It takes trust…

How do you get someone to ‘buy in’ to your work? Simple. Trust. But that trust is what is hard to build.

Right now, there are a lot of Muslims venturing into writing their own books which is great for them, but in terms of quality, how do we discern what is good and what… needs work? Traditional publishers tend to do that work for us, but they also limit the types of stories told, and they definitely don’t allow for a strong religious reference. Then, there are Shia publishers who are great and ever helpful, but often have a backlog of projects, and a publication date of 3 to 5 years from initial concept.

So, what then? How do we know what we’re getting for our children is quality? Or are we okay with just supporting whatever comes along - because if someone put effort into it, then it must account for something, right?

What even is the motive behind these books? Is it to strengthen the love of Allah, Islam, and the Ahlul Bayt in our children? Is it to do that, and make a life’s sustenance? Is there barakah in each one of these books? Is there any financial profit to be made from them? (the answer to the last one is not really…it all goes back into making more books)

I have a lot of thoughts, but not always a lot of answers, though ultimately it does boil down to trust. When one gets to experience a good product with a good message, they’ll tend to stick with it. That’s why series of books do well. You know what you’re going to get.

Inshallah with time, I hope to build the trust with you dear readers of my writing. I hope you’ll know that every story comes from a place of personal reflection and need to share a story, as well as a place where every part of the story comes with me having done research, and with Quran and Hadith rooted at the forefront. But I also want my stories to be stories, and not just explanations of the things we believe as Muslims. I don’t want every story to be heavy with dissemination of information. I’d much rather the parent use the research to breakdown and inform the child of the meaning of each story, and hey, that in and of itself builds literacy comprehension skills in kids.

So here’s to a long future ahead of building trust.