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Living as a Muslim in Recovery: Finding Your Place with Abdirahman Warsame | Confident Muslim

June 1, 2022Yaqeen Institute

Trying to fit in and learning ways to cope with trauma, Abdirahman Warsame found himself within the clamps of addiction. Looking for a way out, he realized how hard it was to get help and that many others in his community were struggling silently as well. At just 21 years old, through his own recovery, he decided to do something about it.

Meet our newest Confident Muslim, Abdirahman Warsame, founder of GenerationHopeMN. Learn more at generationhopemn.org

Confident Muslim by Yaqeen Institute is a platform which highlights everyday Muslims making a positive impact in society, inspired by their faith.

To learn how to overcome addiction through faith, read Yaqeen's paper that talks about Ibn Al-Qayyim's rehabilitation program for treating addiction.

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Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
That was very loud from my end. I can't hear you. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Thank you for all the kids up here, because that's all I heard. Inshallah, before we begin this Yaqeen session on kafir and Muslims, I just have one quick announcement. If you are trouble hearing or hearing impaired, we do have a special section right here on the left side of the stage or the right side of your stage. So if you are hard of hearing or hearing impaired, please we have a section over here. So inshallah if you want to make your way up here, we have a stage and everything. Inshallah, if everybody can settle down, we can get started with our session. Before we begin, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Mohammed Ali. I am the South Development Coordinator for Yaqeen Institute. And we are honored that IKNA has allowed us to give this confident Muslim session. I know you guys are not here to see me. So inshallah, I'd like to introduce the founder of Yaqeen Institute, Dr. Omar Suleiman, who is also the resident scholar at Valley Ranch Islamic Center. Dr. Omar has so many hands in so many things. I've introduced him so many times. I have a funny way of introducing him, but I know he doesn't like that. But we all know him. We all love him. Please put your hands together for Dr. Omar Suleiman. What does being Muslim mean to you? Is it the part of you that you hide away? Or something you proudly wear on your sleeve? Is it the anchor weighing you down? Or the wind beneath your wings? Is it an identity you inherited from those before you? Or the path you choose to take? Does it drive your goals and dreams? Or is it the roadblock keeping you from achieving them?
What does being Muslim mean to you? Is it a source of apathy or motivation? Oppression or empowerment? Shame or confidence? What does being Muslim mean to you? Are you who you are despite it or because of it? I'm going to show you how great I am. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Masha'Allah. I was not expecting everyone to still be here. I know you all have been sitting for a very, very long time. Alhamdulillah. May Allah accept from all of you. And allow this to be a transformative moment in our lives that allows us to come closer to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and closer to each other. Allahumma ameen. How many of you have heard of confident Muslim before? Not many. How many of you have heard of yaqeen before? Alright. Alhamdulillah. That's good. That counts. So a lot of times when we do confident Muslim, we're highlighting people that have accomplished great things, have held their Islam in hostile places, that have transformed the world in ways that we traditionally celebrate. Today, Alhamdulillah, we have a different type of hero. And I want to preface the discussion for today with the following. The problems that we have in our community are just like the problems that our broader society is facing. And when we choose not to discuss them, then we're not able to properly offer solutions to those that are struggling in our community and outside of the Muslim community.
And we are a community that is to come up with solutions to problems that we face internally, and to offer those solutions to society as a whole, bismillah ta'ala. And so tonight we're going to be speaking about a subject that many times we probably don't speak about as openly as we should in these types of programs. We're going to be talking about the subject of addiction. But the greatest heroes in our history and in our community are not those that have a flawless record and people that are only celebrated because they've achieved some sort of material goal, but they're people that may have struggled with something and they turned their lives around and decided to dedicate their lives to helping others as well. So alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, tonight I'm going to be introducing our confident Muslim for the evening insha'Allah ta'ala and then interviewing him. As a second generation immigrant, Abdurrahman Warsama, co-founder and executive director of Generation Hope, faced many obstacles and struggles growing up. As a child, finding one's way in a world where being too Somali and too American is a reality. Trying to fit in and learning ways to cope with trauma, Abdurrahman found himself within the clamps of addiction. Trying to find a way out, he then realized how hard it was to get help. Not only due to a lack of resources to culturally appropriate SUD services, but because of the tremendous amount of stigma surrounding addiction. He was caught in the middle of the opioid epidemic, which hit the East African community hard because of how new and unfamiliar the community was with it. During his first few months of sobriety, he noticed a trend of death in the community. Many friends of his were dying of overdoses,
but in the public's eye, they were going unnoticed. Swept under the rug and ignored an entire generation of individuals. An entire generation of individuals were suffering in silence. So he and his team felt the need to try to shed light on this issue. By sharing their stories and hosting events, he and his team became the first individuals in recovery to come out and break the silence that has been held in their community for so long. At only 21 years old, mashallah. 21 years old, Abdurrahman Warsama founded the first and only youth-led recovery organization in his community aimed at ending the stigma of addiction and mental health. Since then, Generation Hope has connected hundreds of people to SUD and mental health services throughout the Twin Cities. Inshallah ta'ala we'll have a short video about him, and he'll come out and share a few words, and then we'll have a conversation. Please watch the video, then welcome Abdurrahman Warsama. Jazakum Allah khair. Death is inevitable. You can't run from it. Death is respectable. At least you know it's coming. Death is commendable. We go back to our creator. But death ain't consensual. Are we ready to meet our maker? Lord, I'm tired of my bad habits. It's destroying me from within. Lord, I'm scared of what's happening. Am I being consumed by all my sins? I'm learning to do better, but is it enough to say that I'm trying? Sometimes I feel so hopeless, Lord. Is living easier than dying? Lord, I'm trying to right my wrongs. How to you do I get closer? Lord, I'm trying to right my wrongs, but I feel like my life is cutting shorter. Lord, how do I right my wrongs?
Because I feel like I'm at the border. Lord, I want to right my wrongs, but in which way do I go in order? I'm stuck inside a cycle. It feels like an endless loop. Lord, I'm stuck inside a cycle, hoping to wave from me to you. Lord, it's easier to quit trying. Yeah, it's easier to pop one or two. Lord, it's harder to stop buying, and the withdrawals hurting me too. Outside they call me a junkie. At home they think I'm bummy. My friends think I'm a crackhead. Yeah, they try to keep away from me. I don't know where I belong. Sometimes I feel all alone, and when I feel hurt the most, to popping pills, yes, I'm pro. It makes me forget. Sometimes I just regret. Why did I get into it in the first place? How did I end up with this mindset? But help me, I want to change. I'm stuck inside my ways. I really want to change, my Lord, I need to be saved. This path I wish to pave, Lord, I ask and seek your aid. So help me find a way, Lord, let today be the day. They laugh at me and say, you'll never change your ways. Once an addict, always an addict, and you'll end up there somehow, someway. Please help me find a way, Lord, please help me find a way. I know I sound so helpless, but without your help I'm stuck astray. I know I sound so hopeless, but my Lord, they made me feel this way. So prove me otherwise, Lord, because without your guidance, everything else is in disarray. I know how you feel. I know how it hurt. I know what they say, how they think that you're cursed. I know how it feels, yeah, I know it's the worst.
But trust me, you're here, you will break this curse. I know how it sounds, it sounds like an act. It sounds like a story, yeah, I know you feel trapped. But trust me, it is light. At the end of your road, it may not be in sight, but trust me, it's close. Keep trying, believe, I know you'll succeed. Trust me, you'll see, I know you'll achieve. I know what they say, how they say you're a fiend. They say that you're hopeless, I know they can't see. They don't see the light, they can't see the hope. They don't know what it's like, so yeah, they tug on your rope. Some want you to hang, some just want to see the downfall of you. You're down on your knees. I know once you fall, it's hard to get up. But if you stand down, yeah, it's harder to stand up. Get up and stand tall, back against the wall. I know all the odds, they want you to fall. I was once trapped like you, pushed away just like you, filled with hate just like you. Yeah, the world wasn't kind to me too. I know how you think, that no one understands. They can't feel the pain, yeah, the sweat on your hands. The aches through your back, the breeze down your neck, the unwillingness to eat, oh, why it's like that. They don't know how it hurt, yeah, I know it's the worst. But there's a way out, a way to break this curse. Please reach out to me, I know it's hard to see. But if you look at me, you'll see possibly that I was an addict and it was so tragic till God made it happen, yeah, he saved me from the madness. Please trust me and call, don't say that it's hard because change don't come easy, easy won't go far. But once you start trying, you'll fall, don't deny it. But if you keep trying, you'll learn perfect timing. God works through subtleties, so if you hear this suddenly, just know that he sees, and one day you'll be free.
As-salamu alaykum. رب يشرح لي صدري ويسر لي أمري وحل العقدة من لساني يفقه قولي This is a little overwhelming. I've never spoken a cry like this before, you know what I mean? Applause Being a Muslim and also being in recovery can be one of the most confusing things. Not because you're a Muslim and not because you're in recovery, but because of stigma. I started this organization with my best friend in 2019 because a lot of our friends and a lot of people in our community were dying. Dying from overdose, dying from drug addiction, and it was so hard. I've overdosed so many different times. So many different times I've seen death in front of my eyes. And just being here right now is so surreal. We started this organization in September of 2019 after a really close friend of mine had passed. He was struggling with addiction, and he was sober. He got sober around the same time as me. But he passed. Allah yarhamu. It was his birthday just a few days ago.
And since then, it was so hard. I remember when we first, when the trends of deaths were happening in our community, it was so hard to talk about it. I wasn't even here. I was in Texas. But my best friend and a couple of friends of ours that were in recovery, they wanted to do something about it. They wanted to talk. They would try to talk in community gatherings, at funerals. And it was such a taboo topic. So we decided to have our own event. And alhamdulillah, a lot of people came. A lot of people that were dealing with substance use, a lot of family members. And alhamdulillah, since then, we continued on. But it's something that people still deal with. And you know, it's so confusing because it's not like people don't care. Right? There's probably a lot of people in this room that know somebody that's suffering from addiction. Probably even somebody you know, somebody that died. Right? But the worst part is we're just misinformed. Right? Because when you see somebody on TV that's dealing with substance use, the first thing you see is somebody that's homeless. Right? You see somebody that is, you know, looks a certain type of way. You know, and so when you look within our own community and people that are going through substance use, you get so confused. The first thing somebody says is, oh, you know, I raised my kid this way. I taught him Islam. You know, why does he turn towards this? But everybody has problems. Everybody goes through something.
And sadly, there's not that support out there. You go into a masjid. I remember going into a masjid after not coming back for a few years, trying to turn to Allah. And I'll get pushed away. I pray next to somebody while you're in sujood. You get up from sujood. And so you see a brother move his phone. Right? You see those stares, the ways people look at you. It's different. Right? And most of the time, the crazy part is we don't even know why we act this way towards it. It's because we're just not educated. Right? We don't know what's going on with this person. So the first thing that we do is we judge. We push this person away. Right? Most people, their favorite hadith is, You say, you're the religion of your friend. So don't be around that person. Why is it that you don't help each other? Why is it that we wait until somebody dies? That somebody is buried, that we talk about this? Substance use is not new. It's not new in the Muslim community. Right? This has been going on for a long time. But why is it a conversation now? Because it's starting to become too late. And people are dying. Young brothers and sisters are dying. It don't matter how old you are or how young you are. There's people dying every day.
And for a lot of people, it's too late. The only reason why we started this organization, why we do things like this, why I just wrote a book about my life, is so that people can learn about this type of stuff. And understand it from somebody that went through it. Right? But it's really heartbreaking because some people, it's just, it's screwed into their mind. So please, when I'm talking to you, open your mind. I was addicted to hard drugs. I was addicted to fentanyl. I had overdosed time and time and time over. And I wanted to stop, but I couldn't. I wanted to stop, but I couldn't. I wanted to stop, but I couldn't. Three years ago in a month from today, I was in a hospital bed. My sister Fatima, she's not too far away from here. She know that I was in HCMC. I had overdosed. I wake up my whole family next to me. I was trying so hard. I was trying so hard. I was trying so hard, but it took so long for me to stop. And there's so many people, probably even some in this room, that can't stop. And they're trying. And they're trying. And you see people looking at them, they laughing at them. Oh yeah, he a junkie. Oh yeah, he a crackhead. Yeah, don't be around him. Right? We're supposed to be the best ummah, the best of people. It's embarrassing. Our own people are dying, depressed, hurt, just need some help, just need a little bit of love. They just need a little bit of push.
I was just telling Sheikh Omar just earlier, if I were to go into any other community, right, and I just ask, how many people are in recovery? Raise your hand. Because there probably are some people in recovery right now. They would have raised their hand. But if I ask that right now, will people raise their hand if you're in recovery? Will you raise your hand? Raise your hand if you're in recovery. So scared. But I don't blame you. I don't. I don't. Because I know what it come with. Beforehand and after. And it's so messed up. It makes people want to not talk about their life. It makes people not want to be real. But we're all human beings. We're just trying to show this face for people, social media, whatever it may be. Right? It's because of the stigma and that stigma got to go. We got to support each other. We got to be together. And any other topic and any other thing that's going on in the community, we always are helping each other. But now that, now that people are dying, right, we got to wake up. People in our community are dying. We got to wake up. We got to help each other. Please wake up. Wallahi billahi t'allahu our community, they need you. We need each other. So please wake up. Zekalaka.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Once again. Zekalaka Abdurrahman. I don't think you know the significance of what you just did. So may Allah bless you. You may have literally just saved someone's life in here. So may Allah reward you and bless you and keep you firm. There are a lot of people in this audience that maybe could relate directly to this experience. And I want us to actually segment the different types that we have insha'Allah ta'ala and talk to them directly. You've got someone in here who is feeling hopeless, desperate. What do you say to that person that has reached that point of desperation now where they're having that type of ideation where they feel like they're trapped in their addiction? What do you say to that person directly to say have hope if someone's standing in front of you and you're saying it directly to them? Don't give up. There's a will, there's a way. First and foremost, I want to give a big shout out to my family. My sister's somewhere in this room. She helped me out a lot. Fatima, I love you. My mother too. Where is Fatima, by the way? I don't know where she is. She's somewhere though. She's right there. Where's she at?
You know, she's over there, right there. Reach out to somebody. If there's a will, there's a way. You know what I mean? Make your salah, make du'a, sincere du'a. Ask Allah to get you out of that. And wallahi, I know sometimes you might feel hopeless. Sometimes you might feel like there's not a way out because I know how that feels like. But just keep on trying. Don't give up. That's all I can say here. What would you say to someone, you know, masha'Allah, you're talking about Fatima and you're talking about the value of having someone sometimes that has hope for you even when you don't have it for yourself. And that voice, that sister, that brother, that parent, that friend. What is it that resonated most with you in those moments? What is something that you could sort of draw from a moment where someone that you love helped inspire in you something that you weren't seeing in yourself at the moment? You know, the biggest thing about stigma is if somebody tells you something long enough, you're going to start to believe it. Even right now, I'm feeling a little bit of imposter syndrome, you know what I mean? And you don't feel like you deserve any good things because sometimes addiction brings the worst out of you. It makes you feel like you're not worthy, like you're not enough. It makes you feel like no good things should happen to you. But when you find somebody that believes in you, the biggest obstacle is believing in
yourself. That believing that the things that they see in you might be a realistic thing. That it might be a reality that you do have that good in you. So just fighting. It's that jihadun nafs. Right? Fighting within yourself. Right? Addiction is a jihadun nafs. You're fighting against your soul. You want to stop, but you can't. And you keep trying and you keep trying and you keep trying. And when somebody stands beside you, wallahi, it means the world. People don't know. A lot of times people give up. They're like, man, this person, why should I care about them? They don't care about themselves. But you don't know what it feels like. You don't know what they're going through. So being there for them, and sometimes people will self-sabotage, I promise you. They'll push you away. But just standing there, standing firm, being there for them, it means the world. You don't even know. Because they're probably pushing you away because they feel ugly inside. They feel like they're not worthy of your presence. Wallahi, you don't even know. So when they tell you those things, it's so like, the person, they feel so emotional. When you tell them that they're enough, they feel worthy. Because they don't even believe in themselves. Wallahi, they don't. A lot of people don't. You know, the biggest question that I ask myself when I was told that you guys want me to be a confident, I was like, am I even confident? Am I confident in myself? Am I confident in myself? Why though? Because society made me feel that way. Being overlooked, underestimated, even after recovery. It's because of how society is shaped, the
superiority complex. People do it to make themselves feel better. Not always, right? But if that's not you, then ask yourself, why aren't you helping that loved one out? Why you push yourself away? Why you push them away? Rahman, are there any good examples of people that you feel like are starting to take on this issue now seriously at the institutional level, at the community level, where you feel like the conversation is happening like it needs to happen? I feel like it needs to happen in Masajid. I honestly, I feel like, you know, wallahi, I've been through a lot. Been through a lot of different near-death situations. But one thing I can say is every time one of those things happen, whether I get shot at, I'd get an overdose, near death, get in a car crash, I'd always come back and try to pray, two raka'as, I'll go to the Masjid. But I never feel comfortable. I always go back. You know what I mean? But the reason why is a lot of times, honestly, I think it's just, I don't blame anybody. I think it's just there's a lack of education. People don't know what it is, right? They don't understand it. And so there needs to be, and we're doing that right now in Minnesota. We're going around, we're creating curriculum so that we can teach people that have not been, that don't have lived experience, you know, that haven't been through addiction so they can understand it more. But that needs to happen in Masajid, more particularly because somebody needs that spiritual, they need that spiritual uplifting. They need to learn about their religion. They want to, right? But most of the time they get neglected. They don't feel comfortable.
So, Abdurrahman, what's the role particularly, we talk about community institutions and stuff like that. I want to ask you, what role does Islam play in the recovery process, right? What's the difference between that faith-based recovery and the type of recovery that anyone could find elsewhere? First and foremost, I believe everybody has a unique pathway to recovery. Everybody's different. And so everybody is, their recovery path is different. Some people find solace in the faith-based, some people don't, right? But what I do believe is that with Islam, it gives you hope. And it gives you hope like no other. No matter what you've done, the mistakes that you've made. You know, it's crazy, Sheikh, but before I met you in 2019, I used to listen to your lectures. They gave me hope. But I couldn't find that in a lot of places. I found that in a Qalam, Sheikh Mikael, great guy. But I couldn't find a lot of that in my home city. And Islam, it played a big role in my recovery, and it still does. But that hope, you don't find it in a lot of places. Because you feel your past crashing at you. You feel like you're not enough. And all the mistakes that you made, you don't feel like you're enough. And what Islam does is it helps you understand that.
Allah says, the one who turned, those type of ayahs that I've learned, it makes me feel hope. And so I feel like for other people, it makes them feel hope as well. SubhanAllah, you remind me of something. Fudail Ibn Ayyad, rahim Allah ta'ala, is one of the great scholars in Islam and had a really rough background. He was a highway robber. He drank alcohol. He did a lot of those things. And he repented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He said, you know, sit with the repentants because they have the softest hearts. People that have been down that path and that have made that turn and decided not only do they have self-worth because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calls you to that. And Allah says, do not, do not, do not relegate yourself to your sin. Do not make that temporary lapse your permanent identity because it's certainly not your permanent state with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if you turn back to him. And there are certain people subhanAllah like yourself that choose to take that pain, take that hardship and help other people. So first and foremost, alhamdulillah, everyone here believes in you. I know I do. Alhamdulillah. So I want you to know that this is happening for a reason right now. I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allows us to be a sign, one sign of him accepting your sincere repentance, biddenillah, and you're turning that page, biddenillah ta'ala. Allahumma ameen.
So if you're talking to, there are a lot of kids in here and parents think that this could never happen to their kids and kids might think this could never happen to me. What do you say to the kid that, you know, to protect themselves from ever getting started, from ever finding themselves one foot into this? I know we have to talk about hope. We have to talk about helping people in recovery. But what do you say to a kid about not taking that first step in and keeping that protective barrier between them and some of these drugs they're talking about? First, throughout my high school years, I didn't go to madrasa growing up for most of my life period until like I was like 13. It's like most of my childhood. I didn't even know how to pray until I was in seventh grade. When I first went into madrasa, I had to learn how to read. And it took me about six months. And I fell in love with the deen. I fell in love with learning about Islam. And like throughout my high school, it wasn't like a typical high schooler. I was practicing really well. I was in the masajid every day. As soon as I learned hingad, which was as soon as I learned how to read and write Arabic, it was like 2011, and I finished in the end of 2013. So it took me about two years to finish. As soon as I finished, I was practicing so well. And that lasted throughout most of my high school years. But one thing that was within me that I didn't learn until my later years is I had that somewhat of like an arrogance. You know, you're young. You learn a lot about the deen. And you think you know everything. You know, I had friends of mine that, you know, whether they were, you know, out partying or whatever, and I would cut them up. I would be like,
yeah, you know, you guys are like this or you guys are like that. And so for me, one of the biggest things was my downfall, what I believe is, you know, they say, be humble or be humble. God will humble you. I was arrogant. I learned a little bit, and I thought I knew a lot, and that was my downfall. I thought I was too good. And so the worst thing that can happen, and you know, the biggest thing for me, I feel like, was when I was younger, I would laugh at my friends. You know, you're a kid. You're dumb. You think, oh, yeah, you know, that guy, he's doing, he's stupid. He doesn't know what he's doing. You know, I know what I'm doing. And that arrogance, I feel like, was my downfall, what pushed me into that path. Something had happened to me during that time period around my senior year that kind of pushed me, you know, into just kind of like, just, you know, it's my senior year. But I feel like that was my downfall, was thinking that I'm too good, that it can never happen to me. Had I taken preventative measures or knew what I was taking, Allahu a'lam, you know, so I feel like for people that think they're too good or they think that they can't fall into it, first and foremost, I feel like people just need to learn about what it is. A lot of people that are dying nowadays from the opioid epidemic, they're taking fentanyl, right? A lot of people don't probably know, people know fentanyl now, but about two years ago, people didn't. So educating yourself about what it is, for parents more specifically. My mom, may Allah protect her, she didn't know. Even after I had gotten sober, she didn't know what I was addicted to. I just told her, yo mom, I'm addicted to pills, caninis, what they call it in Somali, right? But she didn't know what I was taking. She didn't know how lethal it was. It wasn't until I started doing my advocacy that I told her and I broke it
down to her. So a lot of parents, they just don't know. SubhanAllah, there's parents that wake up in the morning and they wake up their kid for fajr or for school and they're not here, they're dead. Allah yarham hum. But that's the biggest thing is like parents need to educate themselves. They need to educate their kids, understand what it is, what are the telltale signs of a person that is using. How is it? You know what I mean? How can you tell if somebody's addicted? What is withdrawal? How can you tell if somebody's going through withdrawal? Because a lot of times, you know, kids are good at hiding it. You know, so I feel like that's the biggest thing is just understanding it. So what's your, in 10 years, inshallah ta'ala, what's your dream, your individual dream and what's your dream for the community in this regard, inshallah ta'ala? I just like to educate my community because I think that's my biggest thing is like educating and making sure that, I want to make, I want to make sure that people that deal with this, right, have somewhere to go no matter where it is, specifically within the Muslim community. I think that's the biggest thing. There are so many people dying in so many different, I get calls from all around the world, wallahi I kid you not. Muslims from all around the world dealing with addiction. They have nowhere to go. They don't know where to go. They can't go within their own communities. They can't even talk to their parents. Some people, they talk to their parents and their parents, they send them back home. They think that's going to help. But that's the thing is that there's a need for professionalism. People, Muslims that are in this field, there's a lot of Muslims that are getting in this field now, but there needs to be, there needs to be facilities made within the Muslim communities so that we can help our community because it's happening everywhere. I kid you not.
I could talk to you all night, man, masha'Allah. I probably will talk to you all night backstage. A couple of other things are just, subhanAllah, I mean, first of all, where can, let's say, I mean, someone starts to see signs, where do they go? What's the next step if they see it in their family members or if they start to feel like they're getting to that point, where do they go? What's the very next step? I think the very next step, the first thing when you realize it is talking to a professional within that field, wherever you may be. There's treatment centers wherever you go. You just have to look up, right, treatment centers. There's even, if you look within your community, there could be culturally specific, right? And there's some that are faith-based. If you look, there's places that are Islamic-based. It just, it depends on where you are. But yeah, speaking to a professional, sometimes confrontation helps, sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the situation. Every situation is different. But I think the biggest thing is making sure that you have a professional that you can speak to so that they can help you and assist you throughout it, you know, because every person is different. So you may have to speak to them, their age, where they're at, how deep are they in it. Well, you know, all of those things, all those variables are important. So speaking to a professional helps. So just looking for a professional and speaking to them. Speaking to them. Tell me something that gives you hope on a daily basis. My Instagram messages. Speaking to, well, like, when I go through my messages, there's people that come to me or just even like around my surroundings too. When I first had gotten sober, it was just me, my best friend, and my brother. And we got a whole bunch of brothers around us that are in recovery. Young brothers, old brothers, brothers all around, all motivated, trying to help. It's like a spider web.
It just keeps getting bigger. And so I feel like that's really what motivates me, seeing that process and change within somebody's life and seeing that hunger, willingness not only to change but to impact other people's lives. So before I end, Ibrahim's books are there at that table, inshallah ta'ala. You can meet him after. I have a feeling they're going to go very quickly. Where can people find your work in general? So you can go to generationhopemn.org. And you can see our website there. You can look on our Instagram. A lot of our videos, Generation Hope MN. We have our videos on there and then also my personal page. But if you just look on the Instagram page, you'll see my personal page there too. But yeah, a lot of different videos. I write poetry. So that book over there, it's called From Addict to Advocate. It's a bunch of recovery-based poems that I wrote throughout my recovery. And it comes with poetry, pictures, and like inspiration for each poem, just about like 16 poems. But yeah, you can see that all throughout my page as well too. Everyone, please do give him one last round of applause. Masha'Allah. Abdurrahman, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you. Everyone say ameen. May Allah bless you. May Allah protect you. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep you steadfast and making others steadfast. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow you to be a source of hope for many, many people to come. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our communities to become better able to handle this issue. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help the parents and the children that are struggling with this on the outside. Allahumma ameen.
Extremely proud of you and you just gave a lot of people a lot of hope, masha'Allah. So jazakum Allah khair everyone. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Amin. you
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