“Verily, with hardship comes ease.” -Qur’an (94:6)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Just needed to get that out.

So, I went to check up on my video from my 1st vlog on YouTube (I’d posted it on three different sites), and to my surprise it was “removed due to terms of use violation”.

What, YouTube? What did I do wrong?

So, I rush to the login page, type in my username and password, and here we go:

This account has been permanently disabled.

What? *Refresh* WHAT?!

I have no idea why this has happened.

(If this happens to you, inquire why here: Suspended account inquiry)

I’ve e-mailed YouTube and they responded with a seemingly sincere human-toned robot:

Thanks for your email. Your “JawaadAhmadKhan” account has been found to
have violated our Community Guidelines. Your account has now been
terminated. Please be aware that you are prohibited from accessing,
possessing or creating any other YouTube accounts.

Then, as I read, in my head I screamed “But WHY!!!!???? WHAT DID I DO!!”

I continued reading:

We are unable to provide specific detail regarding your account suspension
or your video’s removal. For more information on our what we consider
inappropriate content or conduct while using YouTube, please visit…

I responded genuinely asking what was wrong with my video that it caused my account to be suspended. I’ve had trouble with YouTube before (two of my videos were flagged for copyright, but I communicated, deleted and/or fixed both), but this one is just horrible.

(And it happened the day after I decided to regularly produce content, especially for my YouTube channel!).

Well, I digress. Allah’s testing my commitment to this new project. Alhamdulillah.

ACTION ITEMS

1. Keep pestering, I mean ‘contacting’, YouTube about why my account was deleted and how to get it back
2. Keep producing my weekly vlog, publishing on Blip.tv and Vimeo (like I’d planned to do, in addition to YouTube).

Honestly, I began growing weary of YouTube, (the amount of un-beneficial and stupid videos is rapidly growing), and I’m liking Vimeo and Blip.tv better for video hosting (they’re more geared toward serious filmmakers and show producers).

However, I can’t ignore the marketing potential that YouTube offers. (Eventual Last Resort: Welcome to JawaadAhmadKhan2’s YouTube Channel!)

Wasalaamu ‘Alaikum

Also watch on: YouTube | Vimeo

UPDATE: The YouTube link has been updated.

So guess what?

I was inspired with the “launch” of Jawaad Ahmad Khan that I decided to finally do something.

In all honesty, I’ve been lazy with my video editing, taping, and all my ‘talents’ in general. Why am I wasting something Allah has given me interest in? So, I took the video camera, and chronicled the journey of two brothers with empty pockets and a dream of a fun night. (My brother and I).

InshaAllah I hope to make this a project that is beneficial.

The main reasons I’m doing this are:

1. To produce something which others will benefit from(and I can get some reward bi’idhnillah).
2. To begin taping & editing on a regular basis (and develop my skill).
3. To have a means of making consistent content for my blog.

I already can see the problems with the above video, and I hope to improve on them InshaAllah. For my personal help, let me try to address them here.

• Moving around too much and using a hacky sack to compensate for nervousness.
  • SOLUTION: Film closer so I have to stay still, and nothing in my hands during production
• Uhh, umm, you know, like…
  • SOLUTION: Have a rough script of my dialogue  (if there is one).
• No real content, just a regular “so, this was my day…” (NO ONE CARES)
  • SOLUTION: Have a point to each video that I want to get across. (In the field of film, Islam, or in life)

I feel very productive, Alhamdulillah.

Now, what I need from you.

From what you’ve read on this blog (and if you haven’t, then check the archive, ), what can I offer you? What do you think I should talk about? What ideas do you have? Do you have an idea for a short film for me to produce? Is there an issue that’s just so important you want it revealed? Do you want to be in a video?

Comment with all and any of your ideas. (I’ll try to use this first post as a reference, an idea bank, so I can keep going).

Wasalaamu ‘Alaikum

p.s. Link from the video: TakeZer0.com

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Happy Islamic New Year! Welcome 1431!

It’s actually a fact that I was born on the 1st of Muharram (the 1st month of the Islamic calendar). So technically, my birthday is on the Islamic New Years.

So, as a birthday gift to myself, I got myself this cool (new?) website. So:

Spread it around. You can use this nifty shortened version: wp.me/ln3k (that’s lift new 3 kodes). Yeah, not a good acronym, you got anything better? I might give you a prize if you do.

While I’m writing, I might as well let you know about my winter break. I have some ideas.

Goals

• Produce at least (3) videos, as in production, post-production, and online distribution.
• Finish reading Stories of the Prophets by Ibn Kathir (as I mentioned in this post)

Objectives

• (2) videos will be of my brother doing poetry (Silent-K) (he’s trying to relaunch his poetry career)
• (1+) videos might be the fruits of an idea from a brother (Ahmad Saleem) to capture the Seerah into a series of summary videos, based on an AlMaghrib seminar I’d attended (and this handy study book about it)
• As for the book, I’ll try to finish at least a prophet every day, InshaAllah.

Do you have any ideas for winter break? Remember, the best among mankind is the one who is of most benefit to others (I believe that’s a hadeeth).

So, what will you do? And more importantly, how do you plan on doing it? (If you fail to plan, you fail. Period.) (original saying).

(For some productivity tips, check out my man Nahyan’s site, and his helpful blog).

Wasalaamu ‘Alaikum

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I have embarked on a journey.

Leaving behind all TV’s, mp3’s, wii’s, oh please,

For this journey will make all that freeze, and truly, it is my mind it frees,

A journey that precedes that of the high seas,

A journey that decrees and spreads like disease,

A journey that needs no introduction nor explanation

A journey that is not the new, rather the timeless, sensation

a letter. a word. a sentence.

the better. the world. the repentance.

It’s just this little thing that I like to call “IQRA”

A step forward linking back to the fitrah

Clearing the mind of confusion and fitnah

A returning to the revelation written with the-

pen, that only One can send

I open pages of stories,

That may just bore thee,

But truly and surely,

I’ve acted too poorly,

And now,

I will open the books of the knowledge and more

I will open the minds of the scholars, explore

I will open the door to the soul of my core

I will READ

until my eyes are too sore

until my guise is no more

until I cry only for

Rabbi, my only Lord

I will turn the pages until I see faces

I will skim sentences until I find traces

Of ‘ilm gushing like water in an oasis

So please join me as I explore these new places.

IQRA – it was the first command,

and now I will obey this.

/~~~\

In case you didn’t notice, I’m starting to get into reading more.

Current Book List:

• Stories of the Prophets by Ibn Kathir
• Muhammad in Europe: 1000 Years of Western Myth-Making by Minou Reeves

(The second book was recommended by Yasir Qadhi in this lecture).

Got any other titles you think are good to read? Have any critique of the poem? Leave a comment!

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Don’t be upset all you graphic designers out there. I have a point to this.

I picked up a nice little book called The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams (no, not the actor).

A basic and fundamental thing I learned from it, is that

graphic design is nothing but CRAP!

That is…

Contrast – If two things are supposed to be different, make them drastically different.

Repitition – To keep things looking like they’re all part of the same thing, repeat certain elements.

Alignment – Everything on a page should be aligned with something else.

Proximity – Make things that are similar in topic closer together.

I’m still reading through it (almost done). It features many, many visual examples to see. The above information is basically the first half of the book (but it goes into more detail), and the second half deals with type (as in the styles of type and what goes with what), but also includes different things like the theory of color, designing specific things (like newsletters, business cards, etc.). The author, Robin Williams, has many other books out there. I hope that my next read on this subject will be her book The Non-Designer’s Type Book, InshaAllah.

As regards to my thoughts on the book, I definitely recommend it to any Islamic worker that’s in the business of Da’wah. It gives a very good, basic awareness of design elements so that your next Masjid lecture’s flyer looks a little better than a white page made with NotePad.

Too many valuable programs have been undiscovered by attendees due to the lack of Ihsaan in the marketing. When it comes to Da’wah, you always go for the absolute best.

An example of this would be during the Hijrah of the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alayhi wasallam), when he went from Makkah to Madinah; with him he took Abu Bakr and a guide he’d hired. The guide was the best of all the guides he could find, and he was non-Muslim. The Prophet knew that this would be the most important journey in his life, and so he accordingly hired the absolute best based on that importance.

So, in Da’wah we must always do things in the best of manners. After all, you are spreading the best of deens (religions).

Any other helpful design tips or recommended resources? Have any thoughts? Leave a comment, why don’t ya?

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The reason that Muslims are portrayed as violent.

“Think not that I have come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” [10:34]

Doesn’t that just sound violent? Isn’t that contradictory to what many Muslims say? They say ‘Islam means peace’. Though, what can they say about the above verse?

—

What they can say is that this verse is from the Bible (Matthew, 10:34). However, is this verse taken as something that makes all of Christianity violent?

Click here to read the rest on Relijournal.com

…who forget Allah.

I just attended a program for a brother that recently died (inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raaji’oon, from Him we come and to Him we return) in Makkah, right after he’d completed his Hajj. I went on a last minute’s notice (with my father).

The program included a Qur’anic recitation, and the verses recited were a reminder to me. You see, I’d seen many  of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a while (mostly youth). Just thinking about the lifestyle of this generation (I believe about 5 cell phones went off during the program, unfortunately all from uncles). Another thing that attributed to my thoughts was a video I watched minutes before I left my house:

I saw it from Kashif Pasta’s blog. (just have to mention that this is an amazing kinetic typography piece).

The poet is Taylor Mali, and he brings to light the speech of my generation. Honestly, what caught me was the ‘conviction’ part, do we really mean and believe the words we say? When we stand up for Salah five times, are we mumbling through the words of our Lord? Or are we proudly speaking the truth that we believe?

Now, this reminds me of a few days back. I did a small personal experiment that I invite you to do as well.

I stood up for Salah (not a real Salah), and I raised my hands and loudly said “Allah is the greatest!”, Then I began Surah Fatiha:

“All praises are due to Allah, lord of all the worlds. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgement. You alone do we worship and from you alone we seek aid. Guide us onto the straight path. The path of those whom have earned your favor, and not the path of those whom have earned your anger, nor of those who have gone astray.”

Then, thinking of the first Surah, surah Duha came to mind. “By the forenoon! … um…by the foren-…”

It was an eyeopening experience. If I am to stand in front of my Lord five times daily, will I continue to speak to Him with words that I do not understand?

InshaAllah, I’m trying to study, now, the meaning behind the words, especially in Salah.

/~~~\

All of these thought tangents lead me back to my original contemplation on the following ayah:

“And do not become like those who forget Allah, and He causes them to forget themselves! It is they who are truly deprived.” -Surah Hashr, Verse 19 [59:19]

This is an ayah we easily see the effects of these days. Ask any person that doesn’t believe in God, or isn’t that ‘religious’. Are they happy? Do they feel at peace? A line from the poem (in the video above) also poses a great statement to contemplate on: “I’m just, like, inviting you to join me, on the bandwagon of my own uncertainty.” Is uncertainty where you should be in life?

The truth is, we are all creations of Allah, and our purpose in life is to worship Him. That’s who you are! If you forget that, then you’re forgetting your own self.

Simple and plain.

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