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.
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 نَسْتَعِينُ
It 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.
Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:22 The Barakah Blueprint intro
1:23 Who I am and why this podcast
2:26 What ubudiyah means
5:26 Obedient to your Lord or your ego
7:17 The GPS and the vehicle
8:47 Effort: the Bosnian who walked to Hajj
9:54 Start with a phone
11:10 The Quran and Sunnah as your GPS
13:12 Schedule your time around salah
Mentioned in this episode
Quran 1:5: https://quran.com/1/5
Quran 12:53: https://quran.com/12/53
Senad 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/barakahblueprintpodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8CHOK_fxM
15 Oct 2026
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 وَالْمُنكَرِ
Indeed, 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.
Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:18 The Barakah Blueprint intro
1:18 Who I am and why this podcast
2:57 How I balance everything
6:04 The manufacturer's manual
7:15 Prayer prevents (Quran 29:45)
10:06 Why I keep going with few results
11:30 Building takes time: lessons from the prophets
13:32 Nuh and his son in Surah Hud
16:19 My only advice: three things
Mentioned in this episode
EP46, lessons from rejection: https://open.spotify.com/show/6xe7clV2qEgB8XgGH2743N
Quran 29:45: https://quran.com/29/45
Quran 17:9: https://quran.com/17/9
Quran 11:43: https://quran.com/11/43
Quran 29:14: https://quran.com/29/14
Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barakahblueprintpodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSgP1ztJK0E
15 Oct 2026
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 شيء
Allah has prescribed excellence in everything (Sahih Muslim 1955). I talk about what that means for the way we do outreach.
Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:21 The Barakah Blueprint intro
1:21 Who I am and why this podcast
3:13 Lessons from rejection
4:14 The boring work
5:33 Rapport over pitch slapping
8:07 The Quranic compass: excellence
9:53 Closing and Barakah Builders
Mentioned in this episode
EP 41 with Jasmin Alić: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLuNtosf8sI
Sahih Muslim 1955: https://sunnah.com/muslim:1955a
Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barakahblueprintpodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T-s-W-ldpc
Who has been a guest on The Barakah Blueprint
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Salih Tufekcioglu
Faisal Choudhry
Mohammed Ghanchi
Aqib
community members
Reach and audience
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YouTube views
256
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
8 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 48 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
58
Social presence
0
YouTube
64
Engagement
32
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Questions about The Barakah Blueprint
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Host and The Barakah Blueprint and The host and Ibrahim and Ibrahim Shareef host the show. Published by Ibrahim Shareef.
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