Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / From the Hood to the Hawza - ft. Sh. Saed & Sh. Mateen

Transcript

From the Hood to the Hawza - ft. Sh. Saed & Sh. Mateen · After Maghrib 🌙

• 0:00
  All the blood having shut down. James, brothers and sisters,
• 0:05
  welcome back to After Maglev, your favorite podcast in the
• 0:10
  world today. Run the sisters.
• 0:11
  We have a fantastic conversation.
• 0:13
  I'm really looking forward to getting into this topic with
• 0:16
  you. We have not one, but two
• 0:19
  incredible guests, incredible scholars joining us on the
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  podcast today. So I'm really excited to get
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  into this. We're going to be talking about
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  everything from youth struggles and some of the challenges that
• 0:29
  we face as young people in the West growing up today, to
• 0:32
  challenges that people who are incarcerated or inmates in
• 0:35
  prisons face at the moment, to issues faced by reverts who are
• 0:40
  new to the community, as well as, for example, others who may
• 0:42
  be ostracised from getting involved in Shia communities
• 0:45
  across the West. So this will be a relatable
• 0:47
  conversation for you. So make sure you stick around.
• 0:50
  Hit that subscribe button. Like the video comment, share it
• 0:53
  as well. Also say Ali Sam.
• 1:05
  Alaikum. How are you?
• 1:08
  I've missed you. I missed you, bro.
• 1:10
  I'm good. I'm good.
• 1:10
  I was going to say, you know, on YouTube, on the mobile app,
• 1:13
  there's a new feature called hype.
• 1:16
  Yeah. Have you seen?
• 1:16
  I've come across it Yeah. When you hype a video it like it
• 1:20
  like jumps up on the leaderboard.
• 1:21
  So they're going to hype out. Yes, so hype the video because
• 1:24
  it's going to be a hype discussion.
• 1:26
  How's it going bro? Well of Hamdallah, you know, I
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  recently was blessed to go home with the family, visit the holy
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  city of Medina and it was a beautiful experience because I
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  got to experience it with the family this time.
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  Handler If the viewers and listeners recall, last year I
• 1:41
  went with my friends. When I went there, I made the
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  arts that I'm taking my wife and kids.
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  The. Opportunity to go this time
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  around and what was special about if I can just mention is
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  that it gave like a special bond for my daughter because what we
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  used to do every night over the last few years, I can say is
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  that I'll give a stories right Islamic stories so we'll speak
• 2:00
  about for example, from Ibrahim or speak about the building of
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  the cabin. We'll speak about Medina and
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  Manohar and all these special Macamstar and Mecca and Medida.
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  She got to experience that. So when we went there, she
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  recalls, Oh, you said you spoke about this.
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  We spoke about this. I was it came to life.
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  I mean, that was beautiful to. See like.
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  This from my daughter and yeah, always beautiful.
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  Mela accepts it grant you more opportunities to go.
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  Remember all our listeners, our viewers.
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  Our viewers, of course. You remember.
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  Me goes with that saying. Hamdullah, Hamdullah, it's good
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  to have you back. Likewise.
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  I'm looking forward to this conversation.
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  I am. Indeed, Yeah, I am indeed and it
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  gives me great honour and pride to welcome 2 fantastic and our
• 2:43
  esteemed Mashai who are joining us today, Sheikh Mateen Shah
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  Banal Salaam Alaikum Sheikh. Welcome, Salaam.
• 2:50
  To the podcast. Thank you for having me.
• 2:52
  Long, long overdue. And of course, Sheikh Sahidul
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  Kulini, Salaikum Sheikh. Welcome.
• 2:58
  Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
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  We're so we're so grateful to both.
• 3:01
  Yeah, truly. And I think it's been a long
• 3:04
  time coming. We wanted to do it before,
• 3:07
  remember, But the studio was moving, yeah, just like this.
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  So I told you I would come back a little time.
• 3:13
  I didn't know I was going to be here, but we.
• 3:14
  Ended last worked out, huh? It's worked out.
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  And of course, for those who don't know, you guys are based,
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  I mean, originally you're both born and raised in the US, yes.
• 3:23
  Right. Yes.
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  But at the moment, Sheikh Saeed, you're in Atlanta, Yes.
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  And Sheikh Mertino and Antalya, Yeah.
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  Now the question is which which is a better place to live right
• 3:34
  now? Are you enjoying the beaches of
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  of Turkey more? Do you miss the US or?
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  Oh, I'm good with. I'm good where I'm at.
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  The no stress. I love it.
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  Yeah, community's good. People are good.
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  I like it. So yeah, yeah, Chef's idea,
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  originally from New York. I'm originally from New York.
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  Yeah. I want to reach New York,
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  Queens, NY. Yeah, Queens, man.
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  Especially the part of Queens I'm from.
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  You know, when a person like, oh, you're from this part, where
• 4:00
  you from? We go park.
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  I was like, oh, not from the other place.
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  Like OK, what makes you think I'm from there, you know?
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  But yeah, I'm a lot, you know, I was born and raised in New York
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  and then I moved to Georgia. I've been in Georgia for over 2
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  decades. So yeah, for a pretty long time.
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  And I know you told me there's 11 Chia centres.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. One shot blah.
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  One shot I need to visit, but New York has a special place in
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  mind and say that is hot, Yeah, because.
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  We were there recently. I saw the.
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  Videos. Yeah, we had a blast.
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  Yeah, a bit of fun. It was fun.
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  It was something like a good time, good vibes, and good
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  community. But travelling with, say, Ali
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  is, it feels like you're. Doing no.
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  Yeah, no, no, it's like it feels like you're doing Hegela with
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  like, you know, companions of the imam say Ali, his magnifier
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  is very high. Marshall, you know I'm so
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  jealous of you right now because I'm so jealous because my
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  companion is. Horrible.
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  It's horrible. You know this guy, I'm telling
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  you, I'm on a plane. He kicks my chair.
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  All types of stuff. You know, I don't know.
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  You know I don't know. I'm just jealous.
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  I don't. Know who that person is, but you
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  know. No, it's good to have you both
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  here. Thank you so much again for
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  joining us. I think there's a lot to talk
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  about. So let's let's kind of jump
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  straight in. If, if maybe if you wouldn't
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  mind for for those who don't know you, how would you
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  summarize or describe yourself both in terms of who, where you
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  came from and, and and who who you have been and also how you'd
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  see yourself today? You know, like everything, life
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  is a process, you know, you start out one way, you end up in
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  another way. Sometimes people start out good
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  and in the bad, but sometimes people start out bad and end up
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  good. I'm in between.
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  You know, I was in the environment that was, you know,
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  wasn't bad, nor was it good, but even in that environment, I was
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  able to find peaceful for myself because I knew who I, who I, who
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  I was and stuff like that. So I think when I look back now,
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  because I started from in business wise or retail, big box
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  retail management, I managed, you know, certain stores and I
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  left that, you know, to go and study.
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  So I went from one place to the next total opposites in life.
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  And I think by going the total opposite and doing what I'm
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  doing now, it made me a way better person, you know, but
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  also my past helped me or mold and shape me for me to be able
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  to be where I am now. You follow what I'm saying.
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  If it wasn't for that past, right, it would have never had
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  made me who I am today. Now, if you hear from me right,
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  Shake Sai Kulani is like Superman, right?
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  Like you're like woo. But other than that, I think I'm
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  OK. You know, it's, I'm still
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  striving. I'm still trying to make myself
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  better. I'm never happy about where I'm
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  at. I'm always think that I could do
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  better and I always strive to do better with myself, but
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  unfortunately, how much I may strive to do better myself is
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  this knack right? That keep on bothering me,
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  right? And he just messes with me, you
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  know, all the time, not saying the name of this thing, but I
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  try and I struggle. Well, so that's all basically
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  what it is. It's just, you know, it's a it's
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  a learning curve. Every day I'm learning, I'll
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  make sure I try to learn new things.
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  I try to put into practice. You know, I try to keep an open
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  mind. I don't have my mind closed.
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  I you know, I empathize with those who need to be show
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  empathy too. You know, I sympathize with
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  those who need sympathy. You know, I learn things with
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  that's, that's I may not know to understand people.
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  So I could be able to, how can I say, give a message that's more
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  relatable to people like so that's just me.
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  I just process every day, you know, trying to learn.
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  My wife said that I am, I know too much to be this broke,
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  right. So so that's, you know, that's
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  just basically me, you know, extremely jovial, you know,
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  extremely friendly, maybe a little bit too friendly at
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  times, but I just can't help myself.
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  My name is Saeed. I'm extremely happy for no
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  reason. He wakes up like that, yeah.
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  Like. This like he I'm serious.
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  He opens his eyes and he's like that all the way till he passes
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  out. He wakes up again.
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  Yeah, I don't. I'm like, just give me a minute.
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  I need some coffee. Like don't talk to me for a
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  little while. Let me get ready, you know.
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  You guys are like a power duo and Hamdullah, we spent some
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  time together before today as well.
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  So it's, it's amazing to see like the relationship you had.
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  Sheikh Mateen similarly as well that your, your past.
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  I think for many of us, at least in the UK, we've seen a lot of
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  your background and I've said, and you would have as well.
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  And we of course spent many years in athlete bait TV.
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  And we remember, of course, your, your, your interviews back
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  in the day and to see you both now as not just incredible
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  scholars who are serving communities in two different
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  continents, but also working together on the same projects
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  around the world. But at the same time, you also
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  are representatives, you're wakala of Ayatollah said
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  Muhammad Akimadosi as well. Mellah preserve him and prolong
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  his life. And it's just shows how far you
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  know one can, can reach. But Sheikh Mateen, your own
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  personal story, your background is of course colourful as well.
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  Can you summarize it for anyone at home who might not know that
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  about your history? Yeah, I mean, I guess you call
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  them Rd. man here, right, man? Yeah, yeah.
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  I was like in that life, St. life, gang life, because my
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  whole neighborhood was that. So that's all I knew.
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  So I grew up in that environment, and when you go
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  outside, that's what you see. So I thought it was normal and I
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  got involved in that, looking for some guidance.
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  But if you look for guidance, you don't go to the right place.
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  They'll take you down, down the wrong direction.
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  So you see these guys, you take them as your older brothers or
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  something and expect them to show you the right way, but
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  they'll show you how to do the wrong things.
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  You know, that's why it's important we get involved with
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  youth and help them show them a different path.
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  So I ended up down the wrong path, you know, and ended up in
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  prison for 10 years. I had, I did nine of the 10
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  years from I was 16 years old and then I came home when I was
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  25. But when I was in the prison, I
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  I said, you know, this path going to lead me to death or
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  jail for the rest of my life. I was like, if I get back out
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  and get in trouble again, even though I was defending myself, I
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  shot a guy and like, they tried to attack me and defend myself
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  or whatever. But, you know, I ended up in
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  there, you know, I mean, it's hard to see.
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  Marshall blah. It's crazy to imagine how far
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  you've come and just imagine that this is you.
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  Yeah, I mean, some people see me and that, you know, that knew me
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  from when I was younger like that.
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  And so one of them was writing me.
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  I don't go. I don't live back in my state.
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  I don't ever. I just go see my parents.
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  I leave. I don't tell anybody I'm coming.
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  One time there someone I knew from way back was writing me.
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  Man, I can't, I believe I'm taking advice from you.
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  You know what I mean? Because I know you from they
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  don't, they don't know anything about it.
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  They're not Muslim. They don't know anything about
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  what I'm doing. They just know how I was.
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  And even my parents when I came home from prison, they were
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  like, they didn't like Islam, but they were like, wow, it
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  changed you, you know? And everything I would do that
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  they said they liked. I would just say I got it from
• 11:46
  Rasulullah and give the credit to them to change the image of
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  that. But when I was in there, I, I
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  started thinking, I said, I need to fix myself.
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  I need to change. I need to, I don't want to go
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  down this path. I'm tired of what's this doing
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  here. It's nothing, you know, I mean,
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  eventually we're going to die. What am I going to do?
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  You know, just keep doing this type of crazy stuff.
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  But when I was young, I didn't care.
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  I, I, I just was like, if I get killed, I get killed, I don't
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  care. You know, it's like I was just
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  at that point in my life, I was just do whatever, you know, I
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  just didn't care about anything because I didn't have any
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  guidance. So I started searching.
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  I read the Bible because my parents are Christian.
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  And I was like, it's a lot of contradictions in here.
• 12:29
  I start getting it and then it doesn't make sense.
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  And then I start comparing verses and it's like, I don't
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  know about that. No one would answer my
• 12:37
  questions. I met some Muslims.
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  I didn't know about Islam and then I found it in there.
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  And so I got on, started reading it.
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  I was like, wow, this is you know, this is good, this is
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  different. And then a guy answered all my
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  questions the Christians were to answer.
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  So I said, okay, I'm ready. So I became a Muslim, but I
• 12:56
  didn't know Sunni, Shia, Sufi, all these other things.
• 13:00
  I just knew Islam, you know, So I learned how to pray and then I
• 13:05
  went somewhere else. Then people were like, OK,
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  Sunni, Shia. I was like, what is that, you
• 13:11
  know? And I said, just say you're
• 13:12
  Sunni. And I was like, no, no, no, no,
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  no. I need to know what that is
• 13:15
  before I just say it, you know what I mean?
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  So I researched into it and I came to to show you pretty much
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  straight away. I didn't know, you know, so I
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  just tried to read every book I could get my hands on about Ahlu
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  Beit Aleimo Salaam for that whole 9 years I was in there and
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  then, you know, came home at 25, got a move to DC, got a fresh
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  start, new friends, new find the centre, got involved there and
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  then went to Iraq and got the desire.
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  I always want to keep learning. I never feel, you know, content
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  at the place I'm at. Like Sheikh said, you know, the,
• 13:52
  you know, Ali Ali Salaam said, you know, to make the Today
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  better than your yesterday. If you know, if you don't do
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  that, then you're, you've lost out, basically a loser.
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  And so I wanted to get better every day.
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  So I'm always trying to read and still taking classes.
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  You know, I feel empty without that.
• 14:12
  And then I know that I would be nothing without ahlo bait
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  because I was lost. And that way I found them and
• 14:18
  everything, whatever I have done is due to their words, their
• 14:23
  guidance, their history, learning about them, learning
• 14:26
  Quran, learning about Ahlo bait. And we owe everything to them.
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  I mean, they're, you know, the Hoojitullah, the order, so proof
• 14:35
  of our law on the earth. So their words are hodja on us
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  and we need to be responsible. Learn their words, you know,
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  instead of just know their name. We have to learn their words and
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  then try to. I saw some people a few days ago
• 14:49
  about this. I said, you know, don't just
• 14:53
  read as many as you can, whatever it is ayaat from Quran
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  or Hadith or Rwayat, try to read few of them and think about it
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  and say what can I do with it? How can I apply that to my life,
• 15:07
  my family, my community? Let me see if I can put that
• 15:10
  thing in action, you know, and then whenever you're faced with
• 15:13
  the situation, if you have no knowledge, you're just going to
• 15:16
  go off what you feel. But if you have some basis of
• 15:19
  these verses of Quran and narrations, when that any
• 15:24
  situation comes your way, some something's going to come to
• 15:27
  your mind. Imam said this, Allah said that
• 15:30
  something in history story from Imam was there.
• 15:33
  What did they do? How can I act like they acted,
• 15:36
  you know, And then you'll be able to face the situation with
• 15:40
  a good view. That's so beautiful and
• 15:43
  inspirational, chef, and I think in many ways you sort of made
• 15:47
  the blueprints of how we should live our lives.
• 15:49
  May Allah bless you both for your stories.
• 15:51
  And I encourage everyone who hasn't heard the stories of the
• 15:54
  chef, in particular Chef, but you know, I've listened to you.
• 15:57
  I think about 8-8 years ago, I came across a documentary a few
• 16:02
  weeks ago as well. I came across the work you guys
• 16:04
  do with second chance and things try to understand them more.
• 16:07
  And only today I went back to listen to an interview you had
• 16:11
  four years ago. I think it was with was one of
• 16:15
  the Arabic channels by an English.
• 16:17
  I can't remember which one it was.
• 16:18
  Mullah Ahmed Siddiq. Maybe, maybe.
• 16:21
  And you and you were speaking about how your time behind bars
• 16:26
  was, but in particular you were not content with just
• 16:29
  understanding what Islam was. You were pursuing hack.
• 16:33
  I want to know everything. I want to understand everything.
• 16:35
  What pushed you towards that? Because someone can say, OK, I
• 16:38
  accept Islam, you know, sounds good to me.
• 16:42
  There's good vibes, good brotherhood, all my everyone's
• 16:44
  together. But there's something that
• 16:46
  pushed you towards the end of bits.
• 16:49
  What was it? Basically, like I said, I was
• 16:53
  tired of living that life, you know, and I, I needed to fix
• 16:56
  myself. My friend that that I was with
• 16:58
  in the streets, he came to the jail too, and he was in and out
• 17:01
  and I was like, man, what do you I just want one chance to get
• 17:04
  out of here. I've seen you three times in
• 17:06
  this place. What do you miss the food or
• 17:08
  what? You know, the food is terrible.
• 17:10
  And he would say, oh, come on, let's go gambling, let's go
• 17:13
  drink, let's go do this in the prison or I've got drugs,
• 17:16
  whatever. Let's go do.
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  I was like, no, I'm good. I'm just going to.
• 17:19
  He said, all you do is read and pray, pray and read, read and
• 17:22
  pray. You don't do anything.
• 17:23
  I was like, I'm good. I'm not about that life, you
• 17:25
  know. So we just have to look at the
• 17:28
  end, you know, the end results of things.
• 17:30
  When you look at the end results of those actions, they don't get
• 17:33
  you anywhere. So I was like, these actions are
• 17:35
  going to take me somewhere, you know, and some some people don't
• 17:39
  want to learn more about Islam. They're content with it.
• 17:41
  I had a friend when we were 18, I would read in the room and I
• 17:45
  would come out and I would they would open the doors.
• 17:48
  We would go in the main area and I would tell my friend his name
• 17:51
  was Salaam. I said, Salaam, look what I read
• 17:53
  today. I read that we can't do this
• 17:55
  anymore. I didn't know about this, you
• 17:57
  know, and Risala and he's I don't want to know.
• 18:00
  I don't want to know because I don't know.
• 18:01
  I'm not responsible, but that's not right.
• 18:03
  But you know, we were young and he's like, don't tell me
• 18:05
  anything anymore. You know, I'm just good.
• 18:07
  I know how to pray. I know how to fast.
• 18:08
  I don't want to know anything, but I knew this was the way to
• 18:12
  keep me safe. This is what was going to keep
• 18:14
  me away from the roads or the streets and all this stuff.
• 18:18
  And when I came home, I had a roommate, you know, he was
• 18:23
  Middle Eastern for a little bit of time.
• 18:25
  I was staying with him for a month or two and he wasn't
• 18:28
  religious. You know, sometimes I would come
• 18:30
  to him and say, look, what does this verse mean?
• 18:32
  You know, I don't, I don't know that I would just pretend like I
• 18:35
  didn't understand the Arabic correctly.
• 18:36
  And I said, can you tell me this?
• 18:38
  You know, but I wanted him to get a lesson.
• 18:40
  He was like, OK, you know, go. And he said you're wasting your
• 18:43
  time reading Quran. Why you want to read Quran and
• 18:46
  books of Islam? Waste your time and go school,
• 18:49
  learn business and do this and do that.
• 18:51
  I thought to myself, I was like, that's not success for me.
• 18:54
  But this stuff is this Quran and this, this is what's going to
• 18:58
  keep me straight. It's going to keep me from going
• 19:01
  back out into the dunya. You know, if you if you neglect
• 19:04
  that, you just be lost. What good is it for me?
• 19:08
  You know, I heard one old scholar say before in America,
• 19:13
  he was saying that he would rather his kids be people who
• 19:17
  pick up the garbage from front of the house or sweep the roads.
• 19:21
  But they pray, they fast, they study, they have good Dean, you
• 19:25
  know, all of this then to be a doctor or engineer or some other
• 19:29
  prestigious degree. But they don't pray and they
• 19:32
  don't go through Masjid and don't care about Allah.
• 19:35
  So that's the priorities. You know what is success?
• 19:38
  Exactly success for us and I think Chef Saeed as well.
• 19:42
  We spoke about this a couple of days ago when we met up.
• 19:45
  And specifically speaking, a lot of the youth today view success
• 19:49
  in in a very material sense. So we look at and to be fair,
• 19:55
  it's a conditioning society that we live in, right?
• 19:57
  So we're, we're born and raised in a society where we know it's
• 20:00
  consistently a rat race. You're always on the hamster
• 20:03
  wheel and you're always trying to find out how to pay the next
• 20:05
  bill and how to, to get a promotion and how to, you know,
• 20:09
  lose weight while being able to spend money and buy good
• 20:12
  clothes. This is the kind of condition we
• 20:14
  have. Society if.
• 20:16
  You learn how to lose weight while eating cheeseburgers.
• 20:18
  Let me know because they keep feeding me too many
• 20:22
  cheeseburgers. I don't know.
• 20:24
  They're with the five guys today, huh?
• 20:25
  Yeah, they had. Hello.
• 20:26
  You have five guys in the US. Yes they have it but not halal.
• 20:30
  Oh, really? Yeah, not halal.
• 20:32
  Well I haven't found one that's halal yet.
• 20:34
  He would let me know. Yeah, I'm sure it did.
• 20:37
  When you have something. For another meeting, yeah.
• 20:40
  But no, this is what I mean. I mean, specifically speaking in
• 20:43
  terms of the youth, I think the youth struggles that, you know,
• 20:47
  Americans face or the British face or anyone else, it's
• 20:50
  universal, even Middle Eastern. It's like, and Shakmatini, you
• 20:53
  told me as well, that some of the Menager have written books
• 20:57
  which are targeted towards issues faced by the youth in the
• 21:01
  West or in the East. And the issues are universal,
• 21:05
  they're identity driven, they're based on purpose and value and
• 21:10
  kind of what we look for in ourselves and what we aspire to
• 21:13
  be because we know that when we're young, we dream of doing
• 21:17
  great things. We dream of achieving heights.
• 21:19
  But they're not always material heights.
• 21:21
  They're sometimes in terms of contentment and happiness and
• 21:24
  satisfaction. Chef, what would you say, for
• 21:26
  example, to youth who are listening today?
• 21:28
  For example, those who are succumbing to peer pressure and
• 21:34
  struggling, for example, with their their day-to-day
• 21:37
  activities, you know, they always feel like they're
• 21:39
  underperforming. I feel like I've been one of
• 21:41
  those kids. I'm.
• 21:42
  Not the only one. I'm as well.
• 21:44
  I grew up Muslim. You got to say I grew up Muslim
• 21:47
  at the time I grew up. I'm going to high school might
• 21:50
  have been the only Muslim in the school and growing up Muslim at
• 21:54
  that time, they didn't have all this halal, you know, and people
• 21:57
  wondering why, you know, you don't eat this or the girls are
• 22:01
  wondering why you not talking to them, you know, or trying to be
• 22:04
  around them. And people's like, go ahead, go
• 22:07
  ahead, go go do this, go do this.
• 22:08
  And you, you trying to hold on to your Islamic morals.
• 22:12
  You know, The thing is this is that everybody's going to always
• 22:16
  try to get you off of that path. This is the idea of the shaytan.
• 22:20
  He want to get you off of that path.
• 22:22
  He didn't say no. If you believe in Allah, I want
• 22:24
  to make sure you still on that path.
• 22:26
  He said, I'm going to lay and wait for you and I'm going to
• 22:28
  put all types of distractions that get you off of that path.
• 22:31
  And then he's going to run back and say, oh Allah, look at this.
• 22:34
  Look at these people that you entrusted this with and here
• 22:37
  they are. They didn't do what you said
• 22:39
  they was going to do. Why you wanted me to do this for
• 22:42
  the in front of them or prostate to them.
• 22:45
  So this is the thing we we cannot allow people to try to
• 22:48
  dictate to us our values. We could only get them from
• 22:53
  Quran and the Sunnah of our Sulah and Akhil Abate.
• 22:58
  But we should not be ashamed of who we are.
• 23:01
  You know, I, I have seen many instances growing up that, you
• 23:04
  know, 1 little girl comes, she leave out the house, she happy
• 23:07
  jab she duck off into into the alley.
• 23:10
  Now she have different clothing oil or brother is no longer
• 23:13
  Mohammed. He's MO.
• 23:14
  He want to try to live a different identity because he's
• 23:17
  afraid that people going to make fun of him of who he who he is.
• 23:22
  So we have to, in other words, embrace who we are.
• 23:25
  And this is the thing about the youth, because they want to fit
• 23:27
  in with everybody and they want to say, oh, we know what my
• 23:31
  family teach is not good for me. Let me try to be with them
• 23:33
  because it's more of them than with me.
• 23:35
  No, no, this is not good because once you lose yourself and you
• 23:41
  start going down a rabbit hole, you will find yourself
• 23:43
  constantly going down this rabbit hole and it doesn't stop.
• 23:47
  It will be a continuously roll down that hill until you get to
• 23:51
  the point which you said now. Oh, I you know, I must have, but
• 23:55
  you know, I cannot go back to the magic in this state.
• 23:59
  I've seen this. Yeah, all the time I said, you
• 24:01
  know, I want to get myself better and then I go to the mass
• 24:04
  here. This was the Shaitaan.
• 24:05
  The whispers was the Shaitaan. Have you thinking that you have
• 24:08
  to be in a better predicament be to go to the Mass here or to ask
• 24:12
  a loss of job of repentance because you have fell victim to
• 24:16
  this dunya? This Dunya is made to move your
• 24:20
  way. It makes more real.
• 24:22
  Lois and Jonas say he has created man in turmoil.
• 24:25
  This world is crazy. It is created to be a
• 24:30
  distraction. But if you're focused and you
• 24:34
  stay on that path, you'll be able to also have success.
• 24:38
  But as youth, we don't know that we want to be like Bob.
• 24:43
  We don't be like John. Look how hip they are.
• 24:46
  You know, they can eat everything.
• 24:48
  They having fun. I can't have fun.
• 24:50
  I have to pray. I have to fast them with the
• 24:52
  room. Then why should I do that?
• 24:54
  I should be like them. Why?
• 24:57
  Because so we're down the line, we have not put in our children
• 25:01
  the pride or the OR the OR the proudest of being a Muslim.
• 25:07
  And because of that, they feel ashamed, you know, the identity
• 25:12
  of being a Muslim. It's like, well, you know, yeah,
• 25:15
  I'm, yeah, I'm Muslim, but this is not his.
• 25:18
  We have to show them that regardless of what it is or who
• 25:22
  comes at you, being a Muslim is a good thing.
• 25:25
  Of course it's a good thing. And you find, like I said at
• 25:29
  other places, that that people that are not Muslim, they are
• 25:31
  something else. They'll tell you that what they
• 25:34
  are if they are a thief, they're going to say I'd like to steal.
• 25:38
  If they indulge in alcohol, they say I like to drink right here
• 25:43
  it is they they promote the Haram, but as Muslims, we
• 25:46
  promote the halau. So we should be proud of saying
• 25:49
  no, I'm Muslim. You know, I don't do that stuff.
• 25:51
  This is why I do it and hunting it all.
• 25:52
  I pray I do. No, I don't do that.
• 25:54
  Oh, you know, if that's what you want to do, that's OK.
• 25:57
  But I don't do it. But the peer pressure of the of
• 26:01
  the the minions of the shaytan has have something.
• 26:06
  But as youth, we don't realize that the shaytan is only there
• 26:08
  whispering to us. We allow those whispers to draw
• 26:12
  us towards these things because everybody else is doing it.
• 26:17
  Like, oh, but just because everybody else is doing it does
• 26:20
  not mean it's correct. So here it is.
• 26:23
  Me as someone grew up in the West as a Muslim, I had to
• 26:28
  maneuver through these things. And sometimes, you know, with
• 26:32
  me, I had a brother to help me along, but some people don't
• 26:35
  have that. So The thing is that we as
• 26:38
  Muslims should help one another to maneuver through this because
• 26:43
  as a whole, we are strong, but separate, we become weak.
• 26:49
  My brother, we should be as though we are mirrors, a mirror,
• 26:54
  as though I looking at a mirror. In other words, when I see you,
• 26:56
  it should be like I'm looking in a mirror.
• 26:58
  When you see me, as though you should be looking in a mirror.
• 27:02
  My strength comes from you. Your strength comes from me.
• 27:05
  We are strong together. You are my my reminder.
• 27:09
  I am your reminder. You remind me of my obligation.
• 27:12
  I remind you of your obligations.
• 27:14
  And we hold firm. When I fall or I go straight a
• 27:17
  little bit, you say no, no, no, no, Mohammed.
• 27:19
  No. This is not right.
• 27:20
  Oh, man. You're right.
• 27:21
  You're right. You're right.
• 27:23
  And we encourage one another because this dunya, it is.
• 27:27
  It is. It is.
• 27:29
  It is designed to take you away. It's so much influences.
• 27:34
  When you look everywhere you look, you know it's sin.
• 27:36
  Everywhere you look, it's everywhere.
• 27:39
  Once you leave that confinement of the home, sin is everywhere.
• 27:43
  So the parents have the house. Now on the phone, yeah.
• 27:46
  Even at the house, the. House So as parents, we have to,
• 27:50
  in other words, prepare our children to combat a combat that
• 27:55
  we have to give them the tools to be able to combat all that is
• 27:59
  out there because we don't have don't give them the tools.
• 28:02
  They're going to fall victim. They're going to fall victim and
• 28:05
  they're going to lose themselves.
• 28:06
  Yeah. And they're going to trickle
• 28:08
  down and keep on trickling down. I keep on trickling down and
• 28:11
  it's unfortunate but this is how this Dunya's designed.
• 28:14
  This is how the Shaytan works. This is how the minions of the
• 28:17
  Shaytan works. It remind me of a story.
• 28:20
  I said a story quick and it was like they said that I'm going to
• 28:24
  say some of the story and they said that it was a man that the
• 28:27
  Shaitaan used to always try to tempt and whatever he did, he
• 28:31
  couldn't try to tempt them. He wouldn't tempt them.
• 28:33
  So they said the Shaitaan, he went, he went back to his
• 28:35
  minions, right? This is how the story goes.
• 28:37
  He said, I'm trying to think a way on how I could tempt this
• 28:40
  guy. How can I tempt them, right?
• 28:43
  They said, well, how can he tempt him?
• 28:44
  He said, do this with food. He said, no, no, he he, he's
• 28:47
  very simple. Do this and no, he do this.
• 28:48
  He said, I know what I'm going to do.
• 28:50
  I'm going to tempt them with this a lot now.
• 28:53
  Now I was like, how can we be tempted by the Salat?
• 28:56
  Because the Salat shabri bring us closer to our law.
• 28:59
  So they said that the shaytan took his prayer rug and went to
• 29:02
  the place in which the guy be at, right?
• 29:04
  So when the guy saw the Shaytan, he was on his prayer rug and he
• 29:08
  was levitated in the air praying.
• 29:11
  So as most of you see somebody, Levinson, he's like Marshall
• 29:13
  Law. Look at this right here.
• 29:14
  How did he get to this state? You know, even though this is a
• 29:17
  story, you know, this is just story.
• 29:19
  So they say. And then he kept on calling out
• 29:21
  to the Shaytan and he would not answer.
• 29:23
  He was, you know, playing like he was praying as though he
• 29:25
  don't hear him. So when he finished, he goes and
• 29:28
  he said, well, how did you go through this?
• 29:30
  He's how did you get to this level?
• 29:31
  He said, oh, I got to this level by committing fornication.
• 29:35
  He said, man, I don't know anything about this.
• 29:38
  I don't know what to do. They said the shaytan said huh,
• 29:41
  take this money and go to town and go see this person.
• 29:45
  So they said that he took the money.
• 29:47
  He went to go to the town. He asked where is so and so this
• 29:51
  the person said OK, go there because he was a religious man.
• 29:54
  They said he didn't think anything of it.
• 29:56
  He go to the woman and woman knew that he was a religious man
• 29:59
  and he he tried to do what the shaytan said.
• 30:02
  She said no, go back to that place and if that person is
• 30:06
  still there, come back, then I would do it.
• 30:08
  So when he went back, he saw that the Shaytan wasn't there
• 30:12
  and this is what he realized. So this is what I'm saying, that
• 30:16
  we need each other to help each other, but we have to have the
• 30:20
  tools to be able to notice what is going to take us off that
• 30:24
  path. If we don't know what's going to
• 30:27
  take us off that path, we're going to just fall victim into
• 30:29
  the ditch. So we have to have the tools for
• 30:33
  our children and also for ourselves to be able to stay
• 30:37
  firm once we leave, once we leave that confinement of that
• 30:40
  secure area, that home vows because that home is secure.
• 30:44
  You know, outside of that is not I.
• 30:47
  Said some very beautiful, you know, definitely.
• 30:49
  You gave me memories of when I was back in school.
• 30:51
  You remember. I said I'm 33 now so I'm going
• 30:56
  back long a long time. Over the hill, bro.
• 31:02
  And, you know, you mentioned this brotherhood, you know,
• 31:04
  having a brother reminding you, looking out for you.
• 31:07
  And it's very true. And I was blessed to be in a
• 31:09
  school. I had many Muslims like that,
• 31:12
  both Sunni Muslims and Shia. Yeah.
• 31:13
  So I had friends from every sect you can think of.
• 31:17
  Yeah. Even as far as having friends
• 31:19
  with non-Muslims as well. I mixed with everything you can
• 31:22
  imagine here in the UK And. But there were times where we
• 31:25
  faced peer pressure. There were times where I faced
• 31:28
  being in certain situations or environments where my friends
• 31:32
  helped me out of that situation because they understood this is
• 31:34
  not right for us, right? We can't be in that place even
• 31:38
  like, for example, when it came to, you know, fuck it.
• 31:40
  Hope my mom's not listening sometimes.
• 31:42
  We used to bunk school. Yeah.
• 31:43
  You know, we used to walk out and things and always tell.
• 31:46
  The fact around. Me, you could say, oh, me, I
• 31:49
  don't recall. So then I had the friend and
• 31:54
  this was a Shia friend as well. He just told me no, don't bunk
• 31:57
  with this. He don't bunk these people.
• 31:58
  Let's go pray a lot. Yeah.
• 32:00
  So we actually go. We go to the prayer room.
• 32:02
  We used to pray as well. And then we'll end up having the
• 32:04
  base there with the fellow Sunni Muslims as well.
• 32:06
  It was a very nice experience. But every time we were in a
• 32:09
  situation, I had a friend or I was a friend to someone.
• 32:12
  Yeah. And stopped them from something.
• 32:13
  And that's what it's all about. We don't have them.
• 32:15
  A Hamdallah. You know a Hamdallah.
• 32:17
  Say, let me explain something. They say you are the religion of
• 32:21
  your friends, so when you go to religion, your friends.
• 32:25
  So whatever friend you have, if his religion is good, you're
• 32:29
  going to be good, and vice versa.
• 32:32
  Yeah. So part of.
• 32:34
  Law. That's something.
• 32:35
  You have to have conviction, I think so, you know, you have to
• 32:38
  have some knowledge and conviction.
• 32:39
  And then the more knowledge you get, the more conviction you get
• 32:43
  and the stronger you get. And you'll be able to resist
• 32:45
  those things, you know, because when you see the sin, if you
• 32:49
  know the result of the sin, you'll stay away from it.
• 32:51
  Like I said, like if if you see some old rotten fish in the bin
• 32:58
  or whatever and you'll be like, I don't want to touch that.
• 33:00
  I'll never eat that. I don't even want to go near it.
• 33:03
  But sin has made the seem fair seeming to us.
• 33:06
  It's made to look beautiful and glorified.
• 33:08
  So we don't see the result of it and we take it and we'll do
• 33:12
  whatever the sin is. But if we know what it is, we'd
• 33:15
  stay away from it like that rotten fish.
• 33:18
  And then you see like Navi Yusuf, Alayi Salaam, when the
• 33:22
  lady came to him and you know, locked the door, most of the
• 33:25
  guys would be running to lock the door.
• 33:28
  Not you know what I mean? And and do whatever Haram.
• 33:31
  But Yusuf knew the result. Run away from it.
• 33:34
  You see, we can also get like that where you see a sinew, it's
• 33:39
  like it's ugly coming. I don't want anything to do with
• 33:41
  it, but if we don't have it, we'll be attracted to to that
• 33:45
  thing. You know, you know, a few days
• 33:47
  ago, said Ali. Was he missed out because he
• 33:49
  didn't get to chill with us on Sunday?
• 33:51
  It was a Sunday. We missed you.
• 33:52
  Yeah, we missed you. I'm having formal.
• 33:54
  Chef, chef, both both both of the chefs said like was a
• 33:57
  wisdom, but Chef Saeed said something I asked him a question
• 34:00
  on. I told him about discussions
• 34:04
  that we've had on, for example, infallibility.
• 34:06
  And chef, can you remember what you told me?
• 34:08
  He said infallibility. He said infallibility.
• 34:11
  He goes, if you imagine, if we look at it, instead of looking
• 34:14
  at it as like a Superman power, supernatural power, think of it
• 34:16
  from and knowledge. And that in terms of the the
• 34:19
  depth and the breadth of knowledge that Yahoo beta named
• 34:22
  Salaam have, it means that they would see a sin, for example,
• 34:26
  and be so put off by it that they wouldn't even go near it.
• 34:29
  In the same regards to, for example, this, this like, for
• 34:31
  example, the rotten fish story. And then the same regards.
• 34:34
  If, if if I have a glass of water and I know that there's
• 34:38
  poison that's been put inside it, I wouldn't drink it.
• 34:40
  I have the knowledge of the harm it would do to my soul or my
• 34:43
  spirit or my body, for example. And in the same regards, I think
• 34:46
  that's that's important for us. And you get that magnifier a lot
• 34:48
  of the time from having that mirror that the Mote Meneen
• 34:51
  around you, the friends around you.
• 34:53
  And then the same the same way you had your friends Saddam and
• 34:55
  your other friends, for example, in prison who were able to
• 35:00
  support you and to build like a network.
• 35:02
  I guess that kind of brings us on to the second Chance books
• 35:06
  conversation and kind of about that because I feel like there's
• 35:10
  there's so much I want to talk about.
• 35:12
  And I just want to start off by saying that I've known about
• 35:15
  Second Chance for probably 10 or more years, probably when Nori
• 35:21
  Nori did a documentary on it right back in the day.
• 35:23
  Yeah. So we were working together at
• 35:25
  the time. And I remember his his work with
• 35:29
  you back then. And it's always been one of, if
• 35:35
  not the most effective and unique organisations in its
• 35:40
  field in terms of what it does that not just the the, the
• 35:44
  quality of the work that you and your organization does, but also
• 35:48
  the sheer number of people that you've been able to reach out
• 35:52
  to. And I just want to say this, I
• 35:54
  know you'll say it yourself, but it blew my mind when I found out
• 35:58
  that Second Chance Books has sent over 400,000 books.
• 36:02
  No, no, no, we wish. Insola.
• 36:04
  Insola, 40,040 Thousand Books, 4. 100,000.
• 36:09
  Dollars 40,000, yeah, 40,000 books to individuals and you
• 36:15
  have 4000 kind of currently involved participants, right.
• 36:19
  And those are either people who have joined to share or on the
• 36:22
  path to it. And the majority of people
• 36:25
  wasn't sheer Yeah, actually the the way amount moral majority
• 36:30
  wasn't because the majority of people when they come to jail,
• 36:33
  they accept Assam, they become the other school.
• 36:36
  So why do you, why do you guys do this?
• 36:38
  Like genuinely from the heart of your heart, I know you get asked
• 36:40
  this a lot. What is your goal and what's
• 36:43
  your end goal with it? What can I say this we have no
• 36:47
  end goal. Our goal is to spread the
• 36:51
  teachings of ocular bait to those who are neglected.
• 36:56
  See, but it's not just we don't just send it to prisoners, we
• 36:59
  send it to prisoners, inmates, family, and we also send books
• 37:04
  to converts. So our job is to spread the
• 37:08
  teachings of Akhla bait. So the thing, see, The thing is,
• 37:13
  the end goal is the like I was telling on the other podcast, I
• 37:16
  said the end goal is no end goal.
• 37:19
  The end goal is to to repay the debt to a law because he give us
• 37:25
  everything and all we can. We how can we pay a law?
• 37:28
  Yeah, but making sure we spread a law's name to spread the
• 37:34
  teaching of Aquila Bay to everyone to everyone.
• 37:39
  And that's The thing is this right?
• 37:41
  If we could inshallah who we could do 500 to give send out
• 37:45
  500,000 books, man that would be great.
• 37:49
  But then still we would need to send more books because we still
• 37:54
  have the big deck of the blessings in which Alonzo Jala
• 37:57
  has given us. And something like even
• 38:00
  1,000,000 bucks is still not enough to spread.
• 38:05
  You know, until we, until Alonzo Jala take the breath out of our
• 38:08
  life. Our goal is to just send books
• 38:11
  to those who want to learn about Aklabei, Alain Salon.
• 38:16
  And that's how that's I guess that's our angle, right?
• 38:20
  But it's not our angle. It's something what you want to
• 38:22
  continue to do. You say that you know, the
• 38:26
  there's a rewire to paraphrasing that, you know, it says that
• 38:30
  there's a type of orphan and they're the ones that don't have
• 38:34
  parents and it's the common one that we know.
• 38:37
  There's another type of orphan is the one who doesn't know his
• 38:40
  imam. So helping those, you know, is
• 38:43
  highly encouraged by Ahlo bait. So we wanted to get people to
• 38:47
  know that Imam of their time, get to know, you know, all the
• 38:50
  Ahlo bait, Aleimo Salaam. Give them the chance because
• 38:54
  when they go there, they have books from unfortunately,
• 38:57
  they're writing books against us and they're writing books that
• 39:00
  are making extremism and other things that's not functional in
• 39:04
  society. You can't use that stuff, you
• 39:06
  know, and it's, it's just not right, you know.
• 39:09
  So they're flooding, they have tons of money and tons of
• 39:12
  sponsors. So they're these countries are
• 39:15
  paying and then those flooding the system with books like bad
• 39:20
  books. So I saw those while I was in
• 39:24
  there and we would use whatever we had and we would try to
• 39:28
  combat those arguments with the little books.
• 39:30
  We use Mirage Art, Peshawar Knights and books from Say It to
• 39:36
  Johnny and other, these type of books.
• 39:38
  And we used to discourse, have discussions with them, go back
• 39:42
  and forth. And these people, I don't know,
• 39:44
  whatever books they are reading, they're becoming very violent,
• 39:47
  you know, And they wouldn't like when we would show them the
• 39:51
  proofs, but we didn't care. So we we would just stand up.
• 39:55
  I remember I was in the football for Juma in the prison.
• 39:59
  I was like, I don't know, I was like 19 years old or something.
• 40:02
  And he is. Salafi guy got up there and and
• 40:07
  started praising, you know, my way up, for example, Yazeed and
• 40:12
  all these other things and saying bad things about Arlo
• 40:14
  Bates. Right.
• 40:16
  As soon as it ended, I stood up as my role model from reading
• 40:19
  one of my first books I ever read was by Abu Dhar.
• 40:21
  So I that was my role model. He's like, you know, yeah, yeah,
• 40:27
  yeah. I wanted to say it about you
• 40:28
  saying, OK, so I was like, I really, his story resonated with
• 40:34
  me a lot. And I was like, I love this guy.
• 40:36
  I want to follow like him. Well, and maybe I shouldn't say
• 40:39
  this, may I lie, you know, grant us anything. 1% of what I would
• 40:43
  have had. But wasn't he a bit of a road
• 40:45
  man as well? Like he had his family, his
• 40:48
  tribe was. Right.
• 40:49
  Yeah. His tribe.
• 40:52
  Was. But look at him, he became to
• 40:56
  the level where they said you want to see the asceticism of
• 41:00
  ASA or Taco of ASA, look at Abu Dhar.
• 41:03
  No man truth more truthful under the sky than Abu Dhar.
• 41:06
  And my thing was like Rasool of law, the best of creation, Imam
• 41:10
  Ali Ahlu Beit. I was like, I'm shooting high.
• 41:14
  If I look at them, I need to look at these ones that were
• 41:16
  close to them. How did they get close to them?
• 41:18
  So I would try to be like them, the companions of Ahlo Bait.
• 41:22
  But back to the story. I stood up.
• 41:25
  I'm I got Abu Dhar's story locked in, burned in my brain.
• 41:29
  And I'm just you're wrong because of this, this, this,
• 41:32
  this. And I'd start refuting him.
• 41:35
  I gave them the worst time of their life.
• 41:38
  Every time they would bring something and they would brought
• 41:40
  a guy from off the street to you know like combat me as like 1/2
• 41:45
  of the Quran. And he said there's no Shia in
• 41:48
  Quran. So I bring them the ayats that
• 41:49
  mentioned Shia in Quran. Is this ayat or not?
• 41:52
  You get quiet and then they call Adan, you know, to silence me.
• 41:58
  They tried to make some attempts on my life a few times and twice
• 42:04
  from them. You know, IA lot of guys write
• 42:07
  us. I got stabbed over 20 times
• 42:10
  because I'm a Shia, you know, and I didn't have to get stuff.
• 42:14
  I didn't have the stuff to prove what I was doing, but I knew
• 42:18
  what I was doing. But I couldn't show them because
• 42:20
  if you show them in the book, they normally they'll leave you
• 42:23
  alone. They don't like it, but they'll
• 42:24
  leave you alone. They say, OK, he's got some
• 42:26
  proof. If you can't show it, you don't
• 42:28
  have the book. It's you're a bit kuffer shirt
• 42:32
  and copper and all this and they'll attack them.
• 42:35
  So you know, Alhamdulillah, I didn't you know, a law is the
• 42:40
  best of planners. Their plans failed with me.
• 42:43
  So some other of their group told some other ones and they
• 42:46
  warned. So some the brothers came to
• 42:49
  Salat with big knives and they were like, if you mess with him,
• 42:52
  you know we're going to kill you.
• 42:53
  We got a life sentence. I'm not going home.
• 42:55
  So what do you want to do? And they, you know, I'm the law.
• 43:00
  I. Made it through all of these
• 43:01
  things, but I, I was like, at that point, what I'm saying, I
• 43:04
  said earlier, conviction, you have to be, you know, you have
• 43:08
  to have so much conviction that you're willing to even die on
• 43:11
  that path. If so, if you, if it's means
• 43:13
  dying for truth, what is it? You know, so Allah will reward
• 43:17
  you. I mean, I was in the gang when I
• 43:19
  grew up, you know, when I was in there, I was Muslim for a long
• 43:23
  time towards maybe I had a few years left or whatever, maybe
• 43:28
  four years left. So halfway through my sentence
• 43:30
  somewhat. These young guys, they, they put
• 43:33
  me in 21 and under a dorm at this time, normally my first
• 43:38
  four years was in Max maximum security with everyone, all
• 43:42
  ages, killers and you know, all the worst things you can think
• 43:47
  of. Were there adults, teenagers,
• 43:49
  whatever. But then they had an idea to put
• 43:52
  all the young guys in one dorm. This is dumbest idea ever.
• 43:56
  Imagine everyone under 21, about 200 people in a dorm, and the
• 44:01
  lowest sentence was like 10 years.
• 44:03
  Everyone had like 30 years, 40 years at 1718 years old.
• 44:08
  Can you imagine how wild that was, how crazy that was?
• 44:11
  How many people were getting stabbed?
• 44:12
  How many people were getting robbed?
• 44:14
  It was crazy. So these young guys were in the
• 44:16
  gang that that I was from when I was younger from all over the
• 44:22
  state, but they were like 1718. So they were like they came to
• 44:26
  me and they were like, we want you to come back to that and
• 44:30
  we'll put you in the highest level of that over the whole you
• 44:35
  know, dorm the gang leader OG, because they knew they knew of
• 44:39
  me from my teenage years and I was like, I'm good.
• 44:43
  I don't want that life. I was like, I left that I'm
• 44:45
  Muslim. You got you got to respect that.
• 44:47
  And they were like, no, we want you to do that.
• 44:50
  And they were like, you know, trying to force me to peer
• 44:52
  pressure or whatever. I was like, look, I'm Muslim.
• 44:54
  If you want to, you got to accept it.
• 44:56
  If you don't, we can do whatever with whoever, you know, like we
• 44:59
  could. If you want to fight about it,
• 45:01
  we can do it. I don't care.
• 45:03
  So I left out in the older they went to the older guys that were
• 45:08
  in the same gang as don't mess with it.
• 45:11
  We know him from like a teenager and you don't want to do that.
• 45:13
  You don't know him because you're young and he's been in
• 45:15
  jail a long time, but you don't want to do that, you know?
• 45:18
  But I was willing to put my life on the line because once you
• 45:22
  believe in it, my thing is if you know the story of Imam
• 45:25
  Hussein Alayhi Salaam, you'll never trade it for anything.
• 45:29
  Those people's, what are they doing, Iraq or Afghanistan?
• 45:33
  They're throwing the Iraq, I think they were donating rice
• 45:36
  and other stuff and they would put those Christianity pamphlets
• 45:40
  in there and it was like, how are we going to sell Imam
• 45:42
  Hussein for some rice? You know what I mean?
• 45:44
  Like I wouldn't trade it for anything even as what's what we
• 45:48
  need. I mean that that just goes to
• 45:50
  show like you'll you would have seen first hand the need that
• 45:54
  people have. Everyone deserves quite
• 45:56
  literally a second chance, like people who have who've made
• 45:59
  mistakes and who have done things in their younger years or
• 46:03
  in their past lives and after that time to reflect and that,
• 46:07
  you know, that solitude or whatever.
• 46:10
  And they perhaps come to realize that they need something the
• 46:14
  same way you said you did. What is it, if I can ask as
• 46:18
  well, Sheikh Saeed, in terms of like logistically, how does the
• 46:22
  organization function? So how do you choose what you're
• 46:26
  sending out to inmates as well as obviously people outside of
• 46:30
  the prisons, but particularly inmates?
• 46:33
  Because I that to me, that's really like, I think that is
• 46:37
  just, it's mind blowing kind of how you've managed to work with
• 46:41
  chaplaincies across different prisons across the United
• 46:43
  States. You you've managed to track down
• 46:47
  and locate inmates who need the support, be able to give them
• 46:50
  religious and spiritual support. Where do you even begin?
• 46:53
  For example, do you have a curriculum or is it kind of just
• 46:55
  all in every content that you can give them?
• 46:59
  And then is there is there a path which you see inmates
• 47:03
  typically go on? Is there a correlation which you
• 47:04
  spot not spotted like patterns? For example, like to people, are
• 47:08
  they more inclined towards books on spirituality or history?
• 47:11
  Or is it more a calm and thick and polemics?
• 47:15
  Or how does it work? But with Second Chance we have a
• 47:18
  publication, and with that publication we have books on
• 47:22
  just about everything. We publish over 100 books on
• 47:27
  separate, you know, organization, which is household
• 47:30
  publications. So what is, is that when, when a
• 47:33
  person write us, we send everybody three books, 3 basic
• 47:38
  books. And we tell them when they read
• 47:40
  these books, write us and tell us what they thought of these
• 47:44
  books. What did they learn of these
• 47:45
  books? And what we do, we read every
• 47:47
  letter and we from the letter and how the person writes, what
• 47:50
  they learn, we determine what will fit them best.
• 47:53
  So it's almost like we hold the hands of each person.
• 47:57
  No. Yeah, we hold.
• 47:58
  A personal element. It's a personal element we don't
• 48:00
  do like we don't send the same books to everybody.
• 48:03
  So just send all nodule loggers, just send just Qurans.
• 48:06
  No, everybody that writes us, when we read the letter, we can
• 48:10
  determine what this person may need.
• 48:13
  And sometimes if they with the program long enough, we could
• 48:15
  look at the stuff that we send and say, man, we never send a
• 48:18
  book on this. And then we will send them a
• 48:20
  book on that. So we have it so that we have a
• 48:23
  vast majority of books on different subjects.
• 48:27
  Like we have books. If you want debate books, you
• 48:29
  know, across the right path, we have that.
• 48:32
  If you want a book, say you don't you want to know about the
• 48:35
  the was Abu Talib A believer? We have that.
• 48:38
  If you want to learn books on question and answer, we have
• 48:40
  books on that. You want to learn history about
• 48:42
  Akalibate. We have that.
• 48:43
  You want to learn history about, you know, all the problems we
• 48:45
  have that you want to say, Oh, I want to learn about, you know,
• 48:48
  why do we combine prayers? We have that.
• 48:50
  Oh, I want to learn about, oh, why do we pray on turbos?
• 48:53
  We have that. We have just about everything.
• 48:55
  Oh, I have a problem. You know, they, they attack me
• 48:57
  about, you know, Tawasu, tell me about it.
• 49:00
  We have a book on that. So basically what we did is that
• 49:04
  we listen to the questions of each individual and then we
• 49:09
  looked for a book that will be able to facilitate them.
• 49:13
  We look for a book that'll facilitate them.
• 49:16
  So we have books on just about every subject.
• 49:19
  You know, if someone asks us something in which we cannot, we
• 49:23
  don't have, we'll find that book.
• 49:25
  We'll get a book and if it if it's in the Arabic, we don't get
• 49:27
  it translated and we're going to put it in publication and we're
• 49:30
  going to add it to our curriculum.
• 49:32
  But not only that, we also get books from authors.
• 49:35
  They donate their books to Second Chance and we put them on
• 49:38
  the curriculum. If the book fits, you know,
• 49:41
  that's the need of the people and we send it in.
• 49:43
  So it is a, it is a, how can I say a double program that's
• 49:48
  designed on an individual later, later, what you call it thing.
• 49:54
  It's almost like they said bespoke or bespoke.
• 49:57
  It's like a bespoke thing. Wow.
• 49:59
  It's, it's, we don't just send everybody the same thing unless,
• 50:02
  but sometimes we say it says the month of Ramadan.
• 50:04
  We send everybody a book on the month of Ramadan.
• 50:06
  Or As for more horror, we send everybody a book on more horror.
• 50:09
  Now that's different. But on a daily basis, when it
• 50:12
  comes down to the books we send, we look and we look at the needs
• 50:16
  of every individual that sent us a letter.
• 50:20
  And we, you know, we draft up a best thing that's going to help
• 50:24
  them, in other words, get better when it comes out to their
• 50:28
  beliefs. In other words, once a person
• 50:31
  leave after being in our program, they will be fully
• 50:34
  prepared for anyone, anyone. And this is what we do.
• 50:39
  Me and Sheikh Mateen, you know, we work good together 'cause we
• 50:42
  try to find a book for everything, every possibility,
• 50:48
  everything. I literally, I think we got
• 50:50
  close to 70 books on our curriculum, just our curriculum.
• 50:55
  The the If you don't mind, I'll tell you something.
• 50:58
  I don't want you to talk. Say the Muhammad Taki al
• 51:04
  Mudarasi kept telling us you should put the Houser for them
• 51:09
  in the prison like a pre Houser type of thing so they when they
• 51:12
  come home, they could be well learned, you know.
• 51:15
  Yeah. And I was like saying how we're
• 51:17
  going to do that, but we sending them books where you need, you
• 51:20
  know, classes on these books and stuff.
• 51:22
  And I'm the law away for us that we found a lot of the states now
• 51:27
  have tablets and there's a paid side they can get like.
• 51:30
  We on the tablet. Stuff found on the other side is
• 51:33
  a, a free side where you can upload courses and stuff.
• 51:36
  So this brother from, yeah, from Hijaz, yeah, he got, he was
• 51:41
  volunteering, he wrote us and then we started working on it.
• 51:45
  And I said, is this thing just for your state you're in right
• 51:47
  now or for everywhere? For everywhere.
• 51:49
  We found out it was for all the states, you know.
• 51:51
  So I got with the other member of Second Chance, Sheikh
• 51:55
  Mohammed Baker and Ajad. So I told him about it and he
• 51:59
  has an online Hauser called Imam Sadiq Online Academy or Imam
• 52:03
  Sadiq Academy. So he has like over 70 courses
• 52:08
  of Hauser. They took the time, uploaded all
• 52:11
  the courses in the Houser with the tests like the the multiple
• 52:15
  choice tests and all this. And they also write us and and
• 52:19
  you know, if they have questions that we can answer.
• 52:22
  So they can take 70 online Houser courses.
• 52:25
  All they have is time and then the Martha said when they come
• 52:29
  home, tell them if they want to come to Karbala and study in the
• 52:34
  house, then they can go back, be more validating and teach their
• 52:37
  communities and we'll help them and you know.
• 52:40
  Not only that, we also put lectures on a lot of different
• 52:43
  speakers. So second chances is, is it's
• 52:49
  almost like a complete dollar machine.
• 52:51
  Yeah. You know, any way that they they
• 52:55
  can learn. We're trying to get involved
• 52:57
  with it. When they when they there's a
• 52:58
  book, we think of new. Ways.
• 53:00
  Instead of tablets, we got on the tablets anyway.
• 53:03
  We try to do it, you know, because that's all we do is sit
• 53:06
  and think what is a way that we could get to them, get them the
• 53:11
  knowledge. But Second Chance is just not a
• 53:13
  prison program neither. Second Chance also sends books
• 53:17
  to the families of those who are incarcerated.
• 53:20
  Second Chance also, we also send books to those who just
• 53:25
  converted. Yeah.
• 53:26
  So we do all of this. Even those interested in those.
• 53:29
  Interested. So we send books.
• 53:31
  We put books in homeless shelters, we put books, send
• 53:33
  books to other countries that have Jose NIA, but they don't
• 53:36
  have any English books. I remember we sent books to
• 53:40
  Colombia, Jamaica, other places, you know, and then so we send
• 53:46
  books to chaplains and whoever wants wants those books we try
• 53:50
  to send. That's the demand there's.
• 53:51
  Obviously going to be. At yeah, this is the demand and
• 53:55
  this is the thing you know, we send them if they want to we
• 53:58
  send them no strings attached. We don't sell I.
• 54:02
  Don't need to find out if you don't mind.
• 54:03
  Me asking word of mouth. What?
• 54:05
  Really. Word of mouth.
• 54:06
  See the best way. See.
• 54:07
  Find the website too. They Yeah.
• 54:08
  Well, they have a website, but the majority of people learn
• 54:11
  through a word of mouth and that's the best way majority of
• 54:13
  times, right? Because I remember being in
• 54:16
  retail, right? As management, they said that
• 54:18
  when someone has something good or a good reaction, they tell 10
• 54:22
  people. So 10 people, the one person
• 54:25
  tell 10 people, each of those people tell 10 people.
• 54:29
  So it's start to spread like a wildfire.
• 54:32
  So people here, they said, look, if you write these write second
• 54:36
  chance books, right? They will send you a book and as
• 54:39
  long as you write them, they will send you a book.
• 54:43
  But we have a guy that I remember, we wrote him for at
• 54:46
  least 10 years and he did what Bilal do, 28 years. 20 years,
• 54:51
  20. Years or something?
• 54:53
  No, he did 20. I think he did 20 something, 22
• 54:55
  years something. He did a lot of time.
• 54:56
  Yeah, he knows it by heart. Like 22 years, 8 months, seven
• 55:00
  days, you know, like. Wait till the minutes.
• 55:02
  And seconds like he got it down and Masha'allah, he came home
• 55:07
  and he contacted us and he's he's part of us and and he's
• 55:11
  going into prison and doing Juma and teaching brothers and doing
• 55:15
  all that and he's doing a really good job.
• 55:19
  I met with him and he raised him too.
• 55:21
  We went and did like do all I did do all to also in one of
• 55:25
  their houses. We all gathered together former
• 55:28
  members of Second Chance and. And I was with some.
• 55:30
  We went to a food festival, you know, so we do keep in contact
• 55:34
  with those and and trust me, you know, we was going to take
• 55:38
  before what happened. We was going to go take a couple
• 55:41
  of of of people that was participating into Second
• 55:43
  Chance. So what you call it for this to
• 55:46
  visit to go for Ziara and stuff like that.
• 55:49
  Yeah. So we also, we don't just let
• 55:51
  their hands go, we hold on to the hands.
• 55:54
  You're with them all the way here we.
• 55:55
  Hold on to their hands, you know, beautiful.
• 55:57
  And that's the thing where people do these type of things.
• 55:59
  They they look at them as just, oh, I'm just giving a book.
• 56:02
  We look at them how they supposed to be looked at as.
• 56:05
  Human beings, human beings. That's human dignity involves.
• 56:07
  Human beings, because, because they're incarcerated, that does
• 56:10
  not mean they have any different desires that we do.
• 56:15
  They want to learn. We want to learn.
• 56:17
  You know, they want good in life.
• 56:18
  We want good in life. You know, we're free, but
• 56:21
  they're not. That's the only difference.
• 56:23
  Everything else is the same. They want something that's going
• 56:26
  to bring them closer to a law. We want something that's going
• 56:28
  to bring them closer to a law. And that's how Second Chance is.
• 56:32
  Can I ask? Of course.
• 56:33
  Sorry, Sir. I was going to say it's, it's
• 56:36
  beautiful. It's actually inspiring.
• 56:38
  I'm just trying to think about like, why wasn't this done long
• 56:41
  time ago? So I'm very happy that this work
• 56:43
  is being done. Sorry I was going to say no just
• 56:46
  I was going to say the same thing but not just why it wasn't
• 56:48
  done but OK we have it now. Why aren't we supporting more?
• 56:52
  Like bro, if I'm not mistaken, from what you have both told me,
• 56:58
  when you consider publication costs and shipping costs, it
• 57:02
  costs no more than $10 to send a book to someone in need.
• 57:06
  So you could, you could. And the UK, that's 7 lbs.
• 57:09
  There's nothing. Yeah, just $10.
• 57:11
  That $10 includes a print of the book and sending it off.
• 57:15
  Yeah, because we print the books ourselves at the.
• 57:18
  Priceless. Yeah, priceless benefits.
• 57:20
  Yeah, we don't get nothing from printing these books off.
• 57:22
  Yeah. So for those who are listening
• 57:24
  now, who want to support the work you're doing, how can they
• 57:26
  contribute? They contribute by going to
• 57:28
  Second Chance books.org, 2 NDSH you know CHANCEBOKK s.org.
• 57:39
  Books. Is B OK?
• 57:40
  K. OK.
• 57:42
  You do it again. We should do it again.
• 57:44
  Shake tell them the. Link on the.
• 57:47
  Yeah. Please just do that.
• 57:50
  I never said I was a good speller.
• 57:54
  Right, they're the ones writing to you.
• 57:58
  You must be my I'm like, man, how you spell it, He's like what
• 58:01
  it like what you mean how you spell it.
• 58:06
  You like, you know, leave me alone.
• 58:08
  I'm like actually trying to ask him how to spell it it you won't
• 58:10
  tell me. When you got into that, I was
• 58:14
  like, I don't know about this. I was hoping you got it.
• 58:19
  You know, Chef's idea was nice. You were mentioning how there's
• 58:21
  communication between the inmates and yourself in the
• 58:23
  organization. And I'm, I'm sure, well, maybe
• 58:27
  there's once one story or one inmate or or one letter that was
• 58:31
  exchanged that stayed with you or resonated with you.
• 58:35
  Is so many inspirational letters that I do videos on our
• 58:40
  Instagram about, you know what they send us.
• 58:44
  You know, The thing is, it's humbling.
• 58:47
  You know, it's humbling how so many people they they write to
• 58:50
  us are saying that they're so happy that they found us because
• 58:53
  they felt that it was lied to, you know, about the way they
• 58:58
  believed. And so they started reading the
• 59:00
  books about Jeffrey at school, about Aquila Bay and how and
• 59:05
  then you find some people how when they convert that the
• 59:09
  people stop even giving them salams and like, aren't I even
• 59:13
  worth a Salam? You know what I mean?
• 59:17
  It is same to you. Remember earlier all these
• 59:20
  things. It's lonely path.
• 59:22
  The lonely path is when I tell you I think I did about 303030.
• 59:27
  Something like that. Like that I need to do more, but
• 59:30
  I did about 30 letters and all of them are saying how, how you
• 59:35
  know, happy they are that we don't leave them alone.
• 59:38
  In other words, we help them with with books to learn to make
• 59:42
  them better people to make and show them the ways of occupy.
• 59:45
  See, The thing is this right say the problem a lot of people is
• 59:48
  that when they hear about Shia because they heard it from a
• 59:51
  person that hate Shia, that they think is something wrong with
• 59:54
  Shia. But the only way you can learn
• 59:56
  about something is that you have to read it from the person that
• 1:00:00
  is a part of it. If you read it from someone
• 1:00:03
  that's a that's against it, he's going to have, you know, a
• 1:00:06
  little, little little bit of this, a little bit of that in
• 1:00:08
  there and it's not going to, you know, look good for the people
• 1:00:10
  he's talking about. So when they read the books that
• 1:00:13
  we send them, they like, wow, especially we send them books
• 1:00:16
  about Imam Hussein and the struggle.
• 1:00:18
  One thing about someone that's, you know, incarcerated, they
• 1:00:21
  understand struggle. Yes.
• 1:00:23
  You know, we all understand struggle, but they understand
• 1:00:25
  struggle, you know, 'cause the worst thing you could ever do is
• 1:00:31
  be by yourself, with yourself. Because now you have to deal
• 1:00:35
  with yourself and all the good and bad things about you that
• 1:00:40
  you have to figure out because you with yourself scary, you
• 1:00:44
  know? It's scary, mommy and COVID.
• 1:00:46
  I was like, I've been training my whole life for this moment.
• 1:00:50
  You guys are weak, you can't handle it.
• 1:00:52
  We ain't got a COVID. It was in the room for 10 days.
• 1:00:55
  He said I was dying in there. His wife's bringing him food to
• 1:00:58
  the door, all this stuff. He got Netflix.
• 1:01:01
  I said, man, I don't want to hear it.
• 1:01:02
  He said I thought about you while I was in there.
• 1:01:04
  I was in there for 10 days. I said man, tried 10 years.
• 1:01:07
  You know what I mean? I was like, I was like, man,
• 1:01:10
  just just don't even tell me about it.
• 1:01:12
  Tell me. About it.
• 1:01:14
  But that's what I'm saying, you know, that's the thing these
• 1:01:17
  people is So see the letters make us want to go harder.
• 1:01:24
  It makes us want to go harder. Yeah.
• 1:01:25
  Because these people are pouring their emotions out to us and let
• 1:01:30
  us know how they really feel. Yeah.
• 1:01:32
  About the organization of Second Chance books.
• 1:01:36
  How is helping them? Because you know, people when
• 1:01:38
  you incarcerated people forget about you, especially if you got
• 1:01:42
  a lot of time. They may be with you one or two
• 1:01:44
  years and but as time go on, those letters stop, those visits
• 1:01:48
  stop. Even from your family.
• 1:01:50
  Yeah, the money all. Alone.
• 1:01:52
  You lose everybody you know, but here it is.
• 1:01:54
  We send books, we send answers. They feel like they're part of a
• 1:02:00
  community. If you look at the Husseinia, I
• 1:02:03
  mean, how many people? Maybe you can get 1000 in a huge
• 1:02:06
  center, right? But we have like a community of
• 1:02:09
  4000 people, but we just don't see them all in the same place,
• 1:02:12
  you know? So we're reaching a huge number
• 1:02:15
  of them. Remind me, I was.
• 1:02:16
  So I have a friend. He's a chaplain in the prisons
• 1:02:19
  in America, right? And he was saying, man, the
• 1:02:22
  people in the prisons, they talk about you and Sheikh Mateen like
• 1:02:25
  they know y'all, like they really know y'all and stuff.
• 1:02:29
  Like in mind you, the person that's the chaplain, he knew me
• 1:02:31
  all my life, right? He they may talk about y'all
• 1:02:33
  like they like they literally they know us like we would like
• 1:02:37
  was hanging out, you know, we probably got some kebabs
• 1:02:40
  together and stuff. You know, like he said, that's
• 1:02:42
  how he put it and stuff like that.
• 1:02:44
  Because how we deal with them, how we deal with people when it
• 1:02:50
  comes down to this program, you know, even when we do videos
• 1:02:54
  about it, they don't feel emotionless, you know?
• 1:02:58
  Because sometimes you can see a video of a personal service
• 1:03:00
  like, oh, help us, you know, help us.
• 1:03:02
  This thing, you'd be like, man, it's like really no emotion.
• 1:03:04
  We have emotion because we really because we believe in
• 1:03:08
  this. This is a incentive that we
• 1:03:11
  stand behind, you know. Yeah, I mean you're it's it goes
• 1:03:16
  last thing. Anyone who who has followed your
• 1:03:19
  work and who's seen your enthusiasm knows that your
• 1:03:22
  passion just shines through. And I can't stress it enough to
• 1:03:26
  to bronze sisters at home that second chance books needs to be
• 1:03:31
  supported. It really does.
• 1:03:33
  The opportunities are endless that the demand is endless.
• 1:03:35
  The people who can benefit from the stories of the Quran and the
• 1:03:40
  attitude beta. I think of Saddam, Islamic
• 1:03:42
  history, Islamic belief systems, Islamic spirituality, Islamic
• 1:03:44
  sciences and just generally the wealth of literature which you
• 1:03:48
  have accessible to you as well, which you have.
• 1:03:50
  And I and I know because we've spoken about this before, but
• 1:03:54
  the research that you guys do in terms of books from the Houser
• 1:03:57
  books that you've had translated just for Second Chance as well,
• 1:04:00
  Sheikh Martinez played like he has to proofread them as well.
• 1:04:04
  How many books do you read here We.
• 1:04:06
  Shouldn't talk about this. You know this right here.
• 1:04:08
  We shouldn't talk about it. It's good for me, but I'm like,
• 1:04:11
  Sheikh, you're trying to kill me already.
• 1:04:13
  Because you can't. Even read your own books in my
• 1:04:15
  library because he's like, read this one, here's another one,
• 1:04:18
  here's another one. I'm like, all right, man.
• 1:04:20
  This let me explain something to you.
• 1:04:22
  You know, a great Marjorie in my eyes told me that we we're on
• 1:04:25
  the right path, but we need to pick it up.
• 1:04:28
  So when he said that, I said, oh man, he's like he's 80 year old
• 1:04:31
  Marjorie. He told me pick up.
• 1:04:32
  I got to pick it up. Yeah, and I picked it up.
• 1:04:36
  He never said that anymore after that.
• 1:04:38
  He never said. It anymore I picked it up
• 1:04:39
  because. I was like, man, this is a high
• 1:04:41
  pace right here and. Because I think one year, man, I
• 1:04:44
  think one year was like 20 books, one bid was 25 books and
• 1:04:48
  30 books. I was like.
• 1:04:49
  Yeah, from Arabic to English. Yeah, translated from some
• 1:04:52
  scholars and. That's such valuable work.
• 1:04:55
  Yeah, it really is valuable. Because I look into the Arabic.
• 1:04:59
  When I see, I look. I just look in Arabic.
• 1:05:00
  I read the book. Oh yeah, we should get this
• 1:05:03
  translated. And then I just get it
• 1:05:05
  translated and I'm like yo, here's the book, proofread it.
• 1:05:09
  He's like man, I got like 6 books ahead of I said look why
• 1:05:12
  you got to be all negative man, You got to be negative.
• 1:05:15
  Just read the books and edit it man.
• 1:05:16
  Don't worry about it. And then I'll hit them with some
• 1:05:18
  more. But that's so good because
• 1:05:20
  you'll know, for example, the tone and whether it's suitable
• 1:05:23
  for someone who's inside and whether it's something they'll
• 1:05:25
  benefit from. And then obviously when you've
• 1:05:27
  read it, you'll know that is this something which this person
• 1:05:29
  will need if they've got a specific issue?
• 1:05:31
  Does this address their problem? Their concern?
• 1:05:33
  When I read the letter, I can know exactly.
• 1:05:36
  It's like you're like a doctor. Which one is?
• 1:05:37
  The one diagnosing them. And then we realized not to
• 1:05:40
  translate big books. And we have, we have translated
• 1:05:44
  big books, but the majority of books we translate are small
• 1:05:47
  because we understand we want to keep the attempts on a. 100
• 1:05:50
  pages or so. And then we do have some bigger
• 1:05:52
  books. We have some 506 hundred pages.
• 1:05:54
  That's the question and answer books that we've done and stuff
• 1:05:57
  like that, but like regular books on belief and all that, we
• 1:05:59
  keep it short. But you're so like you're,
• 1:06:04
  you're All in all you're running costs on a monthly basis are
• 1:06:07
  quite low. I mean, relatively to many
• 1:06:10
  organizations, yeah. And of course, as you said, the
• 1:06:14
  demand is endless. And if you can do more, you will
• 1:06:16
  do more. But this is all subject to the
• 1:06:17
  community. Yeah, giving back.
• 1:06:19
  It's a grassroots project. Grassroots, we can actually send
• 1:06:22
  4000 books a month. Yes, but this is $40,000 a
• 1:06:26
  month. Yeah, $10 a book and we don't
• 1:06:28
  have $40,000 a month coming in. So we do whatever we can with
• 1:06:33
  what we have. And then the problem comes is we
• 1:06:37
  usually have a lot more letters coming in than the funds.
• 1:06:41
  So that means these people want knowledge of Arlo Bait.
• 1:06:46
  They have to wait. And then maybe someone sends
• 1:06:49
  some money and we say, OK, we can take care of a couple of
• 1:06:51
  those, but maybe we have, you know, 100 people in the queue
• 1:06:55
  waiting for books and it depends.
• 1:06:57
  But if we had the subscription, I can say like monthly payment
• 1:07:02
  because what happens is someone sees a video, they like it, they
• 1:07:06
  say Mashallah want to support and they send one time it's
• 1:07:09
  good, but then they forget about it and then the next month is
• 1:07:13
  the same struggle. How can we get the money to send
• 1:07:16
  that person? But if a person thinks and says,
• 1:07:19
  you know, you know, sadaqa of wards off, you know, calamities
• 1:07:24
  and things and a lot of people every month or there for the
• 1:07:28
  loved ones that passed away, they say, I'm going to sign up
• 1:07:32
  this donate recurring donation for $10.25 dollars, whatever
• 1:07:37
  they want to and it just put it once and let it go every month.
• 1:07:41
  And they said that's my sadaqa for the this is for my deceased
• 1:07:44
  grandparents. It's kind of like the Pejoria
• 1:07:48
  as. Well.
• 1:07:48
  It's actually, it's actually the Pejoria.
• 1:07:50
  Says the endless benefit. Like the people?
• 1:07:54
  Those books stay in there until the covers fall off, they fall
• 1:07:57
  apart, they pass them around to each other.
• 1:07:59
  So I got this book from Second Chance.
• 1:08:01
  Oh, I got another one after I finished reading this one.
• 1:08:03
  I'll give you this one. Oh, so they keep them and then,
• 1:08:05
  yeah. Yeah.
• 1:08:06
  And then then they were telling us we're teaching classes from
• 1:08:10
  these books, like a ID classes or something.
• 1:08:14
  And in Muharram, they said we took the book about Imam
• 1:08:18
  Hussein. We gathered in the in the prison
• 1:08:20
  cell and they had like Mostiba, you know, they're reading the
• 1:08:25
  Mostiba to the to themselves and start crying in the prison cell.
• 1:08:31
  Imagine putting the light of Imam Hussein's Mostiba.
• 1:08:35
  I mean that's priceless. If someone tells you, you can
• 1:08:38
  donate to send that book of most siba for example to prison to to
• 1:08:42
  do that the effect it's having. So lalalala care about the law.
• 1:08:48
  When you look at what we sent to the minimum amount of packages
• 1:08:52
  is at least 300 packages, that's the minimum amount.
• 1:08:55
  And we doing this multiple times, not once or twice a year.
• 1:08:58
  We doing it a lot of times, at least 10 times a year,
• 1:09:03
  constantly doing it. I mean, where were before what
• 1:09:06
  we do before Moharam? It was something I had him
• 1:09:09
  working so hard. He was so mad.
• 1:09:11
  At I was so upset because I had like 3 days to get ready to
• 1:09:13
  leave. Yeah, to go lecture and we, I
• 1:09:17
  think I was about two batches of like 700 something books.
• 1:09:22
  Yeah, it was like he had to package all them, you know,
• 1:09:24
  because I get the letters, I read them because they scan the
• 1:09:27
  mail when it comes in. I get it.
• 1:09:29
  I log it under their name and enter it in there and I look at
• 1:09:33
  what books they have. I read the letter, I say, OK,
• 1:09:36
  they need this book. I put it in the order.
• 1:09:37
  Then it goes to Sheikh. Sheikh has an inventory, so he
• 1:09:41
  gets the books, package the books, send the books.
• 1:09:44
  If they have questions, ficky questions, Sheikh answer or I'll
• 1:09:49
  answer which whoever has time you know.
• 1:09:51
  Money. That was the month around that
• 1:09:53
  was about to leave to go lecturing you.
• 1:09:55
  Gotta get these like. Oh my gosh, we will have.
• 1:09:57
  Commitment, no, we wanted to get him for for, you know, to have
• 1:10:00
  for latest Okada or all these things.
• 1:10:02
  We don't want to miss these events.
• 1:10:03
  Demand I just haddam I don't say haddam, but there's at least a
• 1:10:07
  Wagyu like responsibility on us as a community I.
• 1:10:10
  Had to knock them out, bro. You didn't had to knock him out.
• 1:10:13
  It was a lot of books, you know? But this is crazy.
• 1:10:16
  Like it's it's yours like we we're seeing 2 scholars who are
• 1:10:21
  you? Like you guys are not even based
• 1:10:22
  in the same office. No, because you're in two
• 1:10:24
  different time zones. We're two different right?
• 1:10:26
  And so you're watching Family I. Don't sleep, it calls me all the
• 1:10:29
  time. I.
• 1:10:30
  Sleep in 20 years bro, I'm just 7.
• 1:10:32
  Hours. 7 hours, Yeah, it's 7 hours time.
• 1:10:34
  Sleep in 20 years, as I told you, you know, having like a
• 1:10:36
  really good sleep. My wife had found some non
• 1:10:40
  narcotic sleeping pills. They only worked for two days
• 1:10:43
  and that was it. How was back to my old ways, you
• 1:10:48
  know? The love grant you more success
• 1:10:52
  and preserve and then Charlotte always grant more success to
• 1:10:56
  second chance. And and I think I think it goes
• 1:10:59
  without saying that I'm sure not only everyone who's listening
• 1:11:02
  would be proud of the work you're doing.
• 1:11:04
  Of course, all the beneficiaries and everyone who's received
• 1:11:07
  benefit from the work you do. But beyond that and more
• 1:11:10
  importantly than that, the Imam of our time mamps, I have a
• 1:11:12
  lustful Zaman, not Allah Alafajah Sharif is a witness to
• 1:11:16
  it and I'm sure I'm I'm sure we'd all agree that his his
• 1:11:20
  blessing would be with you and Inshallah, long may it continue
• 1:11:23
  and may be in his service in Charlotte.
• 1:11:26
  I mean, so yeah, Brun sisters, please, please check out the
• 1:11:29
  Second Chance books find on Instagram, on social media and
• 1:11:34
  support, support, support monthly donation.
• 1:11:37
  It doesn't have to be huge. Of course, the bigger the
• 1:11:40
  better, but whatever you can do will go a long way.
• 1:11:42
  And if it's recurring, if it's sustainable residual, it's
• 1:11:45
  better because then it's kind of like sponsoring someone's
• 1:11:49
  education on a monthly basis. You could put think of it in
• 1:11:52
  that way, right? So is there any last kind of
• 1:11:55
  words or messages that either of you want to share with what
• 1:11:57
  they're doing at home? Well, The thing is this, we have
• 1:12:00
  to use our money in the best way, and the best way is
• 1:12:04
  sponsoring someone that is in need, especially for knowledge.
• 1:12:08
  Yeah, these people are in need and they can't help themselves.
• 1:12:14
  You know, it's almost like if a person passes away and he has
• 1:12:19
  prayers in which he's missed, you have to determine.
• 1:12:22
  You have to be the people that still alive to take care of
• 1:12:25
  that. You know, they're like that.
• 1:12:29
  They're alive though, but they can't take care of certain
• 1:12:32
  things themselves. Is up to us to take care of that
• 1:12:35
  for them and as a community, you know, we should help them as
• 1:12:40
  best I can as we can because, you know, people think like I
• 1:12:44
  said that the religion or the Islam stays in the prisons.
• 1:12:47
  But no, it actually comes out because they actually giving
• 1:12:51
  Dawa to their families. They the families giving Dawa to
• 1:12:55
  other people. You know, and it's should I say
• 1:12:58
  that story. Which one?
• 1:13:00
  The one about one of the brothers, and that's in North
• 1:13:02
  Carolina. How that was all right, So we
• 1:13:05
  have one brother that's that was a part of our program.
• 1:13:08
  He's been on program for a while.
• 1:13:09
  So do the program. He converted, you know, his
• 1:13:11
  wife, his children and everything.
• 1:13:13
  So he called me to do a Genoziphon.
• 1:13:15
  I went and I buried, you know, his son, unfortunately.
• 1:13:19
  And I noticed that the family that he converted was it was
• 1:13:23
  spreading because they was converting more of their family
• 1:13:26
  members. So we're going to Fast forward
• 1:13:28
  it. We're in Kuwait mind our
• 1:13:29
  business, right. So it's just one brother that's
• 1:13:32
  a convert. And he said, oh, shake my team
• 1:13:35
  member, I'll try to reach out to you and everything, right?
• 1:13:37
  So he became Shia to the brother that was in the prisons family.
• 1:13:44
  Wow. Oh, not law.
• 1:13:45
  Yeah. Now come on now, law it.
• 1:13:49
  You can't tell me that books in which we sent it to prison.
• 1:13:53
  He converted his family. His family converted another
• 1:13:55
  brother. Full circle.
• 1:13:57
  Full circle and haters we meet in him.
• 1:13:59
  So just imagine about the stories in which we haven't
• 1:14:02
  heard. Yeah.
• 1:14:03
  Especially if they're keeping the books and showing it amongst
• 1:14:06
  themselves. You don't know where it's going,
• 1:14:08
  don't know where it's going. Benefiting.
• 1:14:10
  So when people it's like. Planting seeds honestly.
• 1:14:13
  Of course, you know what people think it's just like, oh, it's
• 1:14:15
  just a prison. It just, no, it's that that that
• 1:14:18
  is reaching other people. Yeah.
• 1:14:20
  And those who send money is benefiting all of that.
• 1:14:23
  They get into the wild for all of that.
• 1:14:26
  All of that and their bloodlines, their descendants,
• 1:14:29
  their families to come for generations after, you know, of
• 1:14:32
  course. This is what I'm saying.
• 1:14:33
  So you can't just look at look at it as a surface thing.
• 1:14:36
  When you donate, it's more deeper.
• 1:14:39
  You know, when you look at the, the tree, we just see the trunk
• 1:14:43
  and the tree limbs. We're not seeing the roots, the
• 1:14:45
  roots and how far the roots go, right, and what it connects to.
• 1:14:51
  We have to look at it in this way.
• 1:14:53
  Mashallah, you know we have to look at this way.
• 1:14:56
  Oh, thank you so much. Usually I would steal stuff from
• 1:14:58
  Shake Mateen, but no, this is originally.
• 1:15:05
  This is story I'd like to share because a lot of people try to
• 1:15:09
  find, you know, how can I protect my money and invest my
• 1:15:12
  money in a good way and I don't lose my money.
• 1:15:15
  And there's a story about a caravan of people travelling
• 1:15:19
  with Imam Saadi Kalai Salaam. And they were afraid because the
• 1:15:23
  people would rob those caravans sometimes kill them and all sort
• 1:15:27
  of stuff. So they were afraid about what
• 1:15:30
  to do with their money. So they said to Imam Sadiq
• 1:15:34
  Alayhi, so let me know what if the robbers come and they what,
• 1:15:38
  can we leave our money with you? He's like, no, you know, don't
• 1:15:41
  leave your money with me. Maybe they will, you know, try
• 1:15:43
  to attack me. So they said, what should we do?
• 1:15:47
  Should we bury our money or something like that?
• 1:15:49
  You said, if you bury your money, maybe you're going to
• 1:15:51
  lose it or you can't and go back to it.
• 1:15:54
  And Imam said, you know deposit and trust your money with the
• 1:16:00
  one who never loses any deposit or trust.
• 1:16:03
  And who is that rebel are? Let me give it to Lord of the
• 1:16:07
  worlds. How do we give our money to
• 1:16:09
  Allah? They asked your mom, he said, by
• 1:16:12
  paying one third of your money to the poor.
• 1:16:15
  And how do we pay? There's no poor people here.
• 1:16:18
  They said all of us have money. So Imam said, intend that if you
• 1:16:22
  get through this road safely and you arrive at your destination
• 1:16:26
  unharmed, you'll give one third of your money to the poor.
• 1:16:29
  So they all made that intention. And during that journey, the
• 1:16:33
  robbers and the thieves came. So they got scared.
• 1:16:36
  They were like, Oh my God, they're coming to take my money,
• 1:16:39
  you know. So Imam told them, you know, how
• 1:16:42
  can you be afraid while you're under the protection of the Lord
• 1:16:45
  of the world's, Don't fear anything.
• 1:16:48
  So he said the thieves got there, they got off their horses
• 1:16:51
  and instead of robbing them, they came to the Imam and kissed
• 1:16:54
  the Imam's hand. They said that they saw
• 1:16:56
  Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi in their dream.
• 1:16:59
  And he said that he ordered us to be at your service.
• 1:17:03
  So we're at your service. What do you want?
• 1:17:05
  Do you want us to protect other people from, you know, other
• 1:17:08
  looters or robbers? Imam said no need Allah the one
• 1:17:11
  who protected us from you will also protect us from other
• 1:17:15
  people. So they arrived at their
• 1:17:18
  destination safely. They gave their third of their
• 1:17:22
  money to those poor people. And it said that later on after
• 1:17:26
  that, you know, sometimes you give your money, the doubt comes
• 1:17:30
  in your minds. You know, I, I lost money like
• 1:17:32
  giving money. But really it said according to
• 1:17:35
  the Hadith, those people later they benefited even 10 Durham
• 1:17:41
  for every Durham. So you know, 10 LB for every
• 1:17:45
  £1.00 that they donated. And then in the way of the poor.
• 1:17:49
  So, you know, it's like we want to see a lot of people ask that
• 1:17:54
  how can we get our risk increased?
• 1:17:57
  And they think if I give, I'm going to lose.
• 1:18:00
  But we see here it protected their wealth, protected their
• 1:18:03
  business. It also increased their wealth
• 1:18:06
  by making the intention to help other people, to help the poor
• 1:18:10
  people. What better way to give
• 1:18:13
  knowledge to other people about Imam Mahdi Ajah Allah to Allah
• 1:18:18
  for all the Imam Alay Musalam? What better way is there to
• 1:18:22
  spend your money? You know, lose anything?
• 1:18:25
  Not only that, we forget that when you give, it increases your
• 1:18:29
  life. Many instances that when people
• 1:18:33
  were supposed to have bad things happen to them, but the charity
• 1:18:37
  in which they give had prevented them from going through this,
• 1:18:40
  you know, and it extends their life.
• 1:18:43
  We never think about this. We have to think about this.
• 1:18:47
  Our wealth is a test for us. We're going to be asked what do
• 1:18:51
  we do with our wealth? And we have to do right by
• 1:18:55
  helping others with our wealth. You know, it's, you know, it's,
• 1:18:59
  it's, it's something which we have to do is it's a test.
• 1:19:03
  Absolutely. It's a test, you know, a funny
• 1:19:07
  joke, right? He said.
• 1:19:09
  He said one time this man, he had $20 and he gave away 10.
• 1:19:13
  Then all of a sudden he received another 10.
• 1:19:15
  He start to cry. He said, why have you cried?
• 1:19:18
  He said, oh, but I didn't give away the 10.
• 1:19:19
  I will have 30I mean, so this is how we think.
• 1:19:25
  Yeah, I know. Yeah.
• 1:19:27
  I know not thinking that, You know, a lot of the Geller.
• 1:19:29
  You gave away 10 and he replaced it.
• 1:19:32
  We cried. We would have had more, yeah.
• 1:19:36
  Allah is merciful and generous. Definitely.
• 1:19:39
  Anything you give in A cause, like anything you give towards
• 1:19:41
  Islam, you know, it's not lost. No.
• 1:19:44
  We see in the holy of Quran, Allah repeatedly reminds us of
• 1:19:48
  this sentiment. So Bakra, we see this a lot as
• 1:19:50
  well. So yeah.
• 1:19:53
  Think about it, every time Allah says a lot, He says what?
• 1:19:57
  Establish a prayer and give the Zakah the charity every time.
• 1:20:01
  You know. Every time it's that was a
• 1:20:04
  prayer and give to zakat. They go hand to hand.
• 1:20:06
  Hand in hand. Yeah, we read that.
• 1:20:09
  We read the prayer part, We forget it.
• 1:20:11
  Yeah, yeah. Let me skip over to Zakat.
• 1:20:13
  All the sudden, all the charity. Yeah, you're right.
• 1:20:15
  Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, anyway, I think it's good
• 1:20:19
  food for thought I myself and I'm going to put say down in the
• 1:20:22
  spot. Are you going to support Second
• 1:20:24
  Chance on the monthly basis today, today as well and.
• 1:20:28
  They probably have deep pockets. Thank you so much for today.
• 1:20:38
  It's been inspiring and I and I think it's been beneficial for
• 1:20:41
  many of those who want a second chance, for those listening, who
• 1:20:44
  are distracted, who are facing peer pressure, who we feel maybe
• 1:20:48
  the doors of Rahm, of Allah's panel, Tyler's closed, but no,
• 1:20:51
  it's open. I will always be open shopping.
• 1:20:54
  Awesome. Absolutely.
• 1:20:56
  Thank you both. Charlotte won't be the last time
• 1:20:59
  he's a part let. Me ask you a question, yeah.
• 1:21:01
  Now if I come back, will I be with a certain person?
• 1:21:03
  Because that would determine if I come back.
• 1:21:05
  It comes down to where the chef Marti is kicking your chair on
• 1:21:09
  the fly. You know, he's like the the son
• 1:21:15
  that starts the fight. And then when I hit back, he
• 1:21:16
  said, oh, he hit me and I get in trouble.
• 1:21:19
  I read him this for a while one time and said, like, even if you
• 1:21:22
  go up on the top of the mountain to be alone or you go floating
• 1:21:26
  out in the sea on a board, you know, there will be someone that
• 1:21:30
  will come and bother you. And I'm going to put this on the
• 1:21:35
  frame, you know, and put it in the house.
• 1:21:40
  No, we just, oh, we have jokes all the time.
• 1:21:42
  Don't worry. And we host a podcast.
• 1:21:44
  No one will pray after it's pretty.
• 1:21:51
  All right, guys, drop it like in the comments.
• 1:21:54
  Comments. Yeah, honestly amazing, amazing.
• 1:21:58
  So we will be back next week. Thank you again to our two.
• 1:22:01
  Amazing. And we'll be back next week on
• 1:22:04
  the Aftermarket podcast. Stay tuned.
• 1:22:06
  It's going to be an incredible conversation.
• 1:22:07
  We'll see you then.