The Prison Tapes #01 – Why I Went to Prison

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu, welcome to the rebirth of the reflections podcast. This is, I believe, Episode 17.

With this rebirth, I'm going to come full circle hopefully and start going forward toward the president sha Allah who to Anna, because you know, so far I've talked about, you know, my childhood, some of the trauma that I had growing up with my mother, with my stepmother, and my grandmother, etc, I talked about all those things, and some of the reasons why I am the way that I am and do the things that I do, and address issues and situations that I that I decided to address. The reason why I do it is because it has some personal connection to me some personal like when I when I designed my talks and things of nature, I want them to be about things that I personally can resonate with,

because you know, what comes from the heart goes to the heart. So I'm trying to be as heartfelt as I can Jolo to

today

on this episode, and this is something that you know, I've I've I've held for a long time, simply because I did not feel it had any, any value to what I was trying to do at the moment. This is one thing that that I've always tried to do in all of the years that I've been giving talks and our motivational lectures, because that's, that's the only things that I do, I'm not qualified for anything else. I try to tell other people about Islam, tell other Muslims about Islam and how to try to you know, build a relationship with themselves or created their Deen motivate people. And that's, that's the end of it.

I've always tried to make sure that if I use something from my personal life that it has, it has some intrinsic intrinsic value to that conversation, it adds to it. And this has been a part of my life that I have not felt has added that value up until now.

And also one of my earliest teachers, when I first started to get involved in our and started doing any public talking, he told me said, you know, just leave these parts of your past, just just leave them out there. They're not

they're not privy to the conversation at the moment, and they don't add value, as well as I have come to learn this, this advice, the hardest way he said, you know, Muslims have a tendency to prejudge someone, especially when they're leading off with, you know, I came from this lifestyle, that lifestyle and that lifestyle, you know, leave it off, you know, state the fact you were a Christian, you know, who left Christianity ended up in the streets for a while, ended up coming to Islam and hamdulillah that's changed your life and, and make that the basis of your dour. So I've left all of that out until you know this, this past couple of years where I've started to be more

upfront about who I am number one to free myself, you know, to free myself from that, that that that box that you get put in as a public speaker, because one of the things that happens as a public speaker is the only things you know you share about your life are the things you choose to share you you choose to talk about certain things and post them on social media and people post your lectures and, and they end up thinking that those small snippets, because because what that is at any moment, you know, a lecture or a post on social media, it's it's such a small fragment of a person's life that they're choosing to share. And if you take those small fragments and create an image of

someone, sometimes you set, you know, super unrealistic standards of a human, of a person. And that can also become very burdensome on them, you know, to feel like, I've been put in this position that now I need to try to try my best to live up to that, and then always feeling like you're not able to do so always feeling like, you know, hypocrisy is there. Because you know, this is not who you are. So, you know, to free myself from a little bit of that, you know, over the past couple of years, I've started to open up more about my life, more about my childhood, more about the trauma that I've gone through more about the mental, you know, health battles that I've encountered along the way in,

in an attempt to try to help others.

Now today, we are going to talk about something

that I that I have not ever mentioned, up until now. And and that is where my story

leaves off what I talked about how the Bible led me to Islam, where that story ends with me accepting Islam and the winter of 1998 and boom, you know, done and dusted. I'm going to pick up right there. I'm going to pick up right there. And this will be over the next few episodes in sha Allah. Because after accepting Islam in in December of 1998

I was actually waiting to go to court for the young man that I beat up at the payphone

Which I talk about in my story about how the Bible led me to Islam, if you've missed that, had to go back and catch that. But, you know, I had an incident where, in my thugged out phase of leaving Christianity and before coming to Islam, you know, when I was, you know, thought I was the hottest thing walking, as far as you know, I had earned a black belt at the point I was very angry child, I was hanging out with the cool kids, you know, the in group at my high school, etc.

I got into a lot of issues. And one of them was, there was a young man at a payphone. And it was very late at night. And this was out, I think in like, you know, the country of where I'm from, I think those are like Pickens or easily or something like that. We I needed to make an immediate phone call. And the only way you could do so was it a payphone. There was no cell phones, no way to interact, couldn't text him, couldn't tweet him couldn't dm them. You had to go to actual physical phone and call them back. So I went to a payphone and it was the only one around. And they're just so happened to be a young man, they're probably you know, not far off from my age. And I asked him

to get off the phone. And because I really need to make emergency call. And I was not in the right mind frame.

I was possibly a little bit intoxicated from something. And I was angry. I had a black belt in martial arts, these types of combinations, that angry young man who has martial arts training, who is not in his right frame of mind. It's it's just a recipe for disaster. And I accept full responsibility, of course, I mean, it is we things that we do. But he decided not to get off the payphone. And I said, Do Look, I need to get on this phone now. And the way I remember it, to the best of my memory is he gave me some attitude. And when he gave me some attitude, something in me just went and just snapped. And I got into a fight with him. And you know, I had three friends in

the car with me, they all jumped out of the car and jumped in. And

the young man ended up having to go to the hospital, he was hurt.

And the next morning, the next morning after that, they had found my friends. And they had went to them before they came to me and questioned them about this. And they all they all pointed to me said it was my fault. He started it bla bla bla, and the police ended up at my door the next afternoon, and they arrested me. And I was I was charged.

And the charges were very serious, very serious charges. And I was awaiting court, they let me go. Let me go home to my grandmother. And when I accepted Islam in 1988, I was waiting to go to court for that. So in February, in February, I had my court hearing and and I took a plea deal because initially what they wanted, because it was was a very severe charge. They wanted 20 years in prison. And with my lawyer, but hamdulillah I was able to make a plea deal in a negotiation to drop that charge to assault battery of high and a high and aggravated nature. So I'm better hi and I read nature I think is one step below attempted murder.

So they dropped it down to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, which which probably describes it quite well. And then I accepted a plea deal of seven years in prison that was then suspended to five years in prison. And the other two years would be served on probation. So I was sentenced to five years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

even talking about this now I've only I've only shared this with a few close people in my life like people who have been really close to me know this, about me and even talking about it now. Like I'm going to tell you by the end, you know, like I have no like there's no shame in this per se but it's it's just a very hard time of my life to to really talk about because it was such a pivotal time. And it was it was it was such a monumental event in the history of my life.

So it's crazy.

But I was sentenced to five years in the Southland department corrections was immediately taken into custody and began serving what would end up being three years and close to nine months, three years, eight months, three years, nine months in prison from the beginning of 1999 until the end of 2002 to the end of 2002. So my life changed. Here I am. I'm 18 going on 19 years old. I adjusted accepted Islam a couple of months before I was trying to change my life. You know, I hadn't even you know properly learn how to pray by them because there was no regular new Muslim classes at the masjid. I was trying to learn everything on my own with what limited resources I had at the time. You know,

when I'm

Hoping that I'm doing the right thing. Even I remember even going to court that day, you know, making, do I because that was all I knew how to do at the moment, I can do all law, you know, like, I've given my life to you, you know, give my life back to me. And, and when I was sentenced to five years in prison, I knew I was going to prison. I mean, it could have been a lot worse. 20. But even then, when I'm going to prison, I'm like, you know, there's that part of me this, like, you know, you, you accepted Islam trying to do the right thing, and it still doesn't work out really well, you still about to spend the next five years of your life in prison.

So it was a test, it was a serious test and not realizing that I would look now at my age, you know, four to one, I would look back and realize that a lot did enter my doors that day, in that courtroom. He gave me my life back.

At 18 years old, I was put on a bus from Greenville, and put on a state prison bus driven five hours across South Carolina to ridgedale. ridgedale is about as far away from my hometown of Greenville that you can get. It was all the way down in the south of the state. It was near Charleston. And there's a big division within the prison community between upstate South Carolina, like the Columbia area, which is the mid state and the south of South Carolina, which is like Charleston and all of that. It was a very territorial. So I was sent into enemy territory is a guy from from the Upstate, down to ridgedale to a level two facility. Because of the nature of my crime, it was it was violent

crime, and started my sentence. I remember walking into prison on that first day, like just I was just in shock. I was shell shocked. That's the best way I can put it shellshocked.

You know, here I am. Now I'm in a prison with people who are convicted of murder people who are serving life sentences. You know, people convicted all kinds of violent crimes because it was where a lot of violent crimes went. In that level two was a new facility. And and I was thrown in one of the dorms. And here I am, not knowing what is it, what am I going to do with my life now, like, that's it like this is this is rock bottom, I'm sitting in prison, there there a door that shut behind me and I can't open it, I can't leave this small cell, this is where I am, this is where I'm going to eat. This is where I'm going to sleep. This is where I'm going to use the bathroom. This is

where I'm going to, you know, have to do everything for the next five years of my life.

And I'm conflicted about you know, faith and and and praying and like what like, what do I do here? Like, as a Muslim? What, what am I going to do here? Because I didn't know anything about prison, and 18. And the only thing I didn't know that there was such a strong Muslim community in prison

that I would come to, you know, integrate with with a handler, but I had no idea about any of this. So I was talking to my roommate, when I first got in was another white guy. And we just started talking, you know, and he asked me, you know, are you religious, because he wanted to give me a Bible. And the only book I had at that time, I had a quote on a Yusuf Ali Translation of the Quran, only the translation that was given to me in county while I was waiting to be transferred to prison, that that's it. That's all I had. And I was reading. And he said, Are you religious? I said, Yeah, I'm a Muslim. And he was like, What do you mean, you're a Muslim, and I was a young, I'm a Muslim,

he's like, bro, you can't be Muslim in here, you're white, you need to go, you know, if you wanted to go hang out with the Christians hang out with ariens hang out with your own people. Because, you know, Muslims is kind of like a black thing in here. So immediately first gave me a little bit of like, what, you know, what have I gotten myself into, but then at the back of my head, I'm like that I just accepted Islam, in in Greenville. And the majority of Muslims were not African Americans. They were, they were Asians. And there was, you know, a couple of brothers from Africa and a couple African American brothers, but it wasn't. So I kind of knew it in a sense, but right now I'm in

prison, the rules could be completely different. So I decided to do what I've always kind of invest at in my life and, and I just decided to start being observant. So when we get to go out in the daytime, because you go out in the day in the day room, some you know, you get a job eventually. So people are coming and going as controlled movement on a level to prison, which means that you know, you can only move from one place to another when you're allowed to do so and you have to go boom, boom. He has noticed hanging around. Every dorm had his own little separate yard. Were they able to go out in during certain hours of the day. So I just, I just kind of posted up in a corner, watching

you know, some TV and just observing what's going on around me because this is a whole new world for me. I mean, I'm, I'm a kid from Greenville, South Carolina, who's now in level two

prison with violent offenders and on the complete other side of the state. And I had never really gone anywhere as far as I'd ever gone before that was to it like to Atlanta, and to Myrtle Beach like that was it. So I started observing. And I even saw some, you know, some, some guys walking around with with prayer rugs, and I knew what a prayer would look like, because I had been given one with a prayer rug over their shoulder, because that's the one thing one of the things that Muslim prisoners were allowed to have that no one else was allowed to have, they're allowed to have their Sujata they're allowed to have their prayer rug. And a lot of brothers walk around with it in prison

on their shoulder, just you know, let everybody know, I'm a Muslim, because I would quickly come to find out that there are a few groups of people in the prison system that you just don't really mess with. And one of those is the Muslim community. You don't mess with the Muslim community, there is a very strong tight bond of brotherhood, that if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us, the same but like the aliens and some others, but the Muslims, you just don't mess with them. So brothers will walk around with that just you know, kind of letting you know. And it's almost like, you know, I represent I represent my Deen, I'm a Muslim. So I saw that, but they were all African

American brothers. There was no other white Muslims

in the community at the time.

So

I sat around, I watched and you know, I did my own thing. And then one day,

I was sitting out in the prison yard, getting some sun, I was on the yard because in the yard, there was a handball court. There's a basketball court, a little workout area and a little small tractor walk around in circles and people used to sit along the wall. So I was sitting on the long the wall, reading the Koran that I had, and

a guy came in sat next to me and he said, How you doing, brother? I see you reading. I see you reading the Quran, are you interested in slam that would come to find out would be the Imam of the community of the time and we're in the same dorm, his name is Abdul Hadi.

He came in he asked me Are you interested in you know, in Islam, and that's when I told him I said, You know, I actually became a Muslim

a couple months ago, on the streets, and he was shocked. He was like, so you're a Muslim? I said, Yeah. He said that you became a Muslim before you came to prison, because the majority of

Muslim inmates became Muslim in prison. Some of them for the right reasons, some of them for protection, but they became in there. I said yes, but it was just literally it was literally like three months ago. And he was like, you know, Sarah Marie can brother You know, it's it's a pleasure to meet you. He was genuinely excited and happy to meet me. And he was like, you know, I'm the mom of Daddy, you know, what do you know about the religion and I start explaining to him that I didn't know how to pray yet. You know, I the only thing I had was this English Koran. I know how to make do I hadn't even learned how to you know, memorize fatty like, I knew nothing next to nothing. And he

was like, Don't worry, brother, I got you. So after that day, you know, he started getting with me because it was two rec rooms. It was too small open rooms, one on each side of the dorms because they faced each other in like longhole there was two rooms one of them the Christians used to go to a lot and do their little, you know, sermons and talk to each other and the other one the Muslims used as kind of like for that dorm, a prayer room slash the brothers can hang out room. So he started meeting me every day after work in that room and started to teach me the deen of Allah subhanho wa Taala Anna, Mashallah. The brother had been in prison for a long time by then he had

studied a lot by the end he even earned a bachelor's degree, you know, via correspondence course, that he had been doing for a few years Mashallah the brother was, knew what he was doing. And he was just a genuinely beautiful brother, may Allah grant him goodness in his life in the next and if you ever get a chance to watch this, but if you've ever been out and you know who I'm talking about, reach out to a brother May Allah bless you.

He started off by giving me a book or he taught me how to pray the proper way and then he gave me the book by shall abandon him Allah Allah pray, as you've seen me pray the description of the prophets prayer started to teach me have Fatiha on Friday, you know, he took me to Juma and, you know, introduced me to the community, you know, I kind of took my Shahada or kind of all over again, and that's in that scenario. And I started getting introduced to the Muslim community. And I even was able to get a job at the library, you know, when it was when jobs came open, there was a librarian job open, I took it right away, because then I was able to just be around books. Because

one thing I will say is that my, my, my closest companions, during those five years in prison became my books. They became my books like that became something I I dug myself into this brother Abdullah had he given me, you know, loaning me books here and there just gave me this thirst for knowledge to read about, you know, how the Prophet prayed and he gave me the book, the sealed nectar and I read about the Prophet's life. You know, he gave me the book, also aletheia the three you know, the three questions that you'll be questioned that group

Man, Rob buco Medina, one more man.

You know, it just created a thirst of knowledge for me. So from that moment that I started reading, until the moment I left South County Department of Corrections, like you would not see me without a book. No matter what I was doing, I made sure I had a book with me or the you know, hypno Muslim, something to read while waiting because you had to wait and a lot of lines in prison with controlled movement, wait in line for food, wait in line to go out of the door and wait in line to go in the door and wait in line to go over here, walking across the yard single file. Like I just always had a book on me because I could just always be reading, keep reading. And working in the library. I was

able to read all day long, I was around books all day long. And most of my time was just sit behind the desk, you know, just doing mundane task and reading. And I was able because I was the library and I was able to have more than 10 books because they had a limit on how many books you could have in your dorm in your, in your cell. And that was 10. But because I worked in library, I could have more than 10 so I took advantage of that. And my roommates from then on out realized that this guy has books stacked on the floor, he has books in his locker, he has books above a handler after after that I would end up you know, getting a Muslim roommate we made the man made because the Imams also

have a lot of pool in the prison because they kind of control one of the most powerful communities with inside the prison system. So he was able to get me moved into a roommate with a Muslim who Mashallah was another very knowledgeable rhythm. May Allah bless him who had been around for a very long time, and thus begin my my rebirth. That That, to me, that's why I will never, ever, ever be ashamed of spending those five those five years in prison well, three, three years and eight months, three years, nine months. I'll never be ashamed of that because of the simple fact that it made me who I am. Like it gave me the foundations to be able to have the love for the deen that I have now

and allowed me to be able to do all of the things that I've I've done in my life when it comes to the Dow because it's cemented in me firm faith like literally three years and eight months spent in books three years and eight months of everyday all day long, studying, reading, analyzing, asking questions, you know, sending out letters to places like Dora Sadam and, and and there was another head Alcoa in Fairfax, Virginia, we get questions answered, listening to the tapes of the RTM of the time, watching videos, so on and so forth, it It puts me in a position that when when I when I left prison, the things that I would encounter as soon as I left prison didn't shake me, didn't shake my

faith, it didn't shake it well, hamdulillah I stayed firm and was able to do what I've done up until this day. So it was a unique training for me that I don't know, if I would have ever had access to that if I had not ended up in prison. So when I say that Allah subhanho wa Taala answered my daughter that day in the courtroom to give me my life back. It's exactly what he did. gave me my life back those that time in prison I I I will look at it as you know, one of the most beautiful times of being a Muslim in my life because it was true Brotherhood in the community. For the most part, there's some issues with what happened later on. We're discussing in either the next episode

or the next.

But other than that, it was mostly tremendous love amongst the brothers they and everybody looked out for each other by took care of each other. You know, it was beautiful. My daily Salawat was on point never missed us at all, never missed as soon in Salah. Never miss you know, salado knew her in those three years and nine months one that when I learned about Salah to her, which is the Salah that you can make after fudger up until the Lord I used to make that every single day. I used to pray a lot of tests be once like once a week, which is another forgotten prayer of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam I used to get up and pray at the amillennial I used to pray with her. Like you

know, in the connection that I had to not only my Deen, but to Allah subhanho wa Taala Rob was was stronger than than I can ever remember it being because even though my body was imprisoned, even though my body was imprisoned, my soul in my mind was free. My soul in my mind was free. That that was the most beautiful thing about it was the body was restricted. It was like being on a fast. When I'm protected from everything from the outside world. I have nothing now but to deal with me and improving myself and changing my life. So even though that body was imprisoned and not being affected by the things that our outside world is saying hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah because my soul

and my mind was set free. My soul in my mind was set free. And that's something that that's it's so precious to me. And for those of you out there

I know there's a lot of brothers who've you know, and sisters who have you know come out of the prison system as Muslims and I know a lot of times they struggle I know a lot of times they struggle to stay on the straight path This is my message that to you that you know that your deen that was your strength there can be your strength now can be a strength now make that your strength now you know there's some brothers that know me you might see this and that we spent time in prison together particularly how we if you see this I'm going to make sure I try to find a way to send this to you are we who is one of my roommates for a very long time Mashallah, may Allah bless the brother and

grant them good in this life in the next and we have spoken over the years we've spoken since he's gotten out

you know Islam is your strength brother you know i mean the same way it was what we held on to to survive the prison system now can be used to survive this other prison system of this dunya it's in you and this is also an advice for those youth out there that so another reason why I decided to be more open about this is because we have a lot of our youth getting involved in craziness You know, I'm seeing it all over the place gun crime here in where I live in Minnesota, in knife crime and in the UK, like our you know, we're losing our youth brothers.

This Thug Life, this Thug Life, ain't it bro. It's not it. True thugs are either in prison, or they did. You know, I mean, and that's not an ending for you, bro. Your Honor. Your Honor is in your religion in your connection to your Creator, not your connection to a postcode or zip code or neighborhood or or a gang or an affiliation because those people don't care about you. And they sure as hell cannot help you on the day when you stand in front of Allah subhanho wa Taala on the Day of Judgment, your gang members your homies your mates, your dude's no man them. They can't help you on the day where you stand in front of Allah subhanho wa Taala your rub your rub is right there when

you left him. Turn around go back to your Lord and make things right with Him. He forgives all things the street life in it brother. The street life is not it brother it will eat you up and spit you out. Like you did not exist. This don't you don't love you man. Those homies don't love you, man.

Allah subhanho wa Taala has love for those who believe I know you got that faith in your heart. Come back to Allah subhanho wa Taala do the right thing. Trust me prison. Prison is not is not it is not it family is not hit. It is prison. Even though I will say that I had some beautiful time in there and connecting to my Deen. Don't be that. Find that outside. Trust me if I could find that same thing outside I would have never said I needed to go to prison for but Allah Jalla wa Allah knows best. Don't be that you have this warning for you. You have family who love you. You have friends around you who will help guide you in the right direction. I know what it feels like to you know

feel like you're a you know thugged out and you're gangster and you bad and dude and trust me You're not? You're not when I went to prison and met some real gangsters and some real thugs. I don't want no part of that. Nor do you. So youth are brothers out there. thuggin come back to Allah subhanho wa Taala before it's too late, trust me, take it from me you don't you're not going to survive that a lot of you're not gonna survive that prison life, bro. You're not. So don't put yourself through that. Turn back to Allah subhanho wa Taala before it's too late. And for everybody else, you know,

I know what it's like to be at the bottom. I know what it's like to be imprisoned. When I read the story of Yusuf alayhi salam, and how he was you know, betrayed by his brothers throwing the world and then thrown into prison. I feel that I know what that feels like those tight parts of the poor and we're reading about use of being in prison. I know exactly what it feels like to have your freedom taken away from you completely in chains bound.

When I read about even Tamia Rahim Allah to Allah,

mmm, Ahmed, excuse me, Mr. Mohammed or him, Allah to Allah, and all of the, you know, the great imams who went through prison like and I know what it feels like, I know why that's such a big thing, why that's such a huge thing to have your freedoms taken away from you. So I'm going to use the next couple of episodes to drop some lessons that I've learned while incarcerated while being locked down while having this time to myself. Also some things you know, that happened that could have sent things very south because as I said, you know, most of it was was was beautiful, the connection that I made to Allah subhanho wa Taala was beautiful, the connection I made to

understanding what it's like to be, you know, brothers with another Muslim and have that understanding that even and especially even though that there was one more white brother who came in the community after me, but you know, to be the only the only white brother and to be shown this love by brothers, Mashallah. It was just, it taught me so many things.

And all of that went very well, until, until the day I almost lost my life in prison. But we'll talk about that on the next episode in sha Allah who time of the day I almost lost my life behind

prison walls. So here we are back the rebirth. This is the new, new setup, I hope you liked the look, we're going to take a new avenue on this, we're trying now to go from the time I left I the time from when I entered it to Islam, up until the present day of how this all came to be, and what lessons we can learn along the way, what reflections I've made along my path, referring things back to my,

my past etc. And for those of you who watch my regular routine, YouTube videos and streams, you'll know that, you know, one of my goals now is to be here for every Muslim, to be here not just to preach to the choir, the people who are already pious, the people who are already doing the right thing that people already, you know, a higher knowledge, you know, my goal is to be here for people like me, who are the average Muslims, you know, the struggling Muslims and Muslim that oppressed Muslims as sinful Muslims, this trying Muslims that I can't make it to the next day Muslims, I need some help Muslims, that's who I am. And that's who I'm going to try to be here for to to to make

inclusivity

disappear when it comes to just preaching to the choir. And to make this content, at least this platform, this space open to everyone open to everyone who is trying to make it because that's all we can do is we can try to make it and I'm going to try to be here to struggle along with every other Muslim who's struggling to make it day to day and and be authentically who I am. But now maybe after seeing this, you'll understand why why I do some of the things I do the way I behave sometimes. You know,

the way I am very blunt about certain things all of this came from spending four years a lot of this game for spending four years in prison and having to really survive in that in that jungle survive in that kind of a war zone survive in that kind of, you know, dog eat dog world that's only the fit survive is that there's certain things that just don't tolerate any more than certain things like Dude, the things that I've seen and been through in my life like no, this you are not this is not going to be the one to shake me this is not going to be the one to break me you're not going to be the one to do that. You know, you know there are certain things I am not going to allow into my

space or to deal with and there's going to be certain ways that I go about handling my business yes that were ingrained in learning how to survive in prison and I'm happy for that there's a life skill bro.

Brother and sister that is a life skill is to learn how to you know deal with things in a in a in a very straightforward manner. Sometimes I appreciate I appreciate bluntness, I appreciate when people are just direct and get to the point and deal with each other with with with manhood and sisterhood and brotherhood and beating around the bush like all of these things came from me having to learn to survive as young men in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. These are the prison tapes the next over the next two

I'll be dropping a lot of things that happened to me in prison that I saw in prison that I learned from prison and and ways that we can go about helping the community of Muslims who are in prison because there are a lot of good brothers and sisters who are incarcerated that we absolutely just forget about inshallah, I'll talk about that initiative with one and hopefully I'll try to talk reach out to a dear brother I know him his name is Mustafa Sabri. For those of you watching this you know him you know what I said? Reason is a beautiful brother Masha, Allah, may Allah bless him. He was the chaplain of the South Carolina Department of Corrections when I was incarcerated there.

That's how we met, we became very close. And we've always remained close. I've traveled with him, you know, in different parts of the country in different parts all over the country and and other parts of the world. And He's the oldest, longest friend that I have as a Muslim. May Allah bless him. We're gonna talk about some things we can do to help the Muslim prisoners coming up soon and shout along to Anna. I will see you guys on the next one. This is the rebirth of the reflections podcast and hopefully we're back for the long run Sharla if you like it, give it a thumbs up, let me know that is something that we're working on doing. Drop a comment, let me know things you would

like to see discussed things you would like for me to touch on. Just drop them right below in the comments. And for anyone who wants to support the project, and help us to continue to put out as high quality of content as we can on on a more regular basis to do better hiring editors and thumbnail artists and graphic designers and things of that nature. Then just hit the link in the below where it says support the channel. That link will be right there in the description. You share that live and you can support the work that we're doing over here in sha Allah. May Allah bless you all. I love you all for the sake of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah. We'll see you on the next episode

of reflections where we continue the prison tapes part two. I said I'm already home. What off Matala he already ah