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vibenasheeds

2026 –

An AI that composes a track, then strips the instruments out so what's left is vocals and daf.

try it

What I say about it now, and what I was actually posting at the time.

I've been complaining about this for eight years, which is documented and slightly embarrassing.

sakib @mertesakib ·

native deen dropped so many bangers man these modern nasheed artists have nothing on him

76 likes · 26 reposts Open
sakib @mertesakib ·

nasheeds have regressed so much man we had native deen they have harris j how far we’ve fallen

69 likes · 5 reposts Open

Every Muslim creator hits the same wall. You either use beats you're not comfortable with, or you post in silence.

Sakib Ahmed Co-founder of Draper · Own your distribution ·

Every Muslim creator faces the same impossible choice. Use mainstream beats that compromise your values, or create content in silence. I felt this firsthand running Simply Smashed. We had a strict no-music policy, but how do you create engaging content without sound? How do you build atmosphere in your restaurant when customers walk in? I tried everything. Different beats, different ambient sounds. Nothing quite fit the vibe I wanted. Eventually we settled on live sports in the background - it worked for the restaurant atmosphere. But the content problem remained unsolved. That's when I remembered my old fascination with vocal beats. What started as casual interest became urgent necessity. So I taught myself. Every single night after brutal restaurant shifts, I'd come home exhausted and spend 1-2 hours learning to craft beats. My fingers fumbling through software I barely understood. My ears slowly training to hear what worked. Seven weeks in, something clicked. My YouTube channel "Lofi Muslim" hit 130 subscribers. I'm averaging 300 views daily. Comments started flooding in from Saudi Arabia, France from creators across continents saying "Finally, something that fits." Then came the moment that changed everything. A complete stranger bought my first beat. I stared at that notification for minutes. Someone I'd never met just paid for something I created in my bedroom after a restaurant shift. That's when I realised this wasn't just solving my problem. Muslim creators everywhere are starving for options. They're compromising their values because quality alternatives barely exist. Now I've got beats on Spotify and Apple Music. Creators are using my work in their content without me doing any marketing. The beat store is growing. But here's what really gets me: In an era where we consume endlessly, building something people actually want feels revolutionary. Lmk what you think! Do you vibe with the beats? Link in the comments.

337 reactions · 5 reposts Open

So I built an AI that composes music and then removes the music from itself. It sounds like a weird extra step, but composing with instruments first is how you get something that actually sounds good.

Sakib Ahmed Co-founder of Draper · Own your distribution ·

Side project of the week: I built an AI that composes music and then removes the music from itself. vibenasheeds: the claude for making vocal nasheed beats. Some of you might remember the lofi Muslim YouTube channel I posted about last year. I was making nasheed beats after 12-hour shifts at Simply Smashed because I could not find halal background music. Every nasheed pack was either £30+ per beat or so rinsed that you'd hear the same track in three different Muslim creators' videos on the same day. That whole channel was a test run... I've been cooking this up quietly between everything else. vibenasheeds is the actual thing. You prompt the vibe you want for your scene and AI generates a full track from scratch. Then what I'm calling the halal engine kicks in and separates the stems and strips the instruments out of the file, gone. What's left is vocals and daf. It composes with instruments first because that's how you get something that actually sounds good, then removes them... sounds like a weird extra step but the output is better (and I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking). The thing about the nasheed scene right now is the creators in it are incredible. I grew up watching them figure out an entire genre from scratch with basically nothing. You ever watch Chris Howett cycling through the mountains of Switzerland on an electric scooter? Half of why that youtube content hits the way it does is the audio. Muslim creators have been locked out of that entire dimension, you're either using the same 50 beats as everyone else or you're working in silence and hoping the visuals carry it. I want to describe what I'm hearing in my head for a specific moment and have it exist. Link in comments to try it out!

Lately

Sakib Ahmed Co-founder of Draper · Own your distribution ·

I keep entering domains the slow way in the fastest era in history. Twice now and I'd do it again. You can go to Claude right now and start building in a domain you have zero expertise in. And it might work tbh, in fact, we're in the most competitive era of software in history because of that. So why would you go into a domain you haven't earned? Go into the one where you've put the most reps in. That's your edge now. We grew Simply Smashed to the highest rated burger in London organically and that whole experience pulled me into writing for founders at agencies. I did that for a year, which led to Draper. With Vibenasheeds same thing. Grew a YouTube channel first, figured out what hit and what didn't, then started building. It reminds me of something Abdel once said to me... AI gets you 60% of the way there, it's on you to fill the gap. That 60% is everything that's ever been publicly scraped. The other 40% doesn't exist in any dataset. You learn it in the arena. P.S: If you want a break from the arena Kotor (it's like a less busy lake como) is one of the most underrated places in Europe, definitely recommend :) .

Sakib Ahmed Co-founder of Draper · Own your distribution ·

One of my closest friends got married in the Spanish mountains a couple weeks ago. I came home and built an AI because of it. The ambience was unreal. He had a playlist that was perfect for the mountains. It felt so elegant and classy, perfectly suiting the event. And I kept thinking about how hard it is to get that feeling when you're trying to keep it halal. Vibenasheeds.com is this small hobby side project I've been building that composes music and then strips the instruments out of itself so you're left with pure vocals and daf. Every track runs through a halal verification gate, a neural net scoring across 527 sound classes looking for anything that shouldn't be there. I put it out there and within a week: - 110 minutes of original beats generated - 65,000+ instrument checks run - 6 times the AI tried to sneak an instrument in, caught every one I've had signups from content agencies, startups, a Muslim crowdfunding platform, creators from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands. People I've never met making halal nasheeds because a wedding in Spain hit me a certain way. I'll cherish that one for a long time.

sakib @mertesakib ·

sideproject of the week: vibenasheeds its too expensive and difficult to be a muslim creator and avoid music - not enough options so you don't have creative freedom - one beat costs minimum £30 - beats are RINSED out there prompt the vibe you want for your scene and itll…

Photo from the post.
49 likes · 3 reposts Open
sakib @mertesakib ·

okay but why does this simply smashed Ramadan nasheed go so hard

Still from the video in the post.
27 likes · 1 repost Open
sakib @mertesakib ·

Has come to a point that any more times that I hear that Maher Zain nasheed I get 5% more islamophobic

93 likes · 12 reposts Open
sakib @mertesakib ·

I’m tired of hearing that Maher Zain nasheed everywhere pls stop