Sheikh Uthman Hadi - How to be productive

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Sheikh Uthman Hadi breaks down the importance of building a strong connection to Allah (SWT) and when your aflicted with a trial, ponder on your relationship with Allah (SWT).Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.ly

Bismillah and Rahman and Rahim. Al-Hamdu-Lih, and allah, Ruhlid al-Araim, and Salatu al-Ara-A-Rasul-Lah, and a al-Aihi and sahabi and man-wala. Assalamu al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-pac-a-a-a-fest. I pray that everyone is doing well. I pray that everybody is having a blessed day.

Islam, my dear brothers and sisters, we as Muslims have to prioritize Allah, Goda-a-a-a-a-1 first in any and everything that we do. And what I want to particularly talk about today is being productive. You know, as many people we say, oh, you know, I'm not productive enough. Oh, I can't get this done. There's not enough hours in the day. But in actuality, Allah, Allah, has allowed for us to live a full day of however many hours it will be.

If you're waking up at 5 o'clock and going to bed at 10, how many hours is that? You imagine that. How Allah, Suhpanao'u, Tala, is giving you more than 12 hours, more than just two hours to do anything. but we act ungrateful that we have time to do stuff. And the one thing I want to really address here is that productive, being productive, stems from our connection to Allah subhanna-ho-a-da-it-a-da. It stems from our relationship with Allah,

and it also stems from our productivity in bringing closeness to him. You know, you think about it, how you wake up, and the first thing that you do is you're like, oh, let me go brush my teeth, oh, let me go get in the shower, let me go get for ready for work, or let me go get ready for school, or let me go get ready for this.

And the truth is that Allah, subhaphanahua, ta'ala, should become first before any of those things. You know, you wake up and you say, all right, supani Allah, I woke up. It's 4 o'clock. Where it comes at 5? All right, I'm going to go ahead and pray to Hajjah.

I'm going to pray to Hajjah time before. I'm going to prioritize Allah suhpaniahuahua ta'a. I'm going to say, you know what? Allah, Allah is more important. Let me have a conversation with Allah. Let me talk to Allah. Let me build a relationship of closeness to Allah. Productivity doesn't come from starting your day early.

It doesn't come from going to the gym working out. It doesn't come from saying, you know what, I'm going to start off by trying to find the most motivation of the video I can find. It starts off with you saying, bismillah. It starts off with your wudu. It starts off with you worshipping Allah, supranahua, ta'al. And that's how every day should start off. You know how when sometimes we get so used. to missing fudger that we just had a normal sensation our body is just like all right well you know

you know you need that extra rest or you know you wake up and you're like oh man i miss fudger oh well i have to do it tomorrow i just have to pray tomorrow you know you know the sun comes up at seven o'clock you say hmm uh it's uh nine o'clock now you know what it's all right oh well i'm just going about the rest of my day you should feel some type of disconnection to allah suhapha an hoata a As you have missed one of your prayers, you have missed a special connection to him. And one of the things that surprises me is that we can go out here and do these different things and so, quote, unquote, say, I'm having a great day today, but you missed your prayer. You missed an opportunity to talk to Allah, suhanna, hua, to ask of Allah, subhanna,u,

you miss this opportunity. But yet we are happy that we miss this opportunity. We're happy that our day is going smooth. and if we had a perfect day we prayed all five of our prayers and guess what let's just say you normally don't pray Fudja this one day you pray Fudja just to see how it feels you're like this feels amazing okay

and then a whole bunch of things happen to you this right here might not be a means of Allah Sapa-o-u-Tal-Lah saying don't pray Fudra don't pray Fudra you haven't been praying it you're good that's not the means of what he is saying he might be testing you to say hey

you pray Fudha Supana Allah come back to me come back to me pray more pray again and again and again until it becomes a daily habit of the first thing you do the first thing is on your mind when you wake up is go pray for you now let's go play a video game not let's go and go and have breakfast not ooh i wonder what i'm going to do today not oh yes i have i have to get to that very important business call today no worry about allah supranahua ta a la worry about the connection to him as we have talked about the previous episode i said worry about your connection with allah supranahua ta a la that connection is more important than anything in this world because this connection is going to help you not only in this world but in the next and as allah supanahua a ta a sa is in the quran that he will never burden a soul without anything that they can handle what does this really mean if we're saying i cannot be productive i cannot do this and i cannot do

that you have to sit down and ponder and think why can't i do that why is it that i cannot I can't do this or I can't get this done. I take so much time just procrastinating. Or sometimes you think, why is my imman so low? Why can't I pray? Why can't I get this done? Why can't I perform dica? Why can't I make dua?

Why can I do these things? And the main reason is because of your relationship with Allah Sapanahua'u'u'u'a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. if we view him as if he's a slave master as if he harasses us and tortures us and that is how he will be he will test us with what we think of him he will test us of what we say

and if we say oh Allah he doesn't like me oh Allah he's not a good he's not good or you know this and that I pray Allah submaant Allah forgives us if we said that but if we think this about Allah suhaphanahuataala do you think that he's going to give us everything

that we're looking for everything that we're wanting? If we're saying, oh, I'm praying every single last one of my prayers late. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, an hour, two hours past the time. Oh, I pray Maghrib 20 minutes late. No, pray Maghrib on time. Even if it means you have to start the prayer by yourself. Even if it means you have to say, you know what?

There's normally a man who starts the prayer. I'm going to have to start it today. Why? Because when you put Allah suhphanahua at all first, when you build a connection to him, he makes everything easier for you. And Allah, suprana hua Tala only tests us

so that we may get closer to him. The tests are a means of purification, of verification that you truly love him, verification that you truly want to be Muslim, verification that you truly love Islam. You know, you're learning about Islam. Allah's upana Hu, Tala, is like, okay, I'll test you with little things.

Oh, okay, I'll test you with that, I'll test you with this. but you call yourself knowledgeable Allah is going to test you with that knowledge he's going to and it might not be a bad thing it might be a good thing because sometimes we get so erringent

and we say oh you know I know everything about this I know everything about that and Allah suprana hoata test us and we say whoa hold on I got to step back first like I didn't know I didn't know this I didn't know that I didn't know this all I knew was just the basic necessities I only knew how to make wudu

this person's asking me me to break down this specific topic and to break down the Sharia to them. I don't understand that. I can't explain that to you. And sometimes we feel shy to explain it to people who have quote-unquote knowledge. We say, oh yeah, you know, you are quote-unquote knowledge, you know, I have nothing. I know nothing. And guess what?

Even those people who are knowledgeable know nothing. Why? Because Allah subhanna-ahua-ta-ta-a-la knows everything. and he has blessed people with an ability to learn certain things and to know certain things. So my dear brothers and sisters always put Allah subhpanao'u'u'u'a first.

Want to learn more about Allah. Want to build a better connection to him. And sometimes we have to let go of those things that are going to bring us farther away from Allah, Sufana'u'u'u'u'u'a. Imagine you say every day I get off of work, you go and you watch a whole world, you watch movies, and you watch TV,

and you do this and do that. and while you're cooking, you're singing, or you're doing this and doing that, instead replace that with the remembrance of Allah, Sufanahu,u, Tala. Maybe the reason why you can't do these things are because of a habit that you've gotten into or a sin that you've gotten into that has broken or that has ruined the relationship that you have with Allah, subhanna, hua, and maybe just by you saying,

I need to get better, I need to do this, I need to do that, maybe that will be the reason why Allah, suhpano, Hecala, regains, it helps you regain connection to him. And sometimes we have to remember that Allah, Allah is not going to make our test easy. Tests are not easy. And tests are going to get harder and harder

the more that we know and the more that we try. You think about it, it's like, oh, okay? I know all this stuff, but Allah's upon our Allah is going to test me with that. If I'm being arrogant, Allah's going to test me with that arrogant. He's okay, you're arrogant. Let's see how arrogant you really are.

He's going to test me. He's going to show me my faults, and he's going to show me what I truly need to work on. So my dear brothers and sisters, always remember Allah, always start your days off with Allah. Never forget that Allah suhphanahua'u'u'a is watching at all times, and he is the one who controls your day. And even if you're being tested immensely throughout your days, remember that the closer you are to Allah subhpanahu.

the easier the test will become. And the more you remember Allah subhaphanahua, the easier the test will become. So I ask Allah subhpana to make us amongst those who remember him at all times. I ask Allah

to forgive us for our sins and our shortcomings and the bad habits that we could have gone into and I ask Allah to have mercy upon us in this life, but mainly in the next life.

I mean, and Iakiro da'a'anun and al-hambulilililaheim. And al-Ahmat al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a.