Samar from Saudi Arabia writes:

A year ago I left my day job as a senior graphic designer at a firm after two and a half years working with them here. To be honest I was bored and I felt it was time to do something of my own.

Since I’ve ventured out on my own, I just can’t seem to be able to ground myself enough to start on something and carry it through until the finish! I have so many ideas whether its little projects or huge! I’ve tried so much but NOTHING materializes from it!

People tell me I am very talented creatively, but I am lacking motivation!

I don’t believe your challenge is finding motivation. It’s my assumption that you are unclear of what you want for yourself, which I believe is a challenge of lifestyle design.

I wrote an article previously titled: “Developing a Higher Purpose for your Business and Dawah Venture” << this article is appropriately a precursor to what I’ve written below.

In this post I present to you the importance of having “fire in your belly,” the three key elements you need clarity on to live the life you want, and I conclude with a (fictional) story of how Ayoub shares his passion for tea with the world.
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A brand identity isn’t defined by the name an organization has, but by the work that it puts out. Focus on doing great work and conducting yourselves professionally.

Recently my little brother opened up for the 2011 American Muslim Consumer Conference in New Jersey:

In this blog post I share with you a personal story that demonstrates my headlined point.

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A gentleman from Minnesota writes:

Assalamu’alaikum Belal,

I am the Ameer of Qabeelat Madinatayn in Minnesota (President of the Minnesota AlMaghrib Institute student body), alhamdulillah.

I read your blog post about KhalifaKlothing and had a question about a video I just made about our one-year anniversary for the Qabeelah. I used a nasheed (a song without Islamically prohibited musical instruments) in the video by Yusuf Islam and put a reference to that in the description.

YouTube sent me a note about some copyright material being matched, but they said there was no action required at my end as of now.

Here is the video:

I wanted to ask: Should we just not bother with this at all and take the video down to avoid any issues? Do you know of any easy alternatives?

We don’t have to use nasheed, just need some audio for the three minute presentation. Anything you can point us to would be great. I’m new to all of this so I’m just trying to leverage your expertise, inshaAllah.

Jazakallahu khariun for your help!

wsalaamu alaikum,

Disclaimer

This is not legal advice. I’m not a lawyer, nor have I ever played one on TV. My response is for informational purposes only.

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