Naima B. Robert – Why I am passionate about writing books Message for Muslim Women from Na’ima B Robert
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses her passion for creating Muslim author books and her desire to celebrate her own writing. She emphasizes the importance of belief, learning, and sharing knowledge to create a powerful book and prevent unease in the next generation. The speaker also highlights the need for a nonnegotiable habit and a Muslimah author project. She encourages the caller to subscribe and share the message.
AI: Summary ©
You're very cat to YouTube. It's your sister
Naima b Robert here. Just wanted to pop
on here to share a little bit about
the work that I do.
May you may be aware that I am
an author of, almost 30 books now for
children, teens, and adults,
And, I coach writers.
I I am on a mission to create
222
Muslim authors by the end of the year.
We're making good progress
but I wanted to share with you
the reason
why I am as passionate as I am
about working with Muslim women
to
open the way for them to be able
to tell their story,
share their message, or spread the knowledge that
they have been blessed with.
And, really,
all of this goes back to my own
experience with my son.
My first born,
was born in London, and I was living
in South London at the time. And when
he was about a year old, I had
started taking him to the library, and we
would take out book after book after book,
and we loved it. You know? It was
one of our things that we enjoyed together,
that we that we bonded over. And I've
always loved stories and I've always loved books.
I grew up with them. But one of
the things that
bothered me
was that
at that time,
there were hardly any books
about
Muslims, about Muslim children, featuring Muslim children,
that celebrated the Muslim way of life or
Muslim values.
And the little that there was available was
very,
sort of, you know, let me teach you
about Islam,
and very basic.
And I I I remember feeling
this
this malaise, this this unease in my heart
that my son and I were enjoying these,
you know, really gorgeous books,
you know, so many of them. If you
go to the library in the UK, then
you'll know. So many gorgeous books about these
children,
and and not being able to find any
about us.
And
I asked myself whether my son would end
up wondering why
he doesn't see himself reflected
in any of the books that he reads,
Why the children in the books that he
reads don't have a name like his.
Why the parents in the books that we
were reading don't look like his or talk
like his or even maybe sometimes have the
same principles and values as his,
would that have an impact on him
later in life? Would it show
up as some sort of inferiority
complex?
Would it show up as some sort of,
you know, shame about who we are as
Muslims,
as Africans, as, you know, people of color,
whatever you wanna call us, right,
in my in my family's case. You know,
would this show up for him? And I
was like,
I accepted Islam
Okay? My late husband, my son's father, also
accepted Islam.
Islam is beautiful.
Right? The Islamic way of life is beautiful.
It's it, you know, it it's it's it
made us who we were becoming and who
we had become.
It brought us together.
It allowed us to create this family, and
we were very proud to be young Muslim
parents.
We were proud
to be
forming a Muslim family, a family on Islamic
values.
You know? And and we wanted our children
equally to be proud of being Muslims
and proud of their Muslim family and proud
of their Islamic values. Right?
So this was this was where I found
myself.
Either
I kind of cut down on the non
Islamic influences in terms of the books we
were getting from the library
or
I start creating
the books that I wanted to see. I
start actually being the change that I want
to see. And subhanAllah
don't ask me how, don't ask me why,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I feel really Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala just inspired me to say
I'm gonna be the change that I want
to see.
I'm going to write the books that I
wish were on the library shelves.
And Allahu Akbar,
20 years later,
I have written the books that are on
the library shelves.
If you're familiar with Ramadan Moon, Going to
Mecca,
The Swirling Hijab, and countless others,
let let it go. My dua for you.
You know, welcome to the world, baby. So
many
that are now on library shelves,
that are now in schools, that are now
translated into other languages, that now are forming
part of the identity of the next generation
of Muslim children.
And for me, that is really one of
the biggest, biggest, biggest
honors
that my lord has bestowed upon me.
That
born from the idea that I had about
being the change that I want to see
and, you know, creating, you know, beautiful,
high quality books about Muslims
20 years ago
to today,
like I like I said, I think it's
20 books now, for children specifically.
And and and and as I said,
in libraries, in schools, in people's homes,
part of people's Ramadan traditions, peep part of
people's, you know, Hajj season traditions,
you know, families that don't know me, families
that I have never met. They will never
meet me. Their kids will never know who
I am,
but my stories have formed
a part of their childhood.
And, of course, I pray that it's a
good part of their childhood, and it's a
memory that they that they love and that
they hold on to and that they then
pass on to their own children.
Because, really,
that is why I am so passionate about
writing books.
Because a book is really a love letter.
A children's book, as far as I'm concerned,
is your love letter to the next generation.
What is what are the stories that you
wanna pass on to them? What is the
message that you want to share with them?
What's the knowledge that you'd like to spread
to the young?
To the next generation coming up.
To those who are still learning, still exploring,
still growing, still forming who they are? What
is the tarbia that you would like to
leave behind?
These are the questions that we ask the
ladies in my children's book master class.
You can check out more information on that
on the, the link.
But these are the questions that I get
the ladies to ask. And when they write
their stories,
it's from that place of
writing a love letter to the next generation,
of being a source of ched for the
next generation, of giving a gift really
to the the generation that is coming up.
So, you know, the the
the the opportunity
that you have
to impact others
with your story, your message, or your knowledge
is one of the reasons why I'm so
passionate
about getting
everyone to see that you have a book
inside you.
You have a book. Now it may be
a children's book like Ramadan Moon.
It may be a novel
like Far From Home or Boy Versus Girl
or,
you know, She Wore Red Trainers.
It may be a memoir. Okay? Like from
my sister's lips. It may be a self
help book like show up.
But whatever it is I know that you
have a story within you. You have a
story to tell or a message to share
or knowledge to spread. I know this about
you.
Now the question is,
do you want to do it?
Firstly,
before that question,
do you believe me?
Do you believe me when I say to
you that you have
a powerful story to tell? That you have
an important message to share? That you have
beneficial knowledge
to pass on to somebody else.
Because that's the first thing. The first thing
is belief. Do you believe me when I
say that? Do you believe in your story?
Do you believe in your message? Do you
believe in the the the the the impact
of this knowledge and the importance of this
knowledge? Belief is the first thing. And then
the second thing is, do you want to
do it?
Are you ready to commit the time and
the effort and the resources
in order to make it happen?
And the third thing,
are you ready to make it a nonnegotiable?
Now I always talk about
it being a nonnegotiable because
for me,
when you decide to write a book, it's
not a nice to have, it's not a
hobby, it's not of something that would be
cool.
It's too much work for that. Trust me.
The investment in your time, your energy, and
your resources
is too much for a hobby or something
that would be cool or something that's like,
oh, a checklist. No.
This needs to be a nonnegotiable
for you if you're actually going to become
part of the 3%
that finish their manuscript and get their work
out into the world.
And making it a nonnegotiable
really means leaning into your why.
What is the deeper meaning of this book?
What is the higher purpose of this book?
Is this something that
could be earning you sadaqa jariyah?
Is this something that you will get barakah
for? Will Allah be pleased with this? Will
this help someone? Will this be of benefit
to the community? Is this something that the
world needs right now? All of these questions,
we need to be answering them pretty much
with a yes in order to make it
a non negotiable.
And if you believe that you do have
a story to tell, a message to share,
or knowledge to spread,
and you are ready to commit to actually
making it happen and making it a non
negotiable, well guess what?
I would love to help you. So just
go to the link
and check out the other authors that we've
helped and send in an application to work
with me.
I have, set myself a goal of helping
222
women become
published authors this year. My Muslimah author project,
means that we are setting our sights on
222
Muslimah authors by the end of the year.
I would love to help you
on your journey and I hope that you
will join us. I'd love for you to
be one of those sisters that we celebrate
at the end of the year with a
big Zoom party inshallah.
But like I said,
you need to believe
in the value of what you have to
say. You need to be ready to commit,
and you need to make this a nonnegotiable.
And if you come to me with that,
girl, I will coach you. Okay? I will
coach you. I will teach you how to
do this step by step. We will support
you along the way. We will keep you
accountable.
You'll be in a wonderfully supportive community and
we will give you all the tools that
you need to see the success that our
other clients have seen.
So with that I hope you have a
fantastic rest of the day. Thanks so much
for rocking with me. I look forward to
seeing your applications on the website
www.naimarobert.com/services.
Get yourself over there and let's see if
we can make this happen together.
Subhan Allah I I'm so excited
to hear from you.
For now make sure that you like the
video. Make sure that you subscribe. If you
haven't subscribed and make sure to share this
with somebody who needs to hear this message
and I'll see you on the other side.
I'll be reading all your comments
and I can't wait to see what y'all
saying. Alright.