Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Okay, so the title is slightly misleading, considering this post is about bringing the Ilm Summit documentary to film festivals and there aren’t any tier 1 film festivals in Hollywood that I know of. However, there is a tier 2 film festival in LA!

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WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN NOW?

Imagine the names Sundance, SXSW, Cannes,  Toronto, Tribeca, or Berlin. Now that would be exciting.

Considering that I practically shot and edited a feature film because of Ilm Summit, I found myself asking,  “What’s keeping me from going all the way with this?”

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A question regularly being asked of the people who attended Ilm Summit was, “What will you bring back to your community?”

I believe the above question is at the core of the AlMaghrib business strategy.

After the tawfeeq of Allah it’s the internalization of this question combined with the systemization of its operations that has led AlMaghrib to grow at the exponential rate that it has.

I honestly believe an organization, company or brand becomes socially successful only when it becomes selfless. Making it’s existence for the betterment of community. Giving to the people before asking for their hand.

I believe what needs to be recognized by people who attend these seminars and are active participants is that initially people don’t care about the company, organization or brand.

Whether it be AlMaghrib, Bayyinah, etc, they initally only care about the potential benefit that can be brought to themselves and their community as a result of them being there.

Only after a relationship has been established will people become loyal.

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WHAT’S THAT GOT TO DO WITH FILM FESTIVALS?

In order for an organization or brand to be successful they must build solid relationships with their market.

One of the quickest ways to build a relationship with people is through stories and characters that pull your emotions. That’s why producing films with those elements can be a major asset to an organization’s marketing strategy.

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Imagine seeing the front page of your local entertainment section covering the screening of this Ilm Summit documentary.

The purpose of putting a film into the festival circuit is to give it exposure and to build its pedigree by getting as many media outlets that are covering the festivals to also do a story on the film.

One of my objectives is to recut the episodes and put them together to make a “feature film version” of the Ilm Summit 2009 experience.

It should be fun submitting this to film festivals and exposing AlMaghrib to an audience that would never have heard of it otherwise.

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How many more new people would be exposed to the dawah?

Think of people attending the film festivals, people in the documentary ending up on IMDB, as well the possibility of getting a distributor to buy the film and air it on television.

I ask again, How many more new people could be exposed to the dawah that would never have otherwise been exposed.

None of us are responsible for the outcome. Just sincere work. The rest is up to Allah.

Comments and criticisms are welcome

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

This blog post is simply the story behind the production of the Ilm Summit videos.

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The following message is an excerpt from an email I received recently from SaqibSaab on the image of AlMaghrib to the masses.

The IlmSummit videos. MashaAllah the experience of the ‘ilm and the summit was beautifully portrayed and I was glued to updates that came almost everyday, jazaAllah khair to the players involved.

At the same time, a lot of the image of AlMaghrib offering an incredibly high caliber retreat was put side by side with some “fun” scenes to show the great time everyone had.

I laughed and enjoyed them personally, but a brother once wrote to me:

I don’t think AlMaghrib adopts cheap tactics, overall they are slick with their stuff but sometimes things get out of hand.

The only thing I disagree strongly with AlMaghrib is the videos, and I don’t just mean the beat-boxing.

I really think some of the Ilm Summit videos will do a disservice to AlMaghrib. That is supposed to be the intense 2 week academic seminar. It just bugs me when the cheesy experience is sold instead of marketing.

It’s so weird to see Yaser Birjas talking about qawaid al fiqhiyyah in one video and then cookie monster and dinosaurs in another. Or see Wisam doing an AWESOME recitation, for it to fade out and into a groggy brother being woken up by 3 people.

If you’re wondering what this message is all about, you probably haven’t seen the videos.

You can view all the Ilm Summit videos via the index thread on the AlMaghrib Forums.

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TO THE ANONYMOUS PERSON who sent the email to SaqibSaab:

I respectfully disagree with you.

The videos were produced to tell the story of the students at Ilm Summit and what they experienced. Fundamentally it is part of marketing that these stories be told. However, the purpose of the video’s wasn’t to directly sell AlMaghrib or Ilm Summit.

The videos communicated exactly what was meant to be communicated, which is the atmosphere and environment of Ilm Summit. Not only on the side of brotherhood and sisterhood but also the academic side of things.

By far, everyone I’ve spoken with and my wife has spoken with who’s attended Ilm Summit 2009 agree that the videos communicate accurately what was seen and felt by the students.

You’ll notice that first week of videos contain a mix of the academic and the fun while the second week of Ilm Summit videos are much more academically inclined.

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The purpose behind me going to Ilm Summit 2009 was two fold:

• Gather footage that can be used in an AlMaghrib promo documentary laying forth the academic nature of the institute.

• Produce short “GemReels” for every day of Ilm Summit 2009 that tell the story of the people attending and also show the academic nature of the retreat.

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WHO’S IDEA WAS IT ANYWAY?

The idea of producing a daily video came about as a discussion between some of AlMaghrib’s HQ people and myself at AlMaghrib’s Ilmweek that took place in Toronto in May 2009.

We figured the idea is great especially since no other Islamic organization has really pulled off daily video blogging in an effective manner. The idea certainly gave me butterflies since I personally never produced so many videos back to back.

I’ve always wanted to do something like this ever since I saw Kevin Sites do it back in 2006 with Yahoo’s “Kevin Sites in the Hotzone.” — I just never realized how much work was in store for me.

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WHAT WENT INTO PUTTING THESE VIDEOS OUT?

One of the lessons I’ve learned from past projects is — In order to meet deadlines you need to set a time limit for how much footage you’re going to gather.

I set a time limit of maximum two hrs of footage to edit every day into less than five minutes. A 24-hour turn around time sounded reasonable considering my current skill level and experience – until I got down to editing.

Sleep literally went out the window. I remember having slept only four or five times in the 16 days I was there, and it was only out of exhaustion that I slept. My body would simply shut down.

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CHALLENGES THAT MADE ME YEARN FOR SLEEP

In an event where there is going to be filming, the attendees are usually notified.

During registration they’re suppose to be given release forms to fill out or at least have a sign saying “filming in progress” or something.

It’s been done past events that I’ve filmed at, but for some reason it wasn’t done at Ilm Summit.

For the first five days or so I was able to keep to my 24-hour turn around time schedule.

People were being cooperative and others were quite enthusiastic to be in front of the camera.

However it only took one sister’s complaint for me to receive an “executive order” to re-edit or completely take done some of the videos.

This basically led to a meeting with the heads of Ilm Summit where we decided on the policy of what to film, how things had been going thus far and how we wish to move forward.

Yasir Qadhi made it a point to announce the fact that there is filming and I’m not that hard to miss. Therefor if anyone doesn’t wish to be caught on camera they should stay behind my “contraption” and at the same time I would be making the best effort to keep certain people out of specific shots.

One of the other issues we addressed in the meeting was that not enough of the academic nature of Ilm Summit is being put out there.

The “academic nature” of “What Is Your Story: Ilm Summit Day 08″ and the latter videos was a direct result of that meeting:

From this point forward I was constantly playing catch up, however the videos that came forth were given more exposure for the academic nature of Ilm Summit 2009.

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Next post will be address some personal reflections I’ve had as well as what’s to come next with the Ilm Summit and AlMaghrib stuff.

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Some marked their calendars to save up and prepare themselves for the release of major May blockbusters like Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, and Disney-Pixar’s Up.

Some saved up and prepared themselves to attend the first ever Ilm Week hosted by QMajd, Toronto’s student body of AlMaghrib Institute.

I had the audicity and excitement of doing both.

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:: What’s the point?

Do you wish to learn more about me, the characters I meet or something else?

It might be a good idea to discuss the story of Yusuf and compare that to the foundational elements of these major May blockbusters and apply the lessons to apply to our projects, but then I figured – most people prob don’t even fully know or appreciate the story of Yusuf-may peace be upon him in the Quran.

Sad reality is that many Muslims – especially youth – haven’t taken the time to connect with the Qur’an or any of the characters that Allah has presented to us in it.

It’s not really their fault. People just haven’t relayed who these awesome characters are.

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:: What connects us to people and characters?

This is a question that I’ve been asking myself for a while. What REALLY connects us individuals to people? Whether or not they’re fictitios, what makes us love them or hate them?

I saw Disney-Pixar’s UP yesterday with my little sisters. It’s about following one’s dreams, acheiving goals and keeping promises. I laughed and – almost – cried in that movie. I know there were others in the theater who did shed a tear.

It’s no wonder that Pixar’s consistantly releases hits. Their characters totally connect with the audience.

When we watch movies, TV shows, webisodes, vlogs – are we connecting with the story, eye-candy, or the character(s)?

I’m convinced that subconsciencely as human beings our goal is to connect with the character. When it comes to people, whether or not they’re real we want to love or hate, but never tolerate.

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:: What does this have to do with you and I?

Whether were in busines, education, dawah, or entertainment – in order for us to effectively communicate our message we need to develop our characters.

Lay out not only the character in relationship to the story we’re telling but revealing and developing them as the story progresses.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What are the character’s basic human needs, wants, desires, and aspirations?
• What are their internal and external struggles that they’re contending with?

As the story progresses, what do you want to reveal about them to the audience so that the audience can releate and connect with them?

• What do they LOVE?
• What do they HATE?
• What do they FEAR?
• What makes them ANGERY?
• What moves them forward?
• What makes them SAD?
• What makes them HAPPY?
• What makes them ANXIOUS?

The answers to these questions is what adds depth and realism to any character. If you yourself want to connect with an audience, perhaps you want to think about revealing some aspects of YOUR character to people to connect with them.

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:: What does this have to do with Leechon and the work I’m doing?

Coming out of my comfort zone, really excites me. It’s a chance for growth, experiencing new things, and making new friends.

After releasing my second episode of Browntourage I decided to take the time out and ask YOU what you felt that could be improved. The feedback that you gave on Facebook and Leechon Blog-post was excellent and definetly woth applying, but it was missing something.

As I had been filming for the coming episodes, I wondered what is it about me and others that you want to learn about? It’s for that reason that I posted on “Tweet-booked”,

Flying out to Vancouver mon with Sensei (Muhammad Alshareef). If you could ask him a question, what would it be? Rply n I’ll ask it for you.

I figured people would want to know more about a “character” that I would be featuring in my episode – Muhammad Alshareef in this case – but turns out the questions they asked were of a different nature…

It’s for this reason I shared a “commenty” of sort on Facebook (click the image)

This sort of brings me back to my original question – what is it about the characters on my trip that you wish to learn? What do you want to know about them? Am I the character that you wish to know more about?

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

It’s been an interesting trip so far. Just to sum up what’s happened so far:

• Fiqh of Love with Sh. Waleed Basyouni is definently original and eye opening
• Recording of the first weekend has been an almost complete disaster – which has led to a fairly successful start for the recording of Ilm Week.
• I had Popeye’s for the first time in Toronto – First experience was..okay. The second experience made me gag, almost puke and killed my appitite.
• Finished up “Tribes” by Seth Godin – Excellent book
• Started “The Whuffie Factor” by Tara Hunt – really good book so far 
• Witnissed Yasir Qadhi’s conversion story and change of methodology – see: http://muslimmatters.org/2009/05/18/yasir-qadhi-my-conversion-admitting-ones-mistake-and-moving-on/

One of the major highlights of the trip so far has been meeting the people heading up AlMaghrib in the UK. Really nice bunch of guys. They relayed the following to me via email in the past and in person again here:

I have been meaning to write this email for a while…

I believe Belal deserves a huge amount of credit for AlMaghrib expanding at the rate it has in the UK. His trailers have captivated the UK audience and many dawah organisations call me and ask me for the details of who makes AlMaghrib trailers. And many have copied Belal’s style of trailer to advertise on the Islam Channel. Company’s call Islam Channel and ask for us to make a trailer for them like AlMaghribs Mash’Allah.

And with a viewership of over 1.5 Million in the UK and a further global audience, our adverts are viewed by Millions across the globe Mash’Allah.

Without the quality trailers that Belal has made that include, Jannah, cities, Shayoukh, TSP, TB, LOG, BOC and now TBA AlMaghrib would not have had class numbers the size we have now in the UK and we would have still only been known by the practising Muslims.

However now we are known by many who are not practising and many do attend our seminars.

Therefore this email is to really say a big Jazzak’Allah khair to Belal and all the hours he has worked to ensure adverts are completed on time Mash’Allah.

May Allah (swt) accept it from you akh and increase the talents he has given you, Ameen.

Jazak’ Allah khair.
Wa Salaam

Ameen ya rabal’alameen. Any and all success my work has had is all from Allah-swt and may Allah-swt forgive me for any and all shortcoming I’ve had along the way and will have in the future.

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

This post is a means of looking back to finding answers, correcting mistakes, celebrating achievements and laying the foundation of whats to come in the future.

Before I begin, I want to lay out the fact: Rizq is truly from Allah-swt and the outcome of our efforts really isn’t totally a product of our doing, but the magnificence of Allah-swt allowing for the right circumstances at the right time for opportunities to make themselves available to us.

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With that said:
Top 3 ACHIEVEMENTS I’m most grateful for that happened in 2008 are:

• Getting AlMaghrib Institute as a client contract for Leechon, which has resulted in many fruits such as: IlmCast.com, GemReel.com and Superstar seminar trailers

• Setting up MessageMastery.com – an online learning system to teach people aspects of media, marketing, and communication (although its been a real bumpy and overwhelming ride – still is for me)

• Going from 700 RSS subscribers to 13,000+ RSS subscribers on Leechon.com – How this happened, I’m not entirely sure.

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Top 5 LESSONS I’ve found most valuable in the process of work in 2008 are:

• Contract or hire a bookkeeper! – As you grow in your business, the frequency and size of financial transactions will increase. If you’re not a number cruncher at heart,  you’ll find the process of recording all those transactions into QuickBooks a grueling and painful process. Save yourself the agony and delegate this process to someone who’s more qualified than yourself.

• A slice of a watermelon is bigger than an entire grape. – When involving yourself in a project, think beyond yourself. Look for ways in which you or your business can benefit the client (whether that be your customers or target audience) and share in the fruits and rewards. — Instead of getting a bigger piece of the pie, make the pie bigger to involve more people so all can share.

• Know your worth and have an understanding of the market before diving in – Business is about exchanging value. Business can be conducted fairly and professionally only if you know what that value is. If you don’t know your own self worth then you cannot expect others to know either. If the value of your work is $10,000 in the market, then don’t do injustice to yourself by receiving only $1,000. You’re limiting yourself and in the end it is YOU who will suffer.

• Fail Forward - I’ve made many mistakes this year. Mistakes in areas of financial decisions, what projects or clients to take up, biting off more than one can chew, and the process developing content for Message Mastery. These mistakes have led to delays on delivery and overall performance. – Being a human being, mistakes are inevitable. Welcome and admit the mistakes. Don’t fear them. The important thing is we fail FORWARD and learn from our mistakes as they happen.

• Never let schooling get in the way of your education - It’s a quote my Mark Twain, and its so true. We all to go school to get an education. If you find a means of education superior to traditional schooling, then jump on that bandwagon. You obviously have to factor in stuff like being able to pay for life’s essentials. For me, running Leechon is my education, so much so that the principles and hands on experience of business education has been far greater than business school itself.

A bonus lesson:

• Clarity = Power : Whether you want to progress in business, home, religion, etc – having absolute clarity is essential. Gaining clarity is a process of having perspective and getting in control of what’s around you. You need to organize what’s around you and focus on what’s important (or vice versa)  and throw out the rest. Having absolute clarity will lead you to what you want on the different levels of your life.

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Any and all good that has taken place in this past year is because Allah-swt allowed it to happen. The mistakes are because of my own shortcomings and for that I ask you to forgive me.

This company exists for the sake Allah and for the benefit of Ummat Muhammad-salAllahu alayhi wasallam. I pray that as we progress we keep our intentions pure and our actions clean.

My next post is going to lay out what’s to come in this new year inshaAllah.