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Speaking through Service - Rami Nashashibi | Confident Muslim

June 24, 2019Yaqeen Institute

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
My dear respected brothers and sisters, Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuh. I want to welcome you on behalf of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. My name is Altaf Hussain and I serve as the vice president. Inshallah we're going to have a program called Confident Muslim. But we want to begin by thanking the board of Islamic Circle of North America for giving us this opportunity to not only introduce Yaqeen Institute to the audience but also to feature one of our amazing programs called Confident Muslim. So inshallah ta'ala without further ado, I want to introduce to you and bring back to the stage our founder and president, Sheikh Omar Suleiman, inshallah who will conduct the remaining session. Immediately after the session we have a shahr prayer for the locals and then inshallah we'll have the entertainment session. So brothers and sisters, join me in giving a round of applause to welcome Sheikh Omar Suleiman. Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. It's been a while. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam wa rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. A lot of times when we talk about Islam, we simply try to make the point that Islam is acceptable. That Islam is not a regressive religion, that Islam does not hinder us from world progress and Islam does not make us unproductive citizens that can't be trusted. But there is something more than that. There is Islam as a religion that's exceptional, that produces people that go on to represent the Prophet ﷺ in the most beautiful of ways. And there's a saying from Omar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu where he said, كونوا دعاتاً لله وأنتم صامتون. Be callers to Allah even as you are silent.
And they asked him how, he said, with your husnul khuluq, with your good character. Alhamdulillah, you know, this is a very distinguished honor for me to be able to introduce a friend, a brother, and an inspiration. The title of this session today is Speaking Through Service. Alhamdulillah, we've had the opportunity to feature some people at Confident Muslim that we felt like deserved to be not just recognized or celebrated but emulated in their work. And this brother, my dear friend and brother Rami Nashashibi, who I don't believe has been to the Ikhlaq Convention yet, has done incredible work, particularly in Chicago. And it's not just him but his entire organization that have truly spoke the sunnah through service. Dr. Rami Nashashibi is the executive director of the Inner City Muslim Action Network, known as IMAN. He's a MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow and a 2018 Opus Prize Laureate. He received a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago and has taught courses at multiple universities since, including a teaching appointment at the Chicago Theological Seminary. If you look up the work of Rami and the work of IMAN as a collective, as an organization, you will see the way that they have taken Islam in the most beautiful way to the most uncomfortable spaces in a way that brings not just the best of the Muslim community or shines Islam in the best of ways, but truly does great hard work for the community. And so inshallah ta'ala we're going to play a video about what IMAN does and then I'm going to welcome to the stage Dr. Rami Nashashibi to Confident Muslim. Jazakum Allah khair. IMAN, the inner city Muslim Action Network
December 2nd, 2017 was an extraordinary night. It was our 20th anniversary dinner. People were happy, they were celebrating, and they left that event really inspired by the knowledge that this work was making an impact on the lives of thousands in our neighborhoods. The intersection of North Avenue and Harlem Saturday night, witnesses say someone fired at least eight rounds into an SUV, stopped at a red light, killing a 23-year-old man and injuring his female passenger. That night, Rami got a call from Billy telling him that Stephen had been shot. It was almost too surreal for me to hear this information because it was only maybe four months that I got that same type of information about my own son. You know, he was only two years younger than my son. He was the first guy that I recruited into the program. So, you know, it was like losing my son all over again. I'm living a life of destruction. I was going in the wrong way, and I'm young. I'm 23 years old. I've been shot multiple times. I did five years in jail, so I didn't know nothing outside of that. So if I didn't have him calling me every day and letting me know that it's going to be all right, you know, it's a lot you could take from this program. Those of us who are blessed to know Stephen in the short period of his life met a remarkable man, a brother that goes way beyond what they try to describe in the media. The day after Stephen was killed, every major newspaper said virtually the same thing. Chicago, deadly gun violence. Another Black kid killed in a gang-related homicide in Chicago. All of his brothers in the program said, no way. Stephen was much, much more than that.
We made an utter commitment, a solemn pledge, that we are going to defy, we are going to resist, and we are going to categorically reject what they want to say about Stephen. The first day of the program, Stephen called me. He was outside because he was late, and I was asking him why was he late. He was like, man, I got shot yesterday. And when he got up there limping, I was like, you know, bro, you need to go back to the hospital or something before you catch an infection. And he was just so worried about losing his position in the program. The program that Stephen was a part of now has an eight-year legacy, anchored by the idea that the people in our neighborhoods hold the key to building up our neighborhoods and improving the quality of life on those blocks one house at a time. What moved Stephen and all of the guys in the program is that they're not just building homes. They're part of this transformative model that's changing lives and transforming entire neighborhoods. And the thing about the Green Retreat Program is that you're not just learning the valuable trade and construction. You're part of everything. The food justice work, the arts and culture workshops, the behavioral health therapy. You're working in a ceramic studio. You're sitting in on organizing forums. You're going down to your state capitol and learning how to advocate for legislation. What Stephen was a part of and what all our brothers in the Green Retreat are a part of is being genuinely invested in improving the condition of their neighborhoods. All of our young men are special to us. You know, when we come in on Monday mornings, it's a good feeling in my heart to see all those guys present. Even though we on the street, this is not the block.
I got to realize that I can't talk to y'all like everybody a killer. When I go outside, I got a persona I got to put on. I think this is what really drew him more to this program because there was a lot of people here that had been through things that he done been through. One of the things the Green Retreat brothers were committed to was making sure that Stephen's legacy went far beyond some makeshift memorial on the side of the road. To see the pride on the faces of those men as they showed people around the house they built. That's the legacy Stephen was a part of. He was showing up every day and when he showed up, he showed out. There's a lot you can take from this program. Like I even stay in the house now even more. I don't even go outside a lot no more because I know I got to get up because they be on us. Don't be late. So I'm glad we had the opportunity to give him a chance to change, an avenue to go in a different direction. This work is very important because I want to reduce that pain that this city has been plagued with. We lost Stephen, you know, but I still got responsibilities to these other men
to try to make sure that we still give them the opportunity that they need to change. This year we had 187 people on our waiting list for the Green Retreat program. And that was with zero advertisement. How many of the 2,619 people who were shot in Chicago this year were just waiting for an opportunity like this? That's the key right there. Being able to expand the opportunity of change for everybody. Not just the individual, but the community. Impact the block, impact the city. And that way we can ensure that these guys have an opportunity to live in peace. He loved everybody out here. He talked about them more than he actually talked about his real family. Like, the people here was his family. What if we carried that sense of family everywhere? What if we thought about the thousands of people at the border or the millions of people struggling for decent health care or the countless Black and brown men and women languishing in prisons all over the country as family? There have been centuries of injustice and systemic oppression that have eviscerated the lives and the communities of Black and brown people. And that's not going to be fixed overnight. But we know what works. And it's models like Imad. ♪♪ Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. I thought I was at a conference with Muslims here. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Alright. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. It is an extraordinary honor and privilege for me to be here. I think this is the first time I've had the opportunity and privilege to be at an ICNA conference. And so it's always an extraordinary thing to be around brothers and sisters from across the country who are here. I'm extraordinarily grateful to all the organizers and certainly to my dear brother Omar and Altaf and to all those Akeem Institute volunteers and leaders that have helped invite us and put this event together. You saw the video. We felt it was important that you saw the context of our work. And in my in many ways what has been for me one of the most profound privileges any human being could be afforded over the last two decades is the opportunity to work day in day out with the types of individuals you saw on the video. Even amidst great tragedy like the loss of our young brother Stephen Ward. You saw in that video the type of extraordinary humanity the work that we're able to do in Chicago and Atlanta and hopefully help to inspire across the country is really driven by a deep fundamental belief that is rooted in our tradition that talks about what our beloved Prophet ﷺ taught us about being a source of mercy for all those he encountered. And we aspire towards that maqam. You know the Prophet ﷺ taught us to be grateful and to praise God and to praise the Most High. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. He used to say Alhamdulillah ala na'matul islam wa kafa biha na'mat. Right? We used to the tradition of praising God, praising the Most High for the greatest of gifts.
And the gift we look at our tradition, this way of life as the greatest and most sufficient holistic gift. Because if we were to truly embody that gift and aspire towards that, that we can in fact be the type of examples not only for one another but for so many who interact with us every day. The power of the work that I've been privileged to be a part of that has shaped my own life journey that really has even brought me to Islam. And you know many of us have complicated life stories not unlike Shaykh Omar, although coming from a very proud Palestinian family was not brought up a Muslim. And so my encounter with Islam, the gift of Islam, my appreciation for that gift really came through this type of work, engagement in the communities and specially for communities on the margins, in spaces that have often been neglected, spaces that are a byproduct of structural oppression, injustice and a part of criminal disinvestment like inner cities across the United States. These are not just black spaces, brown spaces. We've had refugee communities, families like my mother's family who grew up on the south side of Chicago, Palestinian families. We've had these type of families that have been in these spaces and communities and for me working there now and devoting our time, effort and energy really speaks to I think much of what I even heard this evening. Rather than simply see ourselves as victims, rather than simply see ourselves as people who are incapable of transforming our society, I believe profoundly that these communities provide the American Muslim community not only with the opportunity to be a source of transformation but also to be recipients of that transformation. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about, the power of these spaces.
At one point in Chicago we had a community center and a masjid that was literally in the heart of one of the most strong and feared gang territories on the south side. It was probably one of the largest gang territories and at one point we got a call from our dear beloved Tablighi brothers at the time. This was probably around 2002, not long after 9-11. And they said, Rami, we have a jama'a that would like to come to the masjid and do the jaula, to do the kind of go around the community, invite people to the masjid. And is it a Muslim community? And that, therein lied an opportunity for me to try to struggle with that answer because many of the young brothers and sisters in that community were not brought up Muslim, may not be the practicing Muslims, but they knew how to say assalamu alaikum and they knew how to engage us and many of them had their children in our programs. So I said, why don't you come over? And they did come over and then they said, we'd like to go and walk around the community and invite people to the mosque. I tried to prepare them that this is not going to be their typical walk, but they wanted to proceed nonetheless. And as we were walking around the block, there were, you know, young children, just people on the stoops. And these brothers were traditionally dressed, most of them coming from the subcontinent, long, you know, flowing gowns, the turbans, and they were offering salams as they walked by. And, you know, people were giving their best attempts of waalaikum salam, assalamu alaikum, whatever they can give us, they were giving us. Till finally, they started then wanting to interact with brothers to invite them to the masjid. And we came across a brother named Tariq.
Now, Tariq wasn't quite, had gone through a lot of turbulence in his life and mentally, and he had some mental health challenges, so he wasn't quite altogether there. Yet he was in the middle of the street when we turned around the corner and he was donning a very eccentric apparel. He had like a cape on. He had this turban that was underneath his Chinese hat. And he was yelling out, assalamu alaikum. So the brothers moved over to Tariq and they started to engage him about coming to the masjid after dhuhr for a bayan, for a lecture. And Tariq was just studying them and looking at them as they're talking. And while they're talking, he's saying, Allahu akbar, alhamdulillah, Allahu akbar, alhamdulillah. And so the brothers, I think, thought they were really, you know, resonating with brother Tariq. And after they were done, Tariq was looking at them and they turned around and we started to walk to the masjid. And maybe we were 50 feet away from Tariq. And then he breaks out into a middle of a dance and singing Get Down On It and, you know, a funky song. And the brothers were very confused. And looked at me and said, do you think he's going to come to the bayan? And I said, probably not. But after we sat down and not as many people came to their lecture, some of them were disappointed. But here herein lies the point for me, the power of these spaces. I reminded them as they left out not to be disappointed or look down on the communities that they just interacted with. And to put into context, this was months after September 11th.
You walked around a community that is associated with poverty and violence. Not only was none, no negative word you encountered, not one negative sentiment. You were poured with love and affection. As-salamu alaykum. And you were able to walk around essentially looking like Osama Bin Laden's first cousin. And get nothing but love and affection from the community. Nothing but love and sentiment because of brothers like Tariq. And it reminds me of something that Dr. Sherman Jackson, may Allah continue to preserve him and elevate, tries to remind the community. And what is the title of much of some of my work and a book that I'm trying to put into publication around the work of Iman over the last couple of decades about the power of these spaces, the margins, the periphery, the spaces that often are overlooked and neglected, the spaces that we believe our dear beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was first received in among those types of individuals. And Dr. Jackson reminds us that over the years, those spaces have a gravitational pull. And some of you who are into physics understand the power of centripetal force. That when you have power on the margins, right? When you have weight on the margins, it's a gravitational pull to the center. But you need to still have weight on the margins. And I think for me, that is an important point for us as a larger Muslim community to understand not everyone is going to be in the masjid. Not everyone is going to be all up all night doing qiyam or doing siyam. But as a community, we must never overlook the power and the extraordinary relevance of spaces like the ones that our organization is working in. That these spaces are the spaces that will continue to allow American Muslims to be relevant,
to allow the call that we believe is embedded in what has brought people like me and so many of our other brothers to think about Islam as a life-giving force. As Imam Murad bin Muhammad, may God have mercy on him, used to talk about Islam as life-giving. And with that notion, he used to talk about how this life-giving force is a source of transformation and change. And I continue to maintain that nowhere in this country is that more relevant, is that more visible, is that more resonant than inner-city urban spaces. And it's for that reason our organization unapologetically focuses on this space. Because we understand every day, and it's not just again for African-Americans, it's not just for Latinos, we believe that the benefit that is for everyone, whether they're living in those spaces, working in those spaces, when they see a model like Iman, whether it's through our health center, whether they through it to our work, they understand that this is what gives life. And for me, as a Muslim, like many have tried, they've been on a journey of trying to better understand this tradition and make sure that no matter what, my heart remains fabric and rooted and open and unapologetic, because I want my children to grow up in this country, not only thinking about the 30-second soundbite, but completely in a different mentality where they are unafraid and unapologetic to not only be Muslim, but to allow others to be with them and celebrate the beauty of this deen, to celebrate the beauty of this tradition, to celebrate the fact that we are not only a tradition that brings humanities together, bring communities together, but that we tend to, those who are the most challenged, the most oppressed, that this was an order from our dear beloved Prophet ﷺ when he was encouraging Mu'adh as he went to Yemen, and he told them, fear the dua, fear the prayer of the oppressed.
فَلَيْسَ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ اللَّهُ هِجَابًا Because between the oppressed, and God, there is no hijab between the dua. And nowhere have we experienced this type of oppression in this country than communities that have been structurally disinvested, communities that have had to be the subject of so much of the history with white supremacy and what it means to be isolated. Yet in urban neighborhoods, I would not ask you to think about them as places of deficiency, but places of extraordinary abundance. The abundance that you see is what hopefully you saw a little bit on the video. The abundance is the abundance of young brothers and sisters, sisters from all walks of life. We have in Iman's programming, and something that I rely on every day and every week to nurture my own faith, is the ability to come to an organization and to see people who are coming from the church, people who are coming from all walks of life, who see that gift, and receive that gift from us in the most pure state. We often say to the brothers and sisters that we work with, that we want nothing from you other than your success in this life and the next, nothing. I'm not running for office. None of us need any wealth from you. All we want is your success. And as we gather every week with them, and there are spiritual spaces as I close, that we make sure that we create in addition to the day-in, day-out program. One of those spaces we had this morning, every Saturday morning we gather with a group for Fajr, we come and then we have some Adhkar, and then there's breakfast afterwards. And what's amazing is we sit in a circle, and believe it or not, you have people who are coming from non-Muslim traditions that come to that space at Fajr time with us. And this morning I was so struck by one young man
who was in the circle with us, whose tradition was very heavily steeped in the black church, who sat there, watched the Fajr, sat there, listened to the Adhkar, and then said, if it wasn't for this space, if it wasn't for this work, and the ability to come together with you on Saturday mornings, I feel like I would have been yet another person who would have been hurt or hurt others in very severe ways. This is the only thing that keeps me sane. And I think, brothers and sisters, as I close, and I hope as I bring to the table for this conversation, it was important, it was an honor to be invited and talk personally about some of our life stories. But I wanted to make sure that this evening we had an opportunity to talk collectively. I have traveled with me from Chicago to extraordinary associate directors from Iman, who have been working at Iman for over a decade, who've been part of Iman for almost 15 years, Ali Bilal and Shamar Hemphill, both from the South Side of Chicago, from very different experiences, but they will, inshallah, with our dear beloved brother Sheikh Omar, be part of a conversation that we invite them to. And I look forward to the conversation that we'll have here in a moment. And I will say this in closing, that the types of things that we hear about in New Zealand and across the country, they're very real. And the conversations about anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia and what this president is doing or what someone else is doing, they're very real. Yet, I think you've also heard on this platform tonight, and what I hope you hear from our conversation, is let us not be incapacitated, frozen by that fear, and lose sight of the extraordinary opportunities that exist in this country to invest in, to be connected to, to engage with, communities that we are already present in, some cases as an Arab community,
just as businesses on the South Side of Chicago, but communities that I really urge us and challenge us to be invested in and to see, not as just some charity, but to see yourself invested in for your own benefit, for the benefit of your children, for the benefit of your grandchildren, to grow up knowing that Muslims in this country are not only transforming urban spaces, but lifting them up as lights for themselves, for one another, for this country and the globe. Thank you very much. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. You're right, man. I don't know if this is a Muslim conference anymore. As-salamu alaykum. I think you all wasted your voice on the takbir of Sheikh Yasin, you got nothing left. I want to thank you, Brother Rami, Brother Shemar, Sister Aliyah as well, and the great work that you're doing, really living Islam in those communities and teaching us a lesson with that. And so I'd like to first and foremost just ask our two guests as well, Jazakallah khair, Brother Rami, for giving us the overview to introduce yourselves and how you came to this work and how you feel your Islam has informed you in the work that you're doing. Okay, I see. Ladies first. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. It's an honor to be here. For me, you know, Rami mentioned the fact that both my colleague, Shemar and I have been a part of Iman for over a decade. We've been working officially with Iman for over a decade. But so much of my story actually begins at the start of Iman in many ways.
I encountered Iman as a young child about 21 years ago, the very first year that it was incorporated as a non-profit. And for me, as someone who is the daughter of two African-American immigrants, two African-American immigrants, two African-American converts to Islam, converted in the 70s, and then sent my two sisters and I to a full-time Islamic school in the suburbs of Chicago for 15 years. That was where I was raised. I was raised among the Muslim community there. And for me, I was raised amongst predominantly Arab and Indo-Pakistani Muslims, beautiful communities, beautiful people, and a beautiful school to kind of be raised in. But I think what I began to realize as I got a little older, and certainly as I encountered Iman as an organization back in 97, was that so much of what we had been taught, so much of what we, the service-mindedness that we had been given in that community, really oftentimes kind of centered itself overseas. It centered itself in the kind of back homes of the people that were in that community, which was rightfully so in many ways. But for me, I was really yearning, without really realizing it until I encountered Iman, I was yearning for something that really spoke to me, and that spoke to the ideals that I understood as a Muslim that we were supposed to really embody, people that had a transformative impact, a transformative and healing message and vehicle for the people right here where we are. And when I saw that, when I saw for the very first time an organization of people, a group of people that were from all over, that were black, brown, that were Arab, that were Desi, that were Christian, that were from other faiths, working on issues that really impacted people on the ground,
on the south and west sides of Chicago, places that I grew up, for me, that was something that really kind of spoke to me and my sense of really what I understood Islam to be, and I knew that I had to continue with this work. Thank you. As-salamu alaykum. So for me, the story, the neighborhood that Rami talked about on the south side of Chicago, where that was where my roots were, that's where I was, you know, that type of stronghold of one of the gang kind of factions in the city of Chicago. My father comes out of that narrative. My uncles, my brothers, my cousins, all of us grew up in that narrative. And for me, it's interesting because although people understand that narrative to be one way, my father found his faith still through that narrative, right? Found Islam through that narrative. And every night that I would go to sleep, before me and my brother would go to sleep, we would read ayahs out of the Quran every night. And I can remember that even as early as seven years old. And it was something that permeated because that street gang would open up their sessions with a Fatiha. Like they would still have same, similar principles of Islam. And so for me and my family, my aunties, we grew up only knowing God by the name of Allah. And it was a, for me, it was a natural connection because my father had, out of that reality, became Muslim and then was planting the seeds. And later on, I became Muslim and one of my best friends became Muslim. And for me, we were looking for the type of transformation in our own neighborhoods, in our own stories, in our own realities.
Some of the same issues that Dr. Ramin al-Shabib mentioned, I mean, living in those realities, we were really trying to figure out a way. We were really trying to, you know, be able to skip past some of the type of, the activities that were going on in the neighborhood. We wasn't trying to become a statistic. And to be able to encounter Iman and have a space where brothers and sisters were able to first, first and foremost gather was bringing the collective people together. And for me, that's when I finally found my story and myself in those spaces with the larger Muslim community. And it was an authentic, it was authentically I was able to represent myself along with a rich tradition that both inspired me to understand that how our prophet, beloved prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, really brought people together, brought tribes together, organized tribes together. And to see that happening on the south side of Chicago was tremendous in real time. Rather than just reading it, rather than just trying to have my own spiritual transformation, living that out loud both inspired me to have an authentic place with my story, but to also be a part of that transformation. I had to. Look at this beautiful room. This is what Islam really represents and I'm part of that story, masha'Allah. So we just got a couple of minutes left, Inshallah, and I'm going to throw a question to all three of you. I think that for a lot of us, the stories that you mentioned, the story in the video, and I saw the video when it first came out and I thought it was just extraordinary about how the community rallied to make sure that a person's name would not be forgotten and that their service would not be forgotten. And a lot of times in the face of tragedy, we try to make sure people are not forgotten. If you could share, any one of you, I'm going to throw this out there, inshallah ta'ala. There was one story that really forced you to connect back to Allah with what you were seeing and that you think young people in this crowd, inshallah ta'ala, can take as a transformative moment for them.
There's one thing that you say, you know, that was the spark in my life. One story, one person, and a message to the young people in this crowd that are maybe hesitant to enter into the type of work that Iman is entering into. There are a lot of stories. There are so many stories. I don't know. I guess, subhanAllah, I'm going back ten years in my head and trying to kind of come up with one. I think every day, having the privilege of being a part of this work every day, you know, it can be a very difficult thing to do. Having the privilege of being a part of this work every day, you know, it can be really tough. Stephen was a part of our program. We knew him for a few months. There are so many, there are dozens of men in this program. Some that we're able to kind of dig a little deeper into to get to know, you know, in deeper ways and more meaningful ways. And, you know, the reality that we are able to, you know, that we are able to be forces of healing and transformation, both in our community but also in people's lives, is real. But at the end of the day, it's sometimes tough to conceive of the fact that we can do as much as we can, as much as we, you know, as tireless as that work is, we can do as much as we possibly can, and at the end of the day, someone could still be shot and killed. The reality that someone that we love, someone that is in our neighborhood, someone that's in our program could still be impacted by the reality that is our reality in urban America. It can be really tough. And I think having seen that, there's a tendency sometimes to even kind of try to,
to try to gorge yourself against that, to try to kind of, you know, to block out some of the emotions, to block out some of the potential for impact on a very emotional level. It's difficult for me to think of one story because I think of, you know, all of the people that are part of our programming. I think of, you know, the young men, for instance, that are part of Greener Injury that go through so much, that go through so much that I have never, never in my life, alhamdulillah, had to experience, that have to go through both violence, that have to experience, you know, not being able to really walk out of their block, to be able to, you know, to have to experience going through failing schools and failing systems. And at the end of the day, they still show up to a program like one of the programs that we run, and they're full of life and they're full of spirit and they're full of hope. For me, at the end of the day, that reminds me that, you know, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he knows what he's doing. He placed us in the places that he placed us for a reason. We are living where we are living for a reason, that we have the positions that we have for a reason, and that if there's anything that we can take, you know, if there's anything at the end of the day that should help us to continue doing our work, it's to think of the people that are truly trying to really deal with the challenges that have been placed around them and are doing so and they're thriving and they're surviving and they're teaching us the ways to do that with grace and humility. So I really don't have one story because all the people in our work, yeah. So I've given them enough time now to think of their stories, so you're welcome. You thought of one, so give us a story. It's on your mind. I can see it. I mean, it was computing as you was, you know, I mean, I was like going through my story Rolodex.
For me, there's a particular young brother by the name of Raphael Wiggins. I'll say his name. He wouldn't mind me saying his name. Literally started out. I remember almost eight years ago, I engaged him in front of our space. I was just telling him about our summer program and I'm really enthusiastic about it. And, you know, I remember the first day that, you know, his grandmother had already came into the space to be come to our health center. But he was kind of hesitant at first. And when he came into the space, you know, he literally was looking around and he didn't even understand like what was going on. And to to see to think about that first kind of memory of him not really understanding, but. Trying to trying to put it together like, man, I'm seeing all these different, diverse, eclectic people coming through the doors like in my neighborhood. Like, what is that? What does that even mean? And this young brother, you know, ended up just, you know, slowly coming into our program, kind of like, you know, hesitant. But while in the program, you know, he was shot. He was caught up between a little kind of tribal crossfire. He ended up getting shot. And I remember his grandmother coming to us as refugees, saying that, like, literally like, you know, I'm coming to the Muslims for the type of support to to to corral my son's spirit. And we were there for we showed up. We actually went to the spot on his block. We brought Muslims even from across the Chicagoland area to the spot and to see him and his grandmother really be received, receive the Muslims that way.
And he ended up becoming Muslim. He ended up becoming Muslim through that level of engagement and programming to the point to the point where now, now his brother graduated from our Green Reentry program as a graduate. And it's trying to pursue a career and really meant to see him still be added and stay at it, even through the pitfalls and and fight through. I think it's a beautiful thing. So in the interest of time, I think there are no shortages, as Ali has said, there's especially our young people and particularly those who have come to us with bullet wounds or the structural wounds of things that they've encountered and seen their life transform. But I'll tell you something for young people in the audience. You know, sometimes I know for myself, for my own Iman, my own faith. I sometimes when I'm struggling, the people who remind me the most are I think about people like Sister Ernestine, our sister Elaine. These are elderly sisters that come out of the old nation of Islam and they come out of the time, the leadership of Iman Worthy and Mohammed. May God have mercy on him. And they they're there for everything we do. And they're in the trenches with us, whether it's working with youth violence, whether it's in the state legislature passing laws, whether it's with our health center. And I look at them and occasionally I'll sit down and I'll hear their stories about people who endured the hardship of Jim Crow South, who moved and lived in dilapidated housing projects, who saw people and police beating down their family members when there were no iPhones and no hashtags that Black Lives Matters and endured all of that pain and suffering, yet have this love, this unshakable love, this passion for this thing called Al-Islam, this life giving force that brings them together.
And every now and then I sit in their presence and I'm reminded whenever I'm having a bad moment or a struggle and I see that there's just no wavering. That that dua that our beloved Prophet ﷺ used to make, Ya Muqallab al-Qalub, Thabbit Qalbi ala Deenak, make my heart firm. This is the dua that they live for me because I see nothing but hearts that are thabit and firmly rooted. And for me, thinking about those individuals are people that inspire me to do the work that we continue to do every day. May Allah bless you all and bless your work. May Allah bless IKNA for giving us this opportunity and IKNA for being an organization that leads in social justice and relief work, the great work that they do through IKNA Relief and through the IKNA Council for Social Justice and Why Islam and so much. And this is the easiest thing for you to remember in conclusion, Iman and Yaqeen. Brother Rami talked about the bayans from our Tablighi brothers, Iman and Yaqeen. So please do follow the work of Iman inshaAllah and support them. And all of you that have a phone, if you can just do me a favor and download the Yaqeen Institute app. Y-A-Q-E-E-N Institute, it's free and follow our work and please support us inshaAllah. Jazakum Allah khayran to our guests, jazakum Allah khayran to our organizers. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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