Muhammad Alshareef – Backstage Pass How I Prepare for the Daily Huddle
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of finding information on a website called L tafsir.com and researching Arabic language resources. They also discuss the use of short reminders for video lectures and the importance of protecting audio quality. The speakers emphasize the need to search for specific written verses and use YouTube and Google resources for learning. They also discuss the use of Periscope for live broadcasting and mobile phones for video streaming, and offer tips for doing sound exercises and protecting the microphone from popping. They express their desire to learn new things and go live.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamu aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Bismillah from the last word somehow so Allah we're gonna get started in
in three minutes in three minutes. Hey technology. We'll get started in three minutes. So Jason I'm where you're from where you're tuning in from. We'll get started in sha Allah Tala in three minutes
we'll get started in three minutes
we're doing something different today. Something a little bit different.
But first synonyms and where you're from.
We got New Relic Muslim has notic Madame Saronic Muslim as I think Muslim, a smart aleck Muslim.
And for the Malaysian people finishing up
sala de Silva
federal prayer
from La Liga Muslim, Aisha Ayesha
Ayesha Nigeria, Radek Muslim Christine Radek Muslim Canada Robina like Muslim Trisha on Twitter, I think Mr.
Kesh if in New York like Muslim Kashif look no Alec Muslim in Toronto, Rajah Arizona or the Kama Sutra
Raven in Denmark Arctic Muslim, somebody from the UK like a Muslim.
For those who are inside the Visionaire Ramadan Facebook group, because it's private I don't actually see your name comes out like this Facebook user that's what it looks like. So that's what's happening there. We'll get started and all my captions gone
get started in one minute I'm dilla oligomer Sam, please made please do ask for your Hey Alec Muslim to * lice fee fee
we got here so while we nice in Malaysia
Jasim and
it's like always cold in Regina except for those two months of summertime and the mosquitoes come up.
We got Mel Mesa in France. I think Mr. Nam, Samira Hikmah Sadam Sharifa
Zainab and Humayun Okay, let's get started. Welcome Mr. Lamb along with the law
anybody here on Instagram is the Instagram thing working? I'm trying I tried something else today.
Alright, taking one. I said I'm on a quantum of the labor to get the Bismillah from the last letter salam ala Rasulillah. Allah, Allah, he was happy Malala and my bad. So today, I thought I would do something a little bit different. Change it up a little bit. Yesterday, we were speaking about rocks, and we had a really nice session. But today I wanted to talk to you about or give you a backstage pass? How are or what do I do to prepare for these? For the tidal wave truffles or these, what I would call the one one verse, bad call one verse, or this mass daily huddle. So here are the different things that I used to prepare for this. Sometimes the preparation, how long the
preparation takes might be half an hour or one hour to prepare for a 10 minute, kind of like reminder, the software that I use is Docs, Google Docs, so I'll use Google Docs. And I like Google Docs, because it's, you know, when if you save things to your computer, then one day your computer's not going to work. And then you're like, oh, man, I wish I had something from eight years ago, seven years ago. So the nice thing about Google Docs is that it's always there in the cloud. So maybe 10 years from now, if I need to come back and review this. I'll do and I'll also put tags in my Google block things like COVID things like truffles, you know, and such daily huddle, I'll put tags in it.
So in the future 10 years down the road or something like that, if somebody needed to search through it and find all these, this information, they would find it. So that's Google documents. The key.
The key website that I look for in tafsir is this website called L tafsir.com. l tafsir. A LTAFSIR l tafsir.com. And martial arts about Ocula
has a really beautiful collection of books of tafseer that you can search. It's an Arabic. But books of tafseer that you can search, the Tip series that I usually fall back on the ones that you know, I've tried different Tafseer, some are longer, some are shorter. But the ones that I find that, you know, when I read them, they're different. Like, if you read multiple diff seers on the same day, you might find that a lot of them are copying each other. So they're like, you read something here, and then you read it somewhere else. And they're saying the same things in different tafsir books. So the tafsir book that I like to kind of like gives a different perspective is tough See, a sad to
see a Saudi, and you might hear everybody's like to suicide is a really good Tafseer book and one that it actually is a really good to see your book. And I liked it because you sometimes you find things or explanations that are a little bit different than the copy paste that you'll see in other Tafseer books. And for my style of how I do these reminders, I'd like it to be I like to explain things to you in a way that you understand some contemporary explanation. So and I'll give examples that you will understand the analogies that you will understand. So the fact that Assadi is more of a recent tafsir book kind of allows for when I take from it, it's it's like readily usable, you can
understand and implement and so on. The other tafsir book that I might fall back to is a tafsir book by Abu Bakr Al Jazeera ne and he passed away rahamallah Abu Bakar enjoys it was a scholar in Medina. And He's, um, he died in a very old age. What actually like to see how old like he was there all the years that I was there, want to see how old he was when he passed away? And just a Algerian Islamic scholar. I am searching for him right now. Wikipedia, Abubakar wiki data. Okay, that's not the right one. Sorry.
Prominent Algerian scholar dies in Medina
says I'm doing research while I'm in the middle of this. This reminder. I just really need to see what's going on.
I'm very curious. So he was born in 1921. And he died in nine in 2018. So if somebody can do the math for me, just wanted to see. So he was widely known. This isn't Wikipedia. He was widely known for teaching in the prophet's mosque for 50 years. 50 years, he used to teach in mustard and never wait for 50 years. Okay. Just try to comprehend that some of us aren't even 50 years old. He's teaching in Mr. Neverwet for 50 years. And he had a beautiful Algerian accent. Yeah, he was 92 Just like a Lachlan or 92 when he passed away, and his face Subhanallah when the he would come in on a wheelchair, and they would bring him in on all on a wheelchair.
Yes, Pamela, it was like this newer, it's like a full moon would enter the Messenger when he would come in. And you and his Algerian accent, are there any Algerians here
in Alhambra when I'm at, like one.
Anyways, I'll do an Algerian Arabic intro later for you guys. If there's Algerians, if there's two Algerians, you're all doing okay, so the Tip series that I fell back on Saturday and to see it Abubakar xiety, and I really liked how he puts it in point for him.
And if I'm looking for Arabic type of explanation of you know, going a little bit deeper into the Arabic of the of the Quran, there's a book by a pothead even assure a pothead even assure, which I don't frequently turn back to. But if if I want to go deep in some Arabic, like understanding the wording and the sentence structure of the verses, I would take a pilot of an assured. So other than that, so that tafsir books that I go to, what you'll find is that in a tafsir book, I like to tell stories along with
I like to tell stories along with the tafseer that I'm doing. So if I'm explaining a verse, I like to tell a story, find an analogy from there, and then explain something based on the story in the analogy with it. So you're not necessarily going to find stories in tafsir books. So I'm looking for those stories. Where do you normally find stories like that? Unfortunately, you find them in hoods, and I say unfortunately, because it's very hard to search clippers. And a lot of like the Islamic clippers that are out there are in video or audio, and they're not necessary.
li transcribed, so it's hard, very hard to, to search it out. Like if you're looking for a specific verse and what stories are connected to that verse, it's hard to find. So here's some of the things that I do to do that, I will go to Arabic keyboard.com Arabic with a keyboard, there's a hyphen in the middle, Arabic keyboard tech.com, and it pops up an Arabic keyboard for me a virtual Arabic keyboard so that I can type in Arabic hamdulillah when I was in Medina University, actually, when I was in high school, a friend of mine, Rohan Hooda, and I was like, he was like my mentor, Ray Han told me that the best class he took in high school was a typing class. And it benefited him the most
of his life. And he insisted Hamid, you know what, take the typing class and pay a lot of attention to it. So I took that feedback. And I took the typing class when I was in high school. And then later when I was in Medina university, they had this is in the 90s, early 90s, or mid 90s. They had a Arabic typing class on a on a typewriter on a typewriter. And and I paid like, I think like 50, riyals or something like that. And I went to the Arabic keyboard, or Arabic typewriter typing class. So as I was learning, learning, learning, and this Arabic keyboard, or big typing class, when it got to the shift, you know, on a keyboard, when it got to the shift button, that you press the shift to
get like a different letter. I went to the teacher and I quit the class, and the teacher was very mad at me. But I took the class because I told the teacher, nobody uses typewriters anymore. These are the 90s Nobody uses key typewriters anymore. And so I'm learning something that I'm never going to implement. And so I think you you can keep the money. I really benefited from the first part of this class, but I don't want to continue with the air. So the teacher got mad at me. And he said, How do you know there will always be electricity? Wherever you go, what if you're sent for Dawa in some country, and they don't have electricity and you're forced to use a typewriter. And then I said
to him,
I'll learn it at that time. If that happens, I'll learn it at that time. It's not like a super difficult subject to learn, right? So I left that. So I actually know how to type in Arabic without looking at the keyboard. How awesome is that? So great advice for my friend. When I was in high school to take keyboard class, I can type in Arabic without looking at the keyboard. So that's a side show off point. For me, so I type. If I'm looking at a verse, I type, like a key lesson from the verse like let's suppose the verses speaking about,
let's say mercy. Okay, let's suppose this pig versus female at the mercy of Allah. So I'll type in Arabic. And by the way, why do I search in Arabic and not search in English, because English sucks, you're only going to get these blogs, and they're not going to be deep in English. If you read this, you know, the in the amount of English stuff compared to what's available in Arabic is like it's nothing in comparison. So the English stuff is just all this book was translated, that book is translated. Here's a blog article and whatnot. The Arabic stuff is like encyclopedias, and libraries, there's so much stuff in Arabic. And that's why it's essential that I research these
things in Arabic. So I'll type up if like I said, if I'm looking at something like mercy, I'll create a sentence like immediate or Rama fill Islam, importance of mercy in Islam. So I'll type up a sentence like that in Arabic, throw it into Google, and then and then Google throws out different articles that people have written. And there's a lot Google used to only index Arabic forums. Back in the day, if you take about 15 years ago, the place that you would find things in Arabic was only like on forums, on you know, what you I mean by forums, right. I think Google's gotten better at indexing other Arabic things recently, and obviously, a lot of Muslim countries, a lot of Muslims
out there.
But so I started,
it's gotten better. There's articles, but there's not too many results that come out. But I don't need too much. It's only a 10 minute reminder. And usually, if I get some point form stuff, a little explanation, boom, and I'm good to go from there.
I'd like to find the topics in video in short reminders, if possible. So when I type that search, when I type that search, like I'll say, the importance of mercy in Islam, I'll click on the videos link, or I'll search it I'll copy paste into YouTube. And then I'm looking at certain speakers, certain scholars that do short reminders. So if I get a reminder, that's
like one hour and a half, obviously, I'm not going to go through that. And at the same time, there's actually a lot of content that's not
readily, you know, you can't really suck it up. So those ones that are like an hour and a half lectures, I don't have time for that. But if there's like a four minute reminder on this, especially if the person has the exact topic at hand me Adorama for this lab, the importance
side is saying stop giving away our secrets. Now, brother, they have to know that there's nothing to this, they have to tell the things, nothing to this. Okay? So if there's a four minute reminder
I'll just say, Well, what's funny about what sad is saying is that it's actually really easy to get content for these short reminders because Arbic the once you have access to the Arabic, Arabic has so much, there's so much maybe in English you think it's hard because you're accessing English resources. But once you hit the Arabic resources, you're like, you know what, you can give lectures till the cows come home. It's like love and
so one of the speaker and different speakers have different styles. So somebody that I like to listen to is an unbeatable hourly, the below our the
his reminders will be four minutes, he'll be in somewhere scenic, and it straight to the point he'll, he'll tell averse, he'll give you a reflection, he might tell a little story. And that's my style. So I'll be like, Yeah, I benefited my benefited. So for example, in yesterday's lecture that I did about rocks, I went and I found an Avital, our the four minute video on rocks, and he was talking about mountains, and I brought up those other two verses, and I plugged it into my speech, you know, just really quickly benefited from him, and so on. And then other speakers are just like, they just go on and on and on. So I don't, I don't get into that. Okay, when you're finding the
verses, now, I might know the Quranic verse, but I need to find the number for it. So I need to say like, this is surah number two, verse 87, because I need to search for it and other places. So I need to know the numbers for the verses. So to get the numbers of the number of a verse and this is something all of you should try doing as well is going to Islamic city Islamic city, and they have a phonetic Quran search which is very powerful. It's a really well done search and actually benefited benefit from it in multiple ways. So if I'm saying, what Taraji Bella talks about her journey that I'm with you tomorrow, Marissa, so are going to Islamic city and a phonetic search it I'll search
for the verse phonetically taught T Ara, LG bad, right a LG or whatever, LG bad and then it pops out the verse for me and I can see the surah number and sutra.
The Sunnah number and the surah verse. Yeah, so and the other thing that Islamic city really has that I enjoy is, if you click on translations, it gives you about for the English translation, it gives you about like 13 Different people who have translated the Quran to English. And then you can actually when when a verse, when you read it in English, like if the use of audio translation, or masala, you know, one translation may not give you, you might not even understand what the translation is saying. So I like to go through all these different translations. I'm like, oh, yeah, the wording for this, I find is easier to understand and the wording for that. And some verses,
let's say there's a verse of Quran that has three sentences, three sentences, actually, the first sentence, it might be this translator that you can understand clearly, but that guy's second sentence doesn't make sense. So then I sometimes I will pick different sentences from different translators so that it makes more sense, if you
in two sessions ago, I said that Allah subhanaw taala is not ashamed to coin an analogy of a and I said mosquito, but actually most of the translators translated as NAT g n a t, which is a small bug. But if I said that in a lecture on like, you know, Allah is not ashamed to give mention of a NAT. What will you say? Like, what does that mean? What's a NAT? I don't know what a NAT is, I need to Google search what a NAT is, like, I know what it is, but oh, that in Arabic, I actually know what it is. But when it's translated to English, you actually don't understand. And I got the word mosquito from one of the translators who didn't use the word NAT. Most of them do use the word NAT.
So it makes up translation. So right now I am broadcasting on
on Facebook, and in actually multiple locations. So we have closed Facebook group
For visionair we have the my main page, and we're also broadcasting on Twitter Periscope. So shout out to the periscope people and we're broadcasting on
Yeah, and Trisha here is on Periscope telling me that I know what nats are. Let me just show you guys because I'm just talking about that. So you see, Trisha is tuning in from Periscope from Twitter. So the software that I use for this is called the restream restream dot i o
restream.io. And it gives so for those people who are doing broadcast if you have different if you have different audiences. So if somebody says something like, You know what, I'm always on Instagram, I'm never on Facebook. I've actually never on Twitter, and I'm never on Periscope, and I haven't been doing much with YouTube. But 100 Law was something like
hey, Trisha, are you on Instagram right now? Because somebody said it wasn't working.
It says Periscope, it says the drunk bears. So the software's called restream.io. The problem is that it does have issues with Instagram. And there's a whole bunch of extra steps to try to connect it to Instagram. And most of the time, it doesn't work for me. So that's why
Instagram works. Sometimes Sometimes it doesn't work, but it's working with YouTube. So we're live broadcasting on YouTube. And we're live broadcasting at the same time on Periscope. And that's a little bit of the background. So you know, sometimes when people tell me something like, oh, Mohammed, can you do this short lecture for us? It's only five minutes. I think what people don't understand is that a five minute lecture might take one hour and thinking about the lecture might actually take half a day one day, and maybe if it's if it's a big thing, it might take one week. So when somebody says it's only a five minute lecture, you got a little example of what we mean when we
say that it's not just five minutes. It is much more than that.
A lot any questions about this? This is just I thought I would do something different today. Give you a behind the scenes. I didn't show you guys equipment. I don't I try to minimize the equipment that I use because I don't like to set up big equipment and mess things up. I just keep it really basic, but I'll do equipment on another
on another day
is a while we says what is Periscope I have never used a chair. Periscope was actually what I think one of the first to do live broadcasting. Periscope did live broadcasting before Facebook Live before YouTube Live and all of these things. Periscope is Twitter. Twitter's version of Facebook Live. Periscope is actually to be fair to Periscope. They are the originators of this concept of Facebook of going live but then everybody forgot about them.
All right behind the scenes questions I know we're jumping into like the questions. But let's stick to the
behind the scenes. Anybody Abdul Basit any questions about?
Mary's question about
do equipment. Let me share like tell you guys one thing about equipment. One thing about equipment is the light. So I actually have
I actually have lights. So lights are some lights are made for photography and some lights are made for video. And you think like what's the difference between the two? That was the mistake that I made many years ago I bought lights and I asked the guy Hey, can I use this for video and he's like, yeah, why not? Right, but that guy made a mistake. So the problem with the photography lights is that a photography light heats up really hot. And it's only meant for a short period you take a picture and you're done. For video you need cold lights. So I have a light here too just to just kind of like brighten things up so it's not really dark.
And and it's a cold light, it doesn't heat up. And that's a very critical thing. I try to keep it small so that when you I think I can show you guys it. Let me show you my friend the lights. So I have a light here and I keep it away from me. But it is a cold light. I'm showing you the back so it doesn't doesn't do that.
Yeah, I do a light here just on the side. I use a webcam I don't use the camera from I don't use the camera from my Mac computer. But I do have my Mac computer behind
Jimmy
I do have my Mac computer behind me. So I can see my notes. And I put the camera right in between myself and the notes so that it looks like I'm looking at you, but I'm actually looking at my notes. So when people use the webcam from their computer, they're either looking up, or they're like looking down and it creates, I think, like a messed up angle. So I do use a webcam, a dedicated camera, you know, there's soft, not software, but you can get this, maybe I'll, I'll share with you later side, if you want to use like a DSLR type of camera, and connected in view, and then the picture becomes like psychotically, nicer. And even in Facebook Lives, there's this little this
thing I frequent is called like E cam, or something like that, which you can connect to which you can connect to your DSLR to your computer. So you're getting an image DSLR quality into a Facebook Live. So if you've ever on a live or a zoom call, and somebody looks significantly better than the camera is so significant, they're probably using that the mic that I use Marissa is
I'm not good with the mics, the mics that I use is coming from the webcam, I can't show you the webcam, that's like trying to look at yourself, because if I you know what, no, can I show you the webcam
don't think I can show you the way I was gonna switch cameras, I do have a heavier
like a more serious microphone.
So I've got one of these, one of the serious type of microphones. The problem though, is the processing for this is too intense for when we do like Facebook Lives and setting it up. And I find that it'll start breaking up the sound because it's trying to process it. So I have to use kind of like less,
less power.
And I'm the kind also the background, I'm the kind of person that if I'm doing recordings I would rather that nobody was there, I don't like to have like up, people are hovering around me with lights and camera, people staring at me while I'm doing my thing, I would rather have a quiet room. So even though I'm doing your own setup, and that's kind of annoying, and it's not my thing. But at least it's like a quiet and I'm alone and I get to do and I can make as much noise as I want
Ilana
anybody else behind the scenes. So let me tell you that the background of this
this session today is I did a search for different types of YouTube videos, different types of YouTube videos, and one of the one of the types of YouTube that you got the How To video, they got the unboxing video, you got the rant type of YouTube video, but one of the
one of the types of YouTube videos is sharing your likes and your dislikes. So you might have in one of that
you might have
a likes and dislikes. Somebody has like a fashion video and they show people Oh, these are the creams that I like. And these are the ones that I don't like. So I said, Well, why don't I show you guys these are the websites that I like, here's the websites that I don't like when preparing
something like this.
And because I kind of wanted a break today.
But I have a commitment that I said I won't, you know, I'll do it inshallah we'll go live. What's the round thing that people place in front of their mics? Marissa, that is four.
So if you're outdoors, this is not my thing. But I do know the answer to that. If you're outdoors
and the wind if you've ever seen people when they're outdoors and the recording something on their iPhone, and you hear this
it's the wind is blowing into the microphone, and it's messing up the sound. So that that
the round thing that sponge is to protect the microphone from pops. So the Pops would be like
when somebody's talking
going like that, that causes the microphone to like the sound popping so that that that thing is protecting the wind and the Pops from happening so that the sound becomes smooth. And if there's a circle thing around it, I think it's kind of doing the same.
Same sort of thing. Planum.
Do you use Wi Fi or a separate modem for smooth streaming? I wish I could use a modem and all of these things.
I think that's a little bit too advanced. Unfortunately, I just have Wi Fi, it doesn't always work. I have Wi Fi issues with my Mac.
Anybody else?
Fisherman
Okay, here's a good one.
Fatman Barak says Tamati share, how do you pump yourself up when you go live? Sometimes Clap your hands and get in the mode when you start your sessions. Not sure if you've mentioned this, I just joined
so far, Tim, I base it on what? What do I need to get like?
Sorry. So the pump up before a class or before going live depends on
the importance of what I'm doing. Like sometimes I'm teaching a very serious class like Sam teaching a visionary class, and I'm going to be teaching for two hours. The pump up for that is really serious. It's very serious. And I like people to know that if I'm doing just a Facebook live out in the street, that is not the same hominess shift as when I do a visionary class, like the visionary class will have maybe six hours of pump up before the actual class happens. That's why I went up on the class, it's a different need, because I spent a lot of time preparing and getting pumped up. So to answer your question, how do you pump yourself up? So some of the things that I might do when
it's a serious type of lecture is like a cold bath, cold bath, kind of like, you know, freezes you up and you know, just gets you out of your head and you're focused on it. I will do sound.
Voice what would they call them?
voice exercises. So going like
you know, like sound warm up. So yeah, so especially like you got this happened on normal bond. With Tara, we're at our setting and tidal wave and also fasting and dry throat and doing our total with truffles. And then I've got a class doing, I have to be really careful about my voice. So I don't just you know, roll out of bed and just start talking, I will do sound warm up on my vocal cords. Yes, I actually do those things. The other things that I do is as a pump up is kind of like just shutting off all electronics, shutting off all phone and just sitting quietly. And just, I wouldn't say meditator, those kinds of words, I just sit quietly and just calm myself down. So trying to get
out of my head, start running 100 miles an hour to sit down. Sometimes I'll take like 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, depending on how important what I'm about to be teaching or where I'm going, is going to be doing and breathing exercises and breathing exercises are meant to, you know, fill your fill your chest up with oxygen, get out that carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and fill yourself up with oxygen. So different breathing exercises, pulling pulling hands down. So that and I'm not talking about just focus on the breath. No, I'm actually talking about actually oxygenating the body so that we're ready to go and green drink. So sometimes if you saw me in the
Visionaire class, as the class started, I had like a cup with me and I'm spinning it. And I have like wheatgrass in this big cup. Now I just have a big cup of water that I drink while I'm doing work.
Alana
and no one says it's time for going through so much preparation just to teach us for a few minutes. It's amazing. So I'll tell you another part of the background. The reason that I do it is I find that I benefit myself. I don't want to skip a day because if I skip a day I kind of like lower my standards, and then I'm not going to come back. And at the same time, I'd like to do versus I'm really into not repeating things or not wanting to I probably do repeat things a lot. But I really like to learn new things. So I find that if I wasn't teaching you guys, then I probably wouldn't take the time out to research a specific verse for half an hour and find different things but
because I find I learned better when I'm going I put a deadline on myself. I'm going to share it with somebody else. It holds myself, I hold myself to a higher standard of learning. So I'm actually following my curiosity, the verses that I choose. I choose verses that are
that I'm curious about. And then I asked myself questions like, I wonder why you know such and such about this first and then I will go and search it out. So I'm actually not
doing this to present to you are actually doing it following my curiosity and sharing, sharing with you what I'm curious about. Allow Harlem and so yeah Hamdulillah that was a nice change of pace. It wouldn't be nice to try some other types of styles of Facebook lives in the future in Charlotte Anna saccular have everybody tuning in vertical Lo Fi calm. I sent out my mama law here.