48 | Hijrah | April 2013
Advice from Brothers Who’ve Made It On the Outside: Work It !
assistance that is due to them from the state and federal government. “One brother comes to me and asks me for $20. I told him that I will drive him down to the [DC] office where he can pick up $50 that is due to him as an ex-offender, then I will take out $20 from that and give it to him and keep the rest,” said the Washington DC brother jokingly. “Unfortunately, this wrong thinking makes brothers depend on others and their family members for cash hand-outs, when they could use the assistance and get back on their feet quicker.”
Hijrah staff spoke to a few dedicated and hard working brothers in the Muslim community who served between 3 and 22 years in federal prison. We asked them what advice would they give to Muslim brothers and sisters coming out of prison and back into society.
Other brothers told Hijrah that brothers use the “I don’t want anything from the non-Muslims” as an excuse to be lazy and avoid the hard work and sacrifice it takes to become financially stable.
One brother from Washington DC said brothers need to get out of the wrong-headed mentality that “I won’t take anything from the non-Muslims”. With this wrong thinking, they don’t take grants, financial assistance, job training and placement opportunities, and other social
Al-Bukhari recorded a hadith narrated by Hakim bin Hizam who said the Prophet Sallallahu ‘alyhi wa sallam said, “The upper hand is better than the lower hand (i.e. he who gives in charity is better than him who takes it). One should start giving first to his dependents. And the best object of charity is that which is given by a wealthy
The Power of Words Allah Revealed “Iqra” -- Read -- and He Swore By the Pen. Words are important because they form your thoughts and your views. The Prophet Sallallahu ‘alyhi wa sallam said ‘say something good or keep silent’. Learn words and use them for good. Here are what some well known personalities said about words: Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
say and keep on saying it. --Robert Frost Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. – Plato To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks. --Ben Jonson Language has three important uses--it expresses thought, conceals thought, and takes the place of thought. --Unknown Words are plentiful; deeds are precious.-Lech Walesa After all is said and done, more is said than done. --Unknown
Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is. --Publilius Syrus
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. --Abigail Adams
Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment. --Ira Gassen
Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no one. --Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet. --Ann Landers
We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. --Mahatma Gandhi
No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. --Henry B. Adams Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to
The flood of careless, unconsidered, cheap words is the greatest enemy of the profound word. -- Stephen L. Talbott The words we say will teach if we practice what we preach. --Unknown
person (from the money which is left after his expenses). And whoever abstains from asking others for some financial help, Allah will give him and save him from asking others, Allah will make him self-sufficient.” The brother from Washington DC said that many young brothers in prison spend their time watching TV, playing sports, or just engaging in leisure activities. “Instead of wasting their time, and instead of taking simple jobs like laundry, they should take advantage of the training in prison and learn dry wall, or carpentry, or masonry, or electrical work. Once they get out, they can earn money because an electrician in prison does the same things that an electrician outside of prison does. But brothers waste their time,” he told Hijrah. Former inmate and former Virginia Islamic chaplain Mahdi Bray said the best advice he has for inmates is to do their time wisely, spending in education and training. He also said brothers and sisters need to really look at who they are spending their time with, because good friends will help keep you on the right path.
Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken. --Orson Rega Card The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.--Harriet Beecher Stowe When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it. --Arabian Proverb
The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be. --Edgar Allan Poe The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. --Mark Twain
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. --Ambrose Bierce
I am annoyed by individuals who are embarrassed by pauses in a conversation. To me, every conversational pause refreshes. --George Sanders
If you wouldn't write it and sign it, don't say it. --Earl Wilson
The most precious things in speech are the pauses. --Sir Ralph Richardson
When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing. —Unknown
Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. --D.J. Kaufman
If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind - give it more thought. --Dennis Roth
Great minds talk about ideas, Average minds talk about things, Small minds talk about other people. --Unknown
It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn --Robert Southey
Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence. --Spanish Proverb
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. --Dorothy Nevill
Of those who say nothing, few are silent. --Thomas Neiel Never miss a good chance to shut up. – Will Rogers One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say. --Will Durant