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Forged In Fire

For steel to strengthen, it must first be immersed in the hottest flame.

The strength of a man is forged the same.

The Phoenix rises from the ashes bearing no name, a slate with no stain – nothing left to lose, everything to gain.

Innocent beginnings and excruciating endings. Lessons learned the hardest way. Hard lessons created the man you see today, and inspired him to find his own way like a battle-tested soldier.

What hurts, but does not kill you only makes you colder. It raises the limit of the weight you’re able to carry on your shoulder.

Because of that, I’m bolder in the sense that no thing can fear me. You can feel confidence radiating when you stand near me. At this point a cast iron pan couldn’t even seer me because I’ve been initiated — far from my final form but I’m ascending to a top-tier me.

No longer aimlessly pursuing. Instead, cultivating my mind is what I’m doing. And I’ve grown to appreciate the pain I feel from the flame

Because it reminds me that I’m still human.

Q. A.

Black Don’t Crack

Black is not a color.

Black is a foundation.

From it, everything is created.

Within it lies infinite inspiration.

Black tells a tale of profound pain, struggle, and grief, that is continually transformed into beauty beyond belief.

Black does not surrender because Black is the ultimate defender.

Its traits are so versatile, mixed and prepared by the most masterful blender — Allah.

And may his name be praised for the Genesis of Black, as he ensured that within us there is no thing we lack.

Never allow your will to waver, nor your confidence to slack.

Because Black may bend, but it can never crack.

Q. A.

Look In The Mirror

The plague of the modern ego appears increasingly insurmountable.

Entitlement has spread like a wildfire.

It has almost become taboo to hold one’s self accountable.

The path of least resistance is usually the default selection,

So why shoulder any of the blame when it’s easier to choose projection?

With each passing day, the irony becomes even clearer.

We live in a world ruled by selfies, yet people are afraid to look in the mirror.

Aiktimal Alqamar

When you appear, I have no worry.

I am at endless ease.

Your luminescent glow is the remedy for any cortisol within me.

Your presence universally fulfills, as evidenced by how the ocean tide swells.

While your absence conspicuously creates an abyss of emptiness.

Dark nights are not the same without you.

Q. A.

Hiatus.

My main reason for using social media is to share uplifting content. Unbiased positivity. Whether through music that I enjoy and feel others may enjoy also, or through words of wisdom that may help guide someone along their journey, I always post with purpose. I always try to post and share from a full cup, as opposed to a cup that needs filling. If I cannot first help and encourage myself, how can I expect to do the same for anyone else? When I see someone going through it, I reach out. I make an attempt to be as good of a human online as I am offline, across all platforms. Social media, for me, is a tool to reach and impact people in a positive way, from an enlightened perspective. But as with all things in this life, too much of any good or bad thing is poisonous. A tool intended for, or that has the potential to do, good can easily be turned into a weapon used to divide, disrupt, and ultimately destroy. Though accessed through physical apparatuses, the damage that obsessive social media usage can cause is rarely physical. Instead, it is primarily mental, emotional, and spiritual. I, as well as many others, would argue that this type of damage results in far worse long-term consequences.

Yesterday I deleted all social media apps from my phone in an effort to free myself from the mental whirlwind these platforms subject myself, and most of society, to. “Clusterfuck” would be the perfect term to describe Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as a collective. With all the happenings of the world in front of your eyes with the scroll of a thumb, all the opinions of idiots and peers alike bombarding you daily, how can one even think it’s possible to find or maintain inner peace? Facebook, nor Instagram, have any concern for the mental well-being of any of its users. In fact, much of its algorithm is in place for the sole purpose of disrupting and sabotaging mental stability. Whether it’s videos of Black men being executed, blatant displays of racism and division, or even just the normalized viewing of your peers’ life highlight reel, nothing presented on social media is intended to promote inner peace, rather it is intended to destroy it. I have seen this happen to many people. The person they see when they look in the mirror becomes foreign to them. No longer are they who they’ve known themselves to be. Instead, the person they see on their timeline or explore page is all they think about when staring into a reflection of themselves. All they see is what they are not, in comparison to what social media shows them on a daily basis. All they see is where they are not in life. The life purpose becomes blurred in an attempt to run someone else’s race.

I recently experienced an eye opening realization that a vast majority of the content displayed on our social news “feeds” are not even of our own choosing. In actuality, we are being fed content at the hands of algorithms at their discretion to what is appropriate for us. Instagram and its social media relatives are all in on a game of which platform can use and manipulate our data most effectively. Every post we like, every word we speak, every topic we search, are all funneled into machine learning algorithms that seek to create an environment that they deem appropriate to nourish our habits, obsessions, and insecurities. I find this alarming. For one, it presents the question: Who is really in control of how you think or what you feel? If you jump into a pool, you will inevitably get wet. You have no control over how the water interacts with your exposed body. Similarly, when you engage with social media platforms and the subsequent content and discussions from myriads of users, you can be certain that you will be affected mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. How does it make you feel to know that the emotion you feel when you see a post was predetermined by an algorithm that sees you merely as data, not a human being? Humans have complex emotions and feelings; algorithms and robots do not.

Granted, the day in age we live in is filled with algorithms that are in control of our daily lives. Hell, we even have our faces scanned every day in order to unlock our cell phones and access countless filters to distort our self-image. Who knows where that information is being used… But at the same time, while this is technological evolution on display, mental warfare is not a part of the deal. Having your psyche toyed with by companies who are only concerned with revenue and your dependence on their platforms is far from a recipe for a healthy life.

Aside from the technical arguments for indefinitely deleting my social media apps, the majority of my reason stems from time. Social media is powerful, beyond description. An idea, a picture, a video has the capability to spread like a wildfire. This has many, many possibilities to end with a positive result. But with much of the control not being in human hands of good intent, but rather that of binary algorithms, the result tends to be, more often than not, negative. This is due to the fact that the goal for social media companies is optimize user interaction and usage, by any means. At the end of the day, the reward system for using these platforms ultimately leads to an addictive cycle that derails peace and wastes valuable time. Casinos are playgrounds for the rich, places where people go and spend their time when they have money to waste. When people are poor and visit casinos with the little money that they have available, they rarely exit in better financial shape than which they enter. I have been a social media user since the age of 14, and over the years I have come to realize that it runs analogous to casinos. Social media platforms are playgrounds for people who have time to waste. In contrast to the casino analogy, time is much more valuable than money. Money can be replenished, while time is non renewable. As young adults, we have more time on our hands than we realize; however, none of us have time to waste. This holds especially true if you are currently living a life that you are not content with living for the rest of your life. All the time in the world is at your disposal during your youth to accomplish and achieve anything you desire or yearn for in life. But that time is worthless if it is spent on activities that will bear no fruit. Spending hours scrolling through a timeline or tapping through stories filled with people who hold no value to my life journey has proved to be useless. Most of the time, the scrolling that we do is not even done consciously. Zombie-like interactions with social media are more frightening than anything. It’s second nature for us to unlock our phone and open an app as a crutch for distraction from social interaction; we are operating on autopilot. I have caught myself doing this more often than I’d like to admit, but it has become a normalized pastime in this generation.

Last year I took an extended break from Instagram, totaling about 5 months. In that time I noticed a return to my inner self. I vividly remember remembering what it is to be alive. Without all the external noises and sources of constant anxiety in front of my eyes on a daily basis, I was able to ground myself in the present gift of life. I am making it a purpose to return to this state of mind, as I have found that my relapse into the social media crack house has led me to losing myself again. I must reconnect with me. I need to refill my cup, and I believe that a hiatus from social platforms will enable me to do just that. The road less traveled is often the most difficult to take and for good reason. This is the road that tends to lead to treasures that the crowd likely doesn’t even know exists.

Peace and love.

Q. A.

Diamonds Are Forever

Success isn’t given, it is built. What distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful is endurance. Real love isn’t something you just stumble across. With the exception of a parent and child’s love for one another, it isn’t something that is obtained effortlessly. It is perfectly imperfect just like the weather. There will be sunny days where it resembles paradise and there will be rainy days that make you consider folding to the pressure and giving up. But the rain strengthens our appreciation for the sun. The 2 form a natural balance. Endurance is the determining factor in the strength and growth of anything in the natural world. You train your muscles to endure resistance when you exercise, and as a result, your muscles grow. Real success, real love, anything real is built, and just like a muscle, it is built through endurance.

Will the dream mansion you fantasize about daily just fall fully constructed from the sky into an empty plot of land? No. That mansion has to be built from the ground up. It is built on a solid foundation, through genuine effort and dedication. It must be built so that it is capable of withstanding any storm that threatens to knock it down. And if it is built correctly, it will last for generation after generation after generation. Through all the setbacks, delays and adjustments, the construction of that dream home still finds a way to carry on because those obstacles that are intended to make the endeavor fail are a part of the same process that will make it succeed.

There is a reason why diamonds aren’t formed effortlessly. Things formed in ideal conditions with minimal work put into them aren’t likely to prevail through the storms. The endurance of pressure makes diamonds. Diamonds are forever.

Q.A.

Road to Glory

Cloudy days will come and cloudy days will go.

Everything in life is not meant for us to know.

Everything in life is not meant for us to feel.

Everyone in life will not discover what is real.

But those who will, will discover at their own pace

That you can’t progress in life by running someone else’s race.

You will cross the finish line when it is your due time,

And your success will not be measured by first or last place.

So, slowly and steadily grind in your own lane.

Keep going. Glory lies on the other side of struggle and pain.

Q.A.

Untitled

It’s such a small world,
But it’s an even shorter life,
And there’s no universal way to live it wrong or right.
Look out for you.
Of yourself, never lose sight.
Keep your head to the sky even when sunny days turn into dark nights.
For when it’s most dark, the stars shine most bright.
Never let the world’s shadow dim your life’s light.

Q.A.

Keep Going

People say they want this and that, but never what they are willing to go through in order to get it. They like the thought of having it. Or they may like the way it looks, so they think they want it… but they don’t really want it.
They’re not willing to put in the actual work it takes to get it or to keep it. The persistent, incessant effort required to keep going and stay committed through all the good and bad…

What’s real isn’t easy, and what’s easy isn’t real. If obtaining wealth was easy, everyone would be billionaires. If maintaining health was easy, everyone would run 4 minute miles. If relationships were easy, love would be an endless sunny day at the beach…

Everyone claims to want those things. But the real version of those things doesn’t come easy because they are real things that require patience, persistence and endurance. They are things that people typically prefer to look for shortcuts with, instead of fighting through the muddy trenches to reach the desired finish line the organic way: out the mud, through the mud. That is what separates what is concrete and long lasting from what is here today, and gone tomorrow…

Success doesn’t happen overnight. But if you put in the required effort, roll with the punches, and keep pushing through… one day it just might.

Q.A.

Marathon

Life is a very unique journey. As cliché as it sounds, it is what you make it. The word “you” in that sentence cannot be emphasized enough because you are the only you on this planet. Even in the case of identical twins, each has his or her own individual personality and life purpose, despite being mirror images of one another. Every human is meant to be their own person. That fact is easily overlooked and often understated in a world where it seems as though everyone aspires to be someone they are not. Parents are sometimes even guilty of this with their children, often enforcing a template of who they want them to become instead of allowing them to be who they are. Granted, as humans we all possess similar goals and desires which are rooted in our natural hunger for success or happiness. This is a positive aspect of mankind, the ability to surround yourself with inspiring people who happen to have the same mindset as you do. We all have someone whom we admire or view as a motivating figure. The problem comes in where the path to the finish line appears easier for or more quickly reached by others than it is for YOU and self-doubt begins to creep in. This can discourage and convince people that the world is against them. They begin to question the purpose or significance of their life when it seems that there is no way to get ahead, constantly being set back or reminded that someone else is always ahead of them in the game of life. For them, the journey becomes more of a burden than an adventure. Instead of embracing and appreciating their climb to the top and the obstacles faced along the way, they begin to despise it and desire to emulate others’ steps to the summit.

Many young people, and even those of older age, are going through this very same dilemma today. “Will I ever find a way out of this boring life?” “Am I not worthy of being as happy as this other person [seems]?” “What do they have that I do not?” Unfortunately, these questions of self-doubt are only beneficial in digging deeper into an already extensive trench. Social media accelerates this process by handing out incessant slaps to the face in regards to how far “behind” you are in life. The daily scrolling past instagram influencers or peers who, from the outside looking in, appear to have the perfect life gives birth to the anxiety that plagues many people today. We have a tendency as human beings to forget about all the progress we’ve made in our lives once we see that someone else’s grass is undeservingly greener than our own. Feeling inadequate in any aspect of life can be deflating for a person’s psyche, creating a downward spiral culminating in depression, self-doubt and debilitating stress. If you are reading this and noticed those words resonate with you, you are certainly not alone.

Rest assured that no matter how mundane or insignificant your life may seem in comparison to others, it isn’t. The reason for this lies in the fact that one life is not meant to be compared with another because life is a personal journey. Each life experience is an individual trek toward excellence in its own special way, an excellence that can be only defined by the adventurer, not the observer. Human lives are similar to snowflakes in that no two are exactly the same. Each one is beautiful and unique in its own way, composed of different patterns and complex designs. Each has components that the other does not; no two are exactly alike and no single one is perfect in every facet. Snowflakes do not have the ability to notice their differences, let alone become insecure about them. Why can’t humans be the same? Always remember that no one will appreciate the beauty of your life and the journey it takes you on if you do not first appreciate it yourself. Take pride in the fact that you have full control of your adventure and what transpires along the way. Every difference from other people should be worn like a badge of honor – “I am not the same as you, my path in life is not the same as yours. I stand separately,” should be a mantra that is proudly uttered.

Take for instance the vast variety of automobiles that we see every day on the roads of our cities. Every vehicle you see pass you by has its own story and has been on its own unique journey; the same goes for the people you see every day. Think of your absolute favorite vehicle, or your “dream car” that you would do anything to have. All the trimmings, the thunderous engine, the perfect color and wheels – the whole nine yards. You have this car to show as your prized possession, it is one of a kind and no one else has one like it. It has its own history and has forged its own path to where it is now, in your possession. To make things even sweeter, imagine you perfected this work of art yourself. Now, with that same masterpiece in mind, imagine a world where 100% of the vehicles occupying the roads and highways were that exact car. A world where there is no longer a plethora of car companies, no selection of different colors or options but only the dream car that you just envisioned. Would your car still be as special to you? The answer to that question is obviously no. The dream you had of being viewed as standing out with your own personal masterpiece would instantly become a nightmare now that everyone has the same one as you do. Now, do you see the importance and the subtle beauty of being different?

The previous analogy can fittingly be applied to the distinctions between your path in life and another’s path. When in doubt, take a step back and realize that whatever you are currently going through along your journey is just one of many things you will get through in order to reach the finish line. Once that finish line is crossed, you will be able to proudly tell the story of how you did it differently than the person before you did, no matter where you place in life’s marathon. It is never about how quickly you reach your destination, it is about what you learn and experience along the way that truly defines the journey. Your pace or your track record may be different from the people you follow on instagram, but it is equally as marvelous. If the prospect of waking up each day knowing you have the exact same destiny as everyone else makes your skin crawl (as it should), shift your perspective to the beautiful fact that you create your own destiny in your own way. As a result of this, your journey in life has endless potential to be the dynamic, unique masterpiece that you want it to be. Your finish line can only be reached on your time and at your pace because as the cliché goes, life is what YOU make it.

Q.A.