Naima B. Robert – Advice for Muslim Writers Aliyah Umm Raiyaan Sunday Sessions
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To everyone.
Welcome to another Sunday session.
What are the Sunday sessions? I hear you
ask. Sunday sessions
are our time to come together
as sisters, as writers,
to get the motivation that we need to
achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves
in the week ahead. So some of you
are working on your nonfiction books. Some of
you are working on your children's books. Some
of you have just started the planning process.
Some of you are in the editing and
launching process. Some of you are just listening
to this for the first time because you
have a dream, you have a vision, you
have
a a calling. Right? So regardless of where
you are on your writing journey,
the Sunday sessions are for you.
My goal is for these sessions to be
a shot of adrenaline,
okay, to push you forward, to give you
that oomph that you need. And, alhamdulillah,
we are blessed to have the company of
some wonderful sisters
over the coming weeks, months,
years to inspire us and to give us
even more motivation
for us to achieve
our book dreams.
So
today, we are as the series, as you
know, is Traits of Successful Writers.
Trust and believe. We will be talking about
traits of successful writers for the rest of
the year. Okay? Because there are literally that
many.
But I want to start off today
talking about intention.
Now if you're in the programs with me,
you know that we always start with intention.
We start
with the deeper meaning of what we are
doing and the higher purpose.
We start with why.
Every one of you
should be
on a regular basis
asking yourself,
why am I doing this? And finding the
answer.
Okay? Not the mean girl, why am I
doing this? Like, oh,
why am I doing this? No.
An honest
and sincere
evaluation.
Why am I doing this again?
What is my intention?
What is the deeper meaning
of this work,
and what is my higher purpose
in this project?
Reconnecting
to that.
Getting clear about that. Putting energy
and focus and thought into that and making
your art through that.
Because as I told you guys before and
as you know,
we make the effort.
The results are with Allah.
We do our thing
sincerely,
and Allah makes whatever he wills happen.
And with that, I want to welcome
the first guest
of the series,
somebody,
who I'm sure you are all familiar with
and who I have known for a very,
very long time, a sister, friend, colleague,
all of the things.
But
for our purposes here today, she is the
author
of a book that became the book of
the month, really, this Ramadan.
The book was published well, the book came
about
in a very unusual way,
in a very miraculous way.
And I'm hoping
that our sister, Alia
Umrayan,
will tell us all about it, how the
book came to be, and the power of
intention and intentionality
on her journey. Alia Umrayan, please welcome to
our stage.
Welcome welcome to our space.
Oh, please. Just unmute.
Apologies. Walaikum Assalamu Ala.
It's lovely to be here, Masha'Allah. I was
listening to you and I was applying what
you were saying to
my own writing
and the importance of
continuously
renewing your intention,
as you go along. Right at the beginning,
that's obviously very important but it's important to
continue it even after you've written your book,
even after it's been published.
So
for the reminder.
Absolutely.
So have you got a copy of your
book? For those who haven't seen it, it's
Ramadan Reflections.
Tell us
okay. So just so those of you who
were sleeping this Ramadan and you weren't paying
attention,
Ramadan Reflections was published by Penguin. It came
out just before Ramadan.
It became a Sunday Times bestseller.
So many people commented and actually came back
to me,
about the impact of this book in their
Ramadan and just in their lives.
But, Aliyah, you didn't think this book could
be possible. You didn't think this thing could
be done. Tell us about the book journey.
We wanna know from the from the beginning
of this.
Oh, gosh. Well, I'll have to take you
back. Okay. So
I I run a charity,
called Solace, which,
we we support revert sister revert women who
find themselves in difficulty, and that takes up
a lot of my time. And I'm also
a mother of 4 children.
So I'm quite a busy person,
and I've always wanted to write a book
and in fact Naima over the years has
said to me, well you need to write
a book, you need to write a book,
when are you going to write a book,
you need to write a book. And it's
so it's always been an intention. I've always
intended to. I've always wanted to.
I've made dua about it for a very,
very long time.
But it was actually the Ramadan
2022
where I
I I really,
took that intention and and just and lifted
it up to Allah in in a way
that I hadn't done before.
So I made a lot of du'a about
it. It was at the forefront of my
mind.
I felt I felt drawn
towards actually putting pen to paper. You know,
and before it was just kind of like,
oh, it would be so nice, wouldn't it
be nice to write a book? A few
rocks, yeah, you know,
nice to have. Exactly, it's just a nice,
a nice thing to, to have accomplished, you
know. But this now became serious. I began
to think about what I would write.
And yes,
so I made du'a about it and I
just kept talking to Allah about it in
that Ramadan.
And then a couple of months later
I was scrolling through my messages,
on Instagram
and I was checking the request folder
and I came across a message from a
woman.
And
I I read it and honestly, I know
I said this story so many times, I
thought it was a scam. I thought someone
was trying to play me for something.
But I responded and normally with such messages
I just delete.
I don't even open them. I just delete.
But I opened this one and I replied,
and I said, okay. Can you email me?
Sounds interesting. Can you email me? And she
did pretty much straight away.
And then I checked when when I got
the email, I checked her email address and
it
it was a, like like, a legit email.
Legit. That's important. Because, you know, when you
get those ones where it's, like,
some nonsense set of numbers and everything they
say they're from Facebook, it's like, no. No.
No exactly, exactly. When I saw that it
was a legit email address
my heart stopped.
And the message that she had sent was
you know I'm a publisher
from Penguin Random House and,
we were wondering if you would be interested
in writing a book
for us.
And I just thought this this had come
2 months
after I had been making serious du'a,
and that Allah would
bless me with the opportunity to write a
book, write and publish a book before I
leave this world.
And, you know, here I was receiving this
message.
And then, you know, cut a long story
short,
obviously, I had a 1,000 questions for her
and how did she find me, and she
seemed to know everything about me and my
life. And
and then, yeah, she said that she wanted,
you know, she wanted me to to write
a book ahead of Ramadan,
2023,
connected to Ramadan
in some way, but that was it. She
left the rest to me.
And then it was a very, very,
a very personal kind of journey thereafter.
I obviously had to send over a synopsis,
I had to put together a plan,
I had a week to do so, I
had absolutely no idea, you know, I was
kind of,
I was actually really worried that I wouldn't
be able to do this.
And I remember speaking to Naima right at
the right. Naima was one of the first
the first people that I spoke to about
this.
So the world, you know, didn't know anything,
and I spoke to Naima and I immediately
thought, okay, I need to speak to Naima
because, you know, her level of experience,
her skills and just just I knew that
she would be the best person to guide
me on this process. And I and I'm
sure I remember telling you that, oh, my
gosh, I don't think I'm the right person
for this. You know, what if, you know
and there was just so many ifs and
buts.
Okay. I I just I just while you
say that, guys, I just need everybody who's
listening, who's watching
to to to to to hear that. K?
When those fears come up, that imposter syndrome,
that self doubt, that who am I to
do this,
don't think it's because of your particular level.
I've said this before and I'll say it
again. At every level,
there is
a a touch of self doubt. Sometimes that
touch of self doubt looms large. Sometimes
it shrinks into the corner. But for most
people, there is that question of, well, can
I even do this? Am I even the
right person to do this? Including
Aliyah,
who you wouldn't think would think like that,
but here you go. Thank you so much
for sharing that with us. That's really powerful
for the sisters to know. Yeah. I think
and I think and I think it's you
know, I always do share this part of
the story, you know, wherever I speak because,
you know, Masha' people, you know, see the
success of the book and that's obviously from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, you know, the fact
that it's become a bestseller, but it started
off with a writer who didn't think she
could do it.
And then there were things that I had
to do, I had to work on myself
which led to, you know, the book being
completed and so on. So it's it's it's
important for us to share these stories because
they're they're real. They're normal.
You know? You will go through it.
You know?
You know, I'm writing again at the moment,
and I'm going through it again, I'm thinking
oh well, you know second book,
you know what if it's, you know, what
if it's this thing? But I know these
thoughts now. I know this this type of
thinking, and I know how to address it,
but it's important for everyone to know that
these thoughts and feelings are very, are very
real, are very normal,
but it's what you do with them that
makes the difference. Because if you succumb to
them had I
had I succumb to the thought that I
wasn't a good enough writer, that they had
got it wrong, that I was going to
write a rubbish book,
Ramadan Reflections wouldn't be here.
So that's very, very important. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
So that's the story. That's the story behind
the Ramadan Reflections. And, just
let's blow some minds here, shall we?
How long did it take you to oh,
no. Hold on. How long did the publisher
give you
to write the first draft?
So okay. So so the publisher sent that
first message on Instagram at the end of
July,
and then I sent the synopsis in August.
No. Sorry. I sent this yeah. I sent
the synopsis at the beginning of August,
and then they took it to the acquisition
meeting. So by the time all of that
had been done and they had come back
and they had said, yes. Okay. We want
to go forward with this particular idea for
the book,
I had a month
to write my first draft. We may have
missed that. So so what did you say?
How long do you have to write the
draft? 1 month.
1 month.
And did you think that you could manage
that? No. No.
I went into panic mode. I literally went
I remember
when when when, you know, when the the
terms for the contract came through and, you
know, we knew that it was going, you
know, it was going to ahead to contract,
I just thought
I I in fact, I even said to
the publisher,
how is this even possible? Like, who like,
she said, well,
it is rare,
but it's not impossible. It has been done
before. And I said, but do you know
how busy I am?
Do you know me, by the way?
Lovely. You know? And, Lyra, you know me.
You know how crazy busy my role is
at Solace. And I said, I I and
she said, well, it is possible. And I
just had to sit down. I had to
okay. I I literally sat down
and I looked at my life. Right. My
role at Solace.
I home educate my children. Cooking, cleaning, washing,
shopping. You know, I I literally had to
break everything down.
Okay. That's gonna have to go out of
the window this month.
That I'm gonna have to have
literally minimal expectations
in regards to cooking, it's gonna be, you
know, very basic stuff, you know, okay this
person can help me with my youngest child,
you know, in terms of, you know, some
drop offs,
I have to enlist the help of my
eldest daughter.
You know? I had to go back to
my work you know, my colleagues at work
and say, right. We're gonna have to put
this on hold or I'm gonna need you
to take on this delegate.
And I had to do that and create
space.
And then I had to to really look
at okay how am I gonna maximize
on the one month that I have And
I realized that I don't write well at
home.
I just don't.
If I sit down at my desk at
home,
I will procrastinate,
I will look at the laundry basket,
I will look at the floor that needs
sweeping,
I'll have, you know, my children, you know,
asking me all sorts of things, and what
will, you know, what what would normally have
been a writing hour, you know, I'll probably
end up writing maybe 2 lines. But if
I take myself out
of this environment,
for some reason that worked for me. So
that meant that I had to decide, okay,
this amount of time in the library or
this amount of time in a coffee shop.
And majority of Ramadan Reflections actually was written
outside,
and that's that's what worked for me. So
it was literally just sitting down and thinking,
right. 1 month. I've only got 1 month.
I need to be serious about this. What
needs to change? What do I need to
to to, you know, to implement in that
month?
As the sisters are saying, you know, really
inspiring,
crazy inspiring. And I think just as you
said, there there's there's shifts that need to
be made when your goal becomes nonnegotiable.
Right? And so there are lifestyle shifts as
you had to make, but then there are
also mental shifts, aren't there? And there's a
lot of mental
clearing out of the way that you must
do right at the start to avoid sabotaging
yourself. Can you talk to us a bit
about that? Yeah. Yeah. I I went to
a friend of mine.
I remember this was after I had submitted
no. No. No. Sorry. This was prior to
creating the plan of the book, for the
book. And I said to her,
I honestly think they've got the wrong person.
Really, I I don't think I can do
this.
And I was I was really, like,
panicking and,
you know, the anxiety had taken over, and
and that's not the type of person that
I am, you know, when I when I
have a project
I'm I'm very much a doer
and I believe in Allah's,
power
to turn
a very simple idea into something wonderful, I
really very much believe in that and I've
seen that
happen in my life and and and the
lives of others, alhamdulillah.
So why was I now, like, literally sweating
and, you know,
and struggling with this? And I and I
said that to her. She said to me,
okay. She said to she said to me,
Ayla, why do you want to do this?
So why do you wanna do this?
And I said,
because I want to bring
hearts and souls back to Allah
And I want this to stand for me,
you know, on the day where I need
it most.
And she said, okay.
Take the fact that it's Penguin out of
the picture.
She said, because you're you're you're panicking
because it's like a big publisher. You're just
focused on the fact that Penguin.
She said take them out of the picture.
She said who is this about? I said
this is a this is for Allah. This
is for Allah. And she said focus on
that.
And it was such simple advice,
but as soon as she said that, there
was a shift.
And it just began to flow.
You know? Everything began to flow.
So I I
as soon as I I
took Penguin out of the picture
and made it, and it and it is
all about Allah it
is for him,
and focused upon that,
then
I began to smile as I was writing,
you know, I began to dream as I
was writing,
I began to connect it to Allah
as I was writing, and I actually enjoyed
it.
But as soon as I focused on Penguin,
it was just like a block.
100%. I absolutely love that. And this is
something that, you know, those in our programs
will have heard me say, and I'm sure
you can relate to this.
We don't
put our ego in front of us when
we do this work.
And
once you remove your ego and I would
say that, you know,
the ego
is concerned with
the out the outward. Right? The appearance of
things,
you know, the publisher, the editor, the critics,
the readers even. Right?
And, of course, ourselves.
Once we remove ourselves
from the work,
we are allow we allow Allah's message to
come through us. We allow ourselves to be
a conduit for what it is that whatever
it is that Allah
wants
to bring forth as a result of this,
we allow it to happen. And it literally
is like you said, Masha'allah, just it's releasing.
Because even with your book, every and I
you guys have heard me say this.
You have everything inside you, whether it's your
ideas, your experiences, your stories, your thoughts, your
reflections.
Most of you are writing
books where everything's here. Everything is here. Right?
And the trick is the work is
to clear the way
so that you can release that. That's why
the program is called release. Right? So I
love I love your take on that. I
love the way that you were able to
fix that intention
and how Allah was so merciful to once
you had fixed that intention
just to make it easy just to to
allow it to flow out of you. There
was one other instance, if I don't if
you don't mind me sharing, and this I
think this this might help the sisters as
well.
It was past mid past mid September so
I I only had half a month left,
and
right at the beginning I thought I knew
that there would be 30 chapters one one
for each day of Ramadan, you know that's
the way that I kind of structured the
book and so in my mind right at
the beginning, I thought, okay, one chapter a
day. I'll write 1 chapter a day.
Come come 15th
of September, I was nowhere near 15 chapters.
Right? So I had fallen behind.
And then obviously,
I began to panic
and I was exhausted,
I was so tired
and, you know, but to have this deadline,
you know, kind of looming over me was
it it felt
it felt heavy, but I knew now I
know it was necessary. And actually I know
that it it's, subhanAllah, Allah knows
me so well that he knows that if
had I not had that deadline,
there's no way that this book would have
come about. Yeah. Honestly, I would have been
I, you know, I would have procrastinated. But,
anyway so I had this deadline, and I
hadn't written the 15 chapters.
I was exhausted.
I don't know if I was I've if
I was on my menswear. I don't know
what was going on, but I broke down.
And I broke down in front of my
children.
I broke down crying, and I just said
I'm so behind,
and I don't I just
can't do this, I just can't do this.
And I think I'm not sure if I
write it, I'm not sure if I mentioned
this this story in the book
but my
my eldest, my daughter,
who's 19,
she said
she she she literally took hold of my
shoulders,
and she looked me in the eyes, and
she said, you raised me
telling me that I can never use the
words I can't.
And she said, Ummi,
you can do this.
Go and put on your hijab,
take your laptop,
and go to the coffee shop.
And in that moment
I became,
a little girl and was like you're right,
you know, and I did, and I did,
you know, and
you know, she she remembers this because when
she was little and she was memorizing Quran,
you know, she there wasn't there was a
a moment where she said to me, she
was like I think 3 or 4, I
can't remember, she said, I mean, I can't
I can't do this. I can't. It's too
difficult. You know? And I and I there
were I remember this, and then she remembers
this. I said to her, you
have Allah.
So with Allah
everything is possible,
and I never want to hear you say
the words I can't again.
And to this day, she's 19, she she
can't
use the words I can't. It's, like, impossible.
So for her to hear me, to see
me cry, to break down, to, you know,
and then
to you to hear these words from her
own mother, she was like, mm-mm. No.
No.
And that's what I needed to hear. And
this the thing is that it I'm I'm
mentioning this story to you sisters because
there will be moments where you'll say,
I can't. It's not possible.
You know, you'll find you'll find the 101
reasons why you can't, but then there's one
reason why you can
that overrides all of them.
And that is that when Allah helps
you
and is your aid,
then he will make the impossible possible.
He will bring you everything you need. In
my last week of September
my last week of September and I was
serious seriously behind, my last week of writing
before my deadline,
I a very dear friend of mine, and
I acknowledge this in in the acknowledgments in
the book, she cooked for me for the
entire week. She cooked for me and my
family for the entire week. I didn't ask
her. She offered.
And she gave me that respite so that
I could just write.
You see how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings
you everything you need, and he will, but
you just need to focus on your sincere
intention.
You need to focus on the fact that
he will bring you everything you need
to make what seems impossible possible and leave
the rest to him,
you know. So I wanted to mention that
story because
you need to also take the words I
can't out of your,
you know, mindset and your vocabulary because you
can. Everything literally
is possible. Whenever you say I can't, ask
yourself, is this true? Because it is. There
are there are reasons why it it won't,
you know,
there are reasons why it can never be
true if that makes sense. So yeah.
I absolutely love that,
I love that. So I want to you've
been really open with us and really honest
with us,
and I'm just gonna I want to just
take that into the process a little bit
more.
I know that you didn't have a lot
of time between
finishing the draft and then, of course, all
the launch activity. Right? So before we go
into the the launch activity, actually,
just for the sake of those who are
in the programs,
did you find any of the Amplify information
useful at all?
So okay.
So I for me,
the the way that I work is that
whenever I have a project,
I plan it from beginning to end right
at the beginning.
Mhmm. Right from the beginning. So
that that's just how I that's how I
work. Right? That's how I operate. So when
I knew that, okay, I'm gonna write this
book, I didn't just think about writing the
book.
Marketing the book, I thought about the book
launch, I thought about the readers, you know,
right up until the end, you know?
So obviously I came to my dear my
dear friend Naima and I and I and
I asked her, right, I need, you know,
I need your help, I need your guidance,
And
then may Allah reward you, greatly, Naima. You
know, you were so generous
with,
with everything that you shared with me,
And I can honestly say
that the Amplify program
was
on I I don't even I don't even
know how to describe it. I'm I'm actually
speechless.
It's amazing.
Absolutely
phenomenal.
I learned so much.
I applied
as pretty much about 80%
of your of your program. Some of it,
obviously, you know, Penguin took care of, but
80 80, if not more, percent of your
program, I applied.
And Penguin
turned around to me and said,
you
are a publisher's dream.
They said that you are a publisher's dream
because I worked so hard
in marketing the book.
And there's one thing that Naima said,
and I I can't remember, forgive me if
you said this to me privately or if
you said it in the actual Amplify program,
where you said
if you want your book to reach
as many people as possible or you want
your book to be successful,
do not rely on the marketing efforts of
the publisher.
Oh.
Oh. Oh. I can't remember if it was
in the program or you said it to
me privately.
But I took that, and I was like,
right. I'm holding
onto that
because I because for me, I wanted this
book. I wanted this book to touch hearts.
I wanted it to reach, you know, 1,000,000,
and I still have that intention. You know?
Oh, that will.
And, you know, may yeah. May Allah make
it possible. I mean, you know?
But the Amplify program,
every I believe
every
author should take this program. I I I
cannot like, I'm gonna be going back to
it repeatedly. I I I want to shout,
you know, I wanna shout out about this
to everyone because
it it
made me understand
why marketing is important,
how to do it. It was like it
was like a clear blueprint. Literally, all you
have to do is sit through this program
with a separate notebook,
take notes and put it to practice and
you see
you see the results coming through almost straight
away
And I believe, honestly, and Alon knows best,
you know, because, you know, he is the
only one that knows the unseen. But I
truly believe
that the Amplify program
was the biggest reason why this book became
a Sunday Times bestseller. That's my honest estimate.
Sis, are you serious?
Serious.
I'm serious. Because I know you see,
I know
that I know the numbers, the pre order
numbers.
Right? I I I asked the publisher to
send me a weekly update. See, I'm very
particular about how I do this. Yes. Guys,
she is. Like, she gives them, like, a
hard time. She's like, no. I need to
understand this. I wanna know what's happening here.
Yeah. Like, yeah. No.
And and and I think it did it
did because they they didn't know. They you
know, at the end,
you know, after Ramadan had passed, I said
to them, did you expect this?
Did you expect it to be, you know,
successful in this way?
And they said, no.
We were quite, you know, not in this
way, you know, not to that kind of
level and and they said, you know, you
are a publisher's dream and what they meant
by that
is that the marketing that I put into
it,
the way that I marketed the book, the
way that I I did my best to
drive preorders
really made a difference because then come publication
date
the numbers were just, you know, huge.
I'm telling y'all. Y'all believe me. Yeah?
So, yeah, I'm
alum. Okay? It's true.
This stuff works. Yes. And what I love,
Aliyah, is
and I think this is really important, especially
for those who are watching or listening who
have access to Amplify. Right? Because we we
we bolt it onto our programs,
but who maybe watch a couple of videos
here and there, you know, who maybe dabble
a little bit.
It doesn't work if you do that. It
does not work nearly as well as if
you do what Alia said, which was literally
watch the whole thing.
Take notes. Tell us what this is. I
love that you took action on this
and for the results. Tell us about this
notebook. This is my notebook.
This is the notebook that I used, and,
you know, I'm just gonna do a quick
this was this was a notebook I used
to plan my marketing. It's full. Wow. Wow.
Wow. The notebook that I used to take
notes from the Amplify program. So it's literally
divided in all in in in all the
areas. It's full. It's complete. This was just
this was just the Amplify program
and, you know, everything all the steps that
I needed to take as a result of
that. Then I then I transferred that to
a spreadsheet,
you know, and I had, you know, everything
I had to do each week leading up
to publication date, post publication date.
I honestly, Naima,
may Allah bless you, the Amplify program
was
just it was,
it was a blessing, a a tribute.
And didn't your publisher win an award
for your marketing?
Tell us about that.
Okay. So here's the thing. Right? And, you
know, I don't stuff a lot. I don't
wanna knock anyone, but so so,
the the marketing team, there was there was
a there was a lady that was,
that was kind of heading up the marketing
campaign
right at the beginning and then she actually
left
her job
for whatever reason,
and then they brought in someone new literally
I think a week before public publication.
Oh, wow. Really?
Yeah. And this person
this person
was responsible
for going over my spreadsheet
that I had created as a result of
the Amplify program
Right.
And sending off copies of books to influencers.
Yeah.
And then maybe a few other things. That's
that's pretty much all she did,
in the background.
She won an award.
She won the award, not the not the
one who was there before? No. She won
the awards because, you know, public come publication
date, she was behind. Right? She was
and, you know, and I was happy for
her because she's actually a really lovely person.
You know? She's really nice. And,
but then I thought to myself as and
when I was looking at this, I thought,
you know what?
Subhanallah,
2 things.
I know the amount of effort I put
into this Yeah. As a result of the
Amplify program.
So I just thought,
you should have won the award, actually.
But No. So I think maybe you should
have, Noma. You know? But We'll take it
together.
Give us the reward.
But I but I was curious about the
title of that award, and I think this
is significant for for for everybody who's watching
and listening. What was the actual title of
the award that she won? So correct me
if I'm wrong. I'm just checking my messages.
I sent you a screenshot, didn't I? I
think it's audience development, I think. Yes. Was
that it? Just double checking to show. Yes.
Audience development. Yep. Now I want people to
understand what that means.
Audience development,
she won an award for audience development,
right, which means that
the publisher
has previously
not
achieved
this level of success in this audience.
Right? This audience is a Muslim audience. Okay?
I don't think Penguin has I mean, most
none of the publishers really have,
let me put it this way,
mainstream
Muslim bestsellers.
Okay? Meaning,
the kind of books that Muslims like to
buy. Right?
They they they haven't been they historically, they
haven't really been publishing those types of books.
They'll publish books by Muslims,
but often they are for a non Muslim
audience. Right? This is, I think, maybe Penguin's
first book.
Obviously, From My Sister's Lips was a long
time ago. It was also under Random House,
but this is a it's an it's an
Islamic book. Yeah. Very good. Islamic book.
So so what they what they recognize is
that through this book,
we have now
developed a readership in a new
market, in a new community.
And what that means and, masha'Allah, I I
I ask Allah
sincerely,
Aliyah,
to reward you
for opening this door
and for obviously
doing the work
to bless the people with what Allah wants,
you know, them to have from the book,
but also for being a trailblazer
in this area in the publishing side. Because
insha'Allah, you will write more books
and they will do well. But because you
wrote an amazing book and because you put
in the work, masha'Allah,
to get this book out
into the community,
you have proven to the publisher
that our voices
and our stories
and our concerns
are profitable,
and I'm gonna put it that way. And
let me let me just say something on
that. At one of my events in Ramadan,
I think it was a light upon light
event, I had a sister come up to
me
and she said
she said, oh, she was so excited. She
was, you know, jumping up and down and,
you know, and she's, oh, I can't believe
this. You know? She said,
because of
Ramadan Reflections,
I'm putting out
a book with Penguin Random House,
right,
next year.
Masha'Allah.
So it's it's so so, you know, it's
opening up, you know, hers is it's a
very different type of book, it's kind of
like a planner,
but it's it's opening up. It's it's opening
up doors, and I'm and I'm and
I think,
you know,
one thing that you've taught me, Naima,
I don't wanna get emotional. Oh my gosh.
I think I need to get, a glass
of water in a minute. I don't wanna
get emotional.
But one thing that you've taught me,
through the support that you've given me and
you, you know, you've given me and to
this book
is that we need to
think beyond our books.
We need to
we need to look at opening avenues
for other for other Muslim women. You know.
And and you did that through the support
that you gave me, and you're doing that,
you know, you know, mashaAllah, you're an established
author, award winning author, and you're doing that
for your sisters, you know, you're doing that
for all of us. And we also need
to to do that for others, you know.
And,
yeah. So
reward you. I mean I'm just gonna grab
a glass of water. Please. Please. It's Fad
Ali Fad Ali.
I think
the
I'm sure you guys have got a lot
you know, taken away a lot from from
from from our conversation so far. But I
think it's worth reminding everybody
that
every one of us is
2,
5, 10 steps ahead of the other sister.
Right? Another sister. Okay?
And
you have
already just from the fact that you're here,
that you are working on your book, that
you've come this far, wherever you are in
the process, you are 2, 5, 10 steps
ahead of another sister.
I can't write every book.
I can't work with every publisher.
I can't speak on every topic.
But me, personally,
can I be a part of
the journeys
of those who go ahead and do that?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And so for me, and I think for
everybody here, Aliyah included, obviously, you can hear
that, masha'Allah,
just in her efforts,
she's also paying it forward.
She's also opening doors and breaking down new
doors and just just opening up and showing
what's possible, not just to the sisters, but
also to the publishers.
And I
say, you know, that the the pub that
what she did prove to publishers that our
books are profitable.
I use that word specifically.
Not that our books are important or that
they matter or that they should be given
a voice, etcetera, which they should, but I've
I've I'm sure I've made it very clear
to everybody who's worked with me and who's
been working with me.
Publishers
are a for profit
organization. They are for profit companies.
They
want to know that your book can sell.
That's why majority of people
do not get publishing deals,
because the publisher is not convinced
that they can make this book work financially.
Right? Now,
because of the success of,
Aliyah's book,
the publisher now has
more information
about the Muslim and the Islamic
book market,
about the reading habits of Muslims,
about what is possible within the Muslim space.
Right? So for sure, I expect not just
Penguin Random House to publish more of these
types of books. But as these books continue
to do well,
other publishers are also going to want a
piece of that, and they are also going
to be opening their doors, keeping an eye
out
for
potential bestsellers for their own lists. Right? So
it's a it's it's a it's a value
proposition,
So
that, you know, we've been able to support
each other as sisters. And you guys, I
always tell you this,
you are the network of the future.
Those of you who are in programs together,
everybody who's here watching, who's listening, who's learning,
follow each other on Instagram. Follow Alia Omeryan
on Instagram. If you're not following me, follow
me. Follow our writers.
Follow each other
and support each other when you have your
book launches, when you start to come out
with these amazing things that you've been working
on because
you never know how you can help another
sister writer and how that
sister can help
you. Aliyah and I have known each other
for for decades
pretty much.
We didn't use to talk books. We talked
a lot of other things,
But,
when she needed help with her book, she
knew that she could come to me, and
I'm gonna I'm going to give her what
you know, I'm gonna tell her what I
know. I'm gonna help her in any way
that I can. Right? And you guys can
do the same. Those of you who've been
through Amplify, you know everything that sister Alia
knows. Right? So
you know another sister who is, you know,
doing a book launch, and maybe she's not
in Amplify. Maybe she's not in our program.
You could be a source of help and
guidance for her as well.
Right? And just all the coaching that we
have, the reminders that we have, these these
these are all parts now
of your backpack.
These these are skills you have. These are
capabilities
you have.
Right?
I've passed whatever I passed on to you.
You've learned whatever you've learned along the journey,
and now,
you get to share that with other people
as well. And it's
such a privilege. And like I said,
we can't write every book. We can't address
every topic. But can we get the barakah
of tens, if not 100, more books than
just our own? We absolutely can.
So that for me is a very exciting
prospect. I absolutely love it. And, Aliyah, if
you want to come back on video,
we can just give everybody the final lowdown,
on the book and maybe whatever might be
coming up, and then we can close out
because I think it's been an absolutely
wonderful, wonderful session. And I'm just so pleased
that you were able to join us
on this Saturday morning,
And and, you know, and and really
just bless our community with, you know, your
honesty and, you know, with your takeaways and
just the inspiration.
It's so, so valuable.
Yeah. So I
mean,
closing kind of thoughts.
There's there's one Actually, before you sorry. Before
you do, I have a I have a
question. Sure. Because I know that you well,
you guys all heard the amount of work
that you put in to market the book.
Right? And you also heard
the, the other things that you have on
your plate. Okay?
So I have a question for you. Two
questions.
Looking back on the prelaunch
and the launch and the postlaunch,
Was it tough?
What in terms of what I had to
do? Was it tough for you? Yeah. Was
it hard?
It took my took up my time. Yes.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It did. I had to
put in the effort. I had to put
in the time. Absolutely.
Were you exhausted by the end of it?
Yes.
Okay. So that's where I wanted to get
to. So it was it was an exhausting
process by the end of it because she
did a lot, guys. If you saw,
my girl was up and down the country,
and you know already sister Ali, she has
a fantastic network.
So, obviously,
her her amplification
may not look like yours.
But you put in the work, and alhamdulillah
by Allah's grace, you saw the result. By
the end of it, I think you were
pooped. Right? You were you were like I
was it's I'm I okay. So so it
I'm still not back to normal.
And within
6th June well, no. What no. 6th, 10th
of 11th June.
I'm still not back to normal. And, you
know, Eid was what? April?
So that shows you yeah. I I
yeah.
So
my last question is,
do you feel that it was worth it?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I
I,
as I said, I'm still not back to
normal. I I
really did burn out,
but I knew that I in order
in order for this book
to reach as many people as possible,
I had to I had to, like, just
push through, you know, really and truly.
And I did. I crashed at the end
of it. I'm not going to lie.
I I crashed. I crashed quite badly.
Was it worth it? Yes. Because the messages
that still continue to pour in,
that this book changed their life, that it
changed their relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
you know, a sister who hadn't spoken to
a relative for over 20 years and as
a result of reading the the chapter on
forgiving others established
contact again, you know, lots and lots of
stories, non muslims that read my book that
you know, became Muslim as a result of
reading the book. You know, this how can
it not be Oh, no. Yeah. How can
it not be worth it? Absolutely.
And, you know, subhanAllah,
the way that I see things is that
we will always be tired with something. Something
will always make us feel tired.
So choose those things that will lead you
to rest well in the akhirah.
Choose those things that will make you tired
in the that will lead you to rest
well in the akhirah. Because you're gonna be
tired by something, but be tired by something
that's beneficial and reward and extremely,
rewardable by Allah. So that's that's the way
that I approach life.
Touch.
That's a mic drop right there. We are
gonna stop that. We're gonna make it real.
We're gonna make a poem. That is a
word, as they say.
Sister Alia Omorian, we love you. We're proud
of you.
We are we celebrate your achievement, and we
appreciate
you sharing of yourself in this way,
not just with us here today, but in
the book because
that book is a piece of you. Right?
That book was probably
many pieces of you. I've read the book,
so I know.
You've put that into the world.
I ask Allah to bless it, but a
lot to allow it to continue, guys. Remember
the visualization that we do in the program?
Remember when we close our eyes and we
imagine the book going out into the world
to people that we've never seen, to places
that we've never been?
And the ching ching ching of the reward.
Remember?
And that reward being multiplied, you change one
woman's life, it transforms her family.
You change that family, you have shifted generational,
all sorts of patterns, and that's just one
family and another and another and another and
another. Ask Allah
to make that the reality for this book
and all the other books to follow,
and may they be a proof for you
on Yom Kiyama
100%.
Thank you so much for being with us
today, for inspiring us, for motivating us. And
guys, you know what the assignment is. Y'all
need to buy extra copies of Ramadan Reflection
so that you can give them out as
gifts in good time before next Ramadan, and
we look forward to your next book, sis.
Jazakamalaykha.
Thank you very much for inviting me on.
Thank you, everyone.
Until next week, inshallah. Make sure that you
follow sister Alia Umrayan on Instagram, and make
sure that this
feeling that you have allows you to go
back to your writing project, renew your intention,
rediscover
your why, and do the thing you need
to do, whatever that is. And I will
see you inshallah next week.