This Islamic Business Rule Will Save You From Making Bad Decisions

And now we're talking about somebody who was a spice merchant, but he made a lot of his money off of during the battle of Badr. Abbas Radian was secretly Muslim.

Was he not afraid that they might mistakenly his uncle?

That was a chance. What would be equivalent to hundreds of thousands of USD was made zero in one minute.

Most people would cry.

If I wear my emotions on my sleeve, you could take advantage of me. Don't show your card. And business is the same way. But understand this, that if you do it the right way, in the end you'll always.

Welcome to a new episode. In today's episode, inshallah, we're going to learn about something that's very, very important, something that specifically you can apply also outside of your business, not just in your business. It's something that a lot of people struggle with. It's emotional regulation. How do you control your emotions? How do you make sure you don't let your emotions, how you're feeling in the moment, affecting your business and the people around you?

That's beautiful. And one of the things with emotional discipline is that you don't let loss break you. You understand that even though you may be feeling emotions and that's perfectly valid, but you look at the long term goals that you're working on and how controlling your emotions and sometimes even hiding your emotions will benefit you in the long term.

So you don't act based on how you're feeling. Exactly what do you act on?

You act upon patience. You act upon knowing that you have your goals set. You act upon moving towards your target. And I'll tell you one of the beautiful examples you find in the Sahaba is the uncle of the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam Abbas IBN Abdel Muttalib. No doubt that people that know about the Seerah know that he had to have a very high level of emotional discipline.

Do you have stories that could, that could showcase this? If people don't know him for sure.

Abbas Radian is very interesting because first thing, as this is a business podcast, we talk about how did he make his money? And he was wealthy, very wealthy. So Abbas was involved in the spice trade. Okay, now that's interesting. Like we have different sectors of business that we dealt with and we talked about cloth merchants like Abu Bakr, we talked about people that were into land and farming, like Omar IBN Khattab, we talked about real estate, Mughals like Abu Talha. And now we're talking about somebody who was a spice merchant, but he made a lot of his money off of interest and banking really before he came up before Islam.

Okay.

At a time obviously he wasn't Muslim and Riba had not been made haram yet. He was involved in spice trade but his major profits came out of him lending to a point that it was quite harsh, you know and not just him but that was the principles of the time. They would charge very high interest rates and they would be very brutal in enforcement and so on and it would be very profitable.

But they would suffocate the market.

See the, the market would work off of the trade that's going on. They would suffocate a lot of the poor and make them poorer. But that would then shrink the customer base because if they don't have money then they can't buy things. But again this is before Islam and this is before his understanding of what is halal and haram. So to them it was short term gains and that's what they're worried about. When the dawah towards Islam began, the wife of Abbas became Muslim before him. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was very dear to him as he knew that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was a very righteous man. Was he knew him since his childhood. That this was a child that was honest, that was trustworthy. But Abbas had a very high standing in the Quraysh and for a while he wanted to play both worlds. He wanted to support his nephew but at the same time he did not want to alienate his friends, his community by accepting Islam openly. Like Hamza who did. Like others. Did you know that then were at war with the Quraish Abbas through the da' wah that his wife gave him and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and others. He accepted Islam in his heart but he kept his Islam secret for a long time.

Why?

This was at the instructions of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam.

Really? So the Prophet told him when you become Muslim, don't disclose it.

He said basically when he became Muslim he told him keep this because what Abbas did is he protected the Muslims from the inside of Quraish's leadership circle. People like Abu Dharul Ghafari when they were attacked by the Quraish, Abbas is the one that would be able to protect his life and protect many of the weaker Muslims.

Because they didn't know he was Muslim.

Because they did not know he was Muslim.

Insider.

Exactly. This is some intelligence. This is some you Know some strategy. The Prophet and I wish somebody would write a book on this. And if I had time, I would myself. On the intelligence gathering and the counterintelligence and the level of military leadership shown by the Prophet, Sallallahu alaihi wasallam is amazing. And of course, the guidance is from Allah. So even in Badr, during the battle of Badr, Abbas Radian was secretly Muslim. Openly. He was coming with the Quraish, but he was sending the news of Quraish's movement to the Prophet. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He told us, sahaba in Badr, if you see my uncle Abbas, don't attack him.

Yeah, he told them he's Muslim, he's going to.

No, he didn't tell them he's Muslim.

Interesting.

This is emotional discipline. Don't show your cards. And business is the same way.

Was he not afraid that they might mistakenly kill his uncle?

That that was a chance? Now here, when you look at business, if I'm doing business with you, if I wear my emotions on my sleeve, you could take advantage of me. Yeah, you could see, okay, if I do this, he's gonna cut his prices this much just to spite me, and then I can run him out of the. Out of the business.

For example, if I see that you're stressed when we're negotiating and that you're under pressure, that you need the sale, we call this being needy. We can see that your emotions are showing. I'll start being more aggressive on my negotiations.

There you go.

I know that you can't walk away from the deal.

Exactly. Never show your emotions, you know, keep your cards close to your chest. Right? So here, Abbas, he kept his Islam secret in Badr. When he came and the Muslims were there, the Prophet told them, do not attack my uncle. Now, this is very something that was difficult for the Muslims because they were fighting their own fathers, they were fighting their brothers. So why would we fight ours but not yours? And even though it had nothing to do with the fact that he's a blood relative, rather that he knew the Prophet, he's a Muslim.

So both parties had to control their emotions. The Prophet on his side, sending his uncle, and on the other side, the companions who were fighting to not feel the jealousy or the anger against the rules that were installed and rather listen to Prophet and know that he knows best.

There is a lot of strategy here, right? In business, you should utilize this tragedy. Right. One, Abbas, and how he's hiding his emotions because he's benefiting the Muslims from the inside. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who is not justifying his decision to his people. He's not you. You know what it is? He's Muslim. No.

Most people would. Most people would crack. And you know what?

You guys.

And that's why.

Exactly. Exactly. And that's why sometimes when leaders or scholars or shiukh or Islamic leaders making some decisions, sometimes you have to understand that there's a greater good they're looking at that they may not be able to disclose to us. And we have to trust at times that this is what we have to do.

Trusting leadership and hiding your emotions, and

that's very important for business as well. So now the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has to use emotional intelligence here and discipline. Not to be like, well, this is why. Right? Because if that rumors or that discussion starts being discussed and that gets to the Quraysh, they would kill him.

Yep.

So now you have that. And then the sahaba have to control their emotions. That, yeah, I'm going to fight my own father on the other side, my son, my uncle, and I can't hold back.

I have to fight them. But I can't find his uncle.

I have to not fight because the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said so. And Allah and his messenger know best. And as Muslims, we should keep that in mind. If Allah makes riba haram, trust me, this is best for you. If Allah made truthfulness as an obligation upon us, that's what's best. Even if I don't realize that it

really is, you know, that's a good example. A lot of people would sometimes ask for, and I understand the meaning behind it. Even myself, I would ask for the reason for something being haram out of curiosity and wanting to understand it. But. But it's very important that we remind ourselves that if Allah said it, that should be enough for us to believe it and know we need to follow it. Even though we don't understand the logic behind it. Allah said it. We need to follow it. If you want to understand the logic for the sake of understanding it, it's a bonus.

If you want to know why, it's because Allah said so. It's because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said so. There are hikam, there are wisdoms that you may want to learn about, but the why is because qal Allah or qala rasool and we have to trust that there is that wisdom behind it.

How would someone control their emotions if they struggle with it? If it's very difficult, for example, they might really want to go against this, but they know it's haram. But really it's very difficult. Day in, day out, they really struggle with it.

That's the struggle against shaytan and the nafs and the how. This is your struggle against your desires.

How would they tame it down? How would they keep it under control?

First thing, turn back to Allah. Get up. Make wudu, make rakatayn.

Ask him for help.

Make dua. Ask Allah wasta' inu bila. Ask Allah for help. Secondly, read the Quran, read ahadith on them.

You get to understand as well.

Thirdly, be with scholars and pious people that give you good naseeha, that will control, that will benefit your environment around you. A person is upon the religion of his friends. Lastly, trust in Allah. Have that trust, develop that trust in your heart. That tawaku that look, if Allah said so, no doubt it's going to be the best for me. And you will find it in your life. You will see it. Subhanallah Abbas in Badr, he was captured. Now, even though he was Muslim and the prophet knew he was Muslim, he was treated like any other prisoner. Now look at that. He had to have that emotional discipline not to be like, hey, what are you doing? Why are you treating me like this? I'm a Muslim. I defended you guys. Protect. No. Now, when he was open about his Islam and the orders of Allah, subhanahu wa ta' ala came that riba is haram. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that now that Allah has made riba haram, anybody who owed money in riba, I forgive that debt, beginning with my uncle. Allahu akbar. What would be equivalent to hundreds of thousands of USD in interest that was owed to him was made zero in one minute. And Abbas radian, who for the sake of Allah subhana tala followed that ruling, forgiving all that debt.

Again, in this scenario, he might have felt like he would lose money. He would be afraid of losing money.

Hundreds of thousands of what would be from dirham and dinar at the time today equaling to dollars or pounds or euros, right? He didn't question why I came to Islam and I was treated like this. And then I had to give up my interest and if I stayed in Mushrik, I could have all that money. No, no. But then Allah made him honored when the fathaf makkah happened and when Allah honored his ranks and Allah blessed his businesses.

See

the end. Victory is always for the people of Taqwa. Dunya is a test. Your business is a test. You're going to go through ups and downs. You're going to go through challenges. But understand this, that if you do it the right way, in the end you'll always come out on top. And that emotional discipline, emotional intelligence, principle of business, you can see through the life of Abbas.

Doing the right thing always pays off. Regardless how you feel, always hold yourself and do the right thing. An advice I'll actually have specifically. In business, a lot of times we advise people to purposely delay decisions when they feel like they're emotional. 100 I even I learned this. I forgot where I learned it from. It helped me my entire life. Alhamdulillah Whenever I feel like I'm in an emotional state, regardless the emotion, excited, happy, sad, angered. I know one thing I need to follow. Do not make any decisions. Yes, that's the only thing I know. I'll wait until I come back to a normal state and I'll make sure I don't make any decisions. Because those decisions won't be logical. Rather they will be emotional. So many times you'd be happy. You're super excited. Let's do it. And you commit to something big. And when the emotions goes away, you're like, why did I just do? Or you might be angered. And you, you get very angry, very upset and you say something that's wrong, that scares someone. It's very, very difficult to go back. Rather, whenever you feel like you're emotional, just take one rule. This is something I apply myself. Do not make any decisions. No. And realize that you're in an emotional state. Wait. Let it go out. Go make wudu. Go pray. Ask Allah to help you come back to a normal state. And after that, make your decisions and make sure you use logic.

That's beautiful. Tell you this. Never go shopping when you're hungry.

Yep.

It's Ramadan. People are fasting. You go shopping when you're fasting and you're gonna buy everything in there.

Yeah. That's the best example. Subhanallah.

Give us a summary so we can a summary.

I think never go shopping when you're hungry is the best summary. Whenever you're emotional, know that. Don't make a rushed decision when you're emotional. Know and get to understand that sometimes you might be emotional. It's normal. Just like we use examples of the Prophet and the Sahaba who would be emotional, but they would control their emotions. They had emotion regulations. They would make sure they don't make any bad decisions and they don't take any conclusions. They would follow what Allah the Prophet said, even though they felt a different way. And that always paid off. We can see here he was elevated. He was blessed with so much more. It's a common trait we keep seeing and seeing in the series that whenever someone gives up something for the sake of Allah always gets elevated and gets something better out of it. Subhanallah Beautiful and Allama Bairk that's an amazing episode. Conclusion Never go shopping when you're hungry. Control your emotions. This is so amazing. I didn't know was going to be that amazing going into it, and it's blowing even better after each episode. And we'll see you in the next episode, inshallah.

Thank you for the time.