ISLA Leadership Retreat: With Post-Pandemic Stress At Record Levels Islamic Education Organization Hosts Productivity Life Coach

The Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA) invited internationally recognized “productivity guru” Mohammed Faris to lead its Leadership Retreat on how to be productive without feeling burnt out, over the weekend.

Pictured: Mohammed FarisFaris, who is the Founder and CEO of online social enterprise Productive Muslim, told AMT that burnout is typically caused by “excessive, prolonged, unresolved, stress that leads to feelings of exhaustion and cynicism.” Faris offered ways to tackle burnout for individuals and organizations collectively.

“For individuals, the first step is to build their physical and spiritual capacities to handle excessive stress and this includes: taking meaningful breaks, focusing on nutrition/exercise/and sleep, and practicing mindful spiritual practices,” he said. “For organizations, having discussions openly about burn-out and ways that the organizations can manage the energy levels of their staff without overwhelming them is critical for the long-term sustainability of the institution.”

He said that due to increased stress and pressure in a post-pandemic teaching world and in general society, educators and those with busy work and home lives have been feeling burnt out the most.

“Burnout can impact individuals across different age groups, however, it’s particularly faced by people who are in what I call ‘the crunch of life’: Working professionals with young children and elderly parents,” he said. “This can be compounded for single parents as well.”

ISLA’s Executive Director, Shaza Khan, said the organization landed on Faris as a speaker when they decided the retreat would be completely online. Khan said that it would have to “hit the deepest pains of our educators and offer real, holistic reliable tools” to help them.

“Brother Muhammed Faris was unquestionably that person,” she said. “Faris’ unique approach to productivity is centered in building both internal capacity and organizational shifts that help mitigate the circumstances surrounding burnout.”

In 2007, Faris, a Tanzanian Muslim of Yemini descent, began the blog entitled Productive Muslim while he was studying Finance and Investment at the University of Bristol in the UK. By 2011, Faris started giving productivity workshops around the world and online. With the help of “sincere and hardworking” volunteers, Faris moved his family to the U.S. and officially made Productive Muslim a full-time career.

In 2016, Productive Muslim won the Islamic Economy Award in the Media Category at the Global Islamic Economy Summit in Dubai.

At that time, Faris also wrote the book “The Productive Muslim: Where Faith Meets Productivity,” which serves as a “practical framework” that can help Muslims live a productive life.

“It harnesses the spiritual tradition of the Islamic faith and productivity science to cultivate spiritual-intelligent leaders to live holistic, meaningful lives,” he said.

The book is available for purchase on Amazon.

Although Faris said the standard definition of productivity could go against Islam, his personal definition connects productivity with Islam.

“If productivity is simply about squeezing more output over input, regardless of ethics, values and quality of human life, then no this type of ‘hustle culture’ productivity goes against the teachings of Islam,” he said. “But I’m proposing a more holistic, God-centered, approach to productivity that helps people manage their energy, focus and time to be the best version of themselves across all areas of their lives.”

Khan said she hoped this event gave educators the necessary tools to finish out the school year strong.

“I hope that this retreat was a unique opportunity and platform for Islamic school educators to connect with one another and gain the knowledge and tools they need to tap back into the passion they have for education so they can make it happily through the rest of the school year,” she said.