best work I can at the level I am currently at, while continuing to grow.

If I am a filmmaker with three years of experience, I should not produce careless work and hide behind “tawakkul.”

But I also should not expect myself to produce the work of the filmmaker I might become after fifteen years.

I have to work with the knowledge, skill, time and resources Allah has given me today.

Then tomorrow I improve.

This is where a lot of people confuse Islamic ihsan with perfectionism.

They push themselves towards an imaginary flawless standard, call it excellence, then become paralysed by it.

Real excellence still allows you to be a student.

Perfection

Perfectionism says:

“This needs to be flawless before people can see it.”

And because flawless never arrives, the work keeps moving further into the future.

There is no space for iteration.

No space for embarrassment.

No space to make something, learn from it, then make the next thing better.

That is why I think perfection is such a low standard for a human being.

It assumes there is a final version of your work where nothing needs improvement.

There isn’t.

Do the work properly according to your ability. Take the means available to you. Then place your trust in Allah.

You are responsible for the effort.

You do not control the outcome.

Allah loves consistency

This becomes even clearer when you look at how Islam teaches us to approach good deeds.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

أَحَبُّ الأَعْمَالِ إِلَى اللَّهِ أَدْوَمُهَا وَإِنْ قَلَّ

“The most beloved deeds to Allah are those which are most consistent, even if they are small.”

Imagine how different that is from the way perfectionism makes you think.

Perfectionism tells you that if you cannot do something at the highest possible standard, there is almost no point doing it.

But Islam teaches us to value good that continues.

A smaller action that you can sustain can be more beloved to Allah than an enormous burst of effort that disappears after a few days.

And I think this applies to far more than the obvious acts of worship.

If your work is halal, your intention is sincere and what you are building benefits people, why build a system around yourself that makes doing good unnecessarily difficult?

Remove some of the friction.

Publish.

Learn.

Do it again.

With time, those small efforts compound into something you could never have produced in one “perfect” attempt.

There is another ayah that changed how I think about this.

Allah says:

فَاسْتَقِيمُوا إِلَيْهِ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ

“So remain steadfast towards Him and seek His forgiveness.”

Surah Fussilat 41:6

Ibn Rajab رحمه الله noticed something beautiful in this ayah.

He wrote:

«إشارة إلى أنه لا بد من تقصير في الاستقامة المأمور بها، فيجبر ذلك الاستغفار المقتضي للتوبة والرجوع إلى الاستقامة»

Meaning that there will inevitably be some shortcoming in the istiqamah we have been commanded with, so that shortcoming is repaired through seeking forgiveness, repentance and returning again to istiqamah.

Think about that.

Allah commands istiqamah, while the path itself already accounts for the fact that you will fall short.

You strive to remain straight.

You fall short.

You seek forgiveness.

You correct yourself.

You continue.

The imperfection of the human being was never a surprise in the system.

This is why waiting for some flawless version of yourself before you start doing meaningful work makes very little sense.

You are supposed to grow through the work.

You become a better writer by writing.

A better filmmaker by filming. A better speaker by speaking. A better Muslim by continuously returning to Allah after your shortcomings. And strangely, life becomes lighter when you understand this.

You can still be ambitious. You can still have high standards. You can still care deeply about the quality of what you produce.

But the standard becomes:

Did I sincerely give this what I was capable of giving it today?

Then you improve tomorrow.

This is also why I keep coming back to the idea of the UnseenROI.

Your intention cannot be separated from the way you work. When the intention is right, you begin thinking differently about ihsan. You take the means seriously because Allah sees what you are doing. At the same time, you understand that the result was never completely in your hands, which gives tawakkul its proper place.

You work & improve -> You depend upon Allah.

And somewhere in that relationship between sincere intention, serious effort and tawakkul, you begin experiencing something that perfectionism could never give you: inner-peace

A shameless plug before you go

This is actually one of the reasons I built Inner Compass.

Because I don’t think Muslim creators need another programme teaching them how to squeeze more content out of themselves, chase algorithms or build some perfectly optimised personal brand.

I wanted to teach the part underneath all of that.

How do you build something ambitious without losing your intention?

How do you take your craft seriously without becoming paralysed by perfection?

How do you show up consistently, become known for something, build trust and eventually make money from your work, while still remembering Who you are doing all of this for?

That’s what Inner Compass is about.

It is the system I wish I had when I was skilled, ambitious and full of ideas, but constantly overthinking what to build, what to post and whether it was good enough.

Skilled → Clear → Trusted → Paid.

Without having to lose yourself somewhere between the first and last step.

If this letter felt uncomfortably familiar, Inner Compass was probably built for you.

Join Inner Compass → Bismillah

In Allah’s care & protection

-Hamza

Borders, ethnic pride, sects, political loyalties, arguments that never end. We can’t agree on what the problem is, never mind the solution.

Under my video on the fall of Al-Andalus, someone left this:

“I don’t believe we would unite again. Faith is fading, the Muslim world is falling, and there’s literally nothing we can do.”

I get where that comes from. But the part that worries me isn’t his read on our condition, though. It’s the last five words. There’s nothing we can do.

History says otherwise. Say the name Salah ad-Din and people go straight to Jerusalem, because that’s the part that survived into the posters and the films. They remember the victory and skip everything that had to happen before it was even possible.

He didn’t inherit a united Ummah. Muslims were fighting Muslims, rulers were guarding their own patch of land, cities refused to stand with each other, and plenty of them saw the Muslim next door as a bigger threat than the Crusaders camped outside. He could have looked at all of that and decided it was finished. But He worked from the inside instead. For years the work had nothing to do with Jerusalem; it was building strength, repairing what was broken, and pulling divided Muslims towards something bigger than their own interests. Jerusalem came later, and it came because of that. And it took Him around 20 years to just unite everyone first!

This is why history matters. People who know their history aren’t shocked by what’s happening now, or by what may happen later.

Knowing your history doesn’t make our situation hurt any less, but it stops you from believing that what we’re going through is unique.

The Ummah has been fractured before. Muslims have turned on each other before, and everything has looked finished before, more than once.

When you don’t know any of that, every crisis feels like the end of the story. When you do, collapse becomes a period you’re living through rather than something permanent stamped on who we are.

And you stop asking whether you can fix the whole Ummah by yourself. The question changes: what has Allah placed in front of me?

You probably can’t unite millions of Muslims. You can work on your household. You can teach the five people who actually listen to you, sharpen your knowledge and your akhlaq, get better at the work you do, and build something the Ummah can still use after you’re gone.

That circle touches another circle, and that one touches another, and eventually the reach of it goes further than anything you’ll live to see.

History isn’t names and dates. It’s what gives you the patience to sit through dark stretches and the ambition to work for something longer than your own life.

So, is the Ummah cooked?

Our situation is serious. Hopeless, though? Never. We’ve been here before, and the only real question is whether we sit and watch, or start working with what Allah has placed in our hands.

– Hamza

I was in the mini bus, and use it almost everyday. On the way to my office, we pass by a hospital, today I was looking at it for a few seconds, and started reflecting…

I asked myself; “when the last time I went to the hospital?”

Seriously I was pondering about it and how Allah ﷻ blessed me with a good health not taking any medicine or any treatment. I am not required to visit the hospital at all.

Alhamdulillah, Wallahi we’re not truly grateful about the blessing we have…

We are complaining everyday for small things, forgetting what Allah ﷻ has gave us.

One way to truly cherish and remember these blessings is through intentional journaling. Taking a few moments each day to reflect on
what went well,
what you’re grateful for,
and what you’ve learned can make all the difference.
It helps you slow down, live in the moment, and create clarity in your mind.

That’s exactly why I created The Planner—to give you a space to pause, reflect, and plan with purpose. This isn’t just a tool for productivity; it’s a way to document your journey, celebrate your blessings, and stay consistent in nurturing the life you want.

Our the prophet ﷺ said “Whoever among you wakes up secure in his home, healthy in his body, and has his provision for the day, it is as if the whole world has been given to him.” (Tirmidhi)

In a beautiful He ﷺ said: “Look at those below you (in worldly matters) and do not look at those above you, for that is more likely to make you not belittle the blessings of Allah upon you.” (Sahih Bukhari & Sahih Muslim)

Allah tests His servants in two ways: by giving and by withholding. When He gives, He observes our gratitude.

Do we truly thank Him with our hearts, tongues, and actions?

Or do we grow heedless, treating these blessings as if they were our entitlement?

And when He withholds, He observes our patience.

Do we trust His wisdom, or do we despair and lose sight of the blessings we still have?

'If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe." (Sarah Ibrahim 14:7)

Life is a test in both abundance and deprivation. As Allah reminds us in the Quran:

“And We test you with good and bad as a trial; and to Us, you will be returned.” (Surah Al-Anbiya, 21:35)

Gratitude isn’t just about saying “Alhamdulillah” when something good happens. It’s about actively recognising and appreciating the blessings we have and using them in a way that pleases Allah. Even in moments of difficulty, gratitude is intertwined with patience.

When we focus on what we do have rather than what we lack, we cultivate contentment and remind ourselves that Allah’s plan is always better than our own.

In Allah’s care and protection.

Hamza HFD.

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Sometimes you get motivated, sometimes not, but you have to do it.

Same thing with the Prayer for example, I’ve notice many people struggle to establish their 5 daily prayer. They are not discipline. This example can be implemented to a lot of acts of worship like Giving Saddaqah, Reading Quran, Daily Dhikr…etc

It’s going to be hard at the start, especially if you want to begin a new deed. Allah will test you if you are really sincere on this move. He ﷻ said: -Do people think once they say, “We believe,” that they will be left without being put to the test? -We certainly tested those before them. And ˹in this way˺ Allah will clearly distinguish between those who are truthful and those who are liars.

Just remember this two verses whenever you face difficulties to practice a certain act. I often become happy when I face it because Allah has already told us and warn us. And Wallahi when you taste the pain of discipline, it will be sweat.

A lot of scholar they talk about lowering your gaze, in first off… it’s so hard especially in the wester world, however over time you start tasting the sweetness of Iman. It is the best sweat ever, the happiness of this world

Let’s sum up what we’ve talk about

Building a habit can be challenging at first because it involves significant changes to your lifestyle. Whether it’s establishing the five daily prayers, giving Saddaqah, reading the Quran, or practicing daily Dhikr, consistency and discipline are key. Remember, Allah will test your sincerity in these efforts. Think you are stacking a skill or leveling it up. Over-time you’ll become master on it.

I’ve created a Habit Tracker to help you stay motivated on your journey. Writing things down is more effective than keeping them in our minds.

HFD

The Power of a Mother's Dedication

Imagine being a single mother in challenging circumstances, yet dedicating countless hours to educate and nurture your child. Such was the story of Imam Shafi’i's mother. Despite living in humble conditions, she tirelessly taught him the Quran, Hadith, and Fiqh. Her efforts bore fruit when Imam Shafi’i memorized the Quran at age 7 and mastered the complex 'Muwatta' by age 10, becoming one of history's greatest scholars and Imams.

Legacy of Motherhood

The story of Imam Shafi’i is not unique. Mothers like those of Imam Malik and Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal played pivotal roles in their sons' intellectual and spiritual development. Yet, one towering figure stands out—the esteemed Mother Aisha رضي الله عنها, wife of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). For nearly 50 years after the Prophet's passing, she devoted herself to teaching and sharing knowledge, her intelligence and wisdom shaping the foundation of Islamic scholarship.

"The mother is a school; if you prepare her, you prepare a noble people.
The mother is a garden; if you nurture it, it flourishes and blossoms.
The mother is the teacher of teachers, whose deeds fill the horizons."

Hafidh Ibrahim

Honoring Remarkable Women

These wise and influential mothers are often unsung heroes behind the greatness of exceptional men. Their dedication, resilience, and unwavering faith continue to inspire and empower generations. Let us reflect on their legacy and celebrate the profound impact of women in shaping the future.

“every successful man there is a woman behind”

-Hamza