7 Barakah Tips In Launching the Barakah Journal

How the Barakah Journal raised $50K in 36 hours!

by Mohammed Faris

Alhamdulillah!

The past couple of days have been a beautiful Barakah-ride with the launch of The Productive Muslim Company Barakah Journal.

We expected the campaign to last 30-days, but alhamdulillah — we raised $50K in less than two days!

In this article, instead of sharing some of the practical campaign preparation tips (which you can find many online), I wanted to capture the top 7 Barakah tips learned preparing and running this campaign while the experience is still raw in my mind (and heart).

I hope it helps future LaunchGood product campaigners tap into the power of Barakah when designing and launching their campaigns inshaAllah!

(P.S. The Barakah Journal campaign is still going strong! We’re now launching phase II of the campaign focusing on spreading Barakah Culture globally! Head out to LaunchGood.com/BarakahJournal to pre-order a Barakah Journal for your family and friends).

Tip #1: Set powerful intentions

When we first planned the Barakah Journal, we wrote the following intention statement:

“To produce a high-quality, profitable, and impactful productivity planner that helps Professional Muslims plan their week/day according to Barakah Culture (vs. Hustle Culture), thus enabling them to increase their connection to Allah (SWT) while boosting their performance across all areas of their life.”

This statement became our Why and helped us make important decisions regarding the design, content, quality of production, pricing, and positioning of the campaign.

Without this intention — we’d have been lost or perhaps designed a product that didn’t fulfil its initial purpose.

We tend to gloss over intentions when we produce works for the Ummah but they are critical for spiritual development and purification of our heart. When things got tough or we weren’t sure if we want to continue with the project, we returned to our intention with our heart and soul and it kept us going. Our intention was our North Star that makes us stay focused on the bigger picture of where we’re headed instead of getting lost in the weeds.

As Ibn Ata’illah says in his Book of Wisdom: “Actions are lifeless forms, but the presence of an inner reality of sincerity within them is what endows them with life-giving Spirit.”

Tip #2: Focus on Ihsaan (Excellence).

As much as you want to rush and launch a product, take your time with the development stage and aim to do things with Ihsaan (Excellence).

Hustle Culture tells us to fail fast and to fail often — but that’s not the spirit of Ihsaan.

This product took us 2 years to develop because we didn’t want to rush it or cut any corners in its development.

Was it frustrating? Yes! But the price of Ihsaan is beautiful patience and wanting to work on something that you present to Allah SWT first before you go live on the campaign page.

We were blessed to work with Mukhtar Sanders, the Creative Director at Inspiral Design (UK), who encouraged us to push for high quality and not launch the product prematurely.

Alhamdulillah — the results speak for themselves, and supporters saw the Ihsaan in the final product they were willing to back before we even produced it.

Tip #3 — Istikhara and Istishara

At every stage of the Barakah Journal, we prayed the istikhara prayer, asking Allah’s Guidance on how best to proceed, while seeking people’s counsel and advice (shura).

From starting the project to hiring the designer, to selecting the videographer, to even deciding between the giving levels of the LaunchGood campaign.

We literally prayed istikhara prayers every step of the way and kept asking for feedback — first from a small group of friends and team members — and eventually from user testers.

Between Istikhara and Istishara — Allah SWT blessed us with Hidaya (guidance), showing us the path forward and putting Barakah in every decision we made along the way (trust me, not regretting any decision you make as you launch a campaign is huge Barakah — especially since some decisions are irreversible!).

Tip #4 — Allah loves Beauty — so make the product beautiful.

A few months ago, I was impatient. I wanted to launch the product as soon as I could — without any high-quality images, no physical samples, with just a few concept designs we had, and a cheap promo video.

Thankfully, several friends pushed back and challenged me to get physical samples and invest in high-quality filming and photos of the final product before launching.

I realize now that if I launched back then without any beautiful shots, videos, or GIFs, the campaign would have fallen flat (again, the Barakah of istikhara and istishara).

After launch, we received several comments from people appreciating the professionalism that went into the campaign. This was a comment from one of the campaigners: “The message templates and video and pics were all very well put together- so kudos to everyone for the success maa shaa Allah! 😊👍🏻”

So if you have an amazing product that you built with Ihsaan, take your time, and package it beautifully, for God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty.

Tip #5 — Build Your Team of Ansar

No campaign is a one-man show.

There’s an army of Ansars (helpers) who come together and support you beyond your expectations.

I was blessed, not only with a fantastic Productive Muslim team but a talented LaunchGood team who coached us through the entire process of launching the campaign.

More importantly, in the 2 weeks before launch — we spent time nurturing and building an army of volunteers (we called them Barakah Journal Campaigners) who joined the effort to make this journal a success.

This nurturing takes effort and multiple high touch experiences, including Zoom meetings, campaign kits, prizes, and daily messaging. Don’t take your Ansars for granted. Show them the level of love and respect you’d show your best friends.

Without this team and army of volunteers (which reached 500+ people at one point) — we would not be able to get the results we were hoping for so quickly.

Tip #6 — Detach from the Results and Trust in God

After all the hard work we put into the campaign, I kept reminding myself that we tied our camel as we were about to launch the campaign. The results and outcome are ONLY in Allah’s hands.

I didn’t want my heart to be attached to the campaign’s funding status — whether good or bad.

I prepared myself and all team members (including the volunteers!) that no matter what the result is, we would be thankful.

The fact that we set good intentions, produced a product with Ihsaan, made istikhara and sought istishara along the way, and did all that we could for Allah’s sake is success by itself! (Not the final amount raised for the campaign, no matter how lucrative that end result was).

Tip #7 — Seek Barakah Intentionally

When you approach a project as a spiritual exercise vs. a material product you’re launching — you’ll start to be more conscious of the mindsets, values, and rituals that help attract Barakah to your initiative.

Mindsets such as intentionality, gratefulness, and beautiful perseverance become your motto. Values such as beauty, excellence, and trustworthiness become your compass. And rituals like dua, remembering God, and sending salawat upon Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) become practical spiritual tools that inspire you to keep going no matter the ups and downs.

Even simple things like choosing when to start the campaign are linked with Barakah. We had originally decided to launch on the 1st of Rajab due to it being a sacred month in the Islamic calendar, but when we realized the 1st of Rajab day was a Saturday, we launched a day early to get the Barakah of Jumuah (Friday). Here’s the real Barakah kicker: We launched on the blessed day of Jumuah and completed the campaign a day later in the sacred month of Rajab — alhamdulillah!

Launching this campaign was more a spiritual journey than merely a crowdfunding product journey and I would like all of us as Muslim entrepreneurs to approach our projects and campaign as Barakah projects.

I’m so grateful and thankful to everyone who helped, supported, prayed, donated, messaged us regarding the Barakah Journal.

Help us continue this journey by supporting phase II of this project on LaunchGood.com/BarakahJournal and spreading Barakah Culture globally!

I sincerely ask Allah SWT to accept this product as a contribution to the Ummah’s betterment and put Barakah in it for many generations to come. Ameen!