Leading with Faith and Setting Examples
By Naazish YarKhan
May/Jun 25
How often in our careers do we get a chance to live intentionally, stay true to our values, and trust God’s plan? Islamic Horizons spoke to three professional women whose journeys are a powerful reminder that the path to success can include these critical factors.
Prayers + Action = Success
CEO Aneesa Muthana is a powerhouse in the manufacturing world. She began her career within her family business, M&M Quality Grinding, 30 years ago and progressed to establishing Pioneer Service Inc. In a space where women are rare in the C-Suite, Muthana leads through business acumen and hard work as well as faith, resilience, and purpose.
A recipient of the 2021 Muslim Achievers Award given by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, Muthana confesses to being a workaholic. She said it all starts with tawakkul (trust in God) while taking bold, intentional action. “I remind myself that I’m only responsible for my efforts, and the outcomes are in His hands,” she said. “When I faced the decision to expand Pioneer Service into new markets, like aerospace, I felt unsure of the risks and challenges. But instead of letting fear paralyze me, I turned to dua [supplication] and sought guidance, trusting that Allah (subhanahu wa ta‘ala) would guide me if my intentions were pure. By breaking the goal into small steps and moving forward with faith, I saw doors open that I couldn’t have imagined on my own.”
As a result, opportunities blossomed, and her leadership reshaped what was possible in precision machining.
Muthana’s other secret to success is prioritizing her “highest-payoff activities” – the tasks that are most impactful – and delegating the rest. She recognizes her limits. “When managing both Pioneer Service and my family responsibilities, I prioritize tasks that only I can handle and delegate the rest to capable team members,” Muthana said. “It allows me to maximize my time so that I’m fulfilling my roles effectively.”
She added that when life feels overwhelming, the tahajjud prayer is “a game changer.”
As with any business, failure is inevitable. “When faced with failure, I remind myself of the Quranic verse: ‘Indeed, with hardship comes ease’, and view failure as part of the process that Allah has written for me to learn and grow,” Muthana said.
When an economic downturn threatened her business, she stopped focusing on growth. Instead, she prioritized her company’s survival and her employees’ livelihoods. Proactively, she sold real estate to cover expenses, leaning on Islamic financial principles like avoiding debt. This strategy proved to be a lifeline. “Imagine the weight of additional loans in such a crisis,” she said. This perspective helped her persevere while also strengthening her business.
In her article “Work-Life Balance isn’t Working for Women. Why?”, Claire Savage wrote, “Working women who are parents or guardians are more likely than (fathers) to say they have declined or delayed a promotion at work because of personal or family obligations, and mothers are more likely than fathers to ‘strongly agree’ that they are the default responders for unexpected child care issues” (AP News, Dec. 5, 2024).
Muthana, too, stepped back from certain professional opportunities to be present for her children. “When my children were young, my focus was on raising them while keeping my business running. During that time, I delegated more at work and stepped away from some opportunities so I could be present for my family.”
Muthana’s Yemeni heritage plays a vital role in her story. A speaker at conferences, workshops, and industry events, she frequently shares her cultural values and experiences as a woman who defied expectations and carved out a space for herself in manufacturing. Her words inspire others to push past doubt, embrace challenges, and pursue their dreams.
Shape Mindsets, Galvanize Change
Toronto resident Farah Ghafoor, 24, is an award-winning Canadian poet with roots in Pakistan. In 2023, she was awarded the E.J. Pratt Medal and Prize in Poetry by the University of Toronto. In 2022, she was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Raised in New Brunswick and southern Ontario, Ghafoor is a financial analyst by day.
“In middle school, I found both poetry and tech startups fascinating,” she said. “When I had to select a career, I chose accounting because I wanted to learn about business without the risks, while pursuing poetry.”
One of her secrets to success are clear work-life boundaries. They’ve enabled her to write consistently. “I find myself to be most productive when I am not thinking about work after 5 p.m.,” she said. “Whereas, while I take courses to obtain my CPA designation, I don’t write at all.”
She also pointed out that it’s helpful to surround yourself with a strong support network of people who want to see you succeed and achieve your goals. “When people around you support your goals and dreams, it’s much easier to prioritize yourself without feeling guilty,” she said.
Ghafoor writes to understand herself and the world. Her writing also encourages readers to unpack her words and reflect on their weight. Her latest collection of poems, Shadow Price (House of Anansi Press Inc., 2025), available this Spring, questions “personal complicity, generational implications, and the shock of our collective disregard for a world that sustains every living thing.”
“The climate crisis is an emergency that no one is completely safe from, so even if we’re only inching along toward a sustainable world, progress is still progress,” Ghafoor said. “I recently stumbled upon an article by CBC that explores the ‘lost’ creeks of Canada, which are natural waterways that have been buried and built over. I wanted to share and consider how we value our natural landscapes, so I wrote about the concept of daylighting, which is the process of extricating and restoring rivers in this context.”
Still, her writing offers hope. “I’ve spoken to so many young people who feel this sense of utter hopelessness about the world,” she said. “However, for ourselves and future generations, we need to reject the status quo – the comforts that we’ve been accustomed to – similar to what happened during lockdown. This is what I aim to convey.”
Review Facts, Channel Advice, Leverage Instinct
Arizona-based vice president of finance at American Vision Partners, Farzana Moinuddin, who confesses to “living and dying” by her calendar, is a stickler for timeliness. She has never missed a deadline even while balancing a full-time job and graduate school. “We, as Muslims, have that important responsibility of salah [prayer]. And if we have salah as our foundation, we have the blueprint of how to manage our time,” she said.
She said both her professional and personal life involve “constantly looking at data and basing decisions on factual events.” Whether it’s a home or car purchase, or going on vacation, Moinuddin and her husband invariably compile a list of pros and cons, create an Excel spreadsheet, and use other research to guide decisions. She also draws on instinct and istikharah (a prayer asking God for guidance when making decisions). “Sometimes we can just instinctively feel what’s a right decision and what’s not. Listen to your instinct. . . That’s what carries me through,” she said.
She warns that not all outcomes based on the istikharah will be successful. “The outcome is one that is in your best interest,” she said. “It may not be what we want, but it’s one that Allah has ordained. So if you succeed, that’s great. If you fail, there is khair [benefit] in it, too.”
Despite the istikharah, despite reviewing all the data, and despite considering pros and cons, one can still fail. At such times, Moinuddin said, you need to reassess. “Go back and look at the facts. Sometimes, your decision may have been based on wrong data points, or you’ve misunderstood the data or you didn’t understand a certain aspect,” she said. “I will spend just enough time analyzing the situation but will immediately take action by bringing the issue to light to a wider audience.”
Like Ghafoor, central to Moinuddin’s success is her support system. It includes family and friends just as much as experts in a field. “In our faith, a major tenet is consultation (mashwara). You seek mashwara from those with different takes on things, people with more experience on that particular subject, whether a peer, a colleague or friend, Muslim or otherwise,” she said. “I can be looking at something through one lens and someone else will have another perspective. This has been extremely helpful to me in making the right decisions.” It has also meant being intentional about fostering these relationships and nurturing a circle of trust to lean into.
Life is about seasons, priorities, and knowing what truly matters. At one stage, it might mean focusing on family; at another, it might mean growing a business or mentoring others. Wisdom lies in embracing each phase, knowing that it too shall pass.
Naazish YarKhan, a writing and college essay coach, is owner of WritersStudio.us. Her writing has been translated into several languages and is featured in more than 50 media platforms including NPR, the Chicago Tribune, and in various anthologies.
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