A reflection on faith, ambition, and responsibility.
The hadith that became my business plan.
I walked away from a six-figure opportunity. But the decision had very little to do with money.
Asad Ilyas··A conversation with Haniya on The Muslim Pod
A reflection on ambition, faith, the responsibility of having skills, and the decisions that define what we choose to build.
There was a point in my creative career when I was offered more money than I’d ever imagined making from a single project.
I’d spent months building consistency, finding clients, and developing my freelance career. Then came a period when everything went quiet.
No projects. No real momentum. Just uncertainty.
And then an opportunity arrived.
A substantial one.
The kind of opportunity that makes you pause, reconsider your circumstances, and wonder whether you should really be saying no.
But there was something about the project that didn’t sit right with me.
And I had a framework that made the decision considerably clearer.
01 / The opportunity#
I had every financial reason to say yes.
After six to eight months of consistently securing creative projects, I found myself going through a particularly dry period.
Then a director colleague reached out.
There was a project available, and the compensation was extraordinary.
It was a music video production for a well-known Canadian artist. The overall production budget was close to a million dollars, and my own share would have been somewhere around six figures.
For context, I’d never seen that amount of money from a single project.
Naturally, I wanted to understand what I was being offered.
I looked through the script. I examined the shot list. And I realized that the project contained material that was fundamentally inconsistent with the kind of work I wanted to contribute to.
At that moment, a particular hadith came back to mind.
If everything I’d been given could be taken away, what exactly was I doing with it?
It was a difficult decision.
But ultimately, it was a no-brainer.
I declined.
When my colleague questioned whether I was sure, I explained something that remains central to how I approach creative work:
“I’ve seen the impact of my work, and I’ve seen where it translates to. And this is not the impact that I want to give there.”
From the episode · 20:13–21:45
I said no to six figures
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 20:13 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
The line
Not every opportunity is worth pursuing.
02 / The underlying principle#
It was never about how much you achieved.
“What does my life even mean?” That was the silent storm behind every decision.
From the episode · 03:13–03:52
Popular at 16, and hollow
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 3:13 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
I remember going to Sunnah.com, choosing a random hadith, closing my eyes, and landing on Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 2416.
I started reading.
لاَ تَزُولُ قَدَمَا ابْنِ آدَمَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ مِنْ عِنْدِ رَبِّهِ حَتَّى يُسْأَلَ عَنْ خَمْسٍ عَنْ عُمْرِهِ فِيمَا أَفْنَاهُ وَعَنْ شَبَابِهِ فِيمَا أَبْلاَهُ وَمَالِهِ مِنْ أَيْنَ اكْتَسَبَهُ وَفِيمَ أَنْفَقَهُ وَمَاذَا عَمِلَ فِيمَا عَلِمَ
“The feet of the son of Adam shall not move from before his Lord on the Day of Judgement, until he is asked about five things: About his life and what he did with it, about his youth and what he wore it out in, about his wealth and how he earned it, and spent it upon, and what he did with what he knew.”
About this narration
At-Tirmidhī recorded this chain as gharīb and noted that one of its narrators, Ḥusayn ibn Qays, was weak in memory; the Darussalam edition grades it ḍaʿīf. Al-Albānī graded the narration ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrihi, authentic through supporting reports. At-Tirmidhī also records a related narration from Abū Barzah (2417) that asks about a person’s life, knowledge, wealth, and body.
And something clicked.
The hadith speaks about the questions we’ll be asked on the Day of Judgement.
- What did we do with our lives?
- How did we spend our youth?
- How did we earn and spend our wealth?
- What did we do with the knowledge we were given?
It fundamentally changed the way I understood success.
The question was never simply how much I’d accumulated, how many projects I’d completed, how much money I’d made, or how many people knew my name.
It was about what I’d done with the resources and opportunities entrusted to me.
- What did I build?
- Who benefited?
- What was the impact?
And ultimately, what would I have to say about the decisions I made?
The realization was profound.
If the purpose of life wasn’t simply to participate in the loudest version of success, then there had to be something deeper.
Something more meaningful.
Something more aligned with benefiting others and answering to my Lord.
From the episode · 05:01–06:04
It was never about how much you achieved
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 5:01 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
Paraphrased from Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 2416
Five questions.
- 01Your life.How did you spend it?
- 02Your youth.What did you do with it?
- 03Your wealth.How did you earn it?
- 04Your wealth.How did you spend it?
- 05Your knowledge.What did you do with it?
The hadith became more than something I reflected on.It became a framework through which I started evaluating the work I chose to pursue.
03 / The turning point#
“Allow me to utilize it the right way, or just take it away from me.”
There was another point in my career when I genuinely questioned whether I should continue pursuing creative work.
During college, I’d been working part-time at a corporate store.
It was my first real exposure to the corporate environment.
Then the company was liquidated.
Like many part-time employees, I was among the first to lose my position.
Suddenly, the reputation I’d built within that company meant very little.
I found myself at a crossroads.
- ↖Should I return to cybersecurity?
- ↑Should I pursue a more conventional career path?
- ↗Or should I continue developing the creative work I’d already invested so much time into?
There were sleepless nights.
There was uncertainty.
And there were conversations between myself and Allah that I’d rather keep private.
But one duʿa in particular stayed with me.
“Ya Allah, you’ve put this passion of creativity in me. Allow me to utilize it the right way, or just take it away from me.”
I wasn’t asking for creativity simply because I enjoyed it.
I was asking to be able to use it in a way that was good.
And if it wasn’t good for me, I was willing to let it go.
Within a week, that entire chapter changed.
More creative opportunities started coming in.
And I found myself committing to the path ahead.
From the episode · 14:25–15:32
Use it the right way, or take it away
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 14:25 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
The line
The question was no longer whether I could pursue creativity.It was how responsibly I could use it.
04 / Creativity and stewardship#
A camera is not just a tool. It is a responsibility.
Over time, my relationship with storytelling started changing.
I began to recognize that the work we produce does more than communicate information.
- It influences what people notice.
- What they believe.
- What they support.
- And ultimately, what they choose to do.
I remember working on community initiatives where we started seeing people donate more, volunteer more, support more, and share our work.
It made me realize something important.
When you’re out in the field capturing photographs or videos, you’re being entrusted with someone’s story.
And storytelling is inherently selective.
Illustration: a contact sheet of one hundred frames of the same basketball shot. Ninety-nine of them miss. Frame 52 goes in, and that is the frame that gets circled and printed.
- You choose one story over another.
- You decide what the audience sees.
- You determine what receives attention.
- And once that story circulates, people can begin to perceive it as the entire reality.
That’s a significant responsibility.
If I have the ability to see something through a lens that others might not, and that perspective influences people to take action, then I need to be extremely conscious of how I use it.
Creativity isn’t simply about making something visually impressive.
It’s about understanding the responsibility that comes with having the ability to shape a narrative.
From the episode · 16:09–16:52
The lens is a trust
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 16:09 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
أَمَانَة
ʔa.maː.na
amanah — a trust
05 / Teaching and leadership#
The more you teach, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
One of the most interesting things I’ve discovered through teaching is how much it exposes the gaps in your own understanding.
I’ve learned a tremendous amount about my skills by teaching them to others.
Students ask questions you’ve never considered.
They challenge assumptions you’ve never had to explain.
And sometimes, you find yourself in a position where you genuinely don’t know the answer.
For a long time, people have associated expertise with having the right answer.
But I’ve found something different.
There’s tremendous value in simply saying:
“I actually don’t know. Let me look this up, and I’ll get back to you.”
In my experience, students have respected that honesty.
They’ve remained engaged.
And I’ve learned more in the process.
I don’t think leadership requires us to pretend that we know everything.
Sometimes, the most valuable thing we can demonstrate is the willingness to learn.
From the episode · 24:48–25:27
I actually don’t know
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 24:48 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
The line
Competence does not require pretending to be infallible.
06 / Excellence#
Excellence doesn’t come from the big moments.
We live in a world that constantly amplifies the extraordinary.
- The stage.
- The launch.
- The milestone.
- The recognition.
Social media has done an exceptional job of making everything look significant.
But it’s also made us forget that being ordinary is perfectly okay.
Excellence isn’t necessarily about having a flashy moment.
It comes down to what happens when nobody is watching.
- How much attention do you give to the details?
- How seriously do you take the responsibility in front of you?
- What do you do with the time, intelligence, wealth, health, and skills you’ve been given?
- I often think of it as driving a car with a full tank of gas.
- You can take it onto the highway.
- You can drive down a side street.
- You can pull over.
- You can accelerate.
- But regardless of what you decide, that fuel is being consumed.
- Our resources are finite.
- Our time is passing.
And every day, we’re making decisions about how to use what remains.
The practical application is surprisingly simple.
Whatever you’re doing right now, do it better.
From the episode · 26:03–26:59
Excellence on a regular Tuesday
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 26:03 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
Excellence is not reserved for extraordinary occasions.It is built into ordinary days.
07 / Leadership#
I’d rather be an excellent follower than an average leader.
I remember a mentor during college sharing something that stayed with me.
He said that if his children grew up to become excellent followers rather than average leaders, he’d be more than happy.
It challenged the way I thought about leadership.
We’re often conditioned to pursue positions of authority.
- To be the person at the front.
- To be recognized.
- To be associated with the success of something.
- facilitation
- connection
- companionship
- dialogue
- discussion
The person at the front, and everyone around them
But real impact doesn’t necessarily happen in the spotlight.
- It happens through facilitation.
- Through connection.
- Through companionship.
- Through dialogue and discussion.
It happens when people create the conditions for others to contribute, develop, and succeed.
And sometimes, the most valuable person in a room isn’t the person speaking.
It’s the person making sure everyone else has the opportunity to speak.
From the episode · 28:58–29:39
Excellent followers over average leaders
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 28:58 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
Leadership is not always about being in front.Sometimes, it is about making everyone else better.
08 / Legacy and succession#
We are living in a relay race.
My mother always says that we, as Muslims, are living in a relay race.
The question isn’t how far you can get as an individual.
- The question is what you do once the torch is placed in your hands.
- How quickly can you pass it forward?
- So that someone else can carry it.
- And then someone else.
- And then someone else.
I find that to be a powerful way of understanding responsibility.
Our skills, knowledge, experiences, and opportunities aren’t necessarily meant to end with us.
- Sometimes your contribution is to be in the spotlight.
- Sometimes your contribution is to support someone who is.
- Sometimes it’s to create an environment where people feel safe enough to think, learn, and grow.
The person holding the torch isn’t inherently more important than the person who passed it to them.
And the person carrying it today has a responsibility to make sure it continues tomorrow.
There’s a much bigger picture beyond our individual achievements.
From the episode · 29:54–30:18
The relay race
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 29:54 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
The objective is not simply to run farther.It is to make sure the torch keeps moving.
09 / Understanding impact#
Sometimes, it isn’t just the food.
I remember being involved in community work where we had the opportunity to interact with people experiencing difficult circumstances.
One thing that stayed with me was the happiness on people’s faces.
I remember one individual explaining something that changed how I understood the work.
“It’s not just the food. It’s the way that you guys come out. It’s the way you guys give us that attention, that acknowledgment that, hey, you know, we’re just regular people like yourselves.”
That statement stayed with me.
Because it reminded me that service isn’t simply about delivering something to someone.
It’s also about how we treat them.
People aren’t defined by the circumstances they find themselves in.
- Some have extraordinary qualifications.
- Some have experienced unfortunate circumstances.
- Some are navigating challenges that others may never understand.
But none of that should take away from their dignity.
- The way we show up matters.
- The attention we give matters.
- The acknowledgment we offer matters.
And sometimes, what people remember most isn’t what we brought with us.
It’s how we made them feel.
From the episode · 09:21–10:13
It’s not just the food
This audio couldn’t load here. You can hear it at 9:21 in the full episode on Apple Podcasts.
The line
Service is not simply about what you give.It is also about the dignity with which you give it.
10 / The question
So, what are you going to do with what you’ve been given?
I don’t think there’s a universal formula for building a meaningful career.
Our circumstances are different. Our opportunities are different. Our responsibilities are different.
But the question remains remarkably consistent.
What are we doing with what we’ve been entrusted with?
- Our time.
- Our skills.
- Our knowledge.
- Our wealth.
- Our influence.
- Our opportunities.
I’m still figuring out the answers myself.
But this is the framework I keep returning to.
And perhaps the most important part of the journey isn’t having all the answers.
It’s making sure the questions continue to guide the decisions we make.
ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ
al.ħam.du lil.laːh
all praise is for Allah
Listen to the full conversation
The Muslim Pod
A conversation with Haniya and Asad Ilyas. The Hadith That Became My Business Plan, 31:24.
- 3:13Popular at 16, and hollow
- 5:01It was never about how much you achieved
- 9:21It’s not just the food
- 14:25Use it the right way, or take it away
- 16:09The lens is a trust
- 20:13I said no to six figures
- 24:48I actually don’t know
- 26:03Excellence on a regular Tuesday
- 28:58Excellent followers over average leaders
- 29:54The relay race
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