As Salaam Aleykum Khabateena Huzoorat, welcome to lecture number four, brand management, MKT624. I was talking about brand fundamentals in the last lecture and I hardly could finish the first fundamental when the lecture came to an end. I would therefore pick up the threads from where I left and now start talking about fundamental number two, which is brand characteristics. Anyone in his layman's mind could might think that brand entity is a minor issue. Developing a brand may not be as serious as it may look. These are the kind of thoughts which non-marketing people or non-brand managers may conjure up in their mind. For the sake of argument, we might think to ourselves, create a product, make it a little differentiated, package it well, price it right and sales are guaranteed. Well, as the argument goes, it makes sense and it looks like a pretty easy job but that's not where it is. We need to understand the whole process very comprehensively. Let me state that all brands when introduced start as kind of undifferentiated products on the marketplace and their differentiated features come to the surface only when brands are given meaning, when they make sense to their target market and when they have made the mark, people start feeling the differentiated features in terms of attributes the brands carry and in terms of the benefits they make use of. Therefore, we can say that brands are acknowledged and recognized on the basis of their functionality. And on that basis, some brands become powerful and some do not become powerful. Some may become very powerful. Those that are powerful needs to be maintained and sustained and those which are not powerful may go into oblivion, may disappear or may remain kind of minor small players on the market scene. Not really disturbing of the brands, not really having the potential to make a dent into the sales of those which are very powerful. The powerful brands, like I said, are under everyone's scrutiny on the marketplace and when I say everyone, I mean competitors and those powerful brands remain under threat and continuously face challenges and therefore they are things which are very, very essential for the success of a company and therefore they need to be understood in all their subtleties and complexities. The subtleties and complexities are so important to the basic architecture of brand and brand management that McKinsey, one of the very well-renowned consultants in the world have said that not everyone has the right to brand their products. For products to qualify as the branded products, there are three criteria according to those consultants and these are all very important. Number one is that a brand must offer a superior value proposition. We have been talking about superior value proposition and we shall keep talking about this all along the course. This is one of the common denominators you will find as we go along the course. Second criterion is that a brand must deliver that superior value proposition. First it should be able to offer and second it must be able to deliver that. And third criterion is that a brand must maintain a relationship with its customers. This can be further explained. How does a brand maintain relationship with its customers? How does it keep itself alive? How does it survive and sustain itself? To work that we can say that brand management is a strategic process and it extends well beyond the limits of marketing department. All departments must get together in order to be able to offer the superior value proposition that I talked about. How do they do that? Marketing is as much an internal process as it is external. And internal marketing is very interactive where you interact with your colleagues, with your peers in other departments, but of course within your company. You've got to be able to convince them about the efficacy, the utility of the brand, the significance it plays, it has toward creating value for the company and in the process having the potential to offer the same value to its customers. So you must be able to convince your peers and colleagues about the importance and significance of your brand and they must be sold onto the concept. Once they are bought in, then they must be willing and they must be committed to delivering that value in consumer terms. How do they deliver that value in consumer terms? They do that, meaning the whole company, all the departments of which marketing is a part, without question. They do that by delivering superior technology, by delivering quality, by offering good price. Good price doesn't really mean it has to be very low and it doesn't mean it has to be very high. It could be anywhere between the lowest possible and the highest possible range. And remember one thing, when it comes to pricing, in any given category, consumer consumables or consumer durables, people or consumers in the target segment you are trying to reach, have a very strong perception about the lower and the upper limits of the price. And therefore, your price has got to be within that range. If you are outside of that range, your target market is not going to accept that. If it is on a lower side, meaning on a lower side, they might think that the product does not really fulfill the need or the product doesn't really satisfy them in terms of its appearance, in terms of the promise it carries. If it falls outside the range on the upper side, they may not be willing to buy it because they might think it is too expensive and it is not worth the price it carries. Apart from price, delivering value on part of the company could also be improved distribution systems and all kinds of possible supports when it comes to logistics for example. So the point here is that management of the company has got to be committed so that the superior value proposition that is offered by the brand could be delivered the way it is envisaged by the marketing department. As long as your capable colleagues or peers are not satisfied, you may not be able to deliver a superior value proposition. Having said that, we can also say that the company must be sensitive to all the changing needs and preferences of your consumers whenever you think the needs have changed because in response to the marketing dynamics, they will keep changing and you have got to make sure that you are sensitive to those changes and preferences so that you can fulfill those changed needs. The brand must be able to adapt to changes and yet meaning the same in response to fierce competition. What does that mean? It means that you do not have to bring about radical changes in the brand architecture, the way it looks like or the way it fulfills needs of your consumers. You have to bring about changes but you also have to keep the brand or the character of the brand, the personality of the brand the same as it was perceived yesterday so that it is perceived the same way today and it should be perceived tomorrow. This is how a brand maintains its relationship with the marketplace that it remains a little dynamic in response to changing market forces so that a relationship could be maintained. Further discussion on this, how changes take place in the market and what kinds of responses should be prepared by the brand managers and how those responses are to be fulfilled in practical terms meaning in consumer terms is going to be the topic of later discussion under brand contract which will be a couple of lectures down the line. Having said that, we can now discuss fundamental number three which deals with layers of brands. There are so many layers, not always. A brand can be just one brand and a brand can be a family of brands. A brand can have so many different levels. Why a brand has different levels and layers? This again is something which we shall be talking in detail when we talk about brand extensions but in order to have a very macro understanding what kind of layers there could be under one brand or under different brands that we are going to talk a little bit today. What is important to understand is regarding layers and levels of brands this situation under which you create those layers. Basically, you create different layers of brands in response to, like I said earlier, fierce competition. When competition makes life difficult in the marketplace and brand managers really start scratching their heads what should be the response. Generally, the response is, okay, introduce one more brand and by having another brand, we can satisfy another need or this very need in a changed way and thereby having an appeal for one more segment or a few more segments and thereby in turn having an appeal which goes across the segmental lines. These are the kind of situations which brand managers have got to be sensitive to and they should be able to understand and in response to those changing situations or in response to those cropping situations they have to make their decisions. Now let us talk about the levels which a brand may have in the market. We have different levels, like I said earlier and with the help of this chart, I can explain these one by one. First of all, we may have what you call product brands. We can also call them stand-alone brands. Product brands relate to different products maybe within the same product line. For example, if a company has a line of detergents it may have three or four brands and they are all different brand names brand X, brand Y, brand Z. Why that happens, we shall talk about that later. And this is what you call stand-alone brands. They are different entities. They may have identities which differ a little bit as a matter of fact they should have different identities but the point is they are within the same product line. The next we have what we call line brands. Line brands is that one brand name represents one product line. If a company has again a line of detergents for example and the company has like four brands all those four brands will be brand X and under that X they might have sub-brands but the main brand which appears on the package and which is bought and which is sold that is brand X. Line brand when it comes to another line which for example could be personal care products different kinds of creams, you know, shave cream could be cold cream could be anything relating to your personal nurturing you can have another brand say with brand Y and brand Z and so on and so forth. Then we have range brands. Now range brands are not very different from line brands when the range is a little bit broader when you have so many different lines you can say that we have a range of products or product lines and you can have different brand names given to that range or given to all the product lines which form that range. And then we have umbrella brands. Umbrella brands is a terminology which could be interchanged with range brands meaning you know well I shouldn't say that umbrella let's put it this way that umbrella brand is one brand it is brand A and under that umbrella you have different lines and those lines could be very diverse meaning you have a product mix you have detergents, you have toiletries you have personal other personal care products you have some eatables, line of food items so whatever those are they are under one umbrella and that umbrella brand is one brand name. I can summarize it this way that product brands and stand-alone brands which was the first category I discussed are different from other three categories which are line brands, range brands and umbrella brands. The next category that we have or the next layer which we have could be company brand or family brand as the name suggests these brands are named after the companies or after the families if a company happens to be a family business and you can very well guess that situations which necessitate naming your products this way are those where companies have very good reputation and past history very convincing and well-known history of branding and delivering value proposition to consumers so you like to capitalize on the strength that you have already in the marketplace and name your brands after your company name like company X, brand X, company Y, brand Y then we have another category which is name brands now this is a little tricky a name brand is different from a brand name the brand name could be any name it can also be in the name brand but when we use the terminology name brand it means it is named after someone and that someone mostly is a designer and this is what you see in terms of clothing nowadays cosmetics nowadays there may be few other items which I cannot think of at the moment but I leave that to your imagination well-known designers when they become successful and well-known like I said like to carry the value into other lines of businesses this is one of the properties or one of the strengths which we discussed in one of the lectures early that strong and powerful brands have the potential to take business for one category to another to another and to another not only to other categories but also to other regions of the world so successful designers name their brands after their names and that's what you call name brands I don't really have to name the designers you can think of so many nowadays because all of you are users in one way or the other of the designer goods that completes our discussion on layers of brands and in the hope that we are clear about different layers we now move on to the fourth fundamental which is a brand owner's commitment or in other words the management commitment owners of brands are not only brand managers owners of brands are all those who have stakes in the brands and stakeholders are people from within the company there could be shareholders there could be members of the trade also and all those people who are associated with the company and whose influence can matter when it comes to making a difference between success and you know not success I don't really want to use the word failure but all those influencers they're all stakeholders and they all own the brand and the brand must have total support of all those people so we can sum it up this way that consistent dimensions the right characteristics and the right layers are absolutely essential for brands to offer superior value to consumers what really constitutes that superior value is a deep understanding a deep understanding of consumers meaning their needs, their behavior their preferences, their biases their experiences so that that understanding could be shared by the top management and all the stakeholders meaning all the brand owners to make sure that the brand is a success in the market in the absence of total support effort cannot be very fruitful for branding decisions this is a statement to be underlined this is to be underscored there has to be total support for good branding decisions the company must stay very committed to providing good quality as wanted by the consumers whenever we talk about quality it means good quality and good quality also is relative when you talk of good quality in a certain category of automobiles it may mean one thing and while you talk about good quality relating another category which is not that expensive so that applies to all the categories and all the segments within the categories the point here is that the brand owners and the management of the company must stay very committed to good quality that is provided to consumers the companies must also provide differentiation nothing works more in the market than offering a point of difference and I have been talking about this factor again and again and I shall be talking about this factor again and again because brand management is all about differentiation one of the authors has said to the extent that it is the point of difference on which all the resources of the organization must converge because the total resources of the organization are deployed to create that point of difference and that's the point of difference which really matters in the market that's the point of difference which brings your consumers and that's the point of difference which keeps your consumers loyal to your brand they come by your brand over and over again day in day out months years and years the companies must stay very consistent in maintaining their brands and yet prepared for evolution this is the same point which we discussed earlier also that with the changing times with the changing needs the companies have got to stay very sensitive to fulfilling those needs in accordance with the changing needs the companies must also support the brands through advertising the market research and improved distribution support having said all that this concludes our discussion on the four fundamentals of brand management which I started talking about in the last lecture and with that discussion I would now like to move on to another topic of very high significance which is brand value brand value is another topic macro understanding about which has got to be developed in order to be able to put together all the building blocks of brand management so that when I start talking about the strategic brand management process in detail component by component you do not really have any problem understanding what I am talking about so for your benefit on to the topic brand value what is brand value brand value has two fundamental elements which you must remember these are so important the elements you can machine them one is that brands offer value to its consumers and number two is brands generate value for their companies let us talk about brand value in terms of their consumers the consumers while using brands must feel that they are getting full value for their money this is kind of a slogan that you must have heard so many times and this is a phrase which so many companies use and it is very very common what does that mean that means that the money you spend on the brand what you get in return should be full of value in terms of your satisfaction so that you feel the money that you spend was worth spending customers must also feel that their decision to buy a brand has optimized their decision to buy the best brand this has a psychological side whatever brand a consumer is using may not be the real best brand available on the market but a consumer has got to have the feeling that his decision was right in buying the best brand that is important and that is the kind of feeling that consumers must generate through creating the right identity of the brand which we discussed earlier so that the right image could be transmitted and the consumer thinks that he has made just about the best possible decision he could make to go for something which is the best on the market and as a continuation of this kind of feeling I can also say that consumers must get a confirmation of the self image they want to portray to others now what is hidden is the psychological need which people want to have about the self importance this is why I could have so many people like to think that they are different from others their image in their own eyes is so big that they think they are reinforcing that by buying and using something which really has optimized their decision if we go step back what I talked earlier that a buyer must have the feeling that the decision to buy one particular brand has optimized his decision to buy the best brand I can say a few words in support of this statement that the reason your friends and your peers keep suggesting to you rather keep advocating why don't you use this brand why don't you buy it for the simple reason that I bought it if they are using a certain model of car they would like to see to it that you also buy the same car if they are using one particular brand of electronics they would like to see to it that you also buy the same brand and that is a reconformation of their decision that it was the most optimal decision to have gone for the brand I am using and I have talked about that advocated that to so many different friends and they are all buying it so this is how brands get more popular and this is kind of a feeling which must be fulfilled by brands consumers must also get satisfaction out of the attractiveness of brands and this relates the styling feature we keep talking about the brands being stylish and not being stylish because it is stylish and not buying a certain brand because it is not stylish we even talk about good quality of brand but since it is not appealing in terms of its style in terms of the attractiveness it carries we either buy it or don't buy it so this is a pretty straightforward feature or a straightforward value which brands must fulfill for their consumers brands must also generate another value for consumers which is very different from the ones I have talked about this is kind of an intangible value consumers must get the feeling that brands are environmentally friendly and this relates all those brands which have the potential to litter the environment so many different examples can be given toward expressing this aspect and I am sure you must be having a lot of thoughts in your mind at this very moment let's talk about a product which is being sold in a plastic bag and all of a sudden the package is changed by the manufacturers in a very attractive paper bag which is very easy to dispose of and you feel very satisfied and happy about the new package style because the first thing which comes to your mind is that this company is very ecology friendly this company really cares about the environment and they are making something very disposed of and it can be torn into pieces and properly disposed of as part of the trash another example could be the area of automobiles for example it could be in the area of motorbikes for example what if the manufacturers start telling you after getting out a very meaningful innovation which gives their brand a very strong point of differentiation and that point is about low emission meaning the burned gases which your automobile or your bike is emitting in the shape of carbon monoxide or whatever they call it the moment you find out or the moment you see this knowledge is imparted to you remember we talked about that in the last lecture which is imparted that your bike the one you are going to buy emits lesser amount of poisonous gases you immediately think to yourself that company is really environmentally friendly and the brand really has a very very tangible point of difference which attracts so many consumers to go buy that so this is one of the feelings or one of the values rather which brands must satisfy for their consumers having talked about the values different kinds of values which brands generate for their consumers now let us talk about the value with which brands that have the potential to generate brands well in the first place brands keep strong brands when I talk about brands I think it goes without saying that we are talking about the brand which is strong, which has a lot of value and which has a lot of customer which has a big customer basis having had an understanding how the brands create value for their consumers let us now talk about the value for their companies well in the first place it goes without saying the brands generate revenues and revenues lead to good cash earnings and profitability and it is that profitability which creates a lot of power for the brand in the first place and then for the company brands generate future demand with lasting attractiveness for consumers in times to come brands keep competition at bay if you have strong brands you have a big customer base and very good following and chances are that competitive brands are going to have a hard time catching up with your sales or cutting into your sales in other words so brands meaning powerful brands create and erect barriers for competition brands carry value into other areas meaning brands have the potential to carry their company into other markets and those markets could be part of your country and those markets could be part of the world you can go international if your brand is strong enough it may carry you into different regions brands also offer value to the companies to go into other product categories if your brand in one category is very strong you feel tempted to offer the same brand into other lines and therefore what you can do is you can generate for the company economies of scale in terms of all the variables of marketing mix one concept that we talked about in the very first or maybe the second lecture when you have the same brand which cuts across different segments and which cuts across different categories the amount of advertising the amount of total communication that you carry out is much more economical in comparison with what it would have been if you had different brands for different lines so that's what I mean by economies of scale in terms of the variables of marketing mix I've just given you one example now having understood how brands create value for the consumers and how they generate value for the companies we must not lose sight of one factor and that is that brands also generate value for themselves because unless they generate value for themselves they cannot offer the value to their two beneficiaries who are consumers and the companies the question is how brands create value for themselves well it is through commitment of brand managers you are back to the same factor which we talked earlier commitment by management is a very very significant factor to give meaning to brands so that they become powerful and if they are powerful they have value and if they have value to themselves they certainly will offer value to consumers and they will offer value to their companies let us try to understand this concept by way of a value interface which is graphically illustrated right there you can see these three circles at the very bottom we have the blue circle which says management commitment and this is the factor which I talked last with the brand management has to give meaning to the brand so that it can create value for itself to be able to offer value to its two beneficiaries because if the brand does not have value to itself it cannot offer anything and when it has a lot of value when it has the value base it offers value to consumers the which you can see in the circle on the right inside yellow color company on the left and these three circles which is obvious from the illustration have an interface and this is the interface which is important to understand it is an interaction which takes place continuously perennially as long as the brand exists in the hope that this is now very clear to all of us let us now summarize by saying that management that are committed to maintaining and adding value to the brands never take the eyes of that strategic goal they are so committed and they are so focused on that that they are glued to it and when you have something in that sharp focus you never lose sight of anything which requires your attention there are many brands which you might think of in the national market and also on the international market which have a tremendous level of longevity longevity relates to the number of years or the age of the brands there are brands that have been around for decades and there are brands in the international market which have been around for more than a century now I mean this is no exaggeration but that's the way it is the question is how do they maintain this kind of longevity this is not an accident it happens through a program that we started talking about in the very first lecture and which of course is a starting point of the brand management process you give meaning to the product and you keep on doing that your effort spans over years and then decades and decades turn into a century can you imagine those kind of brands if we are dealing with a brand maybe we do not have the objective to take that brand into the next century but we should have the objective to sustain that brand for a long time to come and in order to be able to do that so that the brand remains valuable like I said earlier we have got to be very sensitive to changes that keep taking place in the marketplace which is very dynamic so the longevity of brands is a result of relentless efforts over the years and decades this is the way we can summarize now the next question is how do companies maintain value of brands in a way that brands create for themselves the kind of longevity I am talking about that happens through two different modes one is by investing into manufacturing and the other is by investing into the market when we talk about investment into manufacturing we are talking about basically improvement of product quality and that means investment into new technologies investment into new plants new machines, new equipment so on and so forth and if you look at it very carefully it is a big area which we are talking about and this is that part of the strategic management and that part of the strategic vision which we shall be talking about later when we start talking about different components of brand management one by one investment into marketing what does that mean I will leave it to your imagination for a while let me now state investment into markets essentially means advertising and all the communication campaigns, promotions everything that goes on into the marketplace in order to communicate with the consumers what the brand is all about and the benefits the features, the attributes the brand carries because you want to convey to them the value which the brand carries for them so that they can conjure up the right image or if they already have the right image which they should have they can reinforce that so this investment is which is carried out from time to time while you will be working in the companies you will hear this thing from time to time people talking about the need for kicking off another campaign the managers to talk you know every now and then now is the time that we should start talking about the brand all over again because this silence I think has been for too long and in order to give consumers a reminder that we do exist not only that we do exist but we exist in a very vibrant way let us start talking with them once again so that we can create a lot of noise so to say to keep competition at bay to reinforce whatever the brand carries and whatever you say I have talked about investment into marketing can also mean improving distribution systems distribution systems are one of the lifelines of the overall marketing and improvement relating distribution is something that I touched upon earlier also it could be wider coverage more intensive meaning wherever you are you want to be there in a more intense way and it could be extensive which means that you really want to expand and you want to cover a larger area so investment into distribution means the markets which you want to improve you have to talk with the existing distributors in terms of bringing about the strengths which you envision and which you envisage and in doing so maybe you have to train them from certain points of view maybe you have to train their sales force from certain standpoints which essentially means that you are investing because all those efforts means money the more companies invest into brands the more powerful the brands become and better leadership roles and positions they attain in the market we can relate this with the findings of the PIMS study which I talked about in one of my earlier lectures you remember I talked about the differential between the two brands in terms of the returns both of those bring to their companies the brand which is the market leader having a market share of like 40% may bring to its company a return which is three times as much as that of the other brand bringing to its company and it is because of that differential that companies strive so hard and they invest so much money into making their brands more and more valuable and more and more powerful it is precisely for that reason that companies are willing to pay prices for brands much higher than their market value remember this point we talked about in the very first lecture that in the new era of brand management companies are running after wrong brands and acquisitions taking place only for the purpose of owning powerful and valuable brands because the companies know that powerful brands are going to solve many of their financial problems so having talked about that I can I think state if you think of the whole thing that you have talked about thinking of fall into a very proper perspective in terms of the brand value and with that I would like to wind up today's lecture and before I wind up I'll give you the recap we started talking about the brand fundamentals which we continued from the previous lecture number three and after completing we started talking about brand value and brand value being a topic of very high significance we have devoted quite a bit of time on how the brands generate value for consumers and how they create value for the companies and once they become powerful and valuable the why companies run after strong brands in order to own them wrapping up this discussion I also would like to add that in the next lecture I would like to talk about brand challenges because I did point out this factor earlier that no matter however powerful the brands may be they are not immune from attacks they are under attacks the competitive onslaught carries on all the time and brands face a lot of challenges and threats what those challenges are what those threats are and how they emanate what are the sources from where they stem we shall talk about that in the next lecture I will look forward to talking with you and for the half


بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين وصلى الله على محمد وآله الطاق صلى الله عليك يا سيدي ورزقنا الله في الدنيا زيارتك وشفاعتكم في الدنيا والآب أما بعد فقد قال سيدنا ومولانا الإمام الباقر صلوات الله وسلامه من لم يجعل الله له من نفسه وان فإن مواعظ الناس لن تغني عنه شيء صدق مولانا الإمام الباقر صلوات الله وسلامه these days we commemorate two tragedies one on the fifth of the hijjah or around the fifth of the hijjah the loss of the great imam Muhammad الباقر صلوات الله وسلامه علي and shortly after although in a different year of course we also commemorate the tragedy of the loss and the martyrdom of muslim ابن عقيل صلوات الله وسلامه عليه and muslim a link that links them both together is the tragedy of karbala although muslim ابن عقيل died or was martyred before the tragedy of karbala and imam الباقر عليه السلام was martyred after many years in fact after the tragedy of karbala yet imam الباقر was present in karbala he was about three or four years old and so he witnessed the tragedy and muslim ابن عقيل is the ambassador of imam الحسين صلوات الله عليه تكوفه and he is a very great personality both of those if we take a look at their lives we can learn a lot of important lessons but let's take a look at the حديث of imam الباقر صلوات الله عليه that i started the session with today the حديث says the imam صلوات الله عليه says من لم يجعل الله له من نفسه واعضا the one who الله صبحانه وتعالى does not keep an admonisher someone who gives him admonishment from himself من نفسه واعضا فإنما واعضا الناس لن تغني عنه شيئا indeed such an individual who does not admonish himself no matter how much those people then admonish him it will not benefit him it will be useless what does admonish himself mean we have in the حديث the significance of تفكر spending time to reflect in fact the quran constantly praises those who do تفكر يتفكرون reflect and الله صبحانه وتعالى says الذين يذكرون الله قياما وقعودا وعلى جنوبهم ويتفكرون في خلق السماوات والأرض those who reflect in the creations of the heavens and the earth reflecting when people reflect from within themselves they think and they say i need to become a better person that kind of reflection is what we're thinking about and we're talking about the reflection where we question ourselves and our actions how can i become better if a person does not do this regularly regularly when he does غيبة he says to himself why did you do غيبة why did you back bite someone else what are you going to tell الله صبحانه وتعالى how did you slander someone else when someone plots to hurt a mu'min or has an agenda to hurt a community or a society or a nation or humanity one needs to think what am i going to do on the day of judgment when Allah asks me why did you do this and you think you can hide from Allah you think you can say no no no i meant this الله صبحانه وتعالى says he knows the unseen the hidden and the seen what you hide وما تخفص صدور and what the hearts hide a person may come in front of you say yes i love you i care about you i respect you behind your back stabs you comes to you says well done mashaAllah you do a great job the next day he goes and talks about you such people they don't really sit down and admonish themselves what are we doing in dunya when were we going to learn to love each other and respect one another such people no matter how much you speak to them it's like falling on deaf ears no matter how much you admonish them it won't help unfortunately that's why i tell my some of my youths my brothers and sisters how difficult is it to let go of haram music let go of it let go of it how difficult is it for our sisters to wear the hijab put it on how difficult is it to respect one another how difficult is it to pray salat on time but sometimes unfortunately because of all this because there is no self admonishment there is no self reflection there is no time spent where the human being starts thinking that how am i going to respond to Allah subhanahu و تعالى how am i going to face the akhira the consequences that will come Imam al-Sajjad sallamullahi alaih in du'a abu hamza thumali this beautiful du'a he describes the stages when the soul leaves the body he says sallamullahi alaih ايدي احبتي وتفضل عليها ممدودا على المغتسلي يقلبني صال حجيرتي وتحنا عليها محمولا قد تناول الأقرباء طراف جنازتي وجد علي من قولا قد نزلت بك وحيدا في حفرة ورحام في ذلك البيت الجديد غربتي he says oh Allah have mercy on me ورحمني صريعا على الفراش dying on my bed and my family is looking at me around me have grace grace me oh Allah when i am lying on the table being washed and my my friends and my relatives are turning me embrace me oh Allah with your mercy with your compassion as i am being carried by my loved ones help me oh Allah when i am alone in my new home this is the reality this is self-admonishment this is an example of self-admonishment when a person reflects and thinks how can i change myself self-admonishment is very important Imam الباقر عليه السلام emphasizes on it he says anyone whom Allah does not give him self-admonishment now why does Allah give him so someone will say well Allah didn't give it to me it's he does he gives it to you as a consequence of your action when you remember Allah he will remember you when you get closer to him he'll come closer to you فذكروني اذكركم you remember me and i will remember you واللذين جاهدوا فينا لنهدينهم سبولنا and those who struggle to find our path we will guide them to our path so there is that initial struggle that the human being has to go through and then Allah will guide you Allah will take care of you so when the person shows that attitude Allah will help him guide him and he will reflect and remember he will learn what is right and what is wrong what is true and what is false people used to come to Imam الباقر سلام الله عليه people who are not followers of the Imam سلام الله عليه they would sit in front of him trembling one of them says i sat in front of many علماء but he tells Imam الباقر i have never been shaken overwhelmed the way i am sitting in front of you the Imam tells him because do you know why because you're sitting in homes in places اذن الله ان يرفع و يذكر فيها اسمه في بيوتن اذن الله you're sitting in homes that are not just made of clay no these homes الله سبحانه وتعالى has given permission for them to be elevated of course not physically but in their spirituality you سبح له فيها بالغدوي والاصال there is constant remembrance of Allah and the echo of Allah in these homes these are the Imam سلام الله عليه those علماء sat down in front of these علماء in front of the Imam سلام الله عليه these so-called scholars but did they change did they become followers of the Imam no unfortunately you wonder how come سبحان الله when you see the truth is so clear here is the Imam سلام الله عليه ask him any question and he responds and they have no answer but subhanallah this is when a person does not really do self-admonishment self-reflection and this is not just about us and Allah but within the society about our interaction with the society it is said back in the old days there was a man by the name of حسن الخياط خياط means the tailor he lived in a particular city one day a visitor came to the city back in the old days people did not have banks did not have safes so when a traveler would travel bring for example some gold some money he would be worried to keeping it all for example in one place and for example the hotel or places of residence he'd be worried because there were so many thieves back then so what some people used to do is they would go around and they would ask people in the city is there a virtuous man a pious man in the city he was well known for his piety virtue and they would guide him to someone and he would give the money as a loan or basically as a safe as a trust with that individual a visitor came to the city he asked around about some virtuous man pious man they pointed him to some businessman he goes to the businessman indeed he looked like a virtuous man a good man a pious man he gave him some gold he said i have some gold i would like to leave it with you please he said sure no problem after some time he went back to this businessman told him can i have my gold back please he said what gold he said the gold i left with you i said i've never seen you it's my first time seeing you the man said please remember this is though i gave you some gold and he said no you know interestingly some people say look these are the people of religion because sometimes we hear this accusation look these are the religious people i mean what's the point of praying صلاة when people cheat and lie it's better not to pray and mean being like this at least i don't cheat and lie that's some people what's the point of wearing hijab when those people who wear hijab these ladies who wear hijab they're so much for example they hurt others they backbite they do this what's the point at least i don't wear hijab but i don't do these things we say first of all this is not a valid argument it's an invalid argument الله سبحانه وتعالى said do the صلاة so you have to do the صلاة because you're disobeying الله otherwise now if some person prays and steals for example or hurts people or a person wears hijab and backbites and hurts that does not mean we say the whole concept is bad the whole thing is bad this is the accusation against islam these days people see some muslims doing some things or people calling them muslims they're not even muslims they don't even understand a thing of islam they don't even understand a letter of the quran they see them doing something wrong and then they say look here is what islam is all about it's not islam it's not islam similarly this is not the way to practice we tell those people those who pray and for example steal we tell them you are praying to الله you have to understand the virtue of صلاة the virtue of صلاة means you have to stop doing these things that lady who is not who's wearing hijab and she's backbites and when عيادة بالله everyone hates her and does not like to speak to her because of her attitude and actions we tell her you are a مؤمنة you have good manners you need to have good manners you wearing the hijab this is the hijab of فاطمة سلام الله عليها that's the admonishment we say here imam we have a hadith from the imam he says imam صلاة الله عليها says the honest person did not steal from you did not cheat you did not betray you but you trusted that dishonest person you trusted that dishonest person the honest man would not cheat you a truly honest man honorable man a man with integrity even if you give him one dollar he'll find you and give it back to you if he can he'll give it back to you but at this honest no matter how much you give him it will not give it back to you even if he appears honest we have that unfortunately some people in the community so many cases we've seen of an older brother or a younger brother for example stealing the inheritance although he comes to mosque prays good مؤمن on the outside but he's stolen his brothers and his sisters inheritance or even sometimes worse they steal their nephews or nieces inheritance because they have orphans so they steal their inheritance والعياض بالله and they leave them like this and we've seen cases like that والعياض بالله such individual what islam is this what إيمان is this of course he's a muslim but we tell him go up the notch remember Allah and fear Allah and give give them money back so we try to admonish them we try to admonish them because Islam does not teach dishonesty going back to the story this man this businessman appeared to be as a pious man but he turned out to be a dishonest man this visitor became very depressed he said now what am i going to do who's going to believe me now if everyone in the city praises him thinks he's a good man he's a virtuous man a pious man who's going to believe me so he was walking there on the street depressed a man a local person saw him he said what is the matter stranger he said you know what this is my story but who's going to believe me this the local man told the stranger go see حسن الخياط حسن the tailor and he will be able to help you the man said are you serious he said yes the visitor said you know what well i've lost my money anyways so what's the point you know let's go see this حسن the tailor what works can happen i already lost my gold he walked around he asked where is حسن الخياط حسن الخياط he thought maybe حسن الخياط this حسن the tailor is a wealthy man an influential figure maybe he's got some authority some great person he comes he sees a man sitting against a wall and he's stitching he does not even have a shop so he paused for a second and he asked around he said is this حسن الخياط told him yeah that is حسن الخياط he thought to himself he said maybe that local man was you know fooling with me you know he was maybe making a joke with me telling me go see حسن الخياط but is this guy he can't even help himself you think he is going to help me so he started hesitating should i talk to him should i not and he said you know what forget it i don't think this guy can help me at all look at him he's so poor he doesn't even have a shop and he turned around and he wanted to go حسن الخياط looked at him noticed him he called him he said stranger he turned around he said were you looking for me the stranger you know couldn't say no at this stage he said yes he said what's your story he told him this is my story حسن الخياط told the stranger go back to that businessman tell him حسن الخياط حسن the tailor says give me back my gold or else he will go and do the this visitor is thinking again is this guy what is this city that local told me go see حسن الخياط حسن الخياط is a person who can't even help himself this poor tailor sitting doesn't even have a shop he stitches on the on the on the street and now he's telling me go tell that businessman who's he seems to be a wealthy man you know a rich person go tell him that حسن tells you give me back my gold or else i'm what is this not says you know are they fooling with me are they thinking i'm you know what حسن told him trust me go and say this and see what happens you know this man said you know what well i've got nothing to lose anyways he's already taken my gold so what else can happen if the visitor goes back to this businessman and he tells him i just came from حسن الخياط he says give me back my gold or else he will go and do the this man said حسن الخياط huh wait wait خلص خلص he goes and he brings the gold and says here you go this man was shocked سبحان الله i was with him the whole time telling him يا أخي you know give me back my money my gold you know i am a stranger here is this how we treat your visitors your guests and so on nothing works i mentioned the name of a poor tailor and him doing the ادان it really moves and shakes this guy so he came very curious he goes back to حسن الخياط this this visitor now that he's got his gold he tells him حسن what is your story man and what what is the story of this ادان of yours he says a while back one night after praying صلاة العشاء i was in the masjid i prayed صلاة العشاء and then i headed back home back in those days brothers and sisters people after صلاة العشاء used to sleep you know there was there were no lights for example there were no tvs internet things that entertainment people would do there's nothing to do at night so people used to sleep after عشاء and wake up for صلاة الليل pray then pray صلاة الفجر and stay up the whole day so at night it becomes dark and the city becomes dead after عشاء it becomes dead الله in this city of Edmonton mashaAllah it's also similar to this maybe they've taken some of the tradition you know and hence the name deadmonton you know nonetheless he said after صلاة العشاء i went back to my house i saw a man attacking a woman i looked carefully i noticed this is the chief of the police the head of the police he is attacking a woman and no one is around and he grabbed her attacked her and took her to her to his house and she was begging for help but no one is helping some people were afraid because he is the chief of police if they will but what can you do to the chief of police especially back in those days if you mess with him he will finish you and maybe even finish your whole family because he's got the power he's got the authority he's got the influence so people were scared and i sat down but i don't know what can i do i can't go help her i can't i can't go physically help her but that's where i sat down and reflecting and i thought to myself حسن how can you sit down doing nothing he had the self admonishment that is the what we call in sometimes it may be called as the conscious the conscious kicks in the self that starts making you feel guilty and that self Allah has that mechanism Allah has put it in every human being so that he would guide him to the right path he would feel guilty and repent and go back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى but some people choose not to so حسن says i sat down thinking i can't keep quiet like this someone is being harassed someone is being attacked and i'm doing nothing لا i can't be satisfied with myself so i don't know what to do what can i do i said then something came to my mind i went next to the sultan's palace the sultan's palace and i started doing adhan and so on and so forth at night the sultan got up the king got up he started shouting from the window who is this arrest this man i'm trying to sleep they arrested him said bring him here cut his head off حسن said wait wait you didn't ask me why i was doing this sultan said well why were you doing this he said this is what i saw i saw the chief of police attacking a woman and taking her to her to his house and she's begging for help and no one is able to help her and that's why i woke you up your majesty because you are just and you don't like oppression and justice must be served sultan told him he said we'll see if you're truthful he sent some guard with حسن he says go with حسن خياته that house of this chief of police they go and surely they do indeed find him with that lady and she's begging for help so they do arrest him they arrest him they bring him to justice at night the king before the king and he gets punished the chief of police the sultan then becomes impressed with حسن الخيات he tells him حسن you did such a wonderful job every time in the city you hear or you see someone being oppressed and injustice is being committed against somebody come and say the اذان immediately now you've gained my trust just say your words are enough now your testimony is enough that so and so has oppressed someone or someone so has been injustice against someone that's enough and hence people became scared of حسن الخياته this self-admonishment is very important because of someone does not really admonish himself does not think about the consequences of his actions his life then he will lose دنيا and آخره and this brings us to مسلم ابن عقيد that حديث is taught by إمام الباقر عليه السلام and he's teaching it to us the شيع my dear brothers and my dear sisters because he wants us to be the best weekend one day a group of شيع came to إمام الباقر عليه السلام they came to him and he was admonishing them he noticed they were not paying attention to him can you imagine sitting with إمام الباقر عليه السلام and he's admonishing you and you're playing around you're not paying attention that he became angry with them he said my words if they were to fall on a heart it would pierce that heart it means the words of wisdom the words of awakening the words that wake human being up on a heart he is referring to a heart that's alive a living heart a heart that can understand when you listen to the words of the إمام the words of admonishment indeed they pierce your heart pierce your heart they wake you up so إمام does not want us to be like these individuals they were also شيع الباقر عليه السلام and followers of the إمام they came to see him because they love him they respect him that's why brothers and sisters always always think about الله and think about your actions and ask yourself what am i doing in my life have i hurt someone have i taken stand with my brother or my sister against a poor lady or a poor man or a poor orphan because he is my brother or she is my sister i have hurt someone badly then what am i going to say to الله on the day of judgment have i taken someone's wealth have i attacked someone have i mistreated somebody do the self-admonishment when you do the self-admonishment then you'll find that when people admonish you there will be an impact impact مسلم ابن عقيل came to kufra people of kufra supported him initially stood with him but then when ابن زياد came he started spending money spreading fear into their hearts they did not think about their أخرى imagine if the people of kufra supported Imam Hussein ابن زياد would not have been able to even get power of it where would he get the power the support nobody they would have destroyed ابن زياد history would have changed but they became cowards the admonishments of مسلم ابن عقيل started falling on deaf ears deaf ears because those people did not realize that they're being imprisoned for eternity they're giving up their freedom they're becoming enslaved when they brought the head of Imam الحسين عليه السلام before عبيد الله ابن زياد a blind man called عبد الله ابن عفيف العزدي he lost one eye fighting with Imam Ali on صفين and the other one in جمل one in جمل one on صفين and he became blind true sheeha a lover of ahlul bayt when he saw abaid الله ابن زياد or when he heard him beating the head of Imam الحسين عليه السلام الله عليه he got up and he said remove your hands from the lips of abbi abdillah oh people of kufra may you be cursed for allowing him to become your leader indeed you have submitted to slavery you've enslaved yourselves indeed and then he was captured and killed صلام الله عليه this was a brave man it was a brave man this abdallah they captured him and he continued fighting until they captured him he said when i was always praying to Allah to give me شهاد i'm not for them but when i lost my eyes and i became blind i lost hope of شهاد but now i guess today Allah has accepted my dua and indeed Allah granted him شهاد if people had thought this way they would have supported Imam Hussein but sometimes we don't think about the consequences we think of today we don't think of tomorrow what will happen we don't have a vision we don't have self-admonishment time to reflect if i deviate some people in the community or in the society what are the consequences what will happen we don't think about this but rather we think of the wealth and the power that's what we think about if i stab someone in the back in the community what will happen what goes around comes around subhan Allah you heard someone today you heard someone today you badmouth someone today and you do it in the front of everyone tomorrow the same thing will be done to you wait and see Allah is just it may happen 20 years later 30 years later but it will happen people don't have the vision the time you know one day one of the sheikhs may Allah bless his soul he says i was at someone's house then we hear you know some fighting crying shouting we go out of the house i see an old man fighting with a young man the young man then slaps the old man and run away i asked what's going on they say this old man is the father the young man is the son والعيادة بالله he slapped his father والعيادة بالله i told the father he started crying i came to him the son that ran away everyone is looking at him he became embarrassed he ran away the father looked at the the sheikh the sheikh looked at the father and said yeah sheikh yeah yeah old man don't worry about him you know these are young men sometimes they don't take what they do they don't realize what they're doing so don't cry try to comfort the old man the sheikh may Allah bless his soul the sheikh the old man looked at the sheikh says sheikh i'm not crying because he hit me said because 40 years ago i hit my father same way he did الله has given it back to me now 40 years later i remembered what i did to my father that's why i'm crying what goes around comes around people don't realize this this is dunya justice will be served justice will be served when you hurt someone you will be hurt muslim ابن عقيل because of this people left him all alone they did not think he lost all his supporters and then one day he comes and he prays in the masjid looks behind no one is behind him praying nobody he walks out on the streets alone and old lady takes him in after she recognizes he is muslim ابن عقيل the ambassador of imam al-fusayn سلام الله عليه he spends the night at her place then unfortunately her son discovers that muslim is there he goes and he tells الله ابن زياد they send him the army the army comes in the morning and starts attacking muslim ابن عقيل he starts fighting bravely the army keeps on sending to obey الله ابن زياد send us more men and more men he fights them bravely and they keep on asking for more men to fight against him until obey الله ابن زياد said to them i sent you to capture one man i did not sent you to capture an army why do you need so many men they told him is this an ordinary man you told us to go capture this is muslim ابن عقيل this is one of the swords of bani hasham he comes from that noble family the bravery he is not an ordinary man send us more men they sent him about 1000 men just to fight one man and he fought against them bravely and they still could not capture him they still because truth is always brave and strong battle falsehood is always weak and shaken and hence it might take more than 1000 to capture one man one man he fought against them bravely until they dug a hole and he fell into the hole that's when they managed to capture him they took him to the palace of obey الله ابن زياد they had an exchange of words obey الله ابن زياد started calling him some names but muslim ابن عقيل with his integrity and honor said my master is abby عبد الله الخسي then obey الله ابن زياد tells him tells the people the guards to go take them take him up to the palace roof cut his head off and throw his body from the top of the palace those people who cut heads off today are the followers of such people like obey الله ابن زياد they learned from them رسول الله امي والمؤمنين اهل البيت never did this never never not a single example in history exists with them doing it it is these men who distorted the whole religion and those people are following their example when he takes him to the rooftop muslim ابن عقيل tells the guard give me few minutes let me pray to ركع الصلاة it means he was on the state of وضوء it's must have brothers and sisters always to be in the state of وضوء and to always remember الله سبحانه وتعالى he prayed to ركع الصلاة then he got up and turned towards مدينة towards مكة and he said السلام عليك يا ابا عبد الله this is your cousin muslim ابن عقيل او للون كوفا at that time إمام حسين had left مكة this was on عرفة they عرفة he had just left مكة it is said the narrator said إمام الحسين was sitting with a group of people he got up at that moment and he said و عليك السلام يا مسلم and peace be upon you brothers and sisters every time you say السلام و عليك يا ابا عبد الله wherever you are إمام الحسين will respond to you just like he responded to muslim so every day send your salam to ابي عبد الله send you how to كربلا for indeed he will remember you he will greet you back and then the enemy of الله struck muslim once on his neck nothing happened to him he hit him a second time his head separated from his body they threw the body of muslim on the streets and they started dragging him اعلم جدار جضا و شاعة اخبار رموه القوم من قصر الاما مسلم was all alone غريب in كوفا and so is our إمام الباقر عليه السلام although he was in his own city of مدينة when he was fed the poison but today he is indeed a stranger غريب in his own city of مدينة you look at his grave and the way it is people cannot even visit him people cannot even recite مصيبه next to his grave without being attacked and harassed and bothered and imprisoned and indeed سبحان الله in his will إمام الباقر's will to إمام الصادق عليه السلام he gives him money and he says my son you some of this money to hold عزا إمام الباقر gives money to إمام الصادق to have عزا just like you brothers and sisters مؤمنين and مؤمنات إمام الصادق إمام الباقر the imams love you to be here they love to see you here they will remember you spend money and invest on these majalis for our imams invested money on such majalis and then إمام الباقر told إمام الصادق and use some of the money to buy candles and light them on my grave it is as if إمام الباقر is telling the إمام الصادق عليه السلام and telling all of us one day will come when there will be no light in my grave when people can't come freely and do زيارة on my grave السلام عليك يا ابنى رسول الله السلام عليك يا ضاجا فور يا محمد الباقر ورحمة الله وبركاته إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون وسيعلم الذين ظلموا هي من قلبين قلبون والعاقبة للمتقين أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم أم يجيب المطر어야 دعاه ويكشف السوء أم يجيب المضطر إذا دعاه ويكشف السوء أم يجيب المضطر إذا دعاه ويكشف السوء أما يجيب المضطر إذا دعان ويكشف السوء اللهم إنا نسألك وندعوك باسمك العظيم الأعظم الأعز الأجل الأكرم يا الله إلهي بفاطمة وأبيها وبعليها وبنيها والسرع المستودع فيها إكشف عن السوء يا الله اللهم اغفر ذنوبنا كفر عنا سياتنا وتوفنا مع الأبرار رب اغفر لي والوالد يا ورحموما كما رب يان صغيرا اجزه ما بالحساني حسانا وبالسيات غفرانا اللهم ارزقنا زيارة الإمام الباقري في الدنيا عاجلا يا الله وشفاعته في الدنيا وفي القبر وفي الآخرة يا الله اللهم عجل لي وليك الفراج وجعلنا من شيعة وأمصار وعواني والمستشهدين بين يديه اللهم كل وليك الحجة بن الحسام صلوانتك عليه وعلى آبائم في هذه السام وفي كل السام وليان وحافظا وقاعدا وناصرا ودليلا وعينا حتى تسكنه أربك طوعا وتماتعه فيها طويلا برحمتك يا رحم الرحمين اللهم ارنا الطلعة الرشيد والغروة الحميد وكحل الضارنا بنظرة مننا إليه اللهم نقسم عليك بالزهراء فاطمة سلام الله عليها إلا ما رزقتنا شفاعت الزهراء في الدنيا وفي القبر وفي الآخرة يا الله لقضاء الحوائنج والشفاء المرضى ولكشف هذا الغم عناذي لما ولتعجيلي فرجموا لنا صاحب العصر والزماء وإلى رواح المؤمنين والمؤمنات لسيما رواح موات الجالسين والحاضرين رحم الله من يقرأ السورة المباركة فاتحتي مع الصلوات


Hey everybody it's Sam at Mixed Up Craft, thank you for watching today. So it seems an absolute lifetime that I've been waiting for this product because when I ordered it it was on pre-order so it wasn't being dispatched until the 11th of May and it's just landed through my door and I cannot wait to get crafting with it so I thought I would quickly share it and then I can actually start using it all and it is the brand new Circus collection by Craft Consortium and it's awesome so I did I think I shared a link on my Facebook page saying that you know this is amazing I've just treated myself but I thought I'd share it for anybody that's not on Facebook maybe isn't aware of this doesn't know about the craft consortium I thought I would share it with you all so I did treat myself like I said to the whole range because I just thought it's brand new I want to see everything about it so first of all I will show you the 12x12 paper pad also I need to say I'm a huge fan of The Greatest Showman so when I saw that there was this collection coming out I just yeah I knew I was going to love it so first of all you can see here just all the beautiful imagery get an idea of the colors and things like that just love all the little tickets there's the show you know the the showman himself the the animals there the circus tent there's just so many lovely lovely things so let's have a look inside what I do love is all these bits here you know you can use the papers here and they've done these look at these like cutout pieces here that you can use really really nice so just give you a flick through here you get a mix of papers and cardstock so you have 150 gsm pearlized papers and then 200 gsm papers but I mean 200 gsm you can make your gift bags and boxes with that but here you've got these beautiful papers here and these are your pearlized ones so you've got four of each okay then you have these ones here really nice that's your card that's more of that's the 200 then you got these ones here look at the colors these are going to be great for birthday cards obviously but just really nice fun colors look at all that there with the bunting and the stars I love that look at these images oh it's when what and how to cut into it next though isn't it you know it's that kind of oh my gosh then we've got this one here which has the plane on the back there so that's a bit easy to decide with that one these are going to make lovely gift bags so when you've got the card and you want everything to match it's going to look lovely love stripes so that's really good and then you got the tickets then they've got that beautiful shine on over the top they're great to fussy to cut as well so I've got some I already know what I want to do with this so um I've had the idea since I ordered it so uh and it's a requested one as well so I will be sharing that and look you've got the greatest showman there gorgeous absolutely amazing and this here I haven't brought a collection from craft consortium since the herbarian which I brought gosh it was last year um so yeah when I saw this one I thought yes now this is what I like look at that there look at this the strongman the fortune teller I think it's brilliant the jester yeah is there the jester there or the clown there's a jester on something else I think um and then you've got that one there with all the silhouettes so the acrobats and then the actual coloured images that's really nice I wonder if that actually oh no it doesn't I thought it might be exactly you know on the back of them nonetheless it's still beautiful and then this one here slightly bigger images pretty good look at the giraffe love the giraffe and the elephant there and then that's the same again but with the red background really really nice and then you have more pieces there on the back of the front page to cut out so again you've got the strongman just really nice big images that surface and stuff although I don't always like to cut into the front page but I even like this I might try and kind of see it's either you do that one or you do that how nice would that be to fussy cut and then have for like a scrap of lay out or something I don't know I think it'd look really cool but that's that one and then you get exactly the same again in the six by six so you get the 200 gsm papers 150 perlised but just smaller so if you're someone that just prefers to make you know smaller cards you're not really into doing gift bags and boxes and stuff then there is a six by six option then you've got all your extra you've got your stamps and all the accessories here so these here are your you get 80 adhesive pearls and they're all star shape you got your red your blue like a baby blue um in that one there so again I think like I'm going to check again because they might have done more but it did say the full bundle when I ordered this so then we've got the washi tapes so let's have a look at the designs because one of them is the tickets which I thought was really cool and then the other one is actually the circus um you know the the cart the horse and everything there see how lovely is that along the bottom of a card and there will be a 3d storage something along those lines that I'll be doing with this collection as well I can't wait because whenever I have collections like this I always want something that I will get to keep for myself so I have a really fun idea that one's your tickets I love that I think that's really cool and then you've just got a very thin one there which has just got lots of little diamonds on it I think let me just see if I can get into this one so you just see it there really nice so I like them they've just been nice little extras then this oh well the stamps are amazing but you know I love a wooden embellishment and these are brilliant look aren't they fabulous I need to get more packs of these they're lovely really strong so that one's got the greatest showman and then you have the the ringmaster isn't it there actually um then we've got a ticket you've got the cannonball is it the cannonball no the cannonball is what comes out what's that or is it the cannonball anyway this look at this one the show really cool and then you've got the lion on the ball you've got the strongman you've got another oh no that's the circus sign you've got that's one of the well it's what they juggle with but I don't know actually what that is called but nonetheless it's what they juggle with and then you've got the monkey with the drum there aren't they lovely but yeah I definitely need more packs because I want to keep some for myself and then I want to put some on cards so um these are going to be special cards as well so uh yeah I can't wait I get crafting let's pop those ones away then you get these gorgeous embellishments look at these and they're the circus tent they actually say on the front there you just see I'm gonna do that one there because they're kind of moving around it says circus it's just the front of the circus tent these are great with a little bit of ribbon just to tie off in a bow on the you know to finish off your cards and gift tags things like that you get six in there lovely quality metal embellishments so they're really nice and then the stamp sets the stamp sets are brilliant they're really really nice I'm going to take the plastic all off just to get rid of the glare okay so this one here is they don't name them I don't think let me just double check that says the circus oh no that says the greatest show and that one says fortune teller okay so this one is the circus and you have one two three four five six seven stamps and you can just see if I hold it away it's probably a bit easier there you can actually see what they are so again you've got the ringmaster you've got that lion on the ball you've got the seal there with the ball the show the circus the star and then the balloons but what I also love is I'm going to keep all these bits that will look lovely if you fussy cut around that that could be brilliant on the front of a card you know you've got a five by seven card and you use that there you could go all the way up and then just go around the balloon there because the ticket is just covered by the actual logo but that I think is beautiful and on the back you've even got that as well that you could keep so you know keep the packaging because there's so many lovely images and then what do I say this one this is the greatest show so again you've got this you've got the ticket you've got the strong man you've got the things that they juggle with the monkey again there that's the some of the kind of bunting trim again you've got more of those images there that you can use and then this is the fortune teller so you can see there just trying to put it against my the gray of my mat so you can see it better but I love all of these images love this so much it's so so cool cannot wait so I will share all the links if it's still available in the description box below hopefully you can get hold of this because you will not be disappointed it honestly is amazing and I know a lot of you did already get this as well when I shared it about three or four weeks ago so yeah I will share those links below and look out very soon for some fun tutorials featuring this product so thanks for watching and I'll see you soon bye


Jinbei is a man of great, unwavering, profound honor. A man who wears his decisions proudly on his chest, much like his trademark tattoo, which he uses to encourage people to subscribe to the Ground Line Review. For regular One Piece content, upload it straight into your YouTube feed. Thanks, Jinbei. Hello and welcome to the Ground Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. And today, it's time to discuss the ongoing injustice being dealt to by far the most forgettable straw hat in the series, Jinbei. Now, to be fair, it's not his fault that many people, including me, often just flat out forget that he is a legitimate crew member. It's not as if he appears in color spreads, movies, or even general group merchandise. And really, from an outsider's perspective, you would never go so far as to associate Jinbei with the straw hats. In fact, with how much distance is kept between he and they, you might even think that he was a series antagonist if you weren't a One Piece fan. And this is something of a shame to say the very least, but quite an intriguing situation to examine narratively, because at this point, he has been put off officially, quote unquote, joining the crew, not just once, but twice now. And yes, I know that he is a crew member, but you all know what I mean. He hasn't joined them. He hasn't fought with them. He hasn't had the crew party thing, et cetera. In any case, I'm not convinced that the situation we found ourselves in was Oda's original intention for the character. And he feels like more of a victim of an organic storytelling process. And I'll explain what I mean by that. But first, I would like to take us all back to a much simpler time, December 2011 to be precise, and a little chapter I liked called 648, primarily because that's the number it was. Cut to the end of said chapter with an incredibly smiley Luffy who asked Jinbei to join the straw hats. And this was a monumentous moment. The first straw hat to join the crew post timeskip and it was a former warlord of the sea and current badass boss whale shark. And yes, just yes, it completes the crew. Now cutting sharply back into modern times, January 2020 at the time of this recording, and this feeling conjured in late 2011 is like fleeting childhood nostalgia. You know that thought of back in the day when everything seemed magical and like it would all work out before you get smacked in the face with the cold, hard reality of life. And yes, this is clear hyperbole, but damn it, I want that whale shark on my crew. The moment he temporarily refused, I was aghast. And then throughout the entirety of punk hazard, dress, Rosa, Anzo, there were times where I couldn't help but think what would have happened if Jinbei had joined right then and there. But at the same time, I did also appreciate that Jinbei was not taking the standard route to becoming a straw hat. This man had responsibilities within the greater world and he had to settle them before packing up and joining the straw hat circus. So come June, 2016 when Jinbei finally reemerged into the story after a four and a half year absence, not counting the cover story or random bounty reaction, I knew that this was the time. Oda had strategically saved Jinbei for some grand purpose to play out on Hawkeek Island, in which he did rather epically sever his ties with Big Bomb and officially accept Luffy's invitation to become a straw hat pirate. Ah, Oda, you've done it again. As much as late 2011 may have been a source of despair for me, this moment has blown my mind and I cannot wait to see Jinbei with the rest of the crew. Oh, but he's not coming with the crew. Ah, hmm. Wait, did Jinbei just officially join the crew only to not really join the crew? Because right now Jinbei is a straw hat in terms of technicality alone, but he still hasn't had his proper induction, shall we say, into the crew and we're now about a year and a half removed from that event and he has not reemerged on what was planned, not yet anyway.  And yes, there is obviously going to be a reason why Jinbei needed to not join the straw hats right then and there. I mean, we've heard tell from Oda himself of a change of appearance when he is reintroduced on Wano, but that's a mere aesthetic difference and I don't see Oda putting off Jinbei joining once again just to change his design. No, there's something else at play here, whether it's Jinbei emerging heroically to lead the straw hat grand fleet or landing on Wano as part of the remnants of the white beard pirates or any of the other things we know that at least one of needs to happen in order for the Allied forces to have any chance whatsoever. But at this point, you do really need to stop and think, was this Oda's original intention or has Jinbei become a bit of a victim of circumstance? Because I really don't see Oda sitting down in 2011 and planning out Jinbei's decade long character arc to finally become a straw hat. It feels more like Oda has had a vague plan to have Jinbei join maybe only to be foiled by a better idea each time it got to the point where he actually could. As for what that better idea is in the slightest case, although we can only wait and see, but it's certainly not unheard of for Oda to make very last minute decisions in regards to One Piece. In fact, this story is a lot less planned than most people think because that's just how good Oda is at seamlessly putting it all together. But still, I can't help but feel like Jinbei has gotten a bit of a raw deal in One Piece, at least compared to the rest of the straw hats, Vivi and Kiryu included. And it's a bit rough because Jinbei doesn't appear in any color spreads or much official merchandise in the role that he technically inhabits. In fact, I only very recently saw some official artwork with him in it but it was part of a music video that heavily featured One Piece. And yeah, it was really nice to see. He definitely belongs in this group. It's just that the actual series, as of yet, refuses to make that happen. And you know, at this point with all this talk about One Piece ending in five years, which you know, take that with a massive, massive grain of salt, never trust any words from anyone involved with One Piece in regards to time. But if you were to take it as a vague guide, we are really running out of time for Jinbei to actually, you know, be part of the crew. I mean, let's suppose that he joins during the Wano arc, gets involved in the big battle, whatever that's cool. But after that, Jinbei probably has only about one big arc and maybe a bridging arc or two to actually be a member of the crew before the series comes to an end if you were to go with that five year timeline. So it's a very 11th hour joining and he may not have that time to develop a rapport with everyone else, especially since our current nine members have been together in the eyes of the readers and watchers for well over a decade now. In fact, Brooke joined first thing in 2008. So it's been 12 years since the last draw hat was properly recruited into the mix, which is kind of insane to think about because before that point, the longest gap between straw hats was Robert and Frankie, which was about five years. So I do worry about Jinbei hopping on board at the last second. You know, it's like he appears on Wano, they do that arc, they do the party. And the next thing we know, we have the crew arrive at Laugh Tale. Luffy is pirate king and one piece becomes but a beautiful memory for all of us. He just, yeah, he doesn't have a lot of time. But that of course brings into question, what if Oda has changed his mind about Jinbei? Or what if Oda never really intended for everyone's whale shark to join the crew? And all of this is a red herring for an eventual twist like a Jinbei death to hit us right in the feels. It would be the first official straw hat death, not counting Brooke, I guess technically. And it would be quite shocking, but also kind of appropriate because taking on an emperor of the sea or two surely needs to come with some sort of consequence. And some of this sort does come from his mysterious fate on Hawkeye Island because we know the big mom came out of that situation in pretty fine condition. But as for Jinbei, the sun pirates and the German, well, I highly doubt they're in an equally as good spot. Which means that Jinbei himself may have finally been forced to take on big mom's roulette wheel, which can claim any number of body parts or more commonly, years of life. Now, if Jinbei was captured by big mom, I think it's a certainty that he was subject to this. Meaning that when he returns, it could be without an arm or a leg, or it could be that he's aged a hundred years and I don't exactly know how long fishmen live for. But if he didn't die on the spot, then it would certainly make him an incredibly old fish man by the time of his reappearance, which may put him in a narrative position where he sees fit to use the final burst of his life to assist Luffy Onwano and then pass away tragically. And maybe that act would have something to do with his role as helmsman of the crew, giving us a taste of how invincible Jinbei claimed the thousandth sunny would be on whole cake island, but claim his life in the process. And look, if this was any other straw hat, then I would dismiss this idea entirely. And before anyone in the comments tries to tell me that Oda has already stated that a straw hat will die by the end of one piece, this is one of the biggest and possibly most ridiculous internet myths regarding one piece that has ever been perpetrated. Some people will try to claim that Oda said this in an interview in pretty much every year that goes by, but nobody is ever able to provide a source. So please do not believe a single person who says anything along these lines. With that said, if a straw hat had to die before the completion of one piece, I feel like it would have to be Jinbei. If we aren't including Vivi that is, and you know, maybe we should, because Oda did release a legitimate statement to jumpfester 2020, claiming that Vivi and Kokansabo were in a bit of trouble. But that thought aside, Jinbei is still the natural choice. This man has lived through it all and his honor is so devout that I have no doubt he would give his life in a heartbeat if the occasion called for it. But most importantly, if Oda was setting him up to die, then it would make sense to not showcase him as part of the main crew to this point. Because the problem with being associated as a straw hat is that those characters do acquire a degree of plot armor.  I never fear for the lives of any of the straw hats because they have their dreams to accomplish and we have not come this far with them to see them fail because one piece just isn't that kind of series. However, Jinbei falls into a more unique category in regards to this. He may not necessarily have a dream per se, but he does have the inherited will of both Fisher Tiger and Otahime. The will and desire to see fishermen and humans living peacefully together. And that is the sort of thing that I can see him passing on to another character like Luffy to carry out, which may even make a lot of poetic sense because the Luffy-Shira-Hoshi combination does seem to be very much a mirror of Joy Boy and the former mermaid princess who was Poseidon. So yeah, look, I don't know guys. We've been waiting for this whale shark to join the fun for an awfully long time now, almost a decade, and for one reason or another, he just hasn't. So it does force us to question exactly why that is and what he can contribute so late in the game of One Piece. Regardless, Jinbei will continue to be one of the characters in the series who intrigues me the most and I eagerly await his continuation to the story, whatever path it holds. But that pretty much does it for this discussion on Jinbei's short end of the stick in One Piece. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime manga series, then please do feel free to check out my second channel New World Review for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigans takes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on Jinbei's future. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time. Do you think they hinted at the fact that Zoro had to conquer his haki when he scarred off the fat man? All right, so in case anyone isn't aware, this is referring to an anime-only scene where Zoro, seemingly through sheer will alone, sent a jolt of terror in the general direction of Urashima, the other pink-haired sumo. So I definitely wouldn't read too much into it, especially because the Wano era of anime has really taken some grand artistic license with how they portray certain abilities, especially those that weren't in the manga like this interaction between Zoro and Urashima. With that said, I do think it would make a lot of sense for Zoro in general to have conqueror's haki. I mean, he wants to be the world's greatest swordsman, so he does have that desire for the top that all natural conqueror's haki wielders possess. Plus it would further allow him to mirror Ray Lee, the first maid of Roger, who also has conqueror's haki, so why not? The big question would probably be whether or not Mihoch has it. If Mihoch has conqueror's haki, then I would say that Zoro almost certainly needs it to eventually achieve his dream.


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