Connect The Dots 03

So now that you have this topic, this idea in your mind, okay, your intention is straight, you have an idea you have a topic, you know what you want to talk about? How do you actually go about writing your poem, this is a place where a lot of writers stop right here, right? The best poems have yet to be written because people are still figuring out how to attack their sheet of paper. So one thing you should do, okay, and this is my experience, I'm just telling you what I do in Shaolin, you can benefit from it, you can do it if you want, you don't have to do if you don't want, I don't really care. But one thing that I do is once I have a topic in mind, I will do extensive research on that

particular topic. Okay, let's stick with the topic of divorce. Not like I like divorce, but it's just happens to be something that I mentioned in the course book, if you're going to talk about divorce, what are some of the is what are some of the Hadeeth? What are some of the statements of the Select? What are some of the, you know, even non Muslim quotations about divorce? What What do people are saying about divorce? What are some of the statistics about divorce, you know, go out there and really exhaustive research in this particular topic, find out what it is you want to talk about, and what actually is this topic, right, I want you to approach this, like you're writing an

essay for all of you who've gone through post secondary education, or even just high school, you'll know that when you write a particular essay, you need to do your research. So go out there and research this topic. And one thing that I do, which is probably one of the most valuable piece of ism pieces of advice that I've ever received in my life, okay, and this is predating cell phones, because now people just write in their phones. But back in the day, I used to carry a pen and a pad. Everywhere I went, I used to have a notebook with me. And I was told by a mentor of mine when I was in high school, that you should write down anything that comes to mind. Any thoughts that you have

any ideas, any gems, you know, genuinely enlightening moments, anything that inspires you, maybe you hear someone say something, maybe you're overhearing a conversation, maybe you see a quote, in a magazine, you know, have the ability to jot down ideas. And what you're actually doing is creating this basically, gem bank, this thought bank that you never know when you might actually reference. So what I'll do in Sharla, is that even before I start writing the poem, I've already started thinking about this poem in my mind for maybe weeks or months, and I've been simultaneously writing down ideas now it's switched obviously to my phone, because back in the day used to be a notepad,

but we don't need that anymore. We're in 2016, Mashallah, now I write everything down to my phone, if I have a dream, even about particular subject or topic that I think might be interesting, I'll write it down on my phone, I have a note that's just in my phone, it just literally says ideas, okay, and I don't discriminate on ideas, dumb ideas, short ideas, bad ideas, black ideas, they're all great, because you never know what they'll become. So take down all the ideas that come your way, and create this gem bank. And in the process, inshallah, while you're actually in the state of mine have begun beginning to write your poem, you already have a head start, you can actually go

back into your gym back and you say, Oh, you know, I had this idea of this particular topic, or this may be approach this unique approach I wanted to take. And I've actually written some, some lines, some ideas, you know, that I can use. I'll give you an example. One of my poems that a lot of people kind of like and it's quite popular line is called phone call heroes, where I speak about the companions of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and I never told us anybody. It's fun. I'm just speaking kind of candidly the camera right now. But the, it only came about from one line. I wrote this whole poem based on just one line, I was sitting down, and I was reflecting on eyeshadow, the

line and the process, sometimes wife, and I wrote a line that said, I was a genius. Every word was like a thesis. Okay, I just had that on my phone randomly one day, and I was just going by and I was looking at the like ISIS, a genius. And I said, Well, what about the other companions? What about Abu Bakar? What about Dharma? What about Earth man and I started and by the end of it, right, I had built this huge, you know, database of all these different companions and their, their traits and characteristics. And I turned that into a poem. But it all started with one idea that was just in my gym bank. So you never know when that gym bank, the gym bank, now I'm copywriting this term gym bag,

I just made it up. All right, you never know when this gem bank will actually come in handy. Actually, I didn't make it up. I stole it from among,

but have the lower gonna share the credit. Okay, so now you have some research completed, you've jotted down some notes, some ideas, some thoughts around this particular topic. Now one thing you should try and do this is now good poetry. The best poetry always stems from personal experience. Personal is universal. Okay, people don't like hearing about a topic being spoken about from an ivory tower. You're looking down on society and saying you are this and you are that and you are right and you are wrong. You need to involve yourself in this poem for To be honest, you don't have the actual ability to speak about it. If you cannot involve yourself in this poem, then you do not

have the authority to speak about this topic. I'll give you another example. If you want to talk about for instance.

You know, I'm running out of good examples, but if you want to talk about like I use this in the book, then medical health

You're a doctor, say for example, okay? You want to talk about life or death. Okay, you can speak about life and death from your experiences as a doctor. If you're I don't know, if you're a doctor writing poetry Good on you, most doctors don't write poetry but if you do, write, talk about it from the experiences of what you see every single day working in the hospital working in the ER, if you're a teacher, you want to talk about life or death, talk about maybe the importance of seeking knowledge and how that knowledge will input will be actually able to be implemented on your deathbed, right or in the accident. Right? So speaking about things not just from your profession,

but from your own personal experience is very important. It's not good enough to just talk about a topic like I said, from an ivory tower, where you become this kind of pseudo expert in a particular field. Personal is universal. That's it for this video, inshallah. Stay tuned for another connected dots for watching us today. Mr. Kumar. I'm going to lie about I can't see