The Motivation Behind My Muslim Business Blog

By Omar Sherrer

Brother Omar, what’s your motivation for your projects? Many of them are geared exclusively towards Muslims, even though you might be able to do better if you broadened your market. Why so much focus on the Muslim market? 

There’s a long and a short answer to this question, but I won’t be too long or too short, in shaa Allah.

The project that’s most dear to my heart is my blog, InternetMuslimBusiness.com. As you can tell by the name, it’s directed towards Muslims. My goal has always been to help the ummah as much as I can with the skills with which Allah (swt) has blessed me.

Nowadays many of us have very little time to spend with our families and friends, let alone time to spend studying our religion. I want to empower Muslims with the tools necessary to attain some degree of independence from the modern day nine-to-five (which in some cases may even be a nine-to-nine). For this reason, InternetMuslimBusiness.com was established.

Background

Back in the ‘90s a few friends and I started a da’wah tape company. We used to go around to conferences selling our tapes and collecting email addresses. After the conferences we would contact people and sell them our tapes through our website. In those days we would collect fees by check and send off the tapes in the mail.

Things have changed drastically over the years, alhamdulillah, and now people have become comfortable paying for products and services directly online.

Although I’ve been leveraging the online marketplace for years now, I’ve still had my share of dead-end jobs. But I never gave up and I never lost my entrepreneurial spirit. It’s this same entrepreneurial spirit that pushed me to make a bold move back in early 2000.

Cairo, Here We Come!

At that time there was no Understand Quran Academy or any real type of online Islamic programs for me to join. So, while I was doing well in my business at the time, I still felt like something was missing. I didn’t feel comfortable with not understanding what I read in my prayers five times a day. Oh— and Ramadan! Subhana Allah, taraweeh prayers took the utmost patience to complete. It was time to do something about that, so I packed up my wife and children and travel to Egypt to study the Arabic language.

Omar where’s the link? You talked about business and then about religion— where are you going with this?

The link is this— if you’re stuck in the nine-to-five rat race, how can you pursue the most important things in life, like understanding your purpose, getting closer to Allah (swt), and raising righteous children?

We don’t all have the chance to travel and live in Muslim countries, but alhamdulillah, there are many alternatives now for studying religion. As time goes on, technology is improving, so opportunities to learn your religion are becoming easier to find. One alternative is Understand Quran Academy, where we can begin our journey of knowledge from wherever we are in the world. It’s no longer a requirement to pack your bags and head overseas.

Problem: Lack of Time. Solution: Internet Business

But time is still an issue for many of us. In my experience there’s nothing like the freedom of working from home and making your own schedule. If I want to take a class in the middle of the day, I am free to do so. If I want to take my family to the park in the morning on a weekday, I’m free to do this. If I want to hang out with the brothers and do lunch I can do this, masha Allah la quwata illa billah.

This is all due to the freedom that an internet business gives you. I encourage you all to look deeply into internet business. Free your time to make space for the things that really matter in life! For this reason I encourage you all to take advantage of the resources I’ve put together on my blog— internetmuslimbusiness.com— and to take advantage of the courses I’ve put together for you, in shaa Allah.  

In closing, I love the Muslims and this my way of showing you. May Allah (swt) continue to bless you all. Until next time, As salaamu ‘alaykum wa rahmtullahi wa barakaatuh!