By Hanat Oladele

Bismillah.

What is Barakah? Barakah is a divine blessing from Almighty Allah SWT. It is the increase in sustenance, health, growth, knowledge, good relationship and spiritual presence. Usually, people think the end result of Barakah is wealth but rather, it is peace and fulfillment.

Almighty Allah said in Qur’an 6 verse 96: “Had the people of those towns believed and been God-fearing, We would certainly have opened up to them blessings from the heavens and the earth;…”

This is proof that Barakah is from Allah and it is for the God-fearing believers. I would describe it as the sweetness in a Muslim’s life.
                
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From GSM’s to Blackberries to modern android phones and the club of Iphones and Samsungs, how did this device created to make navigating life easier, become the poison that kills the sweetness in our lives?

How ? Let’s look at a recap of our routines.

“It was Fajr. Your phone alarm went off, you stood up to turn it off. Fully awake, there was an urge in you to go over last night’s missed messages and you did so while brushing your teeth. With each brush came a scroll, you were busy doing this until you heard the Iqamah then you hurriedly did ablution and raced to the mosque. 

While on Solaah, your mind was still hovering round the “it’s been a while since we talked” message. You finished your prayers and raced faster than lightning to reply to that message.
You were having breakfast while scrolling through TikTok; while on the bus, you were scrolling through Instagram to find your favorite daily affirmation video. You attended class but for those little subconscious drifts, your mind drifted back into the algorithm of your phone.

You tried to wave off the thought on the next Solaah, and you secured a little feat because the long distance away from your phone made you detach a little bit. But after school, it was from that WhatsApp status to that X tweet. The flash of your last test’s score in your mind was the reason why you decided to do your assignments after procrastinating doing it for almost the whole day. In all, you ended your day with scrolling through brainrot contents with a few things checked off your to-do list.”

Look inwards and reflect. Which Barakah was murdered because you couldn’t just stop scrolling and drop your phone?

The Barakah of saying your Azkar upon waking up.

The Barakah of proper ablution.

The Barakah of saying Azkar while going to the mosque.

The Baarakah of a medium-paced journey to the mosque.

The Barakah of getting to the mosque early for nawafil.

The Baarakah of concentration in Solaah.

The Barakah of engaging in Dhikr and recitation of the Qur’an.

The Barakah of having a healthy breakfast time.

The Barakah of enjoying and admiring the morning freshness – a time to release stress.

You are at a bigger loss here, taking into consideration the Hadith of the Prophet SAW who said “Oh Allah, bless my nation early in the morning.” Yes, you woke up early, but you still missed the morning blessing of peace, courtesy of your phone. 

In addition to those, is

The Barakah of being productive.

The Barakah of having healthy attention spam.

The Barakah of being proactive.

The Barakah of a healthy sleeping habit.

The Barakah of daily reflections and gratitudes towards your creator.

And the list goes on and on… “All of these coagulate into an empty feeling, making fulfilment, the second end result of Barakah, a forgotten dream. This empty feeling can further lead to ungratefulness, unhealthy comparison with others, depression, anxiety, and frustration.

A recent study in 2025 by frontiers reported that people classified as addicted to their phones tended to show higher levels of negative emotions compared to non-addicted users. This report further affirms what was discussed above.

As Muslims, we should make conscious efforts to reduce our daily phone usage until only when necessary. We should curb doom scrolling and be intentional about the time we spend on our phone, if not for anything but for the fact that it destroys our main source of Barakah, which is Taqwa (God consciousness). Almighty Allah said in Qur’an 5 verse 100 “….so be God conscious, o you people of understanding, so that you may succeed.”

Therefore, we should act to control this Barakah killer in our lives by the substitution of some of the activities we do on our phones with something else, away from the digital space. These include using a manual alarm clock or a wristwatch, doing traditional (pen and paper) journalling, and reading hard book copies. Just something to reduce phone usage, especially in the mornings (a time of Barakah), for those of us who use our phones for personal development tasks but unfortunately still slip into the distraction of the phone.

May Almighty Allah make this reminder beneficial for us all. Aameen.