Naima B. Robert – Where Are they Now Muslimah Author Summit 2022
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A woman discusses her experiences with writing and self-pagging, as well as her involvement in various projects, including a book and international events. She talks about her struggles with selling her book and collecting funds for it, as well as her campaign in the upcoming election and the challenges of selling her book in a hybrid publisher. She emphasizes the importance of writing and being a black person to be recognized and empowered.
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Smilla
Bismillah wa salatu wa salam ala Rasulillah. Hopefully we are live
in sha Allah. Super, super excited to be presenting a very, very
special session in the Muslim writers summit 2022.
It's been, you know, several years since our first summit, our first
summit was in 2018, I believe. And in that summit, we had the honor
of hosting a whole plethora of Muslim writers who were doing
amazing things at the time. And to be fair, and to be honest, they
have continued doing amazing things. Mashallah. So in this
session, we are going to catch up some of the sisters or some of the
sisters who
did presentation boxted was at a summer summer writers Summit. So I
would love for you guys all welcome in love with me. I
shouldn't wrap my rock. You say it. Some of you will be familiar
with them because they've either spoken at the summit before or you
know earlier this this summit or their presentations earlier on.
So ladies a big a Salam.
aleikum wa Salam wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Very excited to have you guys here.
I'm super excited for you guys. Here Ma sha Allah. Guys, if you
want to take a picture for the gram, please do so in sha Allah,
and make sure that you tag me and tag our authors as well. I'll be
inviting you obviously to follow them on Instagram. I will put
links to their Instagram and their books underneath the video once
it's been published Inshallah, so not to worry. We want you to
support them as much as possible. But what are we here to do today,
we are here to find out where they are now, because I really I follow
everybody here on Instagram. So I know what they've been up to. But
I bet that most of you who are watching this do not know what
they've been up to. Right. So I want you to see from where they
were in 2018 what their journey has looked like since then. One of
the main takeaways that I hoped for from the summit was to show
you my dear sister, the different journeys that our sisters take on
the road to becoming authors. They start in different places, they
have different goals in mind. They write different types of books,
they write for different age groups, they have different
pathways to publishing. But eventually, they all achieve what
many of you are aiming for, which is to become a writer, to become
an author.
See the diversity in everyone's experiences. And I hope, hope
Insha Allah, that you will be inspired by this and you will see
that there isn't just one way to succeed as an author or as a
writer. In fact, there are as many ways as there are people on this
panel people in this audience so inshallah I'd like to start off
with inviting sister Rama, Rhoda, to tell us who she is. What is her
latest book and give us an update sis on what's been going on since
your last appearance at the summit? Take it away, sis.
Okay, so I'm Alikum everyone, just Aquila Hara for having me again.
Honestly, I think the last time at the summit, I remember vividly
talking to you.
I was at that time, seven months pregnant, I believe with my third
child, I think I just remember having that conversation with you.
And I was I was heavily pregnant. So I mean, 2018 seems so far away
yet. It seems like yesterday, in terms of you know, when we look
back at all the things that have happened. I mean, these last
couple years just feel like it's just we haven't moved just because
of the whole pandemic. But Alhamdulillah I have to say that a
lot of things have happened. First and foremost, all praises and
thanks are to Allah. We make efforts but Allah opens ways and
makes our journey easier. So everything that has happened for
me is by the grace of Allah. So the last time I spoke to you, I
think I had one book that was published and it's this one. It's
Hemus quest. So I have two books that I have self published. And
just a little bit about me and my journey. If you had looked at if
you had listened to my talk at the at the last summit, I think what I
was talking about was utilizing so
Social media as a way of for marketing. And what I was sharing
was just how my presence on social media had given me the ability to
kind of connect with other people, I had been able to be featured in
some of local coverage, and had opportunities to do several
different things. So how social media could be utilized in terms
of your author branding, and your author presence, and how
collaborations and just just being visible on there opens doors for
you. So that's I had this one book on behemoths quest. And I in 2018,
I had released the second book called Little brother for sale at
that time, I'm not exactly sure if it had released it or not, but
that's this one came out.
And 2018.
And, you know, I, the reason why I chose self publishing is, I didn't
choose self publishing as a second option. For me, it was really
important to tell the stories. And primarily, the reason why I write
is for the Representation of Black Muslim children. And I find that
there's very little books that that has those two separate
identities, but are vitally important intersectional
identities represented in a way that is a positive representation.
So for me, that's the reason why I write these stories. And I chose
self publishing because I didn't want to wait for many, many years
before I was able to tell the stories, I didn't want to go
through the process of traditionally publishing, I think
I didn't even look into that. I had the inspiration for the first
story that I written Hemus quest, and I decided just to figure out
how I was going to do self publishing, and I was able to do
that. And then I wrote that second book, and I published that.
And then moving on from there, I continued to do my work, continued
to use social media in order to connect with other authors to do
promotion for my books, just to network and to connect with the
Muslim authors, authors on on the different platforms.
And 2019, I got the opportunity to actually do a TEDx talk. And I was
able to do that. I think when the opportunity came, I think I was
three months postpartum, when I gave the speech, I was six months
postpartum. One of the best things that I've done one of the most
difficult things that I've did, but it was really just me once
again, sharing my story, why? I my journey as an immigrant here to in
Canada, coming here as a young child, not even to speak the
language, my love of literature, the reason why I decided to become
an author and tell the stories, why it's important to have this
representation of the Black Muslim children in picture books. And I
was able to do that. Also, in 2019. My book, little brother for
sale, won an award at the deep break a word where I met Sister
Taiba, I was really happy to go to the US, for the first time
actually, and traveled there. I'm located in Canada. And so I, that
also happened. And in 2020, actually, as we all know, there
was the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement during that time.
A few years ago, I think in 2018, I had written a piece, titled dear
black child, and that piece was just talking about the identity of
being a child in existence and taking up space as a black child,
and what that represent and what that looks like. And I really
wanted to do something differently with this piece. And I really
wanted to have a go to the traditionally published route. And
I actually looked for agents. As you know, the traditionally
published route requires you to go through different gatekeepers, you
would have to first query an agent. Then once you get an agent,
that agent will then pitch publishers, and then you might
might not get a book deal. And then even after you get the book
deal, it takes several years for your book to be on the market. I
wanted this latest manuscript that I had written to have a wider
audience and I didn't feel like it fit into what I had originally
self published, such as just that intersectionality of the Black
Muslim children it really just
Book to being as a black child. And I thought that it could
benefit a lot of people. And you know, quite honestly, as well as
you do as a self published author, you just don't have that reach
that you can get, as traditionally publish author do, just because of
those channels of distribution, and those connections that these
big publishers have. So I think around 2019, I would generally
quietly, just look for agents. And I did that for a while I was not
able to get an agent 2020, summer to 2020, there was a lot of events
that were happening in terms of the Black Lives Matter movements.
And in one of the events was organized by an author here in
Canada, where she had kind of did a summit, where a lot of black
authors in Canada were kind of doing a online summit and things
like that. And during that summit, I actually decided to read part of
the piece that I had written. And what happened was, is that one a
few months later, and an agent, not an agent, actually, I should
say an editor from HarperCollins, Canada reached out to me to say,
we had heard you speak at this event. Have you ever thought about
putting your this piece that you have written in a form of picture
book, which I have wanted to do for years, but at that point, I
had kind of kind of given up because it's just very difficult
to just kind of make that leap or get discovered or have or however
you phrase it. And so once again, it was just an opportunity for me
that I had,
that I have been wanting, but by putting yourself out there by
still continuing to do the work, by still, networking by still
being at the right places at the right time, you're still able to
get those opportunities, and once again, you know, praises to Allah
Al Hamdulillah, that I was at that place at that time that that
person heard that, that peace of mind. And I was then subsequently
able to
talk to that editor, I advised her that I didn't have representation
as informed of an agent. And then her introduced me to several
agents, me interviewing, interviewing several agents, and
then signing with an agent in 2020. Once I signed with the
agent, we were able to then pitch that manuscript to several
publishers. And I was able to get a two book deal with
HarperCollins, Canada and US in a two book deal, the first book
coming out in September 27 2022, titled dear black child, like I've
spoken about, and the second book is coming out, I we don't have a
date yet, but I believe it's going to be in 2024. Just because, you
know, publishing takes a long time. So that one is going to be
titled, dear Muslim child. And once again, these manuscripts are
really literally coming from a place of these two separate
identities that are dear and to my heart, and just kind of informed
of love letters to either a black child or a Muslim child. So I'm
really excited to have made now this transition into traditionally
publish.
I believe that my experience in self publishing really gave me the
voice and the ability to speak up in the this new journey. Because
when you're dealing with editors, you have to understand that this
industry is obviously mainly
occupied by female white woman and navigating the spaces when you
have work and and and your writing and in ways that perhaps they have
never experienced, they don't know about you, there's a lot of
advocating that you have to do. There's a lot of things that you
have to speak up about because perhaps they don't know. And I
remember that when we were kind of we were kind of several times when
we I had spoken I had many offers for the manuscript and a lot of
the editors that I spoken to told me, yes, we really want to
commercialize this. We really want to tone this down. We really want
to highlight this and for me, it was really important to not only
highlight
The positive and joy aspect of being black, but also speaking
about the difficulties and the things that are relevant and the
things that our children at a young age are aware of, and the
things that we cannot hide away from. But perhaps as someone from
coming from a different experience, those never walked at,
like, you know, in in our experience, then they don't know
that. So it's really important to advocate for yourself. And because
I already had published because I had already had a vision for the
type of work that I wanted to do, I was easy for me to speak up in
these spaces, and these conversation or really advocate
for my, my book to be published in a way that I had envisioned to be
published. And you just show up differently when you are, when you
are aware of what your mission is and what you stand for. So I
really do advocate for
I do really do advocate for self publishing. And in 2021, I have
also launched a platform where I do help self published authors
just kind of thrive in in that industry, and just help them
navigate that process. So you can find me on social media at
ramboda. And you can also find me my other platform at self pub self
published legacy, where I help authors and do that. So that's
pretty much a little bit a catch up of what's that's what's
happening. I'm still writing and I hope to continue to add to this
space and to continue to add to the Representation of Black Muslim
children. Just like Calacatta Naima for having me over again.
I'm always happy to be in your community and in your circle and I
appreciate you and I thank you for the support.
Oh, does that color cool? Okay, wow, what a serendipitous journey
Masha Allah thank you so much for that and well done mob rule. Or
when you are saying HarperCollins Oh, that's pig Mashallah. That's
big May Allah put all the baraka in it for you. I mean, I mean,
some I mean, and I love the fact that you've also moved into
helping others with the self publishing knowledge that you've
gained, mashallah, because, you know, at the end of the day, the
things that I was saying this, every one of us is 510 50 steps
ahead of somebody else. So even if we may not be experts in whatever
it is that we doing, we are ahead of somebody else. So mashallah,
you've got to self published successes under your belt, you've
done fantastic work with social media and PR and Alhamdulillah
putting yourself out there puts you at an opportunity for you to
be able to take your message up to a much higher level mashallah, so
we're very proud of you well done and Insha Allah, we're looking out
for you guys. Make sure you follow system on
Instagram, so you can be updated on the release of her next book.
I'm so happy hamdulillah Aisha Adams, we saw you earlier in the
summit. Mashallah. But what's been happening on the book front since
the 2018. Summit?
Okay, Hamdulillah He also Laplace was not.
Okay. 2018, I think had just published one book, my published
it in 2016, which that was the only book I had, at the time of
that summit.
And after that summit, life happened. So I took very ill and I
was away for almost a year, actually more than a year. But my
coming out, I came out with rice irrespective, I hope you can see
the book.
And this book was a book I worked on with nine months of my
remember.
The book was actually intended to
give back because that period was a very challenging period for me.
Because 2018 was quite unstable. I was unstable in my relationship in
my health in a lot of things. And so writing riser respectively, was
more about me reminding myself that I needed to rise above
everything that was happening.
And I need to write strong, but it was also a gift to other people
who are struggling like myself. And it's been an amazing book, the
experience the reviews, the
feedbacks I get from people. I've not had anyone buy the book,
except that they will come back and buy other copies for other
people. So yes, the book has been doing very well.
And I think that I waited for some time, I kept pushing rights
irrespective but there
I'm also very passionate about them humanitarian service. So
usually a percentage of whatever it is that I earn from my book,
sales goes to the charity that I run called Citicorp.
So I continue to work on that front pushing the book and pushing
my humanitarian work. And then around that period, do I lost a
very close friend of mine to cancer.
And so I published a book in her memory, and that I used last year,
the last fall, I hope you can see it.
And last year, I got some awards. Sorry, I'm not very detailed in
describing but I just wanted to share points of things that I had
achieved in that time.
And yeah, so I went on to actually are featured in the film
that touched on polygyny. And all of these things actually, were on
the back of the success of my book because more people knew about
rights respective, I got more speaking engagements, I got mine
International and invitation to speak at an international event.
But COVID happened. So we weren't able to finalize that, cuz I
wasn't able to travel. Because of that.
A lot of good things, really speaking engagements.
feature in different
events
that had to do with book writing that had to do in motivating women
that had to do with humanitarian work on the back of rights
respective actually.
And then, so I published the last call in memory of
my friend passed away.
And that was last year. But then Ramadan came, and I wanted to give
a gift to people. So I wrote a book, an ebook, called them draft
Paragon.
I didn't think that it was going to go very far. What amazingly, I
got almost 1000 downloads of the book, within the first two weeks
of
announcing that I had a free book to share. And, you know, from
across 10 countries they're about, I was really blown away by the
reception and the warm responses that people, you know, sent and
said, Oh, you know, thank you very much for the fantastic gift, and
all of these kinds of things.
So yeah, end of last year, I got two awards that had to do with my
NGO work, but also
how the my writing and my speaking has impacted people.
I'm very big on trauma recovery, I'm very big on supporting people
to raise from whatever life throws at them.
Life is hard enough, you don't need to go through the dark
toenail by yourself and to the work I do and the things that I
write and things that I lend my voice to are usually about helping
people get out of that tunnel
and haven't featured in a film. And having done a lot of content,
writing for TV programs, Islamic TV programs, and all of that I
became more interested in screenwriting, because I saw that
as another opportunity to put out quality content that will speak to
the things that I was very passionate about, which is dour
trauma, recovery, humanitarian work and all of these kinds of
things. And it's really because of the way that I believe Islam has
been represented where I live in Nigeria.
I felt that there was a need for me to
be more professional about screenwriting and know. The so I
put in an application I got a scholarship to study
screenwriting.
And yeah, so I have been on that, and I'm currently working on a
film with a group of people.
That's about it's a very short Oh, how can I forget? How can I forget
about oh, I should really sorry. Oh, good. I forget that rice we
were expecting got picked for sure. I'm gonna be speaking about
riser. spective.
And I don't know how do I call it Okay, so there's this thing called
Social Media Week. It's a week long of events, speaking, panel
sessions and all of those kinds of things. And so rises spective got
picked as one of the books that will be discussed at this week,
which is starting tomorrow. And so on Wednesday, I'm going to be
speaking about the lessons from my perspective, in a very big
platform. And I'm excited.
Yeah.
I see you've just been lazy really since the summit. You're just not
anything heavy.
I mean you've just been resting on your laurels taking it easy and
the comfort zone just I mean I'm disappointed to be fair.
But I'm allow thinking that's me. Oh, I just wanted to let
everyone know my friend she client, she's a graduate from my
programs and we are in touch. But even I didn't know all this stuff
up tomorrow I like to take a bit of a dark horse and a lot of new
things you've been doing you writing areas that you've leaned
into, and I'm so proud of you mashallah, like just keep swinging
that pen just flew just keep doing it. Mashallah. Excellent work. It
makes you let us
know
when nobody
I won
that she created the ebook, and it was downloaded as
the spot, meaningless size at the moment.
Oh, I can hear the moment over the line is really bad. Yeah, I was
saying how what is the size of your mailing list at the moment?
Oh,
I think less than 5000 Less than five.
Okay. Hamdu lillahi, Rabbil Alameen. Guys, in the previous
workshop, we were talking about building your list and I society
is one of my clients. That's why should be building a list. And
she's got almost 5000 people on that list. Mashallah. Well done,
sis, very, very proud of you well done, and yet more exciting things
to come be in line. I also just want to say as well, because I
know I should I know that she was very unwell for a very long time.
We didn't hear from her. When she came out of that illness. She came
on to the release program with us. She is and she still holds the
record for the client who wrote her first draft in the shortest
time. Was it three weeks Aisha?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And this was
she was ill like us still ill at that. We are very ill actually
very ill.
But I am fully recovered. But Allahu Akbar God, you know, just I
wrote my way
this is this is yeah, this is with Allah's permission. You know,
dancers look different than if you think it can't happen. If Allah
wills it to be put in the effort, and you'll see the result.
Inshallah, I'm going to stop talking because I want to thank
you, very exciting update and tayyiba, please, Inshallah, take
it away.
South Africa, or Africa, who broke out the hood, thank you again, for
having me sister nema. I'm, it's always a joy.
catching up with you, and being in your company. i
It's been a while, like we said in the beginning. And for me, you
know, my journey has been very different. Since 2018, you know,
when I, when I received your email, and I was like, gosh, you
know, four years ago, we did this summit. And my, you know, people
talked about having a five year plan of some sort. So we're at
four years now, at 2018. If I looked forward to five years from
then, my, my guess of where I'd be, would be totally different.
And this is something I think, we as Muslims have to remember that,
you know, we plan and Allah plans. And of course,
this pandemic was not in any of our plans. And it really changed
the trajectory of where I was headed, and what I was trying to
do in my work, and where I am now, and I'm truly truly grateful.
Because of course, you know, we, we look at things not as, what if,
or I wish, or you know, how we would have wanted things because
Allah tells us that something that may be good for us may not be
something that we think is bad for us, maybe good for us. So, you
know, we don't know, we don't know what Allah has planned for us. We
don't know what he thinks is best for us. And so, looking at, like,
if I'm sitting here thinking, what am I going to share from the last
four years like?
It's all I can tell you is that for me, I really had to
reprioritize and kind of step back
and ask myself, what, what am I doing here? And why am I doing it.
And when I initially began writing,
you know, it was will always with this intention of doing it as a
form of Bala, doing it as a as a means to spread a positive
image of art, this beautiful deed that we get to be a part of. And
so it's always been,
it's always been about the message. And now writing was that,
that, that that means that medium that I was using,
but it's so different now. And Hamdulillah, you know, I'm, you're
by nature, I'm very introverted.
You know, speaking in public is not easy for me. And yet, here I
am doing it again. And subhanAllah, you know, 2018, I had
one book published, which is the blessing bananas, which humble law
has done so well. It was published in 2017. And I had I had it
published through hybrid means. So you don't, which means that I have
to also invest in my work. And somebody, you know, I'm at home
with my kids. So this, this,
this route of publishing, is, is not always.
It's not always look at it. And it I mean, it's, for me, it's never
been about the money. But you have to be able to believe in your work
and put money into it. And so,
and humble, like, I was able to start traveling, and 2018. And
2018 was really, really active years for me, doing public
speaking, doing traveling, I would do the book as a puppet show. And
so I was visiting schools and communities and different massages
all over North America and abroad. And I got to do that with my
family. It was I mean, it was exhausting. But it was amazing.
And then the pandemic hit. And I was supposed to release my second
book, early 2020. And it was getting printed abroad. So there
was all this delay internationally. And here I was,
with no book and in lockdown, and I'm not earning any more, because
I'm not, you know, the book sales would not be much. It would be me
doing these live presentation that was earning. And then I would take
that money and put it towards reprinting, I'm glad the book was
sell out so quickly, I would do another print. And that just keep
moving forward like that. And right before COVID Subhanallah, I
had two giant tours planned one in Michigan, were literally I was
visiting eight to 10 different communities. And I had just ran
out of my books the month before. So I have reordered them, they
just literally arrived, I think, march 9, and I was supposed to be
departing March 11. And that was the day that the lockdown began
here. I'm in Chicago. So in the States, and SubhanAllah. Here I
was with all of these books, and nowhere to go. So my whole
Michigan Tour got cancelled. And then I had another tour in
California scheduled in April, that guy completely canceled.
And it was a shock. It was a shock to my ego. It was a shock to my
confidence. It was a shock to my work. It was a shock to my bank
account. Like it was it was it was hard. It was really hard. So there
I was having to contemplate what am I doing here? Okay, so, what I
was what had what I had started doing what I was initially doing
is not going to happen now. So now what? And so I did, I did try to
do what Rama did, and look for an agent and see if I can get
traditionally published. And I didn't do it as do diligently like
it's almost a full time job to be able to query agents. And I wasn't
able to put that time in because I have three children and my kids
are all very different ages with very different needs. And so I had
to again, prioritize and this is not putting anybody down, that has
been able to manage and balance all of it. I couldn't do it.
Especially with everybody home, especially everybody. You know,
even my husband was home for a month and then I was like please
go back to work.
This is now working out. And now he's he's in construction. So they
were essential workers and he was able to go back in but
You know, here I was
literally a stay at home mom, with all my three children all their
different needs. And I couldn't put in that, that time and effort
that I normally would have if they were at school full time, but here
they are at home. And we, I just had to realize I have to make the
most of this time with my children, because I will never get
this back with them. And, you know, I grew up very much like a
latchkey child, me and my younger sister, our parents were just
trying to make ends meet, they were never home. And they were
working full time, more than full time overtime.
And so we were raising ourselves. And I didn't want that for my
kids, I didn't want them. Now they are home, I would have craved this
time with my parents growing up. And so I made the most of that
time. So humble, I'm really, really grateful for that. And
that's where my 2020 went, I ended up coaching, a lot of women,
aspiring authors taking what I had, had gained, and using that,
to inspire others. And so many of them Subhanallah like, you know,
the pie is big, right? There's, there's plenty and sitting here, I
am literally watching those women that I have worked with going on
and publishing, and traditionally publishing and they're doing even
better than me, it's like, you know, the student becomes the
master. And that's what we want. Because this is again, this is not
about me, this is not about my work, this is about a lot. This is
about his message, and trying to get as many people in this work
doing, you know, doing these these amazing things to share and shed
light on how beautiful our religion is and putting out
proper, authentic narratives of who we are as Muslims. So I'm so
so grateful for that. And at the end of 2020, I ended up getting
COVID very badly, and it took a huge toll on my retina, my health.
And it's I feel like even to this day, my creativity has been
affected from COVID, and my attention span. And so I ended up
putting all of whatever energy I had left into Islamic scholarship.
And I've been furthering my studies, I graduated with the
teacher certification through robot academic Institute
in 2020, and I was able now able to teach classes in Islamic
studies to children and women, which I was doing, but now, you
know, you could say I'm qualified, because again, my books have a
message and I want to be able to provide that message with,
with the proper sources with the proper knowledge. And so that
that's another place that I've been investing my time and energy.
And at the end of 2020, I was approached by some people in my
community, who know how,
how active and vocal I am.
And they asked me if I would like to run for the school board here
in my district. And I was like, no, no, wait, I'm not going to
take out an arbitrary like a position like that. That's so much
work so much time, so much commitment. And I was like, I will
just ask my husband and see what he thinks, hoping that he would
just be like, No, you don't have time for that. And lo and behold,
he goes, that's exactly what you should do. And I was like, why?
You were supposed to be my like crutch and say no, as I said, No,
I can't do it. So I'm like, he's always been so supportive. And
there I was running for an election, all of the beginning of
2021. And this was putting everything I've done to I mean, to
work, knocking on doors, canvassing meeting people. I've
lived in this district for 10 years, and I thought I'm I'm
involved, I'm active people know me.
Know, you know, as Muslims, we still keep ourselves in our own
separate circles and bubbles. And they don't know us. The non
Muslims just don't know us. And so, in those four months that I
was campaigning, I met more people than I have in the last 10 years
of living in this district. And I was the only Muslim running I was
of course, only one in his job I ran with all you know, seven other
white candidates. And I mean, if you if you look at our our
pictures, our forum pictures like it just looks silly. There I am,
you know, a person of color
And in his job, and I stick out like a sore thumb and going in, I
was like, let's see what happens. But it became such a beautiful
opportunity to really what I've been doing as an author, what I'm
doing in my writing what I've been trying to do, in my, in my
professional work here I was
putting, what's the expression like, money where my mouth is,
and, and representing Muslims representing minorities, we have
34% minorities in this community. And I was the only one running to
represent them. And some Ha, come April, we were at the election,
watch the election result watch, it was like a little gathering
that they did. And when we my husband, I arrived, I was like,
Oh, I'm in the lead. And I like elbow him. I'm like, that's funny.
Let's see how long this lasts. And, lo and behold, I ended up
getting the most votes, there's four seats open. So I got to see
it. And all I got it with the most votes. And that just goes to show
that it's all important, I think about and I was studying Sierra in
a lot of depth and, and just seeing what the process of him and
his companions had to do to spread this message. It was through
action. It was through interactions. It was through
representation. It was through character, it was through really
meeting people going out and meeting people. And and, and I
humble up, here I am. And so that has been my last year,
I was able to finally get puffs us kisses in my hands. And this was a
little book that my youngest inspired, who's I call my rainbow
baby because she came after two miscarriages. And she's super
affectionate. She loves to give kisses and she would come at us
with these, you know, like, cheese cover and grease covered milk
covered lips and saying I want to give you a kiss mama. And we
started labeling and and you know, categorizing her kisses. And she
was only two years old. And she's like, oh, you know, we were like,
We don't want to milk the kids. We don't want a greasy kiss. And it
was a joke in the family. And she has two year old she's like mama,
wouldn't that be a funny book was like, Oh, well I bought. That's
how this book was born. And it took a lot of time logged dying to
get this one published. And it took a lot of money to get this
one published as a tiny little book. It's a board book. But these
are much more expensive to get published. And again, it's with my
publisher proliance Publishing, which is a hybrid publisher. So I
had to put all the money that I didn't earn. In my traveling, I
had to like, find ways to collect funds to fund this book. And I'm
still trying to figure out how to sell it. And it's okay. Like, I
want everybody to know here, like,
I'm so grateful that I can share this journey. And I can share the
struggle, because I don't want to sit here and say, Oh, I
accomplished this and that. And it. No, the last four years has
been not easy, is it's okay, I am, I am so grateful. Because those
gears before where I was traveling and earning really well on the law
that was written in my risk. And these last four years, where I
haven't been able to do the same. This has been in my risk, and it
will balance out. And this is what Allah has planned. And it's okay.
I am just so so grateful. so, so grateful. So, you know, I'm
starting to do in person events again, slowly. For me, online
sales is very difficult, because both of my books are hardcover.
And so trying to ship them, you know, is very expensive,
especially internationally. So the in person events is where I get
majority of my sales, and that time will come and that's okay.
And I'm just been refocusing I've been working on
a novel actually for teenagers about the setup. It will be a will
be a historical fiction book, which I'm really excited about.
And again, that's not what I had planned. But that's what's
happening. And that's okay on the lot. And it's just realizing that
you are where Allah wants you to be. And if I sit here and I
compare myself to others, you know, there's a duet time sister
Naima to share a really quick story.
Of there's a there's a narration of Prophet Musa alayhis salaam,
where he's standing at the Throne of Allah. And he sees another man
at the top corner of Allah's throne. And he asked Allah like
who is he? And here is a prophet of God.
Right, and he sees somebody who has advanced, right, he's that
that other man is at the high corner localista. And, and Allah
tells him that this person did two things. One, he was good to his
parents. He was good to his parents, and my mother's health
has been declining these last four years. So that's another thing
that I've been very busy with this taking care of my mom.
Second, is that this man did not compare his blessings to others
blessings, and SubhanAllah. We live in a time where social media
is in our faces. And all we are seeing is literally highlight
reels, highlights of people's lives, where they're only showing
the good and the positive.
And so we can sit here and be like, Why did this person get this
blessing? And I didn't, I've been doing this for much longer I coach
this person, what's happening? Why am I not? No, no, this person
earned this rank.
Because he did not compare his blessings to anybody else's
blessings. And so this is my, my journey. And this is the two cents
that I leave you with that humble Allah, Allah has chosen you to be
where you're at and make the most of it. Two reasons Allah has put
us on this earth to worship Him and to represent him. And if we
can do that, through our work through our presence, let's do it.
Sharla Allahumma Salli, ala sayyidina, Muhammad, or Baddeck
whistling?
Just Hakalau could look as this wow, we're not going to say too
much after that, to be honest, because I'm just so grateful to
you for just coming with the honesty, you know. And that's one
of the things that we we love about our community. However
loosely or closely, we define that community, whether it's people who
have worked
that weekend and I or people in the wider Muslim online unity or
justices who are writing, that's one of the things that I've
learned so much about our relationship is that the safe
space, you know, and I believe very strongly that all of us are
here with the intention to please Allah subhanaw taala and loving
for our sisters what we love for ourselves. So I just want to thank
you, thank you for being honest with us. Allah subhanaw taala is
using you and he he used your voice in the way that he saw fit
with a light hand and you had an A you had an objective and you
thought you were going to achieve it in one way and he just
reoriented you and you
were to Akbar So ladies, I just want to thank you so much for your
time. And you know just for just giving us such like I said you
know this that diversity of of experiences and journeys and even
of lessons that you've learned along the way I honor you for the
work that you keep doing and for the fact that you're still in the
arena and you're still committed to your original intention every
single one of you and for sure Allah subhanaw taala will open a
doorway as he has opened doorways for every one of you in different
ways. And as Tanya said, It's okay and I love that to end on that
message Masha Allah, we will put all the links in the description
guys, please do support these sisters continue to learn from
them. Hopefully this will not be the last time that we have them
tear on this platform to teach us to inspire us so we can learn from
them. But for now Insha Allah we will close off here to Zack Hello
Harun, put your takeaways in the comments and we'll see you on the
niccola sisters does that color hate and you can mute and give
salam insha Allah Zack laughing