Naima B. Robert – Nonfiction Authors Speak! Muslimah Author Summit 2022
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Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, everyone. We should be live
on YouTube now, so that's
that's great. Excellent.
Very, very excited to be here with you
guys.
Assalamu alaikum everyone. Welcome to this session in
the Muslim Writers Summit.
Very, very, very,
excited
to be sharing this particular session with you
all.
This session in brings together some of my
favorite people, some of my favorite clients,
who have worked with us to write a
nonfiction book for adults.
Yesterday, we talked with some sisters who had
written children's books. Today, we're talking to sisters
who have written books for adults. And, they're
going to introduce themselves,
tell us about their books. What made them
write their books and what they learned along
the way, insha'Allah. So that they can benefit
you guys with their wisdom because they are
the ones, masha'Allah, who've been on this journey
and have learned. Whatever that they're gonna share
with you today, inshallah, and are giving it
as a gift to all of you.
So I want to introduce everyone, inshallah. We're
gonna get us all on the screen at
one time.
With me today,
I have, sister Farah Haduale
and sister Isra
Hashimi.
Oh, it's not Isra Hashimi.
Oh, you see? SubhanAllah, I'm reading people's Instagram
profiles here.
Sister Miriam Elias. Ladies, can we have your
cameras on and your, your mics unmuted, and
then we can let you all introduce yourselves
1 by 1.
Do I say more? Yes, Farah.
Yes, please.
Alright. Yeah. No. I'm really excited to be
here today. I can't wait to share with
you my book, what it's about,
the journey that we took to get here,
and, Insha'Allah, learn a lot from the other
ladies as well.
Hey.
It's Isra.
I am Isra Hashmi.
As my Instagram profile says Isra, go ahead.
Yep. I'm
can you hear me?
Yeah. Okay.
There we go. Okay.
My name is Isra
Hashmi,
and
I am so excited to be here to
talk about nonfiction
writing.
If you have a something that you wanna
tell, and that's probably why you're here,
then this is,
the absolute perfect session because
nonfiction writing is just about
your story, your message, something that's happened to
you that you feel you wanna, like, just
you're gonna burst if you don't share it,
and that's how I was. And so I'm
really excited that I can share on this
platform.
Mariam, you wanna go? Yes. Sure.
Can you all hear me?
Okay. I think the ima froze. Right? Okay.
Okay.
So,
I'm Maria Milias,
a published
author, alhamdulillahi rabbil 'Alabin.
I'm a wife and a mother of 3,
and it's been an exciting journey. I cannot
wait
until for us all to share how it
has been from the start to finish,
for us to be here.
It's been quite a journey. So, yes, I
can't wait to talk more about my book
and discuss with my sisters
and everything else.
Inshallah. So
Okay. I think it took Naima.
Okay.
Alhamdulillah, send an email. We all we all
introduced ourselves.
Can you hear us?
Okay. I think as, You guys are actually
actually okay.
You guys are okay. It was me that
dropped off. So Okay. Everybody can hear you
on YouTube, so you're you're fine. Alhamdulillah. Thank
you so much, Israj. JazakAllah Faran. Wonderful to
have you with us, Masha'Allah. Sister Maryam, do
you want to share your oh, tell us
who you are, my dear, and the books
that you have written?
Okay.
So my name is Maria Milias. I'm a
mother and a wife.
Mother of 3 beautiful children, and
I'm a published author of facing life as
the girl from Nima,
about my life and
yeah. Hopefully, we'll get deep more into it
in a bit. I'm excited to be with
my sisters.
And we definitely will be getting into that.
So just to confirm, because my Internet connection
has been a bit crazy, have we all
introduced ourselves, ladies?
Give me a thumbs up if we have.
Okay. Fantastic. Okay.
So
writing a book, you know, we know that
there are different types of nonfiction books out
there. Right? And just for anyone in the
audience who's not sure the difference between fiction
and nonfiction,
fiction is basically a novel,
any kind of imaginary story, okay, is is
classed as fiction,
Romance, mystery, thrillers, fantasy,
all of that, that's all fiction.
And nonfiction
is basically books that are based in fact
or opinion but are not imaginary or made
up stories. Okay? So within nonfiction,
typically, the authors that we work with are
wanting to either share their
story, right, put your hand up if you
shared your story,
sharing their message,
put your hand up if you shared your
message,
all and all sharing knowledge that they have.
All right. And not everybody is sharing knowledge.
Not everyone is sharing a message. Not everyone
is sharing a story. But these will be
typically the types of authors that I come
into contact with and the ones we end
up working with. And most nonfiction books are
someone's story, someone's message, or knowledge that they
wanted to share.
So with that being said, within this genre,
we have, you know, books that are there
to, to tell the store someone's personal story,
their own life stories or stories from their
life, as in a memoir,
or a more of a self help book,
a book that helps the reader to
form, or a knowledge based book that is
actually teaching particular principles,
tools, or habits to the, you know, to
the reader. And, of course, there are plenty
of other nonfiction books as well, collections of
essays, collections of poetry,
anthologies, you know, which have several different authors
that contribute to those. And, of course, the
topics range
across every
conceivable notion. But today,
I'm really, really pleased to have these particular
authors with you because I would like them
to tell you
what their book is about. And just,
sis, tell us
what made you want to tell this story
or share this message? What was
what was the calling on your heart that
made you make the decision
to make this a nonnegotiable
and commit
and do the work required, which we know
is, you know, not,
is not negligible
in terms of work required,
in order for you to get this book
to where it is today.
Israel, do you wanna do you wanna answer
that one? Start start us off.
Sure. Sorry, miss Mila.
It's a loaded question, and I think for
each person, it's gonna be so unique, but
there is something that's probably the same in
all of them.
For me, personally,
about 3 years ago
so I live in the United States. I'm
sure you can tell from my American accent.
We moved,
to Spain.
We up and moved to Spain, me and
my family. We have 3 young children
Because we were kind of tired of this
capitalist
fast paced life,
we wanted to just slow down, enjoy the
family more, be with the kids more,
and not be so concerned with
just making money and paying bills and just
living on this, like, hamster wheel. So we
moved. We left for Spain.
After we got there, I started sharing my
life there, what I was doing there. You
know, you share it on Facebook and stuff,
family, friends, and I started noticing that, like,
a lot more people started tuning into what
I was saying, and they wanted to know.
And I was getting, you know, questions. And
if you're sitting there thinking, man, I'm always
the one who I who gives advice to
other people. I'm always the one who people
keep coming and asking me things. Why did
you do that? Or, you know, you always
give good advice.
That's kind of what kept happening.
And then I realized that I there's this
is a book. Like, all this that I
keep posting about,
what if I could just
put it, everything that I learned, all my
lessons, everything that I wish
I could tell people, even people who don't
know about our move
could learn from something that we did, and
they don't have to move to Spain to
learn from it. And so that's
how my idea for the book was born.
We moved in August 2019,
and by
September, I was looking up Naima to to
say, okay. I have something. I know there's
something that I wanna say.
And it doesn't mean you have to have
everything planned out. I had no idea what
I was gonna actually
put pen to paper and say,
but I knew there was something.
And
that's, I think, the crux of it. When
you kind of have that nudge,
that feeling where I know there's something. I
know I wanna say something. I've been through
something in my life. I wanna share it.
I have this experience. People keep coming to
me and asking me for advice.
There's something bigger there. So that's how I
started.
I love that. Love that story. And it's,
you know, very, very powerful.
Maniam,
what made you what is your book about
firstly, and what made you want to tell
the story?
So my book is about facing life.
So the title of the book is facing
life as the girl from Nima.
And,
for me, growing up so Nima is a
gangster neighborhood in in in Ghana, West Africa.
So growing up in this, poor neighborhood, which
has so many talents and, people just don't
know about it. And it's just it it
has the stereotype that everything bad, the people
that come from there are just bad, like,
so it's just gangster people. It's like one
day I have to share my story, and
I've had
so many experiences from then. I remember I
was 19,
just hired from university 1 week, and I
came home and I was sitting in the
chair. And my younger brother said, you know
what? You have to write a book and
share about your life and, like, what you're
going through because you're always, like, reminding people,
writing the short,
write ups here and then sharing with people.
I'm like, oh, no.
Writing a book is for those people, not
like, not me. So I'm like, okay. He's
like, oh, no. There are so many things
you can do. Maybe go for the outstanding
African, award something, African youth award that was,
coming up at the time. I was like,
no. No. No. So I said, okay. So
I'm we're just gonna take a compromise. If
I don't write a book by the time
I turn 30, then I'm not gonna write
a book. So this is something I just
said when I was 19 and 3 without
that.
Fast forward 10 years now. I mean, so
you know that with the pandemic and everything,
it's like, you know what? Sister's writing to
me, calling, and I I had my own
thing I was going through. I was pregnant
during the pandemic. And sisters were just reaching
out like, oh, I think I need a
divorce. I'm I'm I'm going away. It's the
kids are driving me crazy. It's just so
much, and I'm like, you know what? We
are all facing life.
You know, we're just taking it one day
at a time, and it's different for everybody,
but everybody nobody has a perfect life. We
are all going through something. So I was
like, you know what?
Maybe let me share. Let me open up
very vulnerably
raw to others to know that, look, this
sister that you think has it all together
and has this perfect life, it's not perfect
really. We are all facing life. So I
said this
with the amount of people dying, I was
like, what if I just pass away in
this, you know, in this pandemic and then
that's it? Like, what do I have left?
So I started just 20 pages. I was
like, yeah. And you know how that's that
feeling and fear comes in, and I gave
up. And then I had my daughter and
everything changed. It's like, no. I I became
so protective. I'm like, no. I have to
leave a legacy for
for my children and the children of the
Ummah. So for me, it's like, you know
what? This is it. I have to write
this book now. It's it's either now or
never. And then, I mean, God in fact,
her sister Naima, and here we are.
Okay. I don't think it's the name. Okay.
Let me continue. It's the name. It's not
so yeah. So I love that, Cecil. I
love that. I love that.
And I think the pandemic did give a
lot of people
some food for thought and also some time
to reflect on, you know, that whether they
had a message to share, whether they had
a book, or maybe just gave them the
time to actually write. So I'm so glad
that you took advantage of that. Thank you
so much. Sister Farah, what about you?
Yeah. You'll need to unmute yourself. Unmute for
a minute. Hi, everyone.
Josakala here for the question.
First of all, something I've noticed is quite
interesting. I think all 3 of us so
far probably styled our books
during lockdown, during the pandemic, the last couple
of years. So that's quite interesting, right, that
that something so drastic happened, but then it
kind of forced many of us to do
things that we said
we'll do one day. Well, for some of
us anyway, so that that's quite interesting to
see.
So my book is called, Taking Control,
A Muslim Woman's Guide to Surviving Infertility.
And what happened is that,
I've experienced infertility for many years now.
My husband and I have gone through the
journeys of trying to conceive and struggling with
that.
And about 6 years ago, I qualified as
a a coach, a personal development coach,
and I instantly thought I knew what niche
I wanted to work in and it was
to help Muslim women navigate infertility
because I saw, as you can imagine, that
it was a very tough,
trial to get through for many women. It
was confusing. It was shocking. It was,
demoral. Like, they they felt stuck in in
such a drastic way
that I knew
I wanted to help my sisters
get through that in the healthiest way possible,
but also to realize that there is,
a life
whilst trying to conceive. And I had all
these things. I just wanted to say to
every sister I met that I was going
through this, and it hurt I I I
always felt
quite heavy after speaking to its sis sisters
about this, because I just felt like I
had so much to say. I'm you know,
I just don't have the time. And so
I, went into coaching thinking that I would
do infertility coaching. And then within about 6
months, I realized I couldn't do it. I
I really struggled considering that I'm still in
the midst of trying to conceive
and the the the hardships of that for
myself and the toll that that has on
me day to day. And then to try
and help other sisters around the world
get through that when they're in such a
dark place
was so difficult.
And so I stopped, and I moved
the direction of my coaching.
But for the first time in my life,
I actually felt guilty about
feeling like I had
a responsibility
to do something about this because I felt
like the way
God had allowed me to deal with this,
you know, difficult,
trial,
was a gift, and I really didn't wanna
waste it. At the same time, I knew
I couldn't do the day to day
day to day of it, and so that's
where the book the idea of the book
was born because I thought I could put
the message in there. I could make this
available.
The assistance could keep coming back to this
and digest it in a way that is
easy for them, but it also freed me
from being
in that world every single day as well.
So it was it was it felt like
the thing that needed to happen, but
that was years ago. And I and I
just kept saying it'd be someday. I one
day, I wanna write a book. One day,
I wanna write a book. Inshallah, before I
die, I need to do this for my
sisters. And then lockdown happened. A post on
from Naomi Roberts just came. You know, I
saw it. I reacted, and then this is
where we are today.
I wonder if everybody can,
see the common theme,
amongst all these women. They
saw a post on Instagram.
And it really is amazing,
the power that you know, just seeing something
that reminds you of a dream that you
had, that reminds me of something you told
yourself a long time ago, or something that
you started to realize is is actually necessary,
there's Allah sends you
a sign of some kind, you know, some
kind of reminder, some kind of opportunity,
and, you
you you you take you take him up
on that, you know, you take that chance,
and you decide to commit.
And I wonder for for all of you,
firstly, thank you so much for for sharing
those wonderfully personal stories. And it always is
a reminder to me, Masha'Allah, of how fortunate
we are
to work with such heart centered women because
everyone that we work with has
such a beautiful intention with their book. And
that's why I love to work in this
space. I love to work with sisters because
I know
every one of you, you're you're here for
amazing reasons, for beautiful reasons. And I pray
that Allah
blesses all of you, you know, with the
results of your labor, with much barakah in
this life and the next because we know
it wasn't easy. Right? So
tell us some of your biggest challenges
along the way. I think the audience needs
to hear, like, the raw truth from you
guys. Who wants to tell us the biggest
challenges that you faced along the way?
Go ahead and unmute. Talk is the I
can start. Yeah.
I'll start because they all just came flooding
to me.
So there's the
moment where you start and you are incredibly
excited, and you're like, this is it. I'm
gonna finally do this.
And then there's the reality
of actually doing it. And I think Farashi
mentioned something that was really critical for us
is we all started this,
during the most
world changing
life event ever, right, during the pandemic. So
already that,
coupled with us trying this new thing of,
like, writing a book for the first time,
already presented challenges. When I started
Spain,
I don't know how much you know about
what happened to Spain during,
pandemic, but we were really one of the
first countries that went into a lockdown that
really wasn't even seen until now anywhere in
the world. Kids couldn't go out.
It was literally you have to stay in
your house. One person could go to the
grocery store.
Nobody else can leave. You have to, you
know, and on top of that,
my husband had gone to Boston. He had
come back to the United States,
because, you know, he's still working and and
his company and stuff. So he came here.
Now,
the day after he left,
Spain went into the lockdown and said flights
are done. We are locked. Nobody coming in.
And so now he's there. I'm in Spain
with the kids,
a language I don't speak fluently,
relatively new country. We had not been there
even 6 months.
And now I have 3 little kids, and
I'm thinking about survival. I'm not thinking, oh,
no. I'm gonna just have all this beautiful
time to write a book. And that's what
a lot of people thought. Like, oh, it's
a pandemic. You're doing nothing. You're just sitting
at home. When in fact, it was it
was a really challenging time. But
something I always remember that sister Naima said
is
you have to just, you know, keep yourself
in it. Even if it's showing up for
a meeting, even if it's, like, answering an
email,
it may not be writing the whole chapter,
but don't ever, like, remove yourself.
And pushing myself during that time to say,
I'm still gonna write a little bit,
actually gave me so much
peace. It gave me so much purpose. I
was able to kind
of, you know, deal with whatever was happening
at home, but also it was like my
way of, like,
kind of my retreat and my relaxing and
my, like, you know, let me process what's
happening right now.
And everything that happens, all those challenges that
come up
just made the book
deeper.
It made it so much more relevant and
deeper because that is life is real things
will come up.
And so you don't take it as, oh,
I'm gonna just now stop everything.
I actually
would take it and use that as content
for the book that, you know, what I'm
going through
can be what anybody is going through in
life when they pick this book up. And
I hadn't mentioned, but, I don't have a
a permanent title, but my working title is,
Muslim are simple living, the handbook.
And that's really what I wanted. Just not
necessarily a book you read from beginning to
end, but wherever you are and whatever you're
doing, however overwhelmed you feel, you can just
pick it up.
Pick up one of the principles that I
put in there that has helped me to
get through that and several other things that
happened.
So,
I think that's one of my biggest takeaways
for myself. And my lesson that I want
other writers to know is those things are
going to come up 100%,
but it doesn't stop you. I would actually
look at it and use it as a
reflection and say, okay,
You know what? I'm gonna use this and
bring this into my book. How can I,
like, use this and share it? So
I love that. Who else would like to
share the biggest challenges along the way?
I can go next. Yeah, please. That's alright.
Okay. So I might shift
the possibilities
of going through a journey like this slightly,
and I hope the audience
can also,
know that there's a possibility as well. So
for me,
unlike,
I found the process relatively easy. Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah. I think the I think the things
just aligned at the right time. I think
there was a lot of barakah in it.
Alhamdulillah.
And so for me,
I think going in, I had
probably no expectations.
I'm not necessarily somebody who is a writer
by any stretch of the imagination. I much
prefer to speak than to write,
and and
I just have no expectations.
So,
the fact that I joined the coaching group
and then I just, you know, was able
to just start
meant that whilst I had no expectations and
whilst I was confused about what this meant,
what happens next, and things like that at
first,
like I said I've said in the past
that I wrote the draft and completed the
draft within 6
weeks of the of the journey.
And then
after
And after that, I worked with,
Hind Hind Haqaseh from, again, the the coaching
group. Again, that was really smooth. She's an
amazing editor,
I don't even mean her skill of editing.
I mean, as a person, the way she,
like, looks after you and supports you through
it. And then after that, all I wanted
to do was just put on Amazon and
just make it available.
And then for somebody just to suggest, hint,
why don't I just send it off to
a few publishers? Just see what happens.
I don't know how to write to a
publisher. I don't know what the process is.
I don't know anything.
But I did. I I wrote a few
letters out. I sent it off to about
6, publishers, and 3 of them wanted the
books of Halalah,
And then now it's coming out. So
for me, I wanna let people know that,
yes, whilst for some people, there will be
huge challenges. I know some I know some
people on the journey of the coaching group.
Some people have got sick. Some people have
had children in that time. They've moved countries.
So much happens in life
that then it can derail you from completing
something. But I really want the audience to
understand that sometimes it can happen the other
way as well where you're expecting everything to
go wrong and everything just goes right by
the will and the mercy of our last,
so
you never quite know. So just as long
as you have that clear message and you
understand that why, then it always comes back
to,
just try it out. Just try it out.
Subhanallah. Just see where it goes.
So that's that was the journey for me.
I think one thing that I will add
that was maybe the clearest challenge for me,
and I think this is gonna be the
case for any nonfiction writers who want to
maybe write their story, and their story has
a heavy element of it. Maybe there's been
abuse. Maybe there's been divorce. Maybe there's there's
been something.
And for me, what I found as a
challenge is that we were in the 2020
lockdown. I was actually going through counseling and
therapy at that time for my own fertility
issues for the first time in my life.
And I was writing the book, and I
was in it every single day, which meant
that I think, emotionally,
I had, like, this overdose of, like, emotional
stuff stuff to process
And so I think emotionally and mentally it
was challenging
And a lot of things was happening at
that time But the practicalities
of writing the book and kind of going
into this industry wasn't difficult
so yeah, there's there's a lot there's a
lot of possibilities. I think so harrower
No, that would be 100%
correct. And obviously, because, you know, we've worked
with, you know, dozens now of writers, we
can see
everyone's journey is different. So even though everybody's
destination is a published book,
it's
I liken it to those destinations being dotted
around the map of the world. Right?
Even though the destination is the same, the
location is different. So everybody's book is different.
Everybody's approach to the book will be different,
and everyone's journey towards the book will be
different. Right? And you'll gain something,
you know, you'll be challenged in different ways,
and you'll gain differently from each one. But,
Maryam, what about you? Because you're writing a
memoir, so you were doing something quite different
from what our other two guests were doing.
What were the biggest challenges that you faced,
would you say?
So for me, I think the 2
topmost was fear and doubt.
The first one was the fear of,
what will people say?
Can I really do this? Like, sister Dua
Farah said, like, yeah. When you started, you're
excited. It's like, yeah. I'm starting. And then
once you stop pouring it down, it's
then the fierce kicks in, and it's like,
can you do it? And then the doubt.
It's like,
who am I?
Who wants to hear my story?
Is this really going to have an impact?
Like, who cares? Yeah. Right. For your kids,
put it there somewhere. Like, nobody wants to
hear your story. And then it's also
things like, like my sister shared. Things just
start happening.
Somebody is sick. You're taking care of somebody,
and it's like, wait. The book is facing
life. So if
if if the book is talking about facing
life, this is life that is happening. So
why
why write a book about facing life and
trying to, like, avoid living life and trying
to make everything perfect? It's not gonna be
perfect.
So I I just had to say, you
know what? I have to face it. And
this is a memoir. I'm gonna pour it
out all out.
Just going back to the why. So, yes,
it's a legacy for my children
and other children and also my African sisters,
basically. That's my target audience. The African Muslim
community.
And I feel like there's a lot of
things that have been hush-hush-hush.
And families are suffering. The youth are suffering,
and we're not talking about it. And if
nobody's gonna talk about it, hey. I'm I'm
gonna do it.
And in my in my undergrad years,
I I have a bachelor's in business administration,
so I'm used to taking risk. I'm used
to taking risk, but it's like, this is
the scariest thing I've ever done, I think.
Because it's I'm I'm private. I'm private. I
wanna do my own thing. Nobody should know
about me, and this is very uncomfortable. Putting
your life out there, being vulnerable, it's like,
I'm like, Mariam, you've taken so many risks.
Like, this is the biggest shit. Like, it's
worth it. It's worth it. And I had
a sister 2 days ago call and was
just crying.
She said, for 26 minutes, we're on the
on the on the on the phone. She
said, you know what? I was I was
in such a dark place in my pregnancy,
and I felt nobody understood me. But once
I read your book
and the struggles of pregnancy and what you
went through, it's like,
finally, there's a sister who gets it. So
When you hear that, you're like,
it's worth it. So if it's if it's
facing life as the girl from Neema is
gonna change one life,
I love that. That's excellent.
I love I love I love, and yes,
it is. That's what we say, isn't it?
Is that even if one life is touched
by your book, it could be 1, it
could be 10, it could be a 100,
it could be 1,000, it could be a
100,000.
Whatever Allah has willed for you,
subhanallah, that is, you know, that's worth it.
You know? So I think people have if
they've been following
the the summit videos this year, they will
have heard the word vulnerability
coming up again and again. They will also
have heard the word fear coming up again
and again.
So I think my final question before we
kind of, like, get you to remind us
about your books Insha'Allah was,
did fear play a role for you? And
what about vulnerability? Was it easy for you?
Was it something that you you felt uncomfortable
with? Or did you shy away from it?
Fear and vulnerability, what was your relationship with
them during this journey?
Go ahead. Yeah. Smilla. Okay. I'll stop, Smilla.
Okay. Vulnerability,
I think yep. I I think, as I
said, at that time, as I was writing
the book,
I think going through counseling as well had
kind of pushed me to really embrace that
side of myself, and I think I am
somebody who previously was slightly
detached from the vulnerable side of myself.
And so
I think the book there were moments where
I although this book focused on the message
rather than my story,
my stories weaved into the book itself.
And so there were moments where you think,
oh, should I be writing this?
Will the family feel a certain way?
You know, who gets to read it? Do
I want all of these people to kind
of know
my deepest feelings,
about certain things and about something that's so
close to me.
And so, yeah, that that was the only
time where I was like, oh, god. This
is scary. And then I think the other
fear, Maria might have touched upon it, is
this idea of,
although I think the message of this book
is needed,
there's still that fear of, will I do
it justice?
And, you know, in terms of the writing
style and things like that, will I do
it justice? Will people care enough? Will enough
people read it? And then we just have
to go back to what we're saying about
just one step at a time and let
let the rest unfold as it's supposed to
unfold.
But definitely I think vulnerability was something that
was strengthened, developed and I had to just
lean into and embrace
throughout writing the book and now in particular
the fact that it will come out. So
now people will actually have this book and
they will read some of my deepest thoughts
and things like that. So,
yeah. I'm leaning into it further and further.
I love that. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Big growth. Big growth. Isra, what was
your relationship with fear and vulnerability
throughout the journey?
It's so lovely, you know, when you hear
I I love this gathering because
even, you know, as a writer, when you
start hearing this running theme of, okay, so
even with infertility, even with memoir, even when
I talk about finances,
In the Muslim community, there's this, like, you
know, taboo. We don't talk about these subjects.
We don't bring them up. It's just, you
know, you can talk among yourselves,
but we're actually publishing them and making them
you know, normalizing them. And I think that's
where
that fear and vulnerability
kind of line, you know, we are kind
of you've gotta cross it and just say,
you know what? The message is bigger than
your fear of people
judging you in any way. And in fact,
the people
who
it gets into their hands, they see themselves
in a way that they haven't seen before.
And so when I started my book,
as you know, it was more conventional. It
was not, you know, geared towards, you know,
specifically Muslim women. But as I went through
it, I said there's no way for me
to separate
my belief from what I am trying to
explain here. So
when I approach things like,
debt and mortgages, and I do, I I
talk about all those things in the book.
These are things that, you know, is really
kind of contentious in our community. You know,
there's the whole
side that says don't ever buy a house
unless you have cash. And there's the other
side that said, well, there's Islamic financing and
there's this. So, you know, I talk about
those things, and I just kind of say,
look. This is my take on it. Obviously,
everybody can take whatever they want, and I
know people will be like, wow. Is she
judging me? And I think what that's always
our idea in Islam is, like, we're so
worried to kind of, like,
express ourselves
that we're not trying to put ourselves on
this pedestal. You know, people always say, hey,
be careful. Put yourself down. Put yourself down.
Be humble.
And so I think it's that fear of,
like, I don't want to look like I'm,
you know, on this pedestal or something. It's
always this idea that I don't wanna look
like I'm arrogant or I'm trying to like
preach to them. But then at the same
time, you know, you just check yourself and
you say, you know,
Allah gave me this experience for a reason.
It's what I always go back to. You
know, not everybody will go to Spain. Not
everybody will get this, you know, 180
experience of what it's like to live in
this type of culture and what it's like
to live in this type of culture. I
didn't get it for myself. I really believe
it was meant to
share with other people. Whether they take it
or not is not my
responsibility
how they react to it. My responsibility is
is done. I I shared my message. And
so I think that's kind of where you
you just have to push yourself, and that's
what I had to do over and over
again. Yeah.
I totally love that. And I I you
know, sometimes when I hear my my clients
or graduates from our programs talking, I'm just
like they're nodding saying, yep. Yep. That's what
we say. That's what we say. And this,
idea of
Allah
putting you on a particular journey and giving
you particular knowledge or wisdom
that it's not just for you, that there
is a gift in that for others as
well. That there is something in your experience
that is beneficial to others who are on
that same journey,
you know, is exactly what we we talk
about, isn't it, in our coaching calls, etcetera.
So I'm so glad that you leaned into
that.
Maryam, you shared with us, you know, the
fears that you had,
you know, and sort of how tough it
was, you know, to be, you know, sharing
your life, really,
with others. And I'm really glad that you
did that because you worked extremely hard.
And you were with us in the program
at a time when the calls were off,
but you did not stop writing. She is
one of those sisters who calls, no calls.
I don't get. I'm writing, and she did,
and she wrote
many, many thousands of words. How many words
was your first manuscript? I wanna hear from
everyone before we wrap up and tell us
about our books. How many words was your
first draft?
120,000.
A 120,000
words. Farrah, how many was yours?
I think mine was about 50.
Yeah. 50,000. How about you, miss Ross? Yeah.
Mine was, like,
43, 44, my first dress.
Mariam's book was, like, 3 of mine, I
think.
But, you know, it's very, very common for
memoirs to be much longer than other books.
So we know this. So, Inshallah, in conclusion,
guys, I would love for you to if
you have a copy of your book, I
think, Mariam, you have a copy, so we'd
love to see it. Yes.
Tell us where we can find the book,
yalla. Give us a pitch. Tell us what
the book is named. Say the name again,
what it's about, who it's for, and where
can people find it.
Okay.
So the title of the book is facing
life as the girl from Neenah,
memoir of an African immigrant. You can get
it on Amazon.
And soon it should be in the bookstore.
Soon, InshaAllah, like a week or so, InshaAllah.
It should be in the bookstore. Shabla. Yes.
So the book this book is, it's just
a story about my life and I hope
that it's it reaches my African Muslim sisters
in a way that they can relate to
because to be honest, there's not a lot
of books out there for African Muslim sisters
that is really sharing our story of the
African Muslim community in general.
I talked about taboo topics that we don't
talk about identity crisis that African Muslim youth
face as they're growing up,
staying married,
the challenges in the marriage,
pregnancy,
the lack of support of, yeah, the lack
of support from our men during pregnancy, and,
you know, parenting,
and just where we are in life and
just to take each life one step at
a time. So, hopefully, what I hope to
achieve is to reach my African Muslim community
in a way where our men are gonna
be intentional and conscious towards their wives,
for parents to be more conscious about their
parenting as well,
and for the African Muslim youth to be
confident and know and know that they have
a place in this community, not to feel
like less than
to come up and show up as who
they truly are. So it it has something
in there for everybody. You read it and
you feel like somehow, I think I went
too wrong. I'm gonna, well, let me Alright.
Excellent. And, guys, we'll have the link to
the book in the after this is published
on YouTube.
So if you're watching this, not the live
version, please go to the description and follow
all our wonderful,
speakers, authors on Instagram,
and check out the links to their books
in the description box as well.
Farah, tell us your book title,
what it's about, who it's for, and where
people can find it.
Okay. My book is called taking control, a
Muslim woman's guide to surviving
infertility.
It will be on so it's kind of
on Amazon already, and it will be available
in a lot more places very soon,
but it's not yet available to buy.
So probably the best thing to do is
if people want to go over to Instagram
and follow me on farrah_dually,
so farrah_dually,
then that's where you can see when the
book's available,
you know, preorder as soon as it's available,
which will be very, very soon, and it
should be out in June.
Yay.
I love it. Isra,
I know that your book is with editing
right now, but I think that you have
other ways that people can connect with you.
Can you tell us, please? 100%. Yeah. So,
the name of the book, Muslim as Simple
Living, the handbook
is named after actually my
Facebook group, which you can, find because that's
where I'm putting all the updates, and that's
where we're already living
actually the book.
On Facebook, it's a group. It's called Muslima
Simple
and Decluttered Living,
and we are currently in a great
space. We're all getting ready for Ramadan,
and it's a book
really on just living a more purposeful life.
And it's almost like a love letter to
my Muslim sisters on just,
more geared towards
Muslim women who live in the west,
not getting caught up in all this, consumerism
and capitalism
and just going kind of more back to
the sunnah.
I love.
Fantastic, guys. If you're gonna take a screenshot
of this session,
take it now. I don't have a book
to show, but I've got my thumb. It's
alright. You have to put your thumb up
now because you don't have a book yet.
Everybody would love and just take a screenshot.
Please do share it on the socials, guys.
Tag me, and we will share it with
everybody.
Thank you so much, ladies. I love you
so much for the sake of Allah. Coach
Hind and I, we're just like proud, you
know, mother hens with you guys and your
projects and your books. Masha'Allah. Absolutely love what
you're doing. May
Allah only increase you in
faith. Bless you and your families and your
books with success and make this the beginning
of an amazing chapter in your
lives.
Thank you so much
for joining us and we'll see you in
the next session Insha'Allah. Thank you ladies.