Abdullah Oduro – Iman Cave – Arrested For What
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of contributing to society, not just for personal reasons, and the need for a badge of honor. They share examples of former inmate leaders who inspired their passion for Islam and their impact on their community, including former inmate leaders who inspired their passion for Islam and their impact on their community. They also discuss various examples of people being let out of jail for political protests, drug use, and events that led to the release of people from jail, including a protest movement and a post-doping bond. They emphasize the importance of providing financial and legal coverage for individuals to function and leave a legacy, and mention various groups and events that led to the release of people from jail, including a protest movement and a post-doping bond.AI: Transcript ©
When you're when you're Muslim and you're, you
know, you're in a Muslim household, in a
Muslim family, in a Muslim community,
you're like, other people will take care of
my name for,
Oh. You know. Who's a panelist. You see
all these things, and as a person, you're
like, man, I I wish I I would
be a part of this. I wish I
would be that type of person. And then
the opportunity comes. UTD, I'm an alumni. My
money is going to fund,
genocidal companies that are making the bombs that
are being dropped in Rafa right now. And
we're like, we're not gonna we're not gonna
take part in this. Then we see the
state troopers pull up. 5 police departments, by
the way. And they're like, we're in a
position where they're coming down towards us, right?
And it's like all of a sudden things
just become real. And they create a circle
in the middle of the encampment, and they're
like, you know what, they can take us.
But we're not leaving.
How's everyone doing? I'm Abdullah O'Duro and welcome
to the Imancave where we discuss issues of
male excellence
while being grounded in faith.
Contribution.
Is that a male characteristic?
Is it something that's universal?
Is it something that even matters in the
life of a young man, of a father,
of a son,
of a citizen?
Why is it important for the man to
contribute? And when I talk about contribute,
I'm not only talk about talking about contribution
to the family that's a given.
I'm talking about contributing to people that you
don't even know.
As a matter of fact, in Islam, that
is a characteristic
of the righteous. In the chapter of mankind,
Al Insan,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about the
He talks about the righteous people. And one
of the characteristics
is He says,
that those
they give to the poor and they feed
them
the one that is poor and destitute and
doesn't have anything
And then what do they say? That verily,
Notumrukum
li wajihillah,
that verily we feed you for the face
of Allah. For the sake of God
we do not want from you no jazan,
no reward,
and no thanks. Meaning,
that that is not the reason we do
it. It is something much more transcendent.
And that's what we spoke about before,
that the purpose of life is to worship
Allah in the different avenues that he has
put in front of you with the faculties
that He has given
you. And for you as a young man,
for you as a son, for you as
a brother, as a father, grandfather,
it's very important that you play your part
in contributing
to society.
That's what we're gonna talk about inshallah, but
I cannot do it except with the help
of Allah
and my man to my right, Yahya Thal,
alhamdulillah
Hamdulillah.
Mechanical engineer and his last
introspective
questions
for himself to learn
about the subject matter of contribution particular.
And who are we gonna talk about it
today in the Iman cave? We have none
other but the Qasmi brothers. We have brother
Kamran Qasmi.
And we have Brother Amen. Amen Qasmi. And
we have Brother
Amen Qasmi.
Will come with a souvenir that coincides
with the message, the theme of what we're
going to talk about
tonight.
So they have
a souvenir that they you're gonna leave here.
Right? Or not? I'm not gonna leave here.
Okay. So what is this? What is this?
Tell us. So these are our badges of
honor.
This
is our inmate
identification card that we received from the Collin
County Jail. Oh. Oh, sorry. You said it
very quickly. You can't just throw it. I'm
sorry. You got you received it from the
what? The Collin County Detention Facility, the McKinney
Jail, after we were arrested on May 1st,
for protesting for Palestine. Okay. Okay. Stop there.
So
you're currently so that's not a school ID.
That's not a school ID. Not
Let me see. Let me check it out.
Okay. Let me see here. Show me show
you guys. It almost Yeah, Sheldon. Looks like
the call it like the call it So
it's a this a this is a mugshot.
Yeah. One brother's smiling and one brother is
not.
Okay?
This is interesting. It's a mugshot, in other
words. Alhamdulillah, they said it's a souvenir
because it is
a memory
and I think it's a good memory, to
be honest, as he called it a badge
of honor.
It is a badge of honor. We're going
to talk about the protests that happened on
May 1st at the University
of Texas Dallas. Are you currently students at
UTD? We're alumni. Alumni. So there was a
protest at University of Texas Dallas on May
1,
2024 in protesting for our brothers and sisters
in Gaza for numerous reasons, very organized,
I was there. And then I I when
I arrived there, I was told that it
was moved to the McKinney Detention Center in
which they were in. We were outside,
protesting. We're going to talk about that, Insha'Allah.
But firstly, let's just get a brief background
of you beautiful brothers.
So where were you where are you from?
Where did you were you born? Where did
you grow up? We were born in Portland,
Oregon. Yeah. Our heritage, you know, our family's
from India.
We grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, you
know, so that's where we lived most of
our lives. That's where we had our youth,
our childhood. That's where we grew up.
That's where we had, you know, our, I
think our major growth moments in life.
And then, you know, we came to Dallas
when I was,
what was that, like around 12, 13 ish?
Okay. Or younger? I was 12, 13. 13.
I was 10 maybe. And then, yeah, we've
been here since in Dallas. Alhamdulillah.
What
is your probably most fond memory
of Saint Louis?
For me personally, like, I went to this
preschool, Hamilton Preschool. Okay.
And the teachers there used to put like
these marble type gems in the mulch
of the playground. Okay. And keep in mind,
I'm like the only brown kid at this
school, you know? And so I'm like I'm
not no one's playing with me. So what
I used to do is like I used
to like feel like I'm a treasure hunter
and look for, like, these gems in the
in the soil. Mhmm. And the reason why
I think it's such a fond memory because
I feel like that type of, like, looking
for treasure has kind of translated in other
areas of my life. Right? Okay. Whether it
be, like, talking to another person, like, finding
the gem there, or, like, like, seeing how
I can make an impact in a certain
community or something like that. There's always gems
all around us. We just have to like
take some time and be patient, you know,
dig it out. You have a you had
an impactful
teacher,
mentor.
You mind telling us about him? So this
was actually like our gateway to Islam in
a sense. Okay. Right?
Where, you know, the first, I would say
not sure about you, but I would say
he was the first one that kind of
lit the fire
for the Quran and me. Right? Okay. The
first one who believed in me in terms
of, like, you know,
because because he taught me the the Al
Qaida, and then he taught me, you know,
the learning the basics, you know, Arabic, and
then learning,
learning the Quran itself. But really, you know,
looking back at it, it's the story that
he had that was so inspiring. Mhmm. And
the reason where where he was the first
person to inspire this light of Islam in
us. Mhmm.
And then he was also the first person
to kind of re trigger it later on
in our life. Alright. This is your Quran
teacher. Yes. So that's how is basically the
book of learning how to recite the letters
Yeah. Of the Quran. Recite Arabic. Read Arabic
and recite it. So, he was the introductory,
the gateway to like us, you know, getting
into learning the Quran.
And his story is beautiful. Like, his story
is, you know, he was a director of
engineer in Iraq.
Okay. And in Iraq, this is, you know,
during the time of the America Iraq war
that's happening.
He is trying to flee with his family
outside of Iraq. Right?
And at the time, he has 4 kids.
Right? I believe
3 of them daughters and then one boy.
As he's fleeing, he's trying to flee, he
goes into a territory of land where he's
not supposed to. Right? And keep in mind,
during the during the times, there's a sandstorm
going on. So he he's kinda misdirectioned. You
know, he doesn't know where he's going. And
he ends up in a territory of land
where he shouldn't be. You know?
And he's lost. And in front of him,
he doesn't see, but there's, like, an army
of US soldiers.
And the US show the soldiers are yelling
at him, and he is he can't hear
them. Right? He's like, oh, I don't know
what to do. And he's like and he
puts his hand out, and he's waving, like,
you know, I'm trying to I'm just lost.
I'm just lost. I'm I'm just lost.
The army, they see this. The soldiers, they
see this, and they get worried. Right?
And, you know, without,
you know, any probable cause, without any reason,
they start they start firing. Oh, yeah. They
start firing crazy. And they start firing now
with just gun, with tanks.
So how Tanks hitting his car. And this
is him, his wife, Ulfran, is there,
as well as his 4 kids. He gets
shot in his legs, you know, and we'll
talk about that, you know, in a bit.
And
3 of his kids, they die on the
spot. Mhmm. On the spot, they're dead. Right?
And then one of the kid is still
alive. Right? Mhmm.
So after, you know, there's a repeated round
of firing that happens towards the car, What
happens is that, you know, they're taking the
the army officials. They come and they take
them to the field hospital.
And
in the field hospital, you know, they're staying
there for a couple of days. They kind
of they help him with his legs. They
attached his legs together. They amputate his legs.
But then, there comes a point in time
where,
in the field hospital, there's not enough beds.
Because there's wounded soldiers
that need a place to rest, and there
weren't enough beds for them.
So they tell him that, can you get
off the beds and go to an area
where where he could just be sitting down?
So they take him off the bed Mhmm.
And they put him in front of, you
know, this this campsite
while, you know, they're trying to arrange another
living area for him.
While, you know, these wounded soldiers take up
the resting area of where they once were.
Over there, he had the only person that
survived among his children was his daughter. And
his daughter was, you know, laying, you know,
close to her. And it was cold outside,
and he I remember him telling us where
the daughter's like, you know, it's cold, like
it's really cold. Right? And like how helpless
he felt as a father where
he couldn't do anything. Mhmm. Like, he couldn't
he didn't even have enough strength in his
hands to, like, touch his his daughter. Like,
like, hug his daughter. And his daughter died
that night. Oh, wow. In his right in
front of right in front of him, his
daughter died, passed away.
You know, after that, you know, eventually, they
take him to a hospital,
and then he gets an opportunity to come
to America.
And they they move him to America and,
you know, Saint Louis, Missouri. That's where we're
living at the time. Mhmm. That's where my
father meets him at our masjid, you know.
How how old were you all when you
all heard this story?
So Saint Louis is not a lot of
Muslims. Okay. You know?
Whenever we're out and about and we wanted
to see a hijabi lady. Like, we're just
walking, and we freak out, like, oh, my
God. No way. You know? Okay. And we
go talk to her, this, that, and she
ends up telling us about,
who is our Quran teacher.
And then,
like, my dad's really moved by this. My
dad is like, we have to do something.
And we start, you know, raising, like, funds
at the masjid to help support because obviously
he has nothing right now. His degree is
invalid here. We meet at the Masjid, then,
like, he comes and my dad's giving him,
you know, some money. Right? His hand flinches
back. And he says, like, look, look. I've
always been the person that gives.
So So forgive me because this is really
hard for me.
And because he's a director of engineering. He's
coming from here, and he has nothing now.
Like, so I wanna look at how, like,
Allah searches things. You know? That's what I'll
Takeaways take took away his children, everything. Everything
that he love.
And he said, like, I'll take this money
because I like like, I need this right
now. But I'm not I want to I
wanna, like, I wanna do stuff.
Let me teach your children Quran.
Mhmm. And that
conversation started the journey of our relationship with
the hamtul. I see. You know, where he
would come over and we would have conversations
and beyond just Quran, you know, teach
he we're coming over to his place. He
actually ended up after teaching us. He taught
another kid in the community and another kid.
He ended up becoming the Quran teacher for
the whole community.
Yeah. He had a very difficult time even
having children in Iraq. He had 4 children
Alhamdulillah. But, you know, in the beginning, like,
he would make a lot he would make
a lot of dua to have children. He's
older now. Right? He's he's, like, in his
fifties, sixties. Right?
And he actually he has a kid. He
has another kid named Mohammed.
Right? And he names him. Zakiriyyah. Yeah. And
I remember reading this about him where one
of the interviewers was like, if you have
a kid, what would you name him? He
said, if he if I have a daughter,
I'll name I'll name her Zaynab
for my eldest daughter that passed away. And
then if I have a son, I'll name
her Muhammad for for my my my son
that passed away.
And, like, Alhamdulillah, look look at the path
of Allah and how Allah has, like, really
curated this person.
And at this old age, he has another
kid named Muhammad.
Right? So we used to call him Hamoudi.
Mhmm.
And Hamoudi would get all the new toys.
There's new PlayStation.
Mhmm. We and we would get kinda like,
father. They're like, yo. What the heck? And
my dad was telling him, like, hey. Listen.
Like, you're gonna pamper the kid. You're gonna
spoil the kid. Mhmm. And he tells my
dad, like, Tanvir, my father, I've lost all
my children.
This kid, I'm gonna give all the love
that I can to. So
you heard about this news, Zoe, while you
were doing your I mean, you knew about
this Yeah. I'd be really proud because we
would ask. Like, it was a CNN special
that like a like a piece that was
on him. Yeah. Right. When did it
hit you?
Mhmm.
Like, okay. Yeah. This happened to him. My
our dad our baba told us he's on
TV,
but when did it hit you? Because you
mentioned that you all moved to Dallas. Yeah.
Okay.
Did it hit you while you were there
with him and you realized this is a
living hero and look at how he's coming
and contributing to this community? So when we
came to Dallas,
like, we completely
we forgot how to read Quran.
We weren't that practicing. How old were you?
You know, middle school, high school. Yeah. Aaron,
you know. Okay. Okay. Like, we're we're in
the whole American system. Right. Yeah. You know?
The biggest distraction that comes at your cottage.
Yeah. And puberty kicks in too. Yeah. It's
like He kicks in
and we had completely forgotten
about everything. So you guys said it reignited.
So my younger brother, he's he's 8 years
younger than me. Someone needs to teach him
Quran.
1st pick in the draft,
You know? He's the guy. So we reached
out to him. He's like, of course, sessions
are happening.
One of the sessions he ends up canceling.
You know? And he called my mom. And
I remember hearing this conversation
where he says, like, hey. Listen. I'm gonna
need to, like, take a break from teaching
your son
because,
because, like, I've been diagnosed with liver cancer,
lung cancer, and brain cancer.
Metastasize. And I'm like I'm like my brain
can't even comprehend what's happening. How long ago
was this? Like, 2021. This is we're in
Dallas now. Right. We've been that Minute, you
know. So there's been
a gap of time where, you know, we
haven't spoken to, you know, our Quran teacher
and, you know, we've kind of moved on
kind of with our lives. Right?
And then it's, like, such an interesting way
how our lives kind of intertwine again. I
think that's where, like,
your kind of world there's, like, moments in
in your life where,
your your your your world kind of shatters
a little bit. Right. Because then you reflect
on the ref you know, like, what this
person has left you. Mhmm. And it becomes
really hard when you realize that,
like, you're the embodiment of someone's sadaqa jariyah.
Like, you are, like, the legacy that somebody
has, you know, invested their time in. And
not even just any legacy, this is the
Quran. Right. You know, this is the most
important thing in the world. And then you
think about like how many times that you
kind of passed by the Quran on your
shelf. Yeah. He gave us the Quran. He
gave us the Quran. Yeah. Can we still
have? Imagine the feeling that we like just
looking at it like yeah. And it's it's
interesting now that you mentioned that. I mean
I I have to say, you know, a
real big shout out to a lot of
the Quran teachers out there
because
some of them it's their living fine, but,
you know, it's it's really, really
you know, when you open the most half
each and every single you open the Quran,
each and every single one of us can
have a photographic memory
of the person that taught us, whether it's
our father or whether it's a person in
the masjid. You know, for me, I have
my own, mashaAllah. I remember when I was
a new Muslim and, you know, he sat
me down and he said, you can learn
this, you know, you can recite better than
me, and he's one of my favorite reciters
till this day. You know, he's from India,
he's from Kerala. Oh, that's cool. You know,
Sheikh Usamuddin, yeah, in Houston. And, you know,
he taught me alif Batah, and every time
I open the Quran, it's like a dua
for him, you know, when I think about
it. Yeah. So this contribution
that he gave to you all
with the loss of his family and then
coming back and, you know, planting a seed
that it seems like once you left to
went left to Dallas You know, we're human.
Yeah. Right? We grow up and, you know,
as you said, we move on. Right?
But then
your brother, your younger brother, Allah used him
to plant a seed in you
to do some future contributions in which we'll
talk about. So
take us through that. I mean, okay. So
when you hear about the cancer, who told
you? And then what was going through your
mind, each one of you? I mean, I
I heard it through the phone. Right? You're
telling my mom it was on speaker. Oh,
it's a So I heard I was, you
know, like, blank.
I don't even know what emotions to feel
right now. And,
like, I remember, like, me and I were
having this conversation afterwards, and it was, like,
it was this moment of, like,
accountability that come to that. You know? I
mean, accountability for me. Because,
like Ayman said, like he left us something
huge
and you reflect like, wow, like I've completely
like let go and moved on this that.
And a lot of it is because, like,
when you're when you're Muslim and you're, you
know, you're in a Muslim household, in a
Muslim family, in a Muslim community,
you're like, other people will take care of
my damn form.
Oh,
But this is like a moment of, like,
woah. Like, I have to take accountability. Like,
Allah's gonna ask me about this.
Mhmm. You know? The question that's on you.
Yeah. Yeah. Allah's gonna like, I've this was
a blessing that I had. So you guys
felt like you were taking,
advantage almost of everything around the community that
you're in. You just neglected everything that was
given to you, and at that moment, you
realized
that your community, which was that choir teacher,
was leaving you. So you felt like I
think it's even more than that. I think
it's also like how would you explain that?
I mean I would say that it's like,
you know, it's
like through the Quran he left a part
of himself, you know, and that part is
really embedded within us. And it's like, you
know, if we don't continue the Quran, if
we don't, you know, continue reading the Quran,
it's like it's kind of like the legacy
that he left has just, like, we're we're
draining it. Yeah. You know? It's like slipping
away. Yeah. You know? Interesting. And why don't
we go back to the Quran before that?
Right? It's because, like, as a man, you
have an ego,
and you want to, like, not go into
areas that affect it negatively.
Interesting. Like, what if I'm gonna open the
Quran, I'm gonna feel like I'm an idiot
because I'm like, Oh, that's me. Yeah. Like,
I don't know anything. Right. Like, somehow, like,
oh my god.
But that was a moment where, like, we
have to, like, address these negative we have
to move that to the side, and we
have to step up. Throughout that whole process,
like, I never heard this man once say,
like, oh my god. Like, why am I
so tested so much?
This man
loses his children,
like, loses his status, his honor, his dignity,
has to start from a whole new country,
from a situation of poverty. Mhmm. And now
he has, like, all of this, and he
has a young kid, Hamoudi. And he's disabled
as well. Right? And he's disabled. So when
he came to the States, he was amputated
with the wind. Yeah. He had a remote
robotic.
Not even robotic. It was, like, foam and
he's still, like I mean, on top of
that, he also got his master's degree
and he was a mechanical engineer. That was
taken away from it. You know? Children taken
away, degree taken away, land taken away,
health. If there was a fact that he's
able to just withstand that and move forward
I mean, you were talking about gems, right?
And I feel like just with your story,
there were so many gems to unpack. Right.
And I think it's kind of funny. It's
kind of like throughout his life, he was
searching through
and finding the gems. And that's important for
a man because especially if he's going to
lead, he's got to know how to fall
down, know how to fall down
and beat it back up.
Right? And it seems like he's gotten back
up in numerous facets of his life.
I mean, even getting back up by naming
like, that name can bring back some memories
that you may not want, but he chose
to name us Muhammad
and Zainab, you know, if that opportunity presented
itself and then to go back to school,
could have easily just given up, so you
don't have to be a prodigy in school,
and Rinca,
but he went ahead and persevere. And that's
very, very important. So
when hearing about the news of his death,
what was that for you? What was there
in your growth as a man? Yeah. I
really
valued his story after he passed away. You
know, I really thought about, you know, the
impact of the Quran, and, like, I really
thought started thinking about these things, you know,
like, priorities you know, what are my priorities?
You know, although, you know, I was I
was younger at the time, I really started,
like, understanding, like,
like, what what had just transpired? Like, what
are these events in my life that's happened?
Why it happened? I think that was the
first time where, you know, it,
it kind of allowed me to, you know,
look at my life in a sense of,
like, Allah has put these people in my
life for a specific reason, you know. And
even right now, the the news of the
passing of the Quran teacher, you know, what
does this mean in this, you know, the
grandeur scheme of things?
That's when we had that, you know, that
that, that light of man, we got to
get back into reading the Quran. We got
to get back on, you know, learning the
things that we've lost. Yeah. Sometimes it's important
that the drive when the drive is strong,
it can
weaken the ego. You know, because I remember
there was a brother, he wanted to learn
Quran, and when I showed him the Quran
classes, a whole bunch of kids
right? I said, this is the problem. And
he just, like he said, okay. So So
every time I walk in there, there's a
big dude,
a whole bunch of kids. He's really
they're
they don't exist.
He he's on a mission.
Right? The drive was too strong for him
to worry about
his ego
and what people would think about him, because
he was on a mission. He wanted to
learn the words of Allah
and I think that, subhanAllah, when seeing the
embodiment of that with the Sheikh, you had
to do some introspection
and say, okay,
what really matters?
And I think his death served as
a catalyst. And I mean, even with your
father,
you know, how your father,
you think of it, he planted the seed
by seeing that potential in him.
And then saying to you all
as, as young boys, we got to do
something. We have to contribute. We have to
give to this, this individual
and who knows your dad probably saw something
in him that, I mean, definitely y'all probably
didn't see
and that and Yamecha said that the Jari
Initiated it. Initiated it. And that's all in,
like you said, the grand scheme
of 'Allahu Akbar' and 'Predestination.' Now when you
look back, I think all of us now
watching
it, looking back at that, don't ever
lose the opportunity
to contribute,
to give.
And with that, I mean, what, what did
that do for you all in your future?
Because I see, you know, that you have
some organizations that you, Yeah. I I appreciate
it. The community has been very kind to
us in terms of, like,
opening its doors and giving us opportunities that
we might have not have or had before.
One of those opportunities is,
something that we worked on was a project
called Nourishment.
Okay.
Essentially,
we
we started from, like, just, you know, taking
food for, like, from places like Jimmy Burgers
and Crescent Moon to, like, food banks, like
Beacon of Light, Montreal Islam.
And that transitioned into,
you know, sitting down with people, like, who
are in, like, these homeless situations, charting them
a path out, you know, helping them get
jobs, which then turned into working with, like,
ICNA Relief and Marouf,
going inside there, teaching students,
about the value of, like, career education and
really helping their trajectory get back on fire.
And these are refugee students or people that
kinda don't have, like Most refugee students, some
are just at risk situations, you know.
But really, like,
delving into that mindset. Like, okay. Consistently, the
mind I have so many blessings. What am
I gonna do with it?
Like, what gaps can I find to address
that? Or what what can I join? I
was part of helping hands for a long
time. We we did, the Theravio program,
mentoring mentoring students,
even at the GEMS Center. Shout out to
the GEM Center.
MashaAllah.
Beautiful, beautiful work. I think it's a gap
that was not been filled, especially
that the contribution to the community
that happened to be Muslims.
Right? And I think it's important angle that
you say, okay, we're contributing to the community,
but we just happen to be Muslim, but
it's everyone's welcome.
And we contribute in different ways that help
the people that are underprivileged or underserved.
And I think the GEM Center over in
West Plano is just a phenomenal, phenomenal effort,
Mosho Allah. I mean, it it it that
contribution gave you an avenue to contribute. A
100%. So it's like contributors contributing,
you know, amongst each other to contribute to
the greater mess.
So it's interesting because you started out with
food
and then moved on to education. Everyone's like,
why is it called nourishment? You guys aren't
serving food now, you know, but like It
was nursing with education. That's why I said
Nourishing is a much more comprehensive, but what
made you what happened
to where you said, let's just go to
these restaurants and get this food and then
transfer it here. Like what made you do
that? Was it a particular event?
And why food and why did you just
start with education?
You know, as as a man growing up,
especially in this individualized society,
the conversation is always like, like, you see
all these other people on the forefront of
things. Like, I wanna be like that guy.
But I'm not that guy. Okay. I don't
feel like I have value. And you and,
like, I think especially
being like Muslim men, you can get very
insecure.
Not everyone's got muscles like this, you know?
Okay.
I think initially it was that insecurity.
Right? Okay. Where, like, I want to I
want to, like, try to address this. One
of the stories that really affected me was
the story of Musa.
Mhmm. Where Musa is this person who is
prophet Musa is this person who is constantly
afraid, constantly insecure.
And
the conversation that he has with with,
with Allah in the cave
is very much like, I want you to
go and conquer this challenge. Like, I'm giving
you this responsibility. And he's, like, I can't
do this. I'm into like, his heart drops.
He makes us to rub his shakli sari,
like, uplift my heart
and and make my brother, you know, a
prophet as well. And,
like, Allah responds,
I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna answer this
du'a for you just like how I answered
this du'a for your mother. Mhmm. And he
goes into detail about, like, every single aspect
of his life that he did not think
actually
related at all. Like, we put you in
the basket, and you grew up, and you
accidentally killed a man.
And then you you you went to this
village. You were there for a little bit,
and then you came here at the exact
time that I wanted you to come. And
throughout this whole time, I was watching you.
Mhmm. As if to say, like, all these
pieces
that happened in your life, however minuscule or,
you know, small that they might have seemed,
they're all for a reason. So, like, when
you look back at your life or at
my life at least, you know, that sense
of insecurity changed into somehow how many people
have a first generation father that went through
such adversity adversity.
How many people have, you know, education? How
many people have, you know, like, the sense
of, like, passion, agency, you know,
who have, like, mentors?
And that kind of converted,
like, okay.
Now what can I do with this? Mhmm.
And let me just find a problem to
solve.
And before, I think, going into, like, okay,
let me just do this on my own,
I started looking at, like, other people are
also already doing this. Helping him play the
beef part in this.
Yeah. Sure. Shake Jesse. I don't know if
you know who he is. He's
the guy. Man. Come on. He's the one.
He believed in me to I told him
in that idea to take medical equipment from
Dallas to hospitals in Kenya or around the
world.
He was, like, after this conversation, he's like,
okay.
So when are you going to Kenya? I'm,
like, what what are you talking about?
Literally, I think 2 months after I told
him that thing, I was on a flight
to Kenya.
And you have mentors and people who are
believing this community, like, just because you made
an intention.
Well, I wanna, I wanna start right there.
So,
and this is very powerful right now, because
you manifested an aspect of your masculinity
with the story of a prophet as your
anchor.
Right?
And you said to yourself, Musa did this,
I'm going to use this as my example,
prophetic
masculinity.
Right? Because of that purpose of having the
ultimate purpose of Allah
being the anchor,
using the stories of the people that you
know he's given the correct message to,
prophethood.
You looked at that and you said, okay.
Musa was, I'm scared. Okay? Musa was scared.
It's okay to be scared.
Musa, as you mentioned, when the the name
that pops to mind is Aloteetirullah,
so because Musa was afraid, but then Allah
said,
yeah, he said We're with you. Yeah, we're
with you. Yeah, man.
Right? And I've created you for me, you
know, he says,
We'll give you another bus, and then he
goes on,
when we reveal to your mother and mention
those things, all those subtleties, you may have
forgotten about it, but I'm using it to
remind me to show you my power.
So that was a it seemed like it
was a catalyst for you to go on
and move on, which leads me to the
next point, is that even though you were
scared,
you still went and did it. Like, Jesse
Sheikh Jassy, my Shaulay is from he graduated
before, it's my Shaulay University of Medina from
our
our predecessors, my Shaulay, may Allah bless him
You know, he planted that seed again, and
that's from Allah that brought him there to
tell you that. And you could have just
let that fear overpower you,
right? But you didn't let that fear overpower
you. You used it as, you face everything
and rise. Yeah, fear. You use that as
a means to say, you know what? I
know it's a fear, but I'm going to
continue. I'm going to, I'm going to continue.
I think the other thing is like, we
stand on the shoulders of giants. And
a lot of this is because there's people
who believe in you, and you owe it
to them to take that chance. Whether it's
my parents or Dhamma or my Jesse, you
know. And one thing is very important here.
Many people don't believe that. I think there's
a lack, I mean, a lot of men,
a lot of young guys in our community,
but they don't feel like they have that
in their life.
But it's also because they're not taking that
step forward. There's so much fear and security.
It's blocking them from seeing these giants
all over them. Yeah. But you know what's
deep about these giants. Right?
Now I don't know what capacity, but you
probably met them within Helping Hands. She does
because Helping Hands was showing me a lot
of something in as well.
Helping Hand is a non profit organization.
So it's people contributing their time,
their expertise,
and in that path, in that realm
of contributing time and expertise, Allah put
y'all cross paths,
and he made the decision to say that
to you. Sometimes you've s you probably said
something to someone you don't even realize that
it had a huge impact on that person.
But you did it was just a response.
But it was all within the framework of
you contributing time at a certain event, whether
it's making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, you
know, whatever.
You said that because you initially came to
contribute for something, which puts you in a
particular,
setting to say and to do that. So,
you know, it's beautiful how, you know, when
you look at some of these movies, it
shows like the future at the beginning of
the movie, but then the movie takes you
to the past, which brought them back, which
brings you to that future. So it's beautiful
in seeing that, okay,
these giants, it is allows you to serve
as a catalyst for you to go and
face your fear and go to Kenya. Mhmm.
Right? So you went to Kenya, and then
what what what what happened there? Oh, man.
What a country. It's Hamlet. No show. Beautiful
people. Everyone you know that Hakuna Matata?
They embody that, man. Super laid back, show
people, you know. You have the sense of
sekuna everywhere. No show. Very green. Oh, wow.
And, like, I was able to see
you know, it's interesting because people say, like,
oh, man. Like, did it change you because
you saw poverty? I'm from India. India has
a lot of poverty, you know. I don't
think that was what really changed me. What
really changed me was seeing people
step up in the face of, like,
almost unending obstacles,
like, and be like, I'm gonna work on
solving this problem.
Because I met the whole helping hand team
there. Some of them were my age, some
of them were gunwray at the time, you
know? How old were you? I was, 19.
So 19 years old. Everyone listen, mothers,
please.
19 years old. May Allah bless your mother
and father. 19
years old
and parents let him go to another country
to contribute.
This is definitely a part of what we
call rights of passage.
And this is definitely a huge
element and phase or Marhala
in Arabic of his rights of passage. Basically
rights of passage is a symbol of what
is an event or a ceremony or practice
that
tells them that you are not a boy
anymore. You're a man. So I think this
was a huge element of that continues. I
just want to make that caveat. After that,
I come back to Dallas
and I'm like, I'm ready to take on
the world. You know, like, 18 year old,
like, my head is like, you know, going
crazy.
And, like, I talked to some people and
they're like, relax, you know? How about you
start focusing on your own community first? You
know?
Because Think globally act locally. Think globally act
locally. That's a beautiful thing. Yes. And I
was like, okay. And
we got up with a couple of friends.
I tell I tell them, like, hey, listen.
Like, why not? You know, there's a saying,
like, what if I fall? But but what
if I fly?
You know?
Like, that mindset of, like, hopefulness and optimism
that are really rooted in, like, Islam There
you go. Is, like, now we're, like, embodying
that. So, like, Ivan and I, like, a
couple of friends, we're, like, we're going to
these food banks, and we're taking food. And
we're trying to, like, see and address problems
firsthand. Okay. Like, this is solving this problem.
This is not solving a bigger problem. How
can we pivot? How can we learn? How
can we research?
Alhamdulillah, like, it snowballed into something that I
could never even imagine. You know? Like, people
think, like, oh, I wanna create this huge
organization and this, that. You can never do
that from, like, like that's just about putting
barakah in your intention and things are happening,
connections are happening, and you don't even realize.
And it really humbles you, man. Like it
really does.
You said snowball, see the snow is motion.
So you had to move,
you know, and that's important because sometimes we
get caught up in analysis paralysis
or, you know, with the fear that prohibits
us from moving, but it's depriving us of
those experiences that make us a stronger, better
man. It's beautiful that you brought it up.
One of the main principles that we stuck
to was momentum is auctioned for an idea.
A lot. The moment you stop,
it stops. You know, it ruins everything. So,
like, no matter what you don't, keep shaking,
moving and shaking, you know? Yes. Hold on.
It reminds me of, I'm seeing my procrastination.
I forgot where I heard this, but, you
know, they call this the sofa.
You heard the sofa joke,
joke.
So in Arabic, when you say I'm going
to do something,
you say either or
Right? But then where the procrastinator, where are
they always chilling? Wear a sofa. On the
sofa?
Sofa and him. I will.
That's a we're gonna that's gonna be a
dad joke. I mean, you know, we're just
I got you, Shaikhoma. You just wait. There's
a lot in the fall. Ping pong check,
dad jokes checks. This brings us, I mean,
this is really interesting because I feel like,
man, I'm really I wanna hear about the
story because your souvenirs are that's that's it's
not sofa. That's sevem. You guys chose to
go to, you know, a protest.
And it's just part of your giving giving
to the community without a fix. You went
because of a cause that the community, the
global community at this time needed. So tell
us tell us how that went down. It
would make you just get up and and
and go. The whole week, I mean, all
of us,
was, like, looking at things like,
Columbia's Yeah. The university is on fire. You
know? And it's like, Columbia, MIT, everywhere. And,
like, people just don't care. Yeah. Care now.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's like, they don't
care about the consequences. We're like, we're gonna
stand up. Diplomas being stripped away on the
4th year, like, people putting the process. At
Columbia tells them if you're not gone by
Monday at 2 PM, like, we're gonna start
suspending.
Like, there's a large portion of you that
we're not moving. We're moving. We're moving. We're
moving.
We're moving. We're gonna actually go into the
building. Yeah. You know? Well, it's not. These
things and as a person, you're like, man,
I I wish I would I would be
a part of this. I wish I would
be that type of person. And then the
opportunity comes.
UTD, I'm an alumni. My money is going
to fund,
genocidal companies
that are making the bomb that are being
dropped in Rafa right now. FYI is probably
a part of your tuition goes to society.
That so that's actual
Straight up. So the main campaign was divestment,
and we're like, we're not gonna we're not
gonna take part from this. Next thing you
know, we're at EKD Gaza Liberation Plaza. Remember
we came up with that name? Beautiful. That's
what we called the Encampment. Yeah.
But, so we set up there and Sheikh
Omar Suleiman comes.
And,
he's he leads Fajr. Mhmm. And it's, he
recites,
he recites Surah Doha. Or actually, you know
what he's talking about afterwards?
It's the the light from the sun is,
like, it's going from dark to light. Right.
You know? And he's saying, like, did you
see that? Like, afterwards, he's like, that shows,
like, kind of what we're trying to go
for here.
And he's talking about, like, do you see
do you hear the birds chirping?
And we're like, woah. Now now we do,
you know?
And he said, everything right now is in
harmony.
Even this, what you're doing, is part of
that harmony. You know, you're standing this is
Islamic. This is this is what we're here
to do.
And like this emphasis on your part of
this bigger plan that Allah has,
really like from the else fajr.
That's what we needed, you know. We're like,
okay, now we're in it, you know. We're
here for a good cause, feasibility la, you
know.
And like, professors are coming, they're reading, like,
how was your experience over there? Yeah, so,
so, so for me what happened is that,
you know, I come in later, you know,
I see it, you know, I'm like man,
there's not that many people here, right? But
then, you know, like as the day goes,
it's like subhanallah. It's like, it's like the
community has come alive.
It's like, there's it's a small encampment, right,
on a block in UTD.
And by midday, there's like every area of
the block is filled with the person. Every
area.
And then, you know,
we're waiting for a response. Keep that in
mind. Right? So for the past 6 months,
UTT has been doing these active protests,
that, you know, are asking, you know, the
agronomisty
to divest from these weapon manufacturing companies that
systematically are, you know, they're they're in our
backyards. Like, a lot of them in Garland,
you know, that are creating these products that
are sending
are are sent overseas.
So we're just waiting. And I'm at I'm
at a point where, like, you know, I'm
like, nothing's gonna happen. You know, I don't
know, you know, the point of these type
of stuff. Right?
And all of a sudden, you know, there's,
you know, there's a girl that comes up
with, like, a letter. You know, this is
the first sort of interaction that we've gotten.
And she's reading the letter and she's like,
the letter is basically saying that, you know,
if you guys don't leave, we're gonna call,
you know, we're gonna call forces. Mhmm. Right?
And this is the first sort of kind
of communication
that we've gotten. So, like, what as she's
reading it, there's people surrounding us, you know,
surrounding her.
And at the end of it, she's like,
but you know what this letter doesn't send?
It doesn't say anything
about the genocide that's happening in Gaza. And
after she said that,
everyone went crazy.
Crazy. And then after that,
within 10 minutes, it's like
it's like at that point, it's like a
movie, you know? It's like, you know, the
dead as we see the state troopers pull
up. 5 police departments, by the way. 5
police departments. There's Allen Police Department. There's Dallas,
there's the the Dallas Police Department. There's, the
Collin County Police Department.
Sheriff's Department, there's the sheriff's department, there's the,
state troopers.
And they're like, we're in a position where
they're coming down towards us, right? And it's
like all of a sudden things just become
real. All of a sudden, the flip of
a switch.
And Kamran, I like, Kamran is like a
great older brother, he's like, makes a decision,
he's like, you know what? I'm staying.
No matter what I'm staying.
I actually I think I was the last
person to join this the so what they
did was that the people that were like,
you know, that decided at the moment that,
you know what, I'm gonna stand for what
I believe and I'm gonna sit down.' And
they created a circle in the middle of
the encampment. They're like, you know what? They
can take us, but we're not leaving. You
know?
I was probably the last person to join.
And the reason why was because I was
so worried about my job. Like, I was
like, man, I can't work tomorrow. This is
a Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday, I haven't worked.
You know, you make these duas that are
like, man, I wish I can be part
of something. You know, I wish, like, I
could do more than just, like, you know,
give money, donate. Right? And then Allah just
gives you an opportunity to write that. That's
right. You know, one of the things Kamran
tells me, right, that I think
that Kamran tells me, right, that I think
about a lot is that, like, when we
have anxiety and I'm not having a lot
of anxiety in this moment, but when we
have anxiety, that's like Allah's way of telling
us that this is where you lack the
local.
Right? Trust. Yeah. Trust. Right? And, like, I've
been making du'a of, like this is, like,
after Matt thinking about it. At the moment,
it was, like, everything was, like, a blur.
So you were slowly folding, but then you
were coming to your senses. Yeah. I was,
like, it was so, like, it was so
much. Like, I have I haven't even like
even right now unpacked everything that happened. But
like you make these duas of like, you
are increasingly
delakkuk and that you're given an opportunity right
there.
Are you gonna take it? You know? And
the last moment I was like, you know,
I throw my watch, my Apple Watch and
throw it, and my phone and give it
to somebody and I join the circle. So
they after that, you know, they take us
and they chain us. Like, we're chained from
our from our legs, from our waist Yeah.
Shackled, yeah, to our hands. So we're shackled
in 3 different areas. And everyone, like, recording,
everyone's, like, you know,
what's your name? You know, we're gonna get
you out of here. Like, they'll give they're
supporting us. Then they put us in these,
you know, paddy wagons. Paddy wagons. Right? I
think it is. I always they mess
up the name. And these these paddy wagons
are extremely hot, right? It's got oven? Yeah,
like an oven.
And then they take us to the Columbia
County Detention Center. This is 7 ish and
it's getting close to Mount Berrien. Right.
And you know, we're told that the protesters
from UTT, they've come here. Yes. And we're
like so we're at that moment, we're like
crazy. This just happened. There's and they said
there's a 100 people outside. Yeah. Right?
And this is like
the the the effect of knowing your oombas
behind you. So one of the people in,
you know, that that were arrested, they were
like
to to,
the the the police,
they were like, yeah, I have I haven't
prayed yet. It's us our time and I
haven't prayed yet. Right?
And then the guard is like he's confused.
He's like, you know, I've never had glasses
before. You're in, like, right gear inside the
jail. Like masked up, helmets. Right. I'm like,
woah. Like This woah, like, I'm like, you
know, man, we're like worried and this person's
like, you know what?
I don't care what it is, you know?
I don't have to do Asad, you know?
I got, I got, you know, I got
bigger things, you know? I have a relationship
with Allah that I wanna I don't wanna
put on like, I don't wanna jeopardize.
James' guard is, like, all worried and all
that. And he's like, you know, he talks
to his friend and he asks, you know,
should we let him, you know, whatever.
And they're like, you know what? Like, what
can they even say? There's 100 protesters outside.
And they're like, you know You can hear
them. That's a moment. You can hear them.
So we could hear them, when we were
leaving out. When we were leaving out, like,
while walking out, we heard, like, literally, like,
the jail was shaking. And, like, so we
were we were zip tied. So they took
our shackles off and then gave us a
zip tie, and we were doing wudu. So
they took our house and then do it.
Okay. And, yeah, and then there we were
like, we were you were we were praying
with our hands zip tied. But then, you
know, you know, they take us to, you
know, the holding cell and we see these
inmates coming in. And the inmates,
they they saw the protesters
as they're coming into jail. And, you know,
they see it in on TV too. Some
of the inmates inside, they're seeing it on
TV.
And, like, subhanAllah, like, you see these relationships
that we've built inside of jail. And it's
so, so beautiful.
For one of them, you know,
we call him Goku because his hair is
like super cool. Go ahead.
And he comes up and he was like,
you know, before I see you guys, you
know, how like how unified you guys are,
you know, and I want to be like
you guys, right?
And he talks about how, you
know, like for me, it's so hard to
get out of jail because
like, it's not even like I try to
do bad. Like I'm just surrounded by like,
I just, I I just end up here
because I'm surrounded by, like, bad influence.
Yeah. And that really, like, makes us reflect
on, like, look at the amount of, like,
again, like, amount of blessing we have in
terms of, like, we are surrounded by the,
you know, best of Muslims, the best of
communities, you know, the best of Muhammad's scholarship,
you know, like it's so, like the the
difference is so vast. What's fascinating is that
all it took was one look. Mhmm. That
in me, it took him one look
to what we have as every day. Yeah.
To just sit down and say, I wish
I had that. I want to be part
of this. How long was that? I think
it was 24 hours, Joel. And so you're
hearing, I guess,
what took place to where you were let
out? I mean, what, what happened?
The first arraignment session was in the morning
and, but they were trying their best to
wake up a judge to get us out
that night. Really? Yes. Yes. So we were
like, you know, we were pretty confident. And
then not only that, we had attorneys come
in checking up us checking checking, you know.
So the pressure was productive.
Yeah. The pressure from the protest was productive
because they were trying to get the judge
to hurt and get you guys out. I'm
not even joking. They were running. Like, they
were like, we gotta get you guys out.
Really? Especially in the morning, they were like,
me and Moose and Anja, we were gonna
wait for everyone else to get out. And
they're like, man, no. We need this this
person. So what was the final verdict at
the very end? How because some people eventually
got let out. I saw the news. Everyone
was just released at some point, but I'm
sure
it wasn't like that for everyone. So So
so, basically, there's 2 types of bond. Right?
Pure bond basically means that you don't have
to pay anything. You can just leave. Right?
And then there's something called post bond, meaning,
like, you can't leave until you pay the
bond.
So what happened was that, you know, we
all all of us, we had our arraignment
session in the morning. So we we we
wake up. We have our arraignment session.
And then I think
most of us get a PR bond, but
some of us don't get a PR bond.
Some of us got a post bond. And
the reason for this distinction was because,
and people say this is what our lawyer
said was it could be because UTD talked
to the judge and they basically said that
if anybody refuses
to speak or says, like, I plead the
5th friend questions, give them a postponement to
make it harder for them, You know? They
got out later. So they got out later.
So most of us got a PR bond,
so we just left right away. I think
we we after the arraignment,
we we got our paper, we left. Some
people, it was a little bit harder where
they got to postpone. And another thing that
I wanna add to that is that, you
know, on top of like, you know, these
supporters and these lawyers,
there was also they also were like, we'll
pay for all your bonds with everything.
We had like a nala of sukoon.
So this is, Masha'Allah. What did you call
it? A badge of honor.
The badge of honor.
This is a sign
their contribution
of their time. It's upon their efforts,
and their strength, ultimately, because, you know, they
stood up for something that they believed in.
And I think it's very important for us
as, as men and as particularly young men,
you know, particularly those that are in college,
when you're saying that, you know, it took
the, it took, you know, the brother in
Mashallah to stand up and to say something
and like Mashallah,
you originally came on and, and seeing how
that left an effect. And now the way
that you're speaking, hearing and speaking with passion,
you can imagine if that fear could have
held you back from working. You know, are
you working now? Yeah. Still working. Yeah. And
you're still working? Still working.
Right. So subhanAllah because you stood up for
something
that is really understanding that Allah is a
razah, right? That Allah is the ultimate provider
and that spirit of contribution
that I think your father
planted that seed
and assisting someone to help that seed grow
to where you use it as a memory
in a time of need when coming back
to, you know, to Dallas,
all of that, the contribution of you going
to Helping Hand,
contributing over in Kenya, then to come back
and then to contribute with nourishment.
And then another
organization would, you know, Jim, all of this
contribution
is very, very, very important. And particularly of
the man, when it comes to provision, you
know, provision, we think of always of, of
a financial provision. I provide for my family.
No, but it's providing an infrastructure
for people to function.
And that is a level of contribution as
well. So anytime you see this and the,
and the other individuals that were there in
McKinney,
you probably have your you know, badge of
honor as well. Let this be a sign
of Allah Subha Dua's blessing
and the creator using you as a means
to leave a legacy from contribution that you
have given as well. May Allah reward
all of you for tuning in. May Allah
bless,
brother, come on.
And always, our student,
for coming in. And please leave a comment
for any contribution, anyone that has contributed something
that is good to you, that has left
a legacy, or any contribution For
tuning
for tuning in to the Imancave and stay
tuned for our next one coming up inshallah.
Assalamu alaikum.
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