by Abu Productive on February 2, 2011
Title: Rework
Author: Jason Fried and David Hansson
There are quite a few books that I cannot wait to receive through the post as soon as I make the order for them, and REWORK was one such book.
Hailed as the ‘Business Book’ for entrepreneurs, REWORK challenges traditional business rules that have governed businesses for much of the past century.
Simple, blunt, and filled with counter intuitive ideas that actually make sense, I couldn’t put the book down and was able to finish it in less than a day. Here are three concepts that struck me:
1. Planning is guessing:
The authors of the book argue that business planning is simply a fantasy and that there are too many factors that are out of your hand to actual plan anything accurately. I thought back to my own ‘plans’ which were simply guesses and compared them to reality which turned out to be drastically different. The authors still recommend that you should have some kind of a plan, but don’t let that plan blind you from pursuing other opportunities.
2. Scratch your own itch:
According to the authors, “the easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use”. This is very true and it’s an extension of the famous proverb, “Necessity is the mother of inventions”. I personally have learned to never create a website, product, or service that I myself would not use.
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by Beeworker on January 10, 2011
Title: The Exquisite Pearl
Author: ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sa’di
There’s a hadith that leaves me in awe each time I read it, and is amongst the most important advice we can attain in life, where the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
”There are three things which if they are present in anyone, will cause him to taste the sweetness of faith: that Allah and His Messenger are more beloved to him than all else; that he loves others only for the sake of Allah; and that he should hate to revert to disbelief after Allah has saved him from it, just as he would hate to be cast into a blazing fire.” [Sahih Bukhari, Hadith #21]
The Exquisite Pearl highlights that as Muslims we can reach an elevated status as we travel to the Hereafter. In this short yet immensely powerful book, the Exquisite Pearl takes you as a ’suluk’ – wayfarer in this life, through a journey to Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala). What is profound is that the book is based on a short yet immensely insightful Arabic poem on the stations required to become closer to Allah.
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by admin on December 21, 2010
Title of the Book: The Wisdom of Bees, What The Hive Can Teach Business About Leadership, Efficiency & Growth
Author: By Michael O’Malley
I was recently fascinated by the 25 powerful lessons put together by Michael O’Malley in his book entitled: `The Wisdom of Bees’; he begins by telling us that bees ”have developed a system that rivals ours in complexity and surpasses it in efficiency…”
Unfortunately, many of us can testify to bad experiences of leadership and inefficiency or at least know of those that are inefficient and are dysfunctional. What is even more sad is that this occurs in our Islamic organisations! So when I came across these lessons I remembered the verse in Quran where Allah says in the Chapter called `The Bees’:
”And your Lord revealed to the bee saying: Make hives in the mountains and in the trees and in what they build: Then eat of all the fruits and walk in the ways of your Lord submissively. There comes forth from within it a beverage of many colours, in which there is healing for men; most surely there is a sign in this for a people who reflect..” [Quran, Surah An-Nahl, Chapter 16, Verses 68-69]
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by Abu Productive on December 2, 2010
Title of the book: The Value of Time
Author: Shaykh ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah
In an attempt to understand how those who lived before us treated the gift of time, I began reading ‘The Value of Time’. We live in an era where time has little value and the accumulation of wealth overshadows our desire to attain beneficial knowledge. As you go through this treasure trove you soon come to realise how we are regretfully not of those people who know the true value of time. Instead we fritter it away, giving other irrelevant tasks weight compared to attaining and spreading beneficial knowledge, and we have lost a zeal for investing in good deeds – the one thing which will outlast us when we leave this world.
What passes through the pages in this book will leave you awe-struck, that the scholars of the past sacrificed everything from eating even when their body was calling in hunger, to minimal social relations in order to preserve time for the most important matters. If you were to take any lesson from this review, it is that we are given a microscopic view into the lives of wise giants in Islam. Wise because their profit was in the wealth of knowledge they produced for the masses. A profound use of their time shows that ensuring every moment was used for something beneficial and pleasing to Allah (Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala).
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by Abu Productive on October 10, 2010
Book: The Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Review By: Sister L
My desire to read through the pages of Islamic books took a unintended turn when I stumbled upon ‘The Tipping Point’ and as I ventured on reading more than the daily dose of political affairs. It has always fascinated me how social change takes place, one of the driving factors behind my current studies in political science. Opening the pages to ‘The Tipping Point’ by Gladwell really tipped the scale of thoughts in my mind. The pages are embedded with stories of powerful change and failure in the causes of social epidemics – where societies are transformed and the phenomenal changes start with one person. Coupled with humour – which made me smile from ear to ear and supporting research case studies in the journey to explaining what it takes to go beyond the ‘Tipping Point’ with one’s message, made this book both a joy and gripping read.
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