We had the good fortune of connecting with Adam Siddiq and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, why did you pursue a creative career?
Earth is an anagram of heart. You can’t spell either without art. Art is how we express ourselves. Pursuing an artistic career wasn’t a choice for me; it was necessary for the purpose and impact I’m committed to fulfilling during my lifetime. From the dawn of humanity, storytelling has been how wisdom has passed down from generation to generation. Through stories, humans find meaning, relate to characters, discover more aspects of themselves, expand awareness, and somehow, one million different people can read the same story, and yet each one receives something different from it, something unique to their experience of life. Storytelling is the art I’ve pursued and the reason why is because I want to inspire a wonderful, kinder, loving, magical, compassionate, sacred, beautiful, meaningful, harmonious, evolved, integral, intentional change for humanity.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am honored to be a multi-award-winning author and audiobook narrator. My second book, “The Lover’s Rhapsody: Ecstatic Love Poems of Rapture, Awakening, and God”, was published recently on May 22nd. I wrote it over the course of the past year-and-a-half while traveling the world, visiting sacred sites and shrines of mystical saints like Rumi and Shams-i-Tabrizi. Every poem was written during spiritual trances. Writing and storytelling is a journey that began for me when I was five-years-old. I used to write books about dinosaurs, the universe, and love poems, staple the pages together with images I’d download and print from the internet, package it with cardboard paper case, and sell them to family and family friends during gatherings on weekends. Mastering the art of storytelling continued to appeal to me throughout my life. As a young child, I knew I wanted to be a successful author when I grew up; however, writing wasn’t always easy for me. My English teacher in high school once berated me in front of the class for having the most awkward writing style he’d ever seen. English is my second language. Growing up, I struggled to pronounce certain English phonetics. Even today, it comes up while speaking at times. I’m not going to mention which sounds, that’s for you to find out if I slip up. My first language was Dari, one of the official languages of Afghanistan. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, although I hadn’t had much practice and experience with English until I went to elementary school. I had to go through special speech programs during recess breaks to correct my errors in English phonetics. Although I struggled the most with it, learning to read and write was my favorite curriculum in elementary school. By the time I was in university, I completely knew I was going to be an author. During my second year at university, I dropped out to pursue world travel, sought mentors, experienced working with different businesses, explored entrepreneurship, started a blog, and was determined to write the quintessential book to inspire soon-to-be high school graduates and college students to take a gap year and embark on solo travel. A series of unfortunate events happened, including the tragedy of losing my dear grandpa, and that book went on the backburner as my travels were halted. I’m still planning to write a timeless, phenomenal book on travel with a friend who’s traveled to every single country in the world. What I’m very excited about expanding this year is the platform I’ve created on Facebook and Instagram as @RumiQuotesOfficial. It’s a platform dedicated to sharing the beautiful love poems and wisdom of Maulana Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi, known by many as “Rumi”. I’ve taken nearly 100 of his translated poems and made them into videos and a podcast on Spotify titled “Rumi Poems with Adam Siddiq”. I plan to expand the video and audio collection with another 100 poems this year. I’m also in the works of creating some collaborative inspiring art projects using Rumi’s poetry with exquisite artists. Lastly, I’ve been writing a book to bring modern-day interpretations to his deeply meaningful poetry to give his messages more practicality and understanding for everybody. I’m also excited to get my next books published (I wrote six last year) and my book writing course launched. I’ve been working to create the most efficient, effective book writing course to help anybody go from idea to published book effortlessly. I have many other creative projects in the works and more content being published on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube @TheAdamSiddiq. If I had a piece of advice to share with aspiring authors, I’d tell them to write every day. We’re always writing, whether it’s a text message, an email, a DM, or a carefully crafted thought. The more we focus on mastering how we express ourselves, the more the quality and effortlessness of our writing increases. Always know your intention before you write anything. Your intention is the context that frames the content you create.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting LA for a week, I’d have to take them to an LAFC game. I’d show them the hikes of Palos Verdes and beaches of the South Bay. We’d have to hike Runyon as well, maybe another hike in Malibu. For food, I’m thinking Sage Vegan Bistro, San Pedro Fish Market, Cafe Gratitude, Rose Cafe, Zinc, and Burger Lounge. There’d be a few trips to Erewhon, too. Of course, we’d hang out by Venice beach. There’s always something interesting going on in Venice. I’d also make sure they’re playing football (soccer) with me every day. We’d play indoor futsal at the LA Galaxy Soccer Center and join some pick-up games for field football. Although it’s not in LA, I’d take them on a trip to Joshua Tree for at least one night. As for the rest, I’d leave it up to spontaneity. That’s the beauty of LA: things are always happening everywhere.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to honorably thank my grandfather, Khaled Siddiq “Charkhi”, for inspiring me to become a writer and author at the young age of five-years-old. I first heard his story of how he was imprisoned at six-years-one-month-old when I myself was six-years-one-month-old on September 18th, 1998. At that moment of recognizing what had happened to him when he was the same age as me, I knew that I had no problems in life. That has stayed with me all my life. It wasn’t until my grandmother, his wife, passed that I knew I had to write his story as a book. Like other highschoolers, I got busy with friends, sports, and then I was ready to go to college. Time had passed on, but I always knew I had to revisit writing his story. After my other grandfather passed away suddenly and tragically, I couldn’t waste any more time. I began working with my grandpa to write his story. In late 2015, I moved out of my apartment to live with my grandpa for several months to finish writing our book. It wasn’t until December 22nd, 2017 that “SHACKLED: A Journey From Political Imprisonment To Freedom” was published. That date, which at the time seemed so much later than when I wanted to have our book published, is significant because my grandpa was 25 years-four-months-old when he was released from imprisonment and I was 25 years-four-months-old at the time of publication. When I look back at my life, my grandpa and I are strongly intertwined as souls, and his love for mystical and philosophical literature as well as uncovering true history is the basis of the books I’ve written thus far. The synchronistic, sacred guidance that my life and his has undergone is something profoundly dear to my hear, tear-welling to think of, and I give honor and thanks for my grandpa for having been an outstanding role model all my life.

Website: www.adamsiddiq.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/theadamsiddiq
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/adamsiddiq
Twitter: www.twitter.com/theadamsiddiq
Facebook: www.facebook.com/theadamsiddiq
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkNN0ozmlgR9XO8JCXP5-rQ/