Salaams, Hey wassup everybody. Its your boy! Naeem, on the scene, for native deen BLOGS. So I dunno, whats on my mind today. Umm we are about to go out on tour soon, got some shows this weekend. I dont think people know how hard it is to get out the door sometimes. Most friends are like, hey man you got to go to this country or that country. And I am like yes, Allah has blessed us. And I am thankful for all those experiences. But sometime it takes alot to go out the door. Leave home, all the million things left undone. To live from airport to airport, out of a suitcase. Always on the run. I told my buddy, I am not dependable these days only because I am never home. But as josh says, "THIS IS THE LIFE YOU CHOSE." Which I both agree and disagree with. But I always think about the opposite. That, what if no one wanted to hear our work. Or the hundreds of thousands of artist that die with out their work ever being appreciated. Thats rough, and thats when I become thankful. And ONCE i do GET OUT THAT DOOR. I am with a group of people I love so that helps. Even though I give them a hard time, and sometime need some AWAY FROM THE GROUP TIME, when out on tour. The guys would always talk about how I would always leave early in the morning, to just go for a walk or something when we were in london or in some other far off place. Oh well but we are coming to a town near you guys soon. So be nice and welcoming if you can. ANd its my promise to you, I will do my best to give you the show of a life time EVERYTIME. I really mean that. Take care Guys. Oh and if you hit us up in near enough time, I will try to shout you out when we come to your town. AND FOR REAL GUYS KNOW THIS! The more energy you give us, the more love we give you guys. And dont have us fly half way around the world and not know the songs. Lets do our homework. SO Australia, YOU GOT HOMEWORK. DOWNLOAD THE LYRICS, memorize them, There will be a quiz. salaams and keep the faith, NAEEM PS AUSTRALIA, CALI PEEPS, GET AT ME!!! We gonna see you real soon.

Salaams everyone. I had to hurry up and get this blog in since we are going to Cincinnati this weekend. And I’m received threatening emails from fans. I guess it makes you think about the definition of a fan when you are afraid of them. But anyway….Last week we had a really nice show on a local college campus called George Mason University. Some of our good friends came from about an hour away to show support like our boy Ma’alam from Maryland. For those who don’t know, he is the person on the album playing the part of the DJ. So we got there a little bit early to set up the sound and make sure everything was going well. At first no one was there and with in a few minutes the place was packed. It was an intimate setting with about 200 students. Not all of them were college students as we had some people out from Jeb Stuart High School representing pretty hard. Their cheers were louder than the students from George Mason. We had a few non-Muslims in the crowd. That always feels good. Just to know that people are willing to enjoy to the positive vibe and not be turned off by things they don’t completely agree with. It reminds us how powerful this message is. It also reminds us that there are only two kinds of music. Bad and good. So my sons were there. And any time my boys are at a show they will steal the party. Their were dancing to the music on the side and busting moves all over the place. I don’t even know where they learned some of the moves from. I was a little embarrassed. I wanted to shout over the mic, “I don’t know where they learned that from.” A lot of people were taking pictures of them. So it was cool. Everyone had a good time. They had some local acts on before us. A brother Yunos who is turning out to be a good song writer and composer. I would look out for him in a few years. He’s about to graduate. And of course they famous guys from “Ghandegee” or something like that. I’m not sure how to spell it. But these guys are pretty funny. They remix popular songs and put Muslim themes to them. I don’t even want to try and explain it. You should just YouTube ‘em or something. They also had some young Muslim comedians. Not from “Allah Made Me Funny” but some local guys from the community. I had some good laughs from my brothers Adam and Shafi. I would look for these two guys in a few years as well. Its just amazing how our community is developing. I’m seeing more and more local schools for Muslims to get advanced Islamic education. We are showing up in the arts like the sister that started “Little Mosque on the Prairie” And the list goes on and on. Make dua that we continue to do our part to give Islam a good, wholesome, exciting name that is truly is. See you next week.

Back from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. What a trip. You know, a long time ago, we went to Turkey and it changed the way we looked at our performances. For the first time, there were cameras as soon as we got off the plane. And they has a really nice car waiting for us at the airport. They took us straight to a television interview, and then a radio interview. Then we went to a park where they were selling our CD’s and we sang in front of the shop for a while to promote the album. Then we went to a show. And it continued like that for 3 days. We never got to see Turkey at all. It was non stop media and performances. But it was a very productive trip. Since then, we do what we can to make our trips as productive as Turkey. Of course, we don’t need cameras when we get off the plane but you guys know what I’m saying. We just try to take advantage of all the opportunities that are in front of us. Well, I feel like the Abu Dhabi trip was like the Turkey trip. It was very productive. We landed and went to the hotel and started practicing. The whole band was in the room going over the songs, the moves, the breaks, the voices. It was very intense. We went through the whole show and thought about when we needed to be loud or soft to make the audience feel what we were saying in the song. Well, it worked out, because during our show, the entire audience got up and started singing with us. Al-hamdu-lilah, we won the Muhabbah award for the 2nd year in a row. We feel really blessed. This year was a little different because it was not just the judges. The audience also got to vote. They had the little voting machines on the back of their chairs where they could push the button of their favorite group. So we got 72% of the audience to vote for us Al-hamdu-lilah. We also got to go to Dubai and do some radio and television interviews. That was a lot of fun. There was a sister at the radio station named Yara, and she did an excellent interview. And the TV anchor, Br. Ibrahim was a long time friend of mine so we got to catch up at the T.V. station. It was just amazing. We ended the trip by getting a tour of the “7star” hotel in Dubai. The one that cost money just to go inside. You can’t even go in the lobby without paying. Every room is two levels. And every floor has a butler. We got to see the most expensive room which was about $17,000 per night. It was like bigger than many houses. It was crazy. Anyway, we also got to pray in the 3rd or 4th biggest Masjid in the world. It was in Abu Dhabi and it was a huge beautiful white Masjid. It really looked majestic from the road. But when you go inside, I think there are too many beautiful designs and it becomes distracting. But it was good to visit it. After we got back from Abu Dhabi, we did a small show at George Mason University in Virgina. I will tell you guys about that next time I come back on. By the way, I just got done talking to a friend who reads these blogs regularly. So I hope I put enough detail in this one to give you a better idea of our trip. Thanks for the emails and your words of support. It means a lot. Just work on your broken English. Ha haaaaa

As-salaamu-alaikum, Ok, well lets see. What have you missed? We did an interfaith show as different faiths came together to appose the war. A quick note: When Native Deen allows the State Department to pay for us to perform for Muslims in Palestine, we get flack about supporting a U.S. agenda. But when we come back home and protest the war right in front of the Capitol, nobody notices. Anyway, the event was kind of cool. Like I said, we were directly across the street from the U.S. Capitol. And that was a hard core show. We were out there in the rain. The crowd was under umbrellas or just plain wet. In addition to being wet, it was freezing cold, and we still had a good time. The crowd really enjoyed the performance. We only did one song, and then they all wanted CD’s. They were all non-Muslim too. It was a really nice experience. The next day, there was another anti-war performance in a small café like set up. We met these two other groups that were pretty amazing. One guys name was David Lamotte and he was just all professional. You could really tell he had been doing this for a while. He keep the crowd involved the whole time and made us laugh and think and it was just great. Another group was called Cobalt Season and they showed so much emotion in their performance, they really brought you along for the ride in every song they did. Very impressed with both groups. I hope Native Deen left a mark on the people as well. Stay tuned, I have some more gigs to catch you up on. I will come back and write to you about a MYNA camp we went to and a local celebration of 25 years of service by one Masjid.

Salaams ok I know blogs are joshs jobs, and Im suppose to be on the fan mail, which I should be fired from doing. Sorry guys Im just all over the place. But we hear you and well get to you guys I promise. And maybe well catch up in person one of these days inshallah. We are very approachable. You can walk right up to me and be like "Naeem, whats the deal homie!!! ANSWER SOME FANMAIL!" And Ill be like holding my head down in shame but Ill get the message.

But anyway the real reason I got on here. Just because today was the first REAL snowfall for my city of balitmore. I LOVE THE SNOW. Well I love all the elements actually. You just gotta find something cool to do in whatever climate you find yourself in. So tis the season for snowboarding. I mean Im telling you its nothing like it and Im totally addicted. And when I cant get to the mountain I longboard, actually I just skate WHENEVER even in the house. Which is a good fix until I get to the mountain. But when you get to the top of that mountain, take a sec to take it all in. Its not all about learning how to bust that backside 540 late nose grab(which I cant do, Im working my way up to 180, I landed ONE this season, WOO HOO). But really look at the wilderness, take it all in, make dua, and shred the hill. Know its a blessing and honor it. Especially since global warming is making the season shorter and shorter. So get out there and ENJOY and thank Allah for the time. And dont forget to try and make smaller carbon imprint on the earth. Im gonna start a "NATIVE GREEN" or "GREEN DEEN" campaign real soon. Stay tuned. salaams and keep the faith, naeem

Ok this is Abdul-Malik. Since Naeem and Josh posted something I was the only missing one. As you know, the month of Ramadan is divided into 3 parts - first is mercy, second is forgiveness, and third is saving from the fire. Right now we are in the mercy part - so lets try to be merciful and kind to everyone. Then Allah (SWA) will be merciful on us. Do you guys wanna know one of my favorite Sahaba stories? Ok, here it goes. At the time of the Omar (RAA) there was a group of Muslims captured by the Romans. So the leader of the Muslims, Abdullah bin Hathafah (RAA) was brought before the Caesar (which is like the king - not salad dressing). So they asked him to give up Islam. He refused. So he offered Abdullah to share his kingdom with him. At that Abdullah smiled and basically was like no way, dude - I wont, even if you give me your kingdom plus all of Arabia! So the the Caesar said ok get rid of him. Abdullah was like do whatever - I ain't compromising. So they tied him up and shot arrows at him but aimed at his hands - I guess they thought they could scare him. Then they brought him back and he still refused. This Sahaba was strong mashallah!

So here is the part that really hits me. They brought a huge pot of boiling oil... yes that stuff you fry chicken in. Then they took one of the other Muslim prisoners and threw him in. There might be some young kids reading this so I wont write how they described that scene. But it wasn't pretty. So they turned to Abdullah and basically said, "Your turn!". I wonder sometimes would I have been strong. But suddenly the Caesar saw his eyes swelling with tears. "Aha!" He must have thought. "I got him with the boiling oil." But when they ask Abdullah if he changed his mind, he said no. But why was he crying? He said basically he wished he could be thrown in 1000 times for Allah. Meaning, that his LOVE for God was so much that he wished he had 1000 lives show his love and dedication to Allah. The Caesar guy was really impressed. But in order not to look stupid in front of his subjects he asked Abdullah to kiss his head. Abdullah was smart and said "Will you free the other Muslims?". He said yes I will free them all. So he kissed his head.

On the way back, people questioned that why he kissed the head of the guy that threw one of the Muslims in a pot of boiling oil. But when he got back, Omar (RAA) commanded everyone to kiss his head cause he did the right thing.

This story has so many lessons for me. I dug up some comments on the internet that talk about some of the trips we go on. But I look at this story and the story of how the Prophet used the support of his uncle Abu-Talib to spread Islam even though he was a pagan. Our goal is to save the youth from an even scarier thing than boiling oil. Yes that's Hell-Fire. We will do that by any beneficial avenues available to us. But NEVER should we compromise our beliefs - no matter who invites us. The last part of Ramadan will be upon us soon, folks - which is saving from the Hell-Fire. Lets all do everything we can to save ourselves and our community from it, inshaAllah!

As-salaamu-alaikum, Hey everyone, its Friday night and my blog is up. What's up now! Just kidding. Let me tell you about our show last week. We were involved with a performance at a church for the fight against AIDS. It was kind of an interfaith thing. There was a Christian group and a Jewish group also performing and us repersenting Islam. Anyway, I did get to see half the performance of the Christian group. It was an all African-American group and they all could sing very well. It was about 5 guys and they had a nice grove. They didn't use any music except for a shaker, a tambourine and the clapping of their hands. The crowd seemed like really enjoyed it. Now the crowd was majority Caucasian. But you really didn't feel any color issues. Everyone was there for one purpose. So here comes Native Deen. We have our drummer in the back warming it up with some hot beats. I get on the congas and add some spice to the sound. Abdul-Malik kicks a nice chant about Allah and the mood is set. We rocked it!! I mean the young church children and the old church ladies were all clapping and standing up. The choir section was rocking back and forth with their hands in the air. And I am like, hey, this stuff works. They really didnt care that we were a Muslim group rapping and singing about Allah. All they cared about was that we were there to support the cause and they liked our sound. I dont know, I just thought that was real cool. Peace out and see you NEXT WEEK!!!!

As-salaamu-alaikum,

Well we are back from Dubai. We got to see a little more of the city this time. Naeem and Abdul-Malik went to check out the hotel with a ski slope inside. I went to check out the hotel that has a small river going through it. None of us got to go into the 7 star hotel. I'm told that it costs $250 just to go inside.

And with all that glamour, its nice to know you can still go parts of Dubai where they still hang their clothes off the balcony to dry. People still riding bikes getting to work. Not everybody has the latest ride. You know what was cool though...I was out shopping with the brothers and 2 young boys recognized me from a T.V. program in England. They were visiting Dubai from England. The younger one looked like he was 5 and his name was Faisal. The older one looked like he was 9 and his name was Waleed. I thanked them for stopping and giving me the greetings. I told them I would mention them in my next blog. So to Waleed, Faisal and your family, Eid Mubarak.

Actually, to everyone who is able to read this blog, I say Eid Mubarak!! Our show in Dubai was not as big as we expected but it was very nice. The crowd was very involved and made us feel at home. At the end, we had about 12 children come on stage and help us with the song, "Drug Free." They knew all the words. A special thanks goes out to all the people who donated money over and over again that night. Thousands of dollars were raised that evening and Native Deen is glad that we could be a part of it. Next time we come to Dubai though, we got to get the word out more. There were a lot of people that were upset that they did not know we were in town.

Until next time, everyone.

As-salaamu-alaikum,

So how is everybody doing out there? I have some very good news for you guys. Last week, Abdul-Malik and I met with a producer to discuss his role in helping us with our new..."Album." That's right!! We have not given up. Slowly but surely we are moving towards getting another album out to you. We listened to some of his beats and talked to him for a while. He seems like someone we can work with Insha-Allah. He's not Muslim but he is a very positive brother trying to do some good work. In fact, he said he really liked what we were doing because of the positive message.

What else is going on? Eid is coming up. And being in a Muslim performing group, we have one of those jobs that always has you going away for Eid. We go to help create festive events and memorable occasions for many communities. If every one stayed home for Eid, who would get up early and get the moon bounce ready, or decorate the hall with balloons, or dress up like a clown, or coordinate the sack races for the kids. It is definitely hard being away from my sons on Eid. Same goes for everyone in the group. But I try to spend a lot of time with my boys when I am home. And Native Deen will not be traveling forever. Very soon there will be some other talented youth group who will take the torch and travel and perform for the community. When that happens, I will be in the crowd clapping, saying "Takbir", with my sons just thinking about what a wonderful Eid celebration this is.

We leave for Dubai, this weekend for Eid. Check our calendar section for more information. We will take some pictures and tell you all about it when we get back.

As-salaamu-alaikum, Have you ever had a new years resolution. You know the kind; get in shape, loose weight, learn more Qur’an, make Hajj, take a cruise…etc. You start with good intentions and then you start to fade out. Your workouts become shorter and shorter. The money you put away become less and less. That’s why its always good to have a partner with you. Work together. So when you are feeling like giving up, your partner is there to push you forward. Well, that’s my story with these blogs. I really wanted to be here every week giving you updates about what is going on with Native Deen. And every once in a while I meet someone who I consider a partner, who tells me to keep it up. “Push on” “You can DO it!” One person that comes to mind is Br. Mahdi from Meem records. This brother always tells me in the nicest way how I have not keep my promise to write a blog every week. So to Mahdi, I say…May Allah reward you for reminding your brother about his promises. That being said. The last trip Native Deen had was to Houston and LA for two local MAS (Muslim America Society) conferences. Unfortunately, Naeem could not make it because him and his wife were expecting a baby. So Abdul-Malik and I had to hold it down. We were blessed to have a nice percussion crew that day. As some of you may know, Tariq has been touring with Sami Yousef for a while but he was able to perform with us on this trip. Also Br. Shahid was on the congas to complete the set. Abdul-Malik and I held it down. I’m sure the crowd really wanted to see Naeem but they still gave us a nice applause and a round of “Takbirs!”. MAS came across very organized Al-hamdu-lilah. They had nice bazaars and both events were well attended. But the thing I want to praise them for the most is their focus on the youth. I felt that MAS always had the youth in mind from A-Z in the planning and execution of the conference. The youth truly are the leaders of tomorrow and if we see them in this light, it is our duty to invest in them. So, Br. Mahdi and the rest of the world out there…see you next week and thank you for your patience.

We are in Palestine now. I will have to keep this blog short before I start to get heated and make some political statements that will get Native Deen arrested. Its hard for a Muslim American to visit Palestine and not get upset. But anyway, lets get back to that. This was by far the best trip we have been on as Native Deen. We prayed fajr at Masjid AL-Aqsa every morning. We got to visit many religious sites. We went to Hebron and visited the rave site of Prophet Ibrahim, his wife Sarah, and others. Unfortunately, we could not visit the grave of Prophet Yusuf even though it was at that same Masjid. In fact, just to get into the Masjid we had to pass by three sets of guards and get checked three separate times. But anyway, let me get back to that. We also got to visit the old city of Jerusalem where Muslims, Christians, and Jews worship at building right next to each other.

You turn one corner and see Jews crying at the Wailing Wall. Turn another corner and see a group of Christians walking with a cross chanting, turn another corner and see Muslims entering a gate to pray at the Dome of The Rock or Masjid Al-Aqsa. Amazing stuff. We did a shows in Jerusalem, Herbon and Jericho. Each show was very well put together with good sound and live crowds. We visited schools and interacted with the youth. They were so excited to see us. But we were so happy to be there for them. This was just a great trip.

Our manager, Daud Hawa, gets big kudos for hooking us up with the Hotel with the best view of the Dome of the Rock. Naeem was able to just look out his window and gaze right at it. Dauds family lived just blocks away from the hotel and his uncle gave us a ride to fajr each morning. And his aunt fed us every night. May Allah reward all of his family for their hospitality and making Native Deen feel at home in Palestine.

TO anyone who came to one of our shows in Palestine, Native Deen will never forget the experience. We will tell everyone we know about the trails that you have to go through everyday just for being Palestinian. We will be coming back Insha-Allah. WE WILL BE COMING BACK!!!. We want to thank the U.S. Consulate for working with the Palestinian people and helping to bring positive programs to them. You know Native Deen was inspired to come up with a couple of songs for our brothers and sisters over there. Shoot outs go to G-Town, the Palestinian rap group that hooked us up with so many gifts and opened our eyes to the famous Palestinian, Handala.

Like I said, I have to keep this short be