Connect The Dots 02

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatu.
And we're back. All right, so let's dive right into this first module in sha Allah, which is all
about writing, okay, you cannot perform spoken word poetry if you're not writing. So the first thing
I want to talk about even before you begin writing, there is a mental process that you need to
actually go through. The first thing you need to ask yourself, is why are you writing? What is the
point of this poem or this piece you're about to write? Right? And it reminds us of the Hadith of
the prophets of Lahore under saddam, which says that every deed is by its intention in the Mullah
		

			manual in the act, everything we do, okay? every deed is actually based upon its intention. So if
your intention is to write this poem, because you want to get a lot of YouTube views, right, which
is something that people do people want to get, you know, popular on social media, they want to get
Facebook likes, they want to get no Instagram and snapping and chatting, and that new thing, I'm,
I'm on Snapchat, so I can't talk about that. But if you're out there for popularity, then that's
what you'll get in Sharla. That's the reward that you'll get right? If you're out there trying to
get girls some out. Some guys are out there, right trying to write poetry. So girls would be like,
		

			hey, that brother's deep and Mashallah, right? If that's your intention, then that's what you'll
get. Right? If you're intending to please Allah Subhana, Allah to Allah, in sha Allah, if that's
your goal, if that is the end goal, then that is inshallah what you will achieve, right? every deed
is based upon its intention. So you have to consciously begin with an empty slate in your mind to
think about what am I actually doing? And why am I actually doing this is very important, right?
Because people can get caught up in many different things. It could be the money part of things you
could think, you know, this is a potential career choice. I want to get paid for which is fine. If
		

			you want to get paid for it. That's cool, right? But you also have to think about how is this going
to benefit me in my grave and ChildLine? I think about that with every poem that I write every poem
that I write in sha Allah, I hope that on the Day of Judgment, I will read it in my book, and it
will be a good good news for me in shot it will be a black a glad tidings for me that I'll be able
to see this on the day of jasmine is Sharla Anna las panatela reward me because of it because of
people that have changed their ways or, you know, coming to faith because of maybe something that
I've said or inspiration they've heard, obviously, nothing is from us specifically, it's from a loss
		

			of power to Allah, but if we're a part of that change a part of that process, that insha Allah is
alright man, he will reward us because of that inshallah, right? So first thing you need to ask
yourself, is, why are you embarking upon this journey? Because every single deed is by its
intention. So once you overcome this mental barrier, you have in your mind, okay, I know why I'm
doing what I'm about to do. inshallah, your intention is straight, you're correct, you're ready to
roll. The question then poses? What are you going to talk about, you know, what is this poem going
to be about? So there are different approaches you can take, the biggest, almost universal mistake
		

			that most poets make, is they start writing a poem, without a theme without a particular topic in
mind, they'll just start putting together a couple ideas, a couple thoughts, right. And they'll
just, you know, just kind of hodgepodge of different concepts or ideas, and they'll just try and
make it stick at the very end, right. But the actual approach inshallah, that I want to teach you
all about, is starting your poem off with a good intention, inshallah, and with an actual topic in
mind, right? When you start writing an essay in school, you do not write an essay until you have
your thesis, you need to figure out first of all, what is your thesis? What is your poem going to be
		

			about? And because obviously, you're working within a timeframe, you know, you have an attention
span of your audience. Now it's getting shorter and shorter. You know, thanks to Snapchat, people
are literally giving gems in 15 seconds, right. But before that traditional slam poetry used to
teach us that you had a three minute window to capture someone's attention, changed their hearts
inshallah and set them up on their way. So three minutes is a good benchmark. I particularly I
particularly like writing a bit longer now that I've had freedom, and I'm outside of the kind of
slam poetry world, I like my poems to be between now four or five minutes long, it doesn't have to
		

			be a certain page count. Obviously, it just depends on how you present your poem. But the main
important thing is that you actually have a topic which is worth listening to. So there are a lot of
topics to choose from. It's not like every single topic has been covered. And if there is a topic
that someone has already covered in the past, you got to think to yourself, how can you approach
this in a unique manner? Maybe there's an angle or perspective that nobody has ever talked about
before. So for example, in the book that you'll find that I talked about the topic of divorce, say
somebody wants to write a poem about divorce, okay, maybe people have written about that in the
		

			past, but what particular experience or expertise Can you bring to the table about this topic? Maybe
you know, someone who's been divorced, maybe you yourself have been divorced. Is divorce a good
thing?
		

			Is it a bad thing? What about the children? What about the grandparents? What about the society at
large? How does this affect everybody, right? There's so many different perspectives and angles and
approaches you can take that you shouldn't feel limited by any particular topic. If you think about
it, how many poems how many industries have been written about the profits of the largest of them,
you know, 1000s, hundreds and hundreds. I would argue a lot of them are very cliche, but actually a
lot of them still to this day are able to, you know, spark the hearts, they're able to do something
to us, because there's a unique approach, there's a way of speaking about himself alone, that maybe
		

			somebody hasn't done before, or characteristics that nobody's really expanded upon, in the way that
maybe this particular person has. So even if you're going to approach a cliche, subject, do it in a
way that is engaging, that is entertaining, and that is unique, and that nobody's ever done before.
Alright, that's enough from this video in Sharla. Stay tuned for part three. We're going to talk
more about writing and how you should set yourself up for a fantastic home in Sharla. Stay tuned for
watching us and I'm wanting to lie about our cats.