I love Islam and cream soda

I’ve always believed you don’t owe explanations to anyone. The people who walk with you don’t need them. And the people who don’t were never going to believe you anyway. That belief has guided me for most of my life—especially in moments when silence would’ve been more convenient, but truth was more necessary. Survival Is Not a Secret In 2020, I was shot multiple times with .40 caliber bullets by my ex-wife’s boyfriend, at her direction. I’ve never hidden that fact. Not because I enjoy reliving it, and not because I’m trying to shock anyone—but because survival is part of my story, and witnesses don’t erase chapters to make other people comfortable. I didn’t treat that moment as the end of my life. I treated it as another chapter in a long story of resilience, refusal, and survival. That honesty made some people uncomfortable. I didn’t—and don’t—care. Silence has never been my role. Witnessing is. When Chaos Escalates After the shooting, the harassment continued the way it ...

I imagine that at some point in the life of every devout person, they confront a crises of faith. In Islamic tradition, Moses dealt with his by asking God to show Himself to him – a foolish request for sure, but his insistence and reasoning (to strengthen his heart/faith) underscore how deep this conflict ran for him. Muhammad had a similar crisis when there was a pause in revelation that caused him intense self-doubt and made him fear that God was disappointed in him for some reason unbeknownst to him. Personally, I’d like to think of myself as adamant in my belief that God exists and that my life should reflect this belief – in this I think I am stayed pretty clear and consistent – BUT, there have been many moments that this certainty has been tested and met with despair and desperation. Exhibit A would be my most recent 90 day stint in the joint. To be brief, I had returned this past October thru January for a “turnaround” for a technical violation of parole after a hearing pr...