Message to the Muslim Community

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Peace and blessings be upon you, all of you, with the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. When I look back on my life and I consider the decisions that I've made over the last 11 years, that I've been free from incarceration. You know, people see me today that's known me for some years now, that's, that's watched me, that's watched my path, watched my journey, um, and they see the development, they see the changes. Some of the changes some may not agree with, may not like where I find myself today. Whether it's family, friends, close associates, my faith community. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has an opinion about you, about me. And at the end of the day, I look at what I've accomplished and I say to myself It's all about Allah. It's all about Allah Ta'ala. And one of the things that I know for a fact that I told myself when I sat in a prison not knowing my fate, not knowing my fate, and I said, oh Allah, if you free me from prison I vow that I will serve my community. That was my prayer. That was the prayer that I prayed the day I walked into the boardroom, the parole board of the state of California Corrections, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Uh, that was my prayer. That if you free me, if you let me out of prison, that I dedicate my life to serving community, serving humanity. Have I done that? That is the question. Whether I came out of prison and became what everybody else wanted me to be or not, that was my prayer. So let's analyze that. Let's, let's Let's analyze what have I done to respond to that as I asked Allah to free me, which obviously he did free me on that day. Allah declared that I was rehabilitated and be released from prison. And I, I sat here and I'm looking at, you know, website. I want to show you too much, just a little quick glance. I'm looking at just in the last few years as I look at our dashboard from our parole— excuse me, from payroll and employment dashboard, my employment dashboard. And it shows here that I've hired over 279 people. In the last few years. 279 people in the last few years. People that have been system impacted. Not every single person. I would say maybe 90% of this list, maybe 90% of this list are, are folks that have been system impacted. And what do I mean by that? System impacted, formerly incarcerated, formerly on parole or probation. Um, formerly homeless, domestic violence, etc. Been in domestic violence situations. So this is— these are the amount of families that's been supported by the organization Timeless Group. Um, that was my mission upon being released from prison, to serve my community. Now, as a part of that, understand faith is the key, because I do believe in Allah. I continue to pray as a Muslim pray. I continue to fast as a Muslim fast. I continue to pay zakat as Muslims pay zakat, or charity. Don't doubt for a minute that my faith has wavered in my belief in Allah. Don't doubt that for a moment. Because you don't see me wearing a kufi every day, because you don't see me wearing a thobe every day, doesn't mean that I've wavered. In fact, I've been able to reach communities and touch people that I would never been able to touch if I had just only focused on Muslims, on the Muslim community. One thing about us as Muslims is that we have a lot going on as a community. In general, Muslims, we are very wealthy, very educated, wealthy. Community, at least the communities that I've always been a part of, whether it's been in the Bay Area or Southern California. Very wealthy community, but— and I'm a but there— we're not as involved in the general community, in the lives of the general community. If you go back and look at the first documentary or video that I, I was in, uh, under Taiba Foundation The Forgotten Believers, you know, Sheikh Rami even stated that I had a concern or care for the general masses of people. I've always had this, and I've always been concerned that Muslims, just like the Christians, the Jewish, and Catholic, and other community faith communities get involved in the lives of humanity. Muslims, we have to do more. To be involved in the lives of the general community. That is our propagation. That is our dawah. That's what we call it, propagation, or proselytizing if you want to use that term. We don't have to go out and say, hey, come follow Muhammad, come and pray with us. They're going to see your actions. People will see you and know that you're Muslim if you're practicing Islam. But part of the practice of a Muslim, the way I've been trained and taught, is servicing humanity. Serve humanity. The Book of Allah was revealed to all of mankind, all of humanity. That's living. That's living by serving all of mankind, all of humanity. I'm doing my part, you know, uh, over the last 11 years now that I've been out, built a multi-million dollar, uh, nonprofit organization that's very successful right now. Um, we're reaching all types of people. We've helped— we're helping other organizations now. We're at a— we're in a place as an organization where we're helping other nonprofits get established. Imagine that. And They know that I'm Muslim. They know me as Yusef-Andre Wiley. So I think it's important, and I'm just really emphasizing this, and I, I've never talked about this before, you know. I felt a little bit that, you know, the Muslims have forgotten this, that this is our way. Our way is to serve all of humanity. We have it. We have the ability. Look at the housing crisis right now. Look at the homeless crisis right now. Look at mass incarceration. Look at all these things. With the exception of a few organizations like Taebo Foundation, Link Outside, um, you know, the Prisoner Projects, there's organizations doing the work. But there should be, considering the education level Um, the, the expertise that we have in the Muslim community, the level of, uh, you know, of wealth in the Muslim community, we can be making huge impacts in the lives of people in society today. We really could. And I'm really imploring my Muslim community to do more. I'm only one person. It's like People call me from all over, or because they was referred, which is fine. Whenever somebody's just got out of prison and they go to this masjid or that masjid, or they're writing them letters from this prison or that prison, they reach out to Yusef-Andre Wiley Wiley Wiley. Okay, alhamdulillah. But we all can contribute. We all should be contributing. We can do it. We can make it happen. We can annihilate this housing crisis. We can be doing a great service in developing new housing. And, you know, we should be the, the planners, the developers, the, the builders. Right? This is our history. We know this. We come from this. So it's just my little rant, I guess, this morning, because I want people, you know, my friends and family— a lot of my friends and family are not Muslim, but a large portion of my friends are Muslim. And I love my family. I love my Muslim community, but I want us to do better. I really want us to do better. Um, we can do better, and I know we can do better. When I went to prison, I was at a 4th grade reading, at a 4th grade education level. To be where I am today as a homeowner, relaxing in my backyard, having a cup of coffee and able to converse with you about this is clear evidence that it can be done. I don't come from the education background that many of you have come from. I've come from a very rough background of gang violence, drug, drug, uh, dealing, and I come from a very harsh background. Converted to Islam in 1993, '94, between that area. And I've never wavered from being Muslim, never had doubts about my Islam. And to go from that to be in a position to help so many people today as a Muslim that just happens to have the platform of a nonprofit organization, as well as my, my LLC, and, you know, my consulting firm, and a couple other businesses, ventures that I'm involved in— that is a miracle, that is a blessing, that is from Allah Ta'ala, as he heard my prayer that I wanted to serve community. And for those that don't think that money is, you know, money is the root of all evil— no. Money can be used to assist our cause. We need money to advance community. We need wealth building to advance and improve the lives and quality of people. So don't doubt where we are. Don't doubt where this organization is today. Because of that prayer that I made before I went into the room to sit in front of the board of prison hearings. Don't doubt it, because I thank Allah that I'm here and I'm able to serve. And I really, really want my Muslim community— this, this message is mostly intended for my Muslim community, but for those that are not Muslim understand where I'm coming from. I'm just— I'm speaking from my faith right now. Let's get it together. Let's make it happen. When politicians, government agencies and departments are having meetings and roundtables and, uh, listening sessions, and we need to be present in those spaces, we need to be there. Let's stop avoiding these spaces. We need to be in the room where decisions are being made about what happens to people in our society. We need to be in the room and we need to be involved. Peace. Salaam alaikum.