Toward Ihsaan

“So What?” I love that question, “So what?” And I start my introductory episode with that question because not having an answer to “so what questions in our life is the root of so many of our internal struggles - of anxiety, or depression, frustration, feeling lost, feeling burnt out. Human beings are creatures of meaning. You must know your “so what?” for everything. If you don’t, you will inevitably go searching for it.

That’s where I come in.

Asalamulaykum, Peace be with you. I’m Muna Hashi and welcome to the Toward Ihsaan podcast where I help empower you with guidance and clarity, enabling you to live a meaningful life free from anxiety, frustration, and burnout.Through this podcast, we embark on a journey of personal development, spirituality, and service-oriented living, aiming to transform ourselves and our communities for the better.

Because this podcast is about you.

Because I believe anyone that asks the question “So what, what I am doing here, what is my purpose?” is someone looking for excellence, in other words called “Ihsaan”. You’re going to face immense struggle and challenges in this life - as you may already have experienced the ups and downs so it better all be worth it. And you’d hope that you’d be living a life of meaning. And I’ve yet to meet a human being whose vision of a meaningful life is mediocrity. No, we’re all aiming towards Ihsaan, towards excellence. And the beauty about Ihsaan is that there is not one definition of what it constitutes. The only marker for Ihsaan, for excellence, is that you try your best. You don’t need to succeed to excel, you just have to try. And trying is within everyone’s reach. So you’re the everyday exceller. The everyday Muhsin, the regular human being striving towards ihsaan.

And I’ve spoken to dozens of you already.

Here’s an analogy for you. And I love analogies. But let's see if this one works for you.

You’re like a rookie tennis player aiming for a grand slam title. You’re here, playing the court, may as well make something of it. You have gotten as far as you have with brute strength, sheer determination, and budding potential. You’re a good player, you’ve won a few games, and maybe you’re advancing in your career but now you’re stuck and you have no idea what it is exactly that’s trapped you nor how to get unstuck. Your mental game is completely on the rocks. You’re anxious, frustrated, and afraid when you step out onto the court - you already anticipate failure before the first set.

Me? I’m not cut out for this. This is for the greats. I can’t do this.

[laughs] Yet you’re here. The hope may or may not be new but it's still there. Remember, all the regulars want ihsaan in their life too.

But you’re falling short on strategy - you’ve gotten knocked down by the trials of life and you want help. Because serving with excellence is what you were created to do, it's what you live for. But you haven’t been excelling lately.
Your problem is you’ve hit a roadblock with your spiritual and personal advancement aspirations and you don’t know why that is or how to remove the obstacles.
Here’s how you may have failed to solve your problem in the past:
You might have used harsh self-criticism to shame yourself into performing better.
You might have sacrificed sleep, food, social time to “succeed” at work or your chosen goal.
You might have given up on dreams or
You might have failed to ask for help or decided that you simply need to hunker down and “figure it out on your own”.
And none of this has helped you get unstuck and move towards ihsaan, towards excellence.

Here’s the transformation I would hope for you, after listening to the Toward Ihsaan podcast:
Imagine going from feeling desolate and questioning your worth to experiencing security and reassurance. I’ll guide you in shifting your perspective from perfectionism to excellence, empowering you to strive for your personal best without the burden of unattainable expectations. You'll learn to lean on your faith, cultivating a deep connection with Allah, and understanding His true expectations of you.
The result? You’re more effective, more strategic, and more resilient.
Your talent shines now because you have refined your play. You’re used to the right reframe so you’ve gone from feeling lost to finding clarity. You’ve learned how to get back up after being punched back, how to adjust automatically, without thinking. You’ve gone from being downtrodden and beat down to being empowered and inspired.
Because the risk of not solving your problem is stagnation, mediocrity and a vicious cycle of shame, anxiety and frustration and ultimately depression and devastation.
The Toward Ihsaan podcast is one that makes you go “WOW” at the end of an episode. “Wow. That transformed me. I’m starting to enjoy the journey of striving towards Ihsaan instead of resenting it”.
So now you can expend energy towards more goals in your life, to enhancing not just your own life but your community around it.

Because a community starts with its individuals, we are going to start with you.
I help you continue on your journey towards ihsaan, which by definition is a state of trying, a state of continuous improvement. Because for the life of you, dear listener, you will never be perfect. There will be no amount of wins or losses that can get you there. Because none of those things define you. Your worth exists outside of the limitations of this world because your existence extends past this life too. There is an Akhirah, there is an afterlife. This world is a testing ground. You come to develop here, not finish here. Duniyah, is the period and place of your existence where you are in a state of becoming.

And you see, the gap between who you are now and who you are becoming is not large. It's not. This may be news to you - but it's not. And here’s why: Ihsaan is not found in the distance between two mountains. Ihsaan is in each vital half-percent improvement. It's in the nanosecond of time you shorten from when you fall and when you get back up. It's in the infinitesimal change you make to the manner in which you wake up, to the manner in which you engage with Allah SWA, to the tone in which you speak to your parents, to the energy you bring to your work, to the smile you shine upon your neighbour. Your movement towards ihsaan, your 1% increments of improvement, may feel nearly imperceptible from the outside. But you are going to feel it. You will feel the sun of hope awakening in your chest. You will feel the resilience reverberating in your bones with every bounce back. The sense of groundedness, of piercing clarity. The strength in knowing Allah SWA and in renewing your connection with Him. The sense that you’re not alone. That you can do anything.

And you will feel it time and time again - throughout every failure and every success. Because we accept failure but we never accept defeat.

You will be a thousand versions here, each one a thousand half-percents better than the one before.

Each episode in the Toward Ihsaan podcast is packed with intellectually stimulating ideas, inspiring stories, and actionable strategies. Because we have to answer our “So what?”

From understanding who Allah is and our purpose as His creation, to cultivating resilience, unleashing your potential, and making a positive impact in your community and beyond, we are going to explore a wide range of topics that challenge your thinking and that are gonna inspire you to reach new heights. Each episode is designed to help you transition from having a problem to finding a solution by helping you transform your emotional state and overall life outlook.

You see, creating this podcast is not just a marketing tactic or authority-building tool for me. It's deeply personal. I have come to a number of epiphanies about my purpose in life as a human being and as a creation of God.
Sometimes I’m struck by the idea that I am not my body – I am my soul. And my soul is a traveller. It existed outside of this dimension, outside of earth and the world as we know it. And then Allah put me into this earthly body, into this vessel. And then He’s going to take me out of it into a different dimension. Until I am risen up into yet another world on the day of judgement and then, hopefully, fashioned into a new vessel for the enjoyment of everlasting life in Jannah.
I am my soul and my soul is an interdimensional traveller. As my dad says, we’re aliens. We’re not from earth. We’re just tested on it.
So maybe that’s why my aspirations exist outside this world. Because we are more than what we are just here.
My mindset for the longest time was verbatim a quote by Shauna Niequist: I have always, essentially, been waiting. waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person i always thought i was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life i thought i would have. In my head, I was always one step away.
I struggled with this: wanting to be more, understanding what my purpose here was, aspiring for greatness but feeling that the weight of that aspiration was too great to bear.
I was in my Pit of Despair. I tried again and again to achieve my lofty goals but kept falling short. It was killing me, I burnt my light, I burnt out. I felt lost, like I failed myself - the person I believed I was.
And then I experienced the most significant re-frame of my life.
I was floating around in the abyss thinking about all the Greats, the awe-inspiring super humans who regularly unleashed their talent for the benefit of the world - souls that were going somewhere in this life and beyond - and I sank further into the Pit as I thought about how huge the gap was between me and them. I thought Ihsaan lay in the distance between two mountains. And it was so disheartening to stake a step forward in such deep shadows.
But I’m not the type to just feel sad about something, I’ve got to do something about it.
I tried to frame my struggle in a way I could understand, so I asked myself in detail what these Greats did. I picked Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. She was considered one of the greatest women of Islam. She was a successful business woman who was known for her generosity and charity, supporting the prophet and other muslims through persecution, starvation, and oppression. But when I broke down what she did…it was so simple. She did whatever she could in her capacity as a mother, a wife, a business woman to give back to her family and community. End of story. I learned that greatness wasn’t about being the best or achieving grandeur. It was about embracing your unique talents, pouring love into your craft, and touching the lives of others in a meaningful way. You don’t have to be great to be great.
It meant that perfectionism was never the course. Allah doesn’t want perfection from us, He wants excellence, he wants Ihsaan. He wants us to try to do our best. And Ihsaan is never the distance between two mountains. Its the difference in the 1% between trying and not trying.
My redefined understanding of greatness as excellence, as Ihsaan – this continuous journey of just trying our best where we are now – This reframe helped me become more hopeful, resilient, and high achieving. This was an experience that I wanted to share with others to, hopefully, similarly inspire you to think big about how we can bring ihsaan into our day-to-day and in bettering ourselves and our communities.
Your life is a journey from one dimension into another, from one life into the next. A fundamental part of bridging the good work in these lives is knowing our Creator, knowing Allah. I want to help people develop this connection through establishing a paradigm of thought and action: to see opportunity in bleakness, to find resilience in hardship, and to foster an unrelenting pursuit of excellence in doing good work that is aligned with your own personal hopes and dreams.

If you're ready to embark on a transformational path towards a meaningful life, I encourage you to subscribe and follow the Toward Ihsan podcast on your favorite podcast platform. By subscribing, you’ll ensure that you receive regular doses of inspiration and practical advice to help you achieve your potential, deepen your connection with Allah, and contribute positively to your community.

So subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode!

Thank you for being here. And Asalamulaykum to all you regulars working towards ihsaan :)