Egyptian Gumbo

My opinion columns turned into a speech. That speech turned into a script. And that script has been turned into a dawah, public service announcement video. (To see the video, keep reading…)

Last year, I wrote and delivered a five minute speech to my public relations class. I decided to take the easy way out of the assignment and decided to take the opportunity for dawah and picked the subject of prejudice to talk about. I chose excerpts from my past opinion columns in The Daily Reveille and made them into my speech.

After delivering the speech one girl came up to me and said, “It really does make me see how ignorant we really are. Especially seeing how it’s only the actions of few that get attributed to your religion.” Others told me it was a successful PR speech because it made them look at their own beliefs about Islam and compare them to my words. I didn’t expect that feedback. Alhamdulillah it was successful, all by the will of Allah. And only Allah has allowed me such opportunities, walhamdulillah.

Meanwhile, I was working on a media kit for Leechon and particularly the upcoming documentary, “Tufaan.” During that time, we came up with the idea of shooting public service announcement videos to put at the beginning of every documentary that Leechon would produce — especially Tufaan, since its primary target audience is non-Muslims. Hence, the idea to use my speech as a script for the PSA emerged.

So we decided to do it much like the format of the “Bear Witness” video that Br. Belal Khan had produced a while back, where every person would read two lines from the script. Here’s the Bear Witness video, which in my opinion is an really nice dawah video:

Anyway, Br. Ahmed Eid, a brother from NJ who has been working with me and the PR team for quite a while took up the challenge of shooting and editing the video for Leechon. MashaAllah, it turned out great. Although I don’t personally know anyone in the video, I wanted to give a big jazakum Allahu Khairan katheeran for the work and effort you guys put into it. May Allah make it heavy on your scales, ameeeeen. And inshaAllah I look forward to working with you all in the future, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala.

So without further adeiu, our PSA: FREEDOM FROM FEAR

Lastly, in the future I would like to write dawah videos that are not on the defense. Sure there are people who hate Islam, sure there is still a lot of anti-Islamic sentiment around, but I would like to move away from being on the defense to speaking to people in general about Islam. A PSA about “Islam” why they see us prostrating on the floor when we pray, etc.

Good things to come inshaAllah. Give us your feedback and if you like it spread it around inshaAllah.

I have this “tradition” I do with my mom every night. She watches the Arabic dish at night — sometimes watching sheiookh give lectures and other times watching the salah from Al-Haram — and while she sits there watching, I sit under her feet and talk to her for like 10 minutes every night. Tonight was no exception.

Today, I walked by our den and saw her watching this nature show. It showed all these different safari animals, much like a show found on The Discovery Channel, only it was narrated in Arabic. There was no music, so I decided ‘OK, let me watch it with her.’ We sat there watching as the cheetah with its three cubs would go hunting for food. The mama cheetah ran and attacked a gazelle and chewed it up on camera. “Subhanallah!” I thought. I’m kind of squeamish, so It was a little difficult for me to watch the cheetah tear into the flesh of the gazelle while the narrator described what was happening in detail.

The story gets better.

So now the cheetah jumped over a little pond, but her three little cubs were still behind. So then something weird happened, the narrator started talking for the cheetah! “Come swim to me my little ones,” she said in a baby voice. I turned to my mom and I told her this is why I hate Arabic satellite. “They should keep it professional and not try to be cute and insert words into the animal’s mouth,” I complained. One after another animals were hunting each other, blood was shed — it showed the whole food chain in action. Every once in a while the narrator would cut from serious voice to a child-like voice speaking on behalf of the animals.

If you are squeamish, you shouldn’t watch the video. But subhanallah this isn’t the video, but surprisingly it’s EXACTLY the same scenario with the mama cheetah hunting for food for her cubs. And this is about the same type of gore that would be shown. Very amazing, subhaallah:

Then at the very end of the show a song came on in which little children were singing, “Ya ayyuhal atfaal!”

The show was made for children! That was some pretty morbid stuff for children to see. Me and my mom start laughing. And in case you don’t know my mom, she can be quite a comedian sometimes. So my mom started to make her own theme song for the show:

(in Arabic)

Mom: “O children come gather around. Gather around for blood and death”

Shirien: HAHA

Mom: “Watch this show and go to sleep, so that you can get nightmares.”

Shirien: “Oh mama, you’re so funny!”

Mom: “So go get your diapers kids, because you may have an accident…”

Shirien: “Haha, oh man…”

Mom: “So gather round for blood an gore..”

Shirien: “OK mama… stop….”

Mom: “(hehe) We guarantee a good time…”

Shirien: “No, seriously mama… stop…”

Mom: (laughs but continues)

Shirien: “Seriously mama, you’re funny but you don’t know when to stop…”

Haha, gotta love my mommy, MashaAllah.

———

What’s the point of the story? It’s not enough to know who your target audience is. Rather, along knowing your target audience you must also know the how to properly convey the message in both tone and content. The show would have been AMAZING if they geared it toward adults and didn’t insert childish voices.

That can apply to any of the mediums of communication. I know it seems kind of self-explanatory but it’s actually something crucially important when sending your message for mass publication or viewing. Tone and content and how appropriate they are to your target audience is key to making it effective.

In fact, to give an example of where this can kind of get tricky think about toys and toy advertisements. Advertisements geared toward children are perhaps the most criticized of all. In fact, in some countries it has been banned altogether. Here in the US, there are strict guidelines. Some people link these advertisements to child obesity and turning children into consumers very early on.

But is it really the children that these advertisers are really trying to target as their primary audience, or is it the children’s parents? Who has the money?

There is no doubt that TV advertisements with the little dolls and action figures target children who watch shows on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. But that’s all an attempt to get the children to convince the parents to seal the deal and to ultimately make the purchase. This marketing strategy is commonly referred to as “pester power” or in other words, how much a kid can nag their parents into buying the toy. But that doesn’t work unless the advertisers also show the “importance” of the toy, knowing parents only want what’s best for their children.

And why wouldn’t they, parents collectively spend over $2 billion on toys each year. So it gets pretty tricky for marketers to sometimes balance appeal to kids while inserting messages of “importance of the toy” for the parents, without changing the tone of the advertisement.

I’ll go more in depth on the different tones to use for different audiences and different messages at a later date, inshaAllah.

Wallahu Alem.

If you read past the headline, congratulations, you are one of the few individuals who care. I wanted to write about this since I saw the video on Mujahideen Ryder’s blog. These past couple of days, I kept opening WordPress wondering if I should just write about something else — something more people would enjoy reading. I even made a whole other post ready to publish, but something stopped me.

I don’t want to be one of those people who just write for entertainment purposes. I will never write something just to cause controversy. I guess you can say I’m the black sheep of the journalism industry. While everyone else writes what will get more readers and more subscriptions, I’ll write what needs to be said no matter the reaction from the audience or even if there is no audience at all.

I guess you can say I’m a little disgusted with those methods, since I worked at a paper that used them — but then again, which newspaper doesn’t?

The reality is, the media dictates what we should think is important in the world and what we shouldn’t care too much about. You have media gatekeepers, people you don’t know anything about, saying, ‘This is what society should be talking about and this is something that is not really important or interesting to anyone.’

According to gatekeepers, people should care about Donald Trump’s hair or Barack Obama wearing Kenyan clothing.

One of those topics gatekeepers are telling us is not important is Iraq. Iraq won’t bring readers anymore. Iraq is something so, so far away; old news.

As you know, the video I’m posting is not pleasant in nature. It will cause emotional distress for those of you with a heart. And while I’m telling you this, perhaps half of you have already closed the window or have navigated away from this site. For those of you who haven’t, take a look at the video:

I don’t want to be another one of the ones who just turns away from the remembrance, just because it’s not pleasant to think about. I’ve done it before and I’m sure you have too. You see something depressing, you get sad for a couple of moments then block it out as something far and away; something you have very little to do with.

Reading this post is painful and uncomfortable for you. Because you know it’s exactly what you’ve done in the past and you don’t know how to stop from doing it again, today.

For one, we need to make dua for our brothers and sisters in Iraq and ask Allah to ease their hardship soon.

And lastly, for those of you with blogs, in journalism, or those of you who give lectures frequently don’t write with your viewers in mind, but write with your viewers in mind. Don’t write because you know it’s what they want to hear and will bring more fans your way, write because it’s what they need to hear. And leave the rest for Allah.

In a way I guess I, too, am a gatekeeper now. And Iraq, and the state of Muslims around the world is what I think is important and it’s something we should never forget. May Allah ease their hardship and strengthen the Muslimeen. ameen.

wallahu ta’ala alem.

There is MashaAllah a lot of people registered! You seriously don’t want to miss out on it, especially since the class is only going to be conducted once.

This is the last video before the launch of the first webinar on May 31st. Wallahi this is worth it. It’s no secret that I’m big on getting more Muslims in the media. It’s not only because it’s something I’m passionate about — but it’s because I know what potential is out there. This video does a good job of laying out the problem in the beginning with the 3D graphics then tells all about Message Mastery.

Registration will close I believe on June 13th. So whether you are more interested in writing, marketing or film making. Signing up for the first class is crucial because you will get into all the other ones for free. It’s really worth the money. And I hope that Allah ‘az wa jal makes it heavy on the scales of the people that register. ameen.

Remember the first session will be FREE for everyone to tune in and listen to on May 31st. So check it out and tell your Muzzzzlim friends.

Also: There is a post talking about the difficulties when making this video here.

Insha’Allah I hope I won’t get in trouble for this post. Because this is going to be some juicy goodness right here.

For those of you who don’t know, I do a lot of the PR work for Message Mastery. I really only do PR work for projects I really, truly believe in. MM is one of those projects that subhanallah, not only I have full faith and support in, but sheiookh like Yusef Estes, Muhammad Alshareef and Yasir Qadhi have also all showed interest and support in.

(If you know about Message Mastery, we want to know your thoughts and/or how you heard of the program. So be sure at the end of this post to leave a comment letting us know.)

If you knew the amount of work that goes into making something like MM successful (by the Will of Allah) then subhanallah, you too would find this to be something rare and a great opportunity for all Muslims.

Some of you have seen the Message Mastery videos, some of you haven’t. I’m not going to talk about things you might already know (from the videos and the website) but rather, I’m going to tell you the “backstage” stuff that goes on; things we discuss and only insiders know and things that will be released publicly soon, but you hear it here on my blog first

But before tell you the inside stuff, here’s just a little bit about Message Mastery: It’s all about training Muslims to be well-rounded in several areas of the media; not only for the sake of their own work, but for the betterment of Islam, inshaAllah.

10 things you might or might not know:

1. Plans for the Message Mastery System:

The upcoming film making class (on May 31st) is NOT Message Mastery. That is just ONE CLASS in the Message Mastery system. The plan is that we are establishing this as the first webinar of many to come in the future. There will be other classes like marketing/viral marketing 101, photography , and surprise, surprise — a media writing/PR writing 101 class taught by none other than yours truly, inshaAllah. Those among many other classes, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala. So this really is going to be an all inclusive “getting Muslims in the media” system. Awesomeness, no?

2. Special Deals Still Under the Rug… Until Now:

Shh, word on the street is that if you sign up for the first class (film making) you’ll get into all the other future classes free. Why is this genius? It’s genius because only 200 people will get this deal. Everyone else will have to pay for every other webinar they want to take when they come out.

3. People Who Actually Make Awesome Projects/Films Will Have the Opportunity to Get Client Work in the End. There is more work being sought out then there are the Muslims with the skills to do it. We know who’s looking for promo videos, news articles, marketing for their projects/companies. And inshaAllah those people who show the best work will be given these opportunities.

4. The Awesomeness and WEIRDNESS of Our PR Team.

If there was ever an example of a “mastermind group” this would be it, mashaAllah. I must say, we have all different types of personalities on the team but somehow we all compliment each other’s ideas and thinking in the end.

We have the social members of our group — the ones who love to give input on everything (which is great) and we have the silent ones who out of no where “bust out” with their great ideas. We have the nice members of our group and we have that one sarcastic “mean” member of the group who makes us all gasp in disbelief at some of the things he says . Ahem… see (www.themanoffewwords.com and www.islamify.com.) –Oddly enough, he too, brings forth great ideas and puts his words to action… so we’re all happy to have him on the team.

5. More Weirdness:

We all make fun of each other’s grammar and spelling, we have about 30 posts for every topic we discuss and we all read them — it’s the nerdiest group you will ever come across, and I love it. Hafsa will email me all my mistakes in this post (which I love), the poor brother and sister from the UK stay up all night just for our conference calls, Manoffewwords always insults all members of the group only for all of us to end up laughing at it, despite its meanness, and several members of the group keep trying to get Belal in trouble with the authorities by suggesting project names like “Youtube Jihad.” Sorry Belal, you have bad friends.

6. Taking Over Ideas and Us Acting Like We Know What Br. Belal is Talking About:

Belal, who makes the videos, usually has a specific vision for what he wants his next videos to turn out like. He usually has it all planed out until we, his PR team, decide that he should do something completely different. And subhanallah, he doesn’t hesitate to go with our advice. He also likes to make up a lot of words — i.e. “ordinatory, UPPOPPR” — and uses them a lot, expecting we know exactly what he’s talking about.

7. If You’re Worried About the Cost, You’re Worrying Over Nothing.

I don’t work for scams. If I truly didn’t think that people would get their money’s worth, I wouldn’t be promoting it. ESPECIALLY with this first class (since you’ll get all the other ones free.) We debated and debated over the cost, and really $247 was what we came up with due to all the things we KNOW that will be provided for those who register. Trust me, people pay thousands of dollars for less than you would get with Message Mastery.

8. Most of Us Just Want to See His Little Sisters in the Videos…

…share the spotlight. All up in their “grill” like that.

9. We’re all Becoming Masters of Viral Marketing.

Seriously, we’re discovering so many secrets and techniques that will blow anyone’s socks off. We also have so many ideas that are being worked on right now with regard to viral marketing, all of which will be taught inshaAllah in one of the future Message Mastery webinars.

10. None of Our Success Could be Possible Without the Will and Help of Allah.

Walhamdulillah.

OK, this post became a little too long. If you haven’t already go ahead and check it out and TAKE the opportunity while you can, inshaAllah.

To be honest, hate using the word “opportunity.” I’ve too been jaded way too much by that term. “You have the opportunity to go to outer space! Oh, did we mention you just have to have 20 million dollars.”

However, this really is an opportunity for any Muslim with some interest in any of the areas within mass media. So I suggest you check it out at www.messagemastery.com.

P.S. before any of you label me as stupid, I wouldn’t really write a post if I knew it was something that could get me in trouble and cost me my job :).

Let us know your thoughts. A new video will be coming out any day now, inshaAllah — stay tuned.

Hmm, what can I say about Bill O’Reilly?

Someone sent this to me a couple of days ago via StumbleUpon (just another reason why everyone should use StumbleUpon!) Some of you may have seen this before some of you haven’t. Keep in mind that this is someone who is supposed to be respected and “honest.” Fox News junkies love him. I’ve always hated his program not only because it’s Fox, but because he never lets anyone speak. He yells at everyone and he’s very good at taking control of the conversation and twisting things around.

It’s a video of Bill O’Reilly going crazy on the floor director in the studio: (warning, there is graphic language):

Here’s another clip of him claiming he only told someone to shut up once in the past 6 years:

Mr. Dreher,

Your latest article on beliefnet.com has recently come to my attention — partially because of the subject matter being about me and my work with The Daily Reveille.

I’ve done a little bit of research about you and your past and have discovered that you are currently a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, are a contributor to the National Review and The American Conservative. It also appears that you were previously a columnist for The New York Post and have authored a book titled, “Crunchy Cons.”

However, regardless of your “credentials,” I am not impressed. While it does seems that you are a journalist by definition, you failed to do the most fundamental and obvious thing any journalist should do before writing an article: research. You’ve been an opinion columnist longer than I have. So it seems rather odd to me that you would neither do your research nor ask me for an interview before assuming certain things.

In your article, “Dhimmitude on the Bayou” you wrote:

“Favog discovers, to his chagrin, that our alma mater in journalism, the LSU Daily Reveille, allowed itself to be mau-mau’d by a Muslim Student into giving her a column, which she used to proselytize for Islam.”

Mr. Dreher, it seems as though you did not take the time to even look through or read any of my columns before rushing to judgment.

You later said, “Now, just imagine a state college newspaper giving a column to a fundamentalist Christian who uses it solely for the purpose of evangelization. Wouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t happen. But anything can be justified in the name of diversity. Ms. Elmasraya may be a pushy activist with a one-track mind, and a mediocre, jargon-dependent writer to boot, but the lady obviously knows a thing or two about how American newsrooms work. I predict she’ll go far.”

I challenge you to find any instances in any of my columns i’ve written in the past 1.5 years in which I blatantly call people to accept Islam. If someone accepted Islam as a result of reading my columns and seeing the truth nature of Islam, than this is by the Will of Allah alone and I’m very happy that I could help someone see the true nature of a true religion. And yes, this has happened before but I still challenge you to find an instance of what you call, “Evangelization.”

So again, for a journalist it’s surprising to see that you did little-to-no research on my past columns before you decided to dish out your “George-Bushy” words.

You claim that I somehow admitted my columns were for proselytizing Islam in my “Farewell Daily Reveille” post - which again, has no basis. I told a story of how I was hired. And in order to understand my post you need to understand a concept called “Divine Decree” or Qadr. And that is to say that Allah (or God) had everything that we will do in our lives already written before we were even born and that everything that happens in the world is by His will. It was by the divine decree of Allah that I was at the right place and the right time which led me to get my job. Much like it is by the Qadr of Allah that we wake up every morning.

I also take offense at the notion you have made by implying The Daily Reveille felt threatened or pressured into hireing me. If that were the case, then why would they re-hire me for two more semesters in which about 100 other people were competing for that one spot every semester? I did have to re-apply and go through the interview process every semester with different editors and different managers each time — just so you know. And tell me Mr. Dreher, how can this be when I had no idea they were accepting applications at the time and the editor himself was the one who suggested I apply? Hmm…

You also said, “Now, just imagine a state college newspaper giving a column to a fundamentalist Christian who uses it solely for the purpose of evangelization. Wouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t happen.”

It did happen. Again, this shows your lack of research because if you did any at all the name “Emily Byers” would come to mind. Byers is a friend and ex-Coworker of mine. She, too, was a columnist for The Daily Reveille who — more often than not — would talk about Catholicism. So nice try.

I’d like to thank you for being an example to the Muslims (and to the rest of the world) the very problem with the mass media today. People are quick to write and speak publicly without doing any investigations or without knowing anything at all about the topic they talk about.

Your use of the words “Dhimmi,” “Evangelical” and “Proselytize” are poor attempts of persuasion, to say the least. And I think most of your readers caught on to that based on the comments they left you on your site. But to reiterate, I thank you for being a prime example for my readers as to why they should NOT trust everything a journalist and someone with so-called “credentials” spews out at them.

Perhaps the problem, Mr. Dreher, is not that The Daily Reveille hired me to write about Islam, but perhaps you, as a strong conservative, are merely threatened by the spread of the true nature of Islam. For even the idol-worshipers during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to attack him not because of him as a person, but because it was Islam and truth that they hated.

And Allah knows best.

Sincerely,

Shirien

I know a secret. A secret that led to over 1500 subscribers to my blog in just 2 days. And if you pay attention and do what is required, you too can get the same results. (Only by the Will of Allah, of course)

Do you have a blog that’s kind of slow with traffic? Want more people to review your posts on Stumble Upon? Need more Muslims to come to your website? Read on…

Let’s be honest with each other: why would I want to expose my awesome secret to everyone for free? Well, for one, I too have something to gain. (And because I’m nice. And if you disagree, I hate you.) As all of you now know, I have just officially registered my PR company, Minbar Media. This is a PR company aimed at doing public relations work for Muslims.

In order for me to better serve you, we need to develop a way to reach the Muslim masses quickly and efficiently. What does this have to do with my secret? If done properly, not only will this help YOU drive traffic, subscriptions and potential customers to your websites but this will help develop a new era of Islamic Marketing and Advertising.

So what did I do to get these results?

Welcome to the beginning of a HUGE, genius campaign - and it all starts here at EgyptianGumbo.com.

So, bloggers, stumblers and Muslims, this one’s for you:

A couple of days ago I wrote my “Hijab Challenge” post. The attention it got afterward was not what I expected. That, in turn, lead hundreds of people to my site (by the way, welcome :P.) Afterward, I did what I normally would do and submit my posts to Stumble Upon, only this time instead of submitting it to the usual “Islam” category I submitted it to a different category. (you’ll only be able to know the category if you follow the next steps)

Anyway, the result was over 2,000 new people coming to my site via Stumble Upon in a period of 2 days (hey Stumblers :).)

And just to see if this method really worked, I tried it again with some of my previous posts on the Leechon Films Blog. Sure enough, 20 minutes later about 127 people had already come via Stumble Upon.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET THESE RESULTS? Just keep reading:

OK, so what exactly IS this campaign? We need to educate Muslims on Stumble Upon. Why? The very fact that posting my posts in a category other than “Islam” –which in turn drove so much more traffic to my site– shows the lack of Muslims using these social networking sites.

The result was in an increase in traffic and subscribers (which is all great), but not my primary target audience; Muslims.

The more Muslims that use Stumble Upon and  who are active in pressing the “Thumbs up” or “Thumbs down” button, the more our content will be read by our target audience; the Muslim masses all over the world. Thus, driving more traffic, subscribers and consumers to our sites.

More importantly, in order for Muslims to really get stronger — especially in the West — we need to know how to take advantage of these sites and use them to their full potential- so those Islamic articles you’ve written for the Sake of Allah, imagine how many more people will be able to read them and how much more ajr you can get, truly this is the best way to utilize these sites. So, after consulting with the PR team, we agreed that we should launch a PR campaign aimed at educating Muslims on “new media”– specifically, Stumble Upon.

WHAT TO DO:

Alhamdulillah, I had already written a post on the Leechon Blog on what Stumble Upon is and a tutorial on how to use it.

So if you haven’t already registered with Stumble Upon, go ahead and read this post I made and follow along:

“Stumble Upon Something Addictive: New Media Part 2”

Once you have the Stumble Upon Toolbar, go ahead and add the “Islam” category to your interests. Then, go ahead and give this post a thumbs up (to spread it around) and then post something on YOUR blog or website about this campaign. And tell all your friends that also have blogs and websites to do the same. Finally after this done, let me know and i’ll let you know exactly which categories I’ve observed get the most traffic via Stumble Upon.

The potential result?

-immediate attention to the campaign, increase in traffic and subscriptions to your blog, very rapid educating of Muslims around the world, and the ability to reach and connect to our brothers and sisters everywhere

Long post, I know. But it’s sooo worth it… inshaAllah.

Shirien

Presenting…

Minbar Media Inc.

… Coming Soon, InshaAllah

Get excited. This is going to be BIG by the tawfeeq of Allah, inshaAllah.

Yesterday was a really awesome experience, alhamdulillah. A couple of weeks ago I challenged the women on LSU’s campus to wear hijab for a day. If you want to know how this deals with viral marketing, read on.

I wrote a column called surprise, surprise: “Columnist challenges women to wear hijab for a day.” And that day was April 25th. Writing my columns I really had no idea how many people read them. I know I get a lot of hate mail, and a lot of hate comments, and I knew at least a couple of thousand people read them every week, but this hijab challenge took it to a whole new level.

Melissa and Sarah B. sitting in front a fountain in the Quad at LSU

I got several emails from girls saying they wanted to participate. So I helped them out; I met with some of them and showed them how to wear the hijab. and I even ate lunch with a couple of them yesterday while they sported their hijabs. They were all some of the sweetest girls I’ve met so far at LSU.

Soon after lunch, I got a call from my friend Sarah M. who reverted to Islam about two years ago and she’s telling me that even someone at a coffee shop on campus asked her if she was wearing the hijab because of the challenge. There was a buzz already going around campus. I go the masjid later that night and some of my friends are telling me that so and so was talking about how they read my column and so on and so forth.

My plan worked.

I was able to start dialog all over campus about the hijab. Afterward I got a various people emailing me wanting interviews, I gave a talk about women in Islam to a Women and Gender Studies class; It’s definitely the type of dawah opportunity no one could turn down. That was a lot of potential ajr to pass up. People would ask the girls why they are wearing it, and they would tell them and explain to them why Muslim Women wear the hijab and how we are not oppressed. It was a mass dawah effort. A lot like viral marketing/PR. It’s no wonder why people are all about getting more Muslims in the media. The potential is HUGE for dawah. Imagine, A hijab day on campus could turn into a nation-wide awareness day, which is very possible once we get more Muslims to be trained in media and marketing work.

That’s why I’m starting my own PR company soon. Business proposal should be done tonight and my company should be legally registered soon. There is so much potential out there and so many ideas on how to tap into this field. I’ve seen It work and have felt the sweetness of Allah ‘az wa jal making my efforts successful. Wallahi it’s only by the Will of Allah. And I realize as well, that this is all a test from Allah.

Melissa, Michelle, and Maggie posing for a picture at Atcha Bakery (mmm’ Atcha.)

The Fruits And Veggies of your Efforts:

Melissa was perhaps the sweetest of them all. She was very enthusiastic and excited to take on the hijab challenge, and told everyone she knew about it. We ate lunch and at night she came to our masjid. I stole about 10 girls (unintentionally) away from the youth halaqa to join in our discussion about the hijab. Subhanallah, although I’ve taught these girls before *shout out to you girls :P* and I see them all the time at the masjid, I learned so much about them just from that discussion.

One of the girls came out with the news that she had just started wearing hijab officially last Sunday. Another told of how she started wearing the hijab a couple of months ago, and came with the new news that she had given up listening to music. MashaAllah, la qowwita illa billah. I couldn’t have been happier.

Alhamdulillah, Allah ‘az wa jal gave me such a blessing to be able to change people’s lives. They jokingly (but truthfully) told Melissa how I used to chase after them like herds of sheep and how I wouldn’t start the halaqah until I swung my lasso and reeled them all into the room (that’s southern talk, y’all). They said how at first they ran away from lectures. Then When I would gather them they would come for half the time then leave, then they said that the more they listened to the words of the lectures, the more they wanted to stay on their own, until it lead them to change.

Conclusion?

Don’t give up on what you are doing even if you don’t see immediate results. Never give back or refuse to accept a gift Allah is offering you (i.e. opportunities for dawah). It could be that if we turn down these opporunities and freebies that Allah gives us, that He ‘az wa jal will in turn never give you that opportunity again and give it to someone more greatful.

It is an amazing feeling seeing the fruits of your actions and the potential that is to come, but only if you remember that it was all done by the Will of Allah. and Allah is truly the one that guides the hearts.

Stay tuned for my follow up column in The Daily Reveille next Friday about the results of the Hijab Challenge, inshaAllah. It will inshaAllah be the last column I write for the paper. It’s been a good 1.5 years, alhamdulillah and an awesome way to end that chapter of my life. Wallahu ta’ala alem. So, what are YOU going to do to spread the deen of Allah? (And, do you need a PR person? :P)