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Rising Above Injustice - Dr. Yusef Salaam | Confident Muslim | Yaqeen Institute at MASCON2021
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Confident Muslim
Rising Above Injustice - Dr. Yusef Salaam | Confident Muslim | Yaqeen Institute at MASCON2021
In the face of injustice, Dr. Yusef Salaam rose above the obstacles of a false conviction. Yaqeen Institute is proud to name Dr. Yusef Salaam as our 2021 Muhammad Ali Confident Muslim of the Year. The award was presented at the 2021 MAS ICNA Convention in Chicago, IL. Confident Muslim by Yaqeen...
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
00:01 The Prophet Muhammad The Prophet Muhammad The Prophet Muhammad
00:14 As-salamu alaykum. I told you guys I'd be right back. Alhamdulillah, tonight is one of the most special nights for me
00:26 in the last couple of years. There's a particular man that I have personally known, and I met him a few years ago before he became one of the most recognizable faces in America.
00:38 And I love him for the sake of Allah. And I truly do. And so I say that before I even read his bio, and I think that by the end of this session you will love him as well. Dr. Yusuf Salam
00:50 was just 15 years old when his life was upended after being wrongfully convicted with four other boys in the Central Park jogger case. In 2002, after the young men spent years of their lives
01:02 behind bars, their sentences were overturned. Now known as the Exonerated Five, their story has been documented in the award-winning film, the Central Park Five,
01:14 and of course the series, When They See Us. Over the past two decades, Yusuf has become a family man, a father, a poet, an activist, and an inspiration. And he continues to use
01:26 his platform to educate the public about the impact of mass incarceration and police brutality rooted in our justice system. He has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Obama
01:38 amongst other honors. And you have seen him on the stages of multiple award ceremonies. Please watch this short video about Dr. Yusuf Salam and then we will bring him out, inshallah ta'ala.
01:52 On the morning of April 20th, 1989, New York City awakened to the horrifying news. A Wall Street investment bank left for dead after a brutal attack while she was jogging in Central Park.
02:06 A female jogger was clinging to life after being beaten and sexually assaulted in Central Park. The city was outraged. The police quickly arrested a group of teenagers, among them Yusuf Salam.
02:18 Their trial gripped the city. Their conviction, seen by many of the time, as justice served. Arrested at 15, you spend seven years
02:30 in prison for a crime you did not commit. Vilified in the public for years. Not even just a smidge of bitterness. I gotta tell you, I found out
02:42 that a thing like forgiveness, as an example, of where we can go with being able to get out of being bitter. Forgiveness is for you. It's for you to be
02:54 able to surgically cut yourself from the ball and chain that is holding you back. There's dua that my mother told me in prison. She would say,
03:06 she would say, I invoke the perfect words of Allah to protect us against the evil that may come from sky or earth,
03:18 against the test of night and day. In the name of Allah, gracious and merciful. You think part of your purpose in life was going to prison for a crime you didn't commit?
03:30 Absolutely. Every year, dear brothers and sisters, we have a Confident Muslim Award named after Muhammad Ali. The Yaqeen Institute Muhammad Ali Confident Muslim Award.
03:42 Typically, we give this award at our annual banquet in Dallas. Tonight, we do this at mass, inshallah ta'ala. So please help me in welcoming our 2021 Muhammad Ali Confident Muslim of the Year,
03:54 Dr. Yusuf Salam.
03:58 Applause
04:14 Applause
04:34 Applause
05:02 As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. I am honored and thankful to be standing here in front of you today.
05:14 I grew up in a time when the system believed that we were guilty because of the color of our skin. They paraded us in front of the people and made
05:26 the people believe that our mothers and our fathers had given birth to what was amounted to be the scum of the earth. But what they didn't contend with
05:38 was the plan of Allah. They say that man plans and God plans and surely God is the best of planners. I look at the Central Park Jaguar
05:50 case as a love story between God and his people. I call it that because this same system that tried to convict us became the criminal system of injustice for me.
06:02 But Allah used this case, the Central Park Jaguar case to place the whole system on trial and to topple it. The system put us in prison
06:14 and they buried us but they forgot that we were seeds. And instead of a social death, we were able to emerge like the phoenix from the ashes
06:26 because just like they built the fire to consume us, they forgot the owner of the heat. Allah allowed the prison to be
06:38 cool and safe. I was able to go into the prison and study. I was able to go into the prison and learn.
06:50 My first five years there, they made me the imam of the young people that was there. applause
07:02 When I aged out of the youth facility at 21, I got sent to a place called Clinton, one of the worst prisons in New York City, New York
07:14 rather. While I was there, they wanted me to be the naive of the community. This was after they named me the Qadi for a year and a half.
07:26 Every position that I was in having been given the worst label that you could go to prison for, that of rape, Allah allowed me to be
07:38 in a place of safety. Allah allowed me to be restored in my honor and Allah blessed me to be binded to this faith. My mother and my
07:50 father, after I was born, we know the traditions. They observed me for seven days. And on the seventh day, they brought me in front of the people.
08:02 And they said my name was to be known as Yusuf Idrees Fadl Abdus Salam. I never knew what that meant.
08:14 I got to prison and an officer asked me, who was I? And I said I'm Yusuf Salam, one of the guys they accused of raping in Central Park Jogger, but I didn't do it. And he said I know that. I've been watching
08:26 you. You're not supposed to be here. Why are you here? Who are you? I found out that not only does Yusuf
08:38 define my whole story, but Yusuf in English is the equivalent to the Prophet Joseph. But that still
08:50 doesn't define what Yusuf means. As I searched to find a definition of what this name that my mother had given me, I found that Yusuf meant God will increase.
09:02 I found that Idrees means the teacher. I found that Fadl, Allah is the most just. With justice.
09:14 And of course everyone knows Salam is peace. I was in prison when I found out the meaning of my name for the first time. And I was floored. The beauty that this story would take
09:26 and the shape it would go on even to this day and beyond. I'm continuously humbled and thankful to be alive, but more importantly
09:38 I'm so thankful to be able to call myself Muslim. To have been born witness
09:46 over and above everything else. We won a lawsuit, they gave us a few million dollars.
10:00 I came home from prison and my faculties were still intact. I still had a mind, but over and above that I had the Shahada.
10:12 I shahadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika la wa ashhadu anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu Thank you, I'm honored. And brother Suleiman
10:24 is coming out again. applause applause
10:36 I want to share a poem. I want to share this poem because one of the most powerful things that happened to me in prison was that I began
10:48 to realize that I was a vessel. And I was walking down the corridors to the mess hall in the prison and all of a sudden this poem came into my mind. It was called
11:00 Venus and Mars. In between Venus and Mars is the center of our attraction. Of those connected to the stars, hardly
11:12 a fraction. It behooves man to work for the day when this will all end. Life is mortal, so follow the malat of those heavens sent.
11:24 Awaken and receive that which will give you life. Or remain horizontal and never begin flight. For the solution, I'll
11:36 descend from amongst the stars and I'll meet you in between Venus and Mars. applause
11:48 applause applause applause
12:00 As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Alhamdulillah, I'm sure that we could have listened to you speak for a very long time.
12:12 So the first time I heard you speak was actually in a very sacred place. The first time I heard Dr. Yousuf speak was actually at the podium
12:24 in the very spot that Al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz Malcolm X spoke his last words in the Shabazz Center which is the former Audubon. And I heard you recite
12:36 Khutbatul Hajj. And it was beautiful. And I'd actually request you to do that inshallah ta'ala if you don't mind and then we can start.
12:48 Because I want to say why inshallah ta'ala. Would you mind? It's the introduction. Inshallah. Yes.
13:26 Inshallah. When I heard you say it I remember there are multiple incidents with the Prophet
13:38 where he just recited that and people became Muslim. And I asked you about it and you said that you were giving khutbah in prison. And that's why you
13:50 learned that because you were the one giving khutbahs in prison. So I want to ask you to first of all reflect a little bit more on your name Yousuf. You went to prison
14:02 and you had companions. In prison you became a leader. And then everything from your prison experience transformed the way that you viewed the world afterwards.
14:14 Can you tell us a little bit more about what the name Yousuf and the story of Yousuf. When you're reading what is it like when you read Surah Yousuf? You know when I read Surah Yousuf I get so much from it. Because for one
14:26 I'm overjoyed that my name is mentioned in the Quran. And I'm overjoyed as well because my son, my last child that was born to me
14:38 was born also on my birthday. And he also shares my name. When I read the story of Yousuf I think about over and above just the fact that his physical brothers were the ones
14:50 that felt the way they felt about him. But I think about the family, the humanity that we come from. And how people feel different ways about other people. About how
15:02 in America we were taken from a place and turned into chattel slaves by some of our people. And how in this place
15:14 we were able to thrive. Allah gives you lemons in life and you can either say why do I have lemons?
15:26 Or you can say I'm going to make some lemonade. And then you can make it look cool. You can start squeezing the lemons taking the juice out and then start juggling them as you watch
15:38 the people and say check this out y'all. It's a really really amazing thing though because the other side was that I was realizing that how
15:50 much grace Allah was giving me. How Allah was really raising me as Allah raised Idrees
16:02 to a high station. No equivalent at all. But just for me and a little bit of my understanding how merciful Allah was. That I was able to go
16:14 through this situation and I call myself growing through it as opposed to just going through it. That anything that we grow through has the opportunity to turn us into our best selves. That life often
16:26 times challenges you not because life hates you or God hates you. But God wants you to be able to become your best self. And so he hits you with a 2x4.
16:38 So that when the next time the 2x4 is coming you now have peripheral vision and you know when to duck. It's a beautiful thing though because now I get the
16:50 opportunity to tell my children. I get the opportunity to tell others about the amazing thing called a trial. And how you can go through the trial never
17:02 cursing God but always being thankful. And God will bless you because of that. And just because you went through it that doesn't mean you won't be tested again like Allah says in the Quran.
17:14 Do not you see we test you at least once or twice a year. Our prayer and our hope is that we succeed and we pass the test every single time.
17:26 Thank you. Was Yusuf always at this level of tranquility and peace?
17:38 MashaAllah. So as I've seen you always at peace. Sakina. Tranquility. Were you always a tranquil person? Were you always at peace?
17:50 And if not, at what point in your life did you feel like there was a turning point where you were able to develop that peace of heart and peace of mind? I would say that for the most part
18:02 most of my life has been a peaceful life. There are times I think where I have to be reminded to be
18:14 patient. And when I remember that, being patient, the sabr, it's not about just being patient. It's the
18:26 what are you doing while you're being patient that really causes you to be patient. What happened to me allowed me to realize that we are in
18:38 control of nothing. And Allah is in control of everything. So much so that even in this era of COVID we want to be able to live our best lives. We want to
18:50 be able to live, as Allah says to sometimes the unbelievers, a thousand years. But Allah says if you don't believe that you are not in control, that you, if you think you are in control
19:02 Allah says when your soul is leaving your body try to pull it back. The beauty of Islam
19:14 is to know that you can, as you turn your will over to Allah and ask Allah to mold you, to shape you, to beautify you,
19:26 to magnify you, Allah, through me. A good friend of mine who is also Muslim spent 27 years in prison. His name is Jimmy Gardner.
19:38 Jimmy Gardner reminded me thank God I don't look like what I've been through because we could have been majnun. We could have been
19:50 totally out of our minds. We could have been cursing Allah out. We could have been a scourge. Thank you. Now we are blessed.
20:03 As you, one of the things I've always admired about you and I've watched you speak over
20:10 these last few years is that you always seem to be pulling from your moments of vulnerability and sometimes as you're describing those moments it's as if I could see you seeing it. And
20:24 you do that I think because you want to help others get out of their moments. Can you walk us through your lowest point? You know there's a point even in the lives of the prophets,
20:35 Yunus alayhis salam in the belly of a whale. Can you walk us through the darkest moments and how you got out by the permission and grace of Allah?
20:49 In my, I write about my lowest point in my very first book. That book is a book of poetry.
21:01 One of the poems that I read to you was from that book. It's called Words of a Man My Right to Be. I talk about how much of the poems that were written in that book were written
21:11 while I was in prison. Maybe 90% of the poems in that book was written while I was in prison. But the reason why I decided to share that book when I brought it out was because I wanted
21:23 people to know that when you find yourself in so-called dark places, there's always a light somewhere in the darkness. And often times that light is inside you. You can illuminate
21:35 your own darkness and shine your light on the world. Because what happens is that the devil is trying to make you believe that all hope is lost. You could have, I remember one
21:48 time I was in prison. I had the worst, I mean I had such a bad sore throat. I wanted somebody to cut my throat out and give me a new throat. And I was crying and I was in pain. And the
22:02 only thing I could do was turn to Allah because what they were doing in the prison was they were experimenting on us. They wouldn't give us medicine. Not the medicine we needed. They
22:11 were giving us stuff that was causing us to become sick. But when I turned to Allah, it
22:18 was like by the morning everything was gone. I was completely healed. It's that moment
22:26 where you remember, here I was going into a place and I had to remember what my mother said to me as you all heard on the video.
22:37 I seek refuge in the most perfect word of Allah from the evil of that which he has created.
22:53 The Kalima. I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship but Allah. Allah blesses us because even in those moments, Allah is allowing us to become binded to the Sirat
23:07 al-Mustaqim. As long as you stay faithful, as long as you stay thankful, as long as you
23:14 say Ya Allah, Allah is binding you to the faith so that you won't be able to be ripped
23:26 from it. This life will cause you to be challenged. Some of the most difficult things that we've
23:34 gone through is nothing when we hear about the stories of the Prophet peace be upon him or even the stories of the other people that came before. This is nothing. And Allah asks
23:48 us Allah, make it easy.
23:54 So I'm going to put you in a situation. You're talking to a young man who has lost all hope
24:04 or a young woman because everything that they have worked towards has been taken away from
24:09 them or so they think. That young man is you in prison knowing that you're there unjustly
24:21 and not seeing a way out. What do you tell a young person that's losing faith and doesn't see a way out right now? If you're counseling, there are multiple people that are sitting here right now that are in a situation where they feel imprisoned by their circumstances
24:35 even if they're not in the physical prison that you were in. What do you tell a young person that has been wronged or is at that breaking point where they don't know if they
24:47 have faith anymore and they're losing hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? I tell them what my mother told me. My mother told me this. If you've seen When They See
25:00 Us, there's a moment and for those of us who haven't seen it, this is not a spoiler. This happened very early in the film. But there's a moment where my mother came into the interrogation
25:11 room and got me away from the police. What you don't see is what happened in that moment
25:19 because in the very next scene or thereabouts, I was back in the prison. In the time my mother
25:28 had with me, she told me something. And what she told me I'll never forget because I had to take her words into the prison with me and then I had to take her words after I came
25:42 home from prison into life. My mother said to me, they need you to participate in whatever
25:53 it is that they're trying to do. Do not participate. Refuse. For me, it was the box. The box that
26:06 was labeled inmate. The box that would allow me to never come out of that circumstance but physically feel like the only life that I was to live was the life of a prisoner.
26:20 A person that came out of prison and went back in and then came out and went back in because that's how they designed the life for us. And then the next thing I would tell
26:31 you is that Allah created you on purpose. Allah makes no mistakes. And if you believe
26:39 you were born by mistake, you move throughout your life as if you are a mistake. When you
26:47 think about even the process of us being born, now I can say this because it's cleaned up for all audiences. It's the story of the birds and the bees. But when our mother and father
27:00 got together, each and every one of us were one of over 400 million options. And Allah
27:08 chose you. I mean, imagine that. If we add like a movie kind of scene to it, one is trying
27:16 to get forward. No, not you. Get out of the way. Not you. Your time is not yet. You. Me?
27:24 You. Not only is that a purposeful birth, but if you were born on purpose, then you
27:33 have to know that you have a purpose. The challenge is for us to find out what our purpose is. And just like Dr. King said, Dr. King said, when you find your purpose in life,
27:46 do it as if God himself called you to do it at this very moment. And instead of giving us a grand idea of what purpose could be, he said, even if your purpose in life is to
27:55 be a street sweeper, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep the streets, he said, like Beethoven composed music, like Leotone Price sang before the opera. We all
28:10 want to be able to find what that purpose is. And let me tell you, Allah didn't just create us to be on the sidelines. Allah created us to be active because at the end of our
28:23 lives, like Allah says in the Quran, have we not given you life long enough? Allah is going to ask us, like Allah says through Hadith Qudsi, what did you do with the life I gave
28:37 you? And hopefully the things that we did were Fee Sabilillah. Beautiful answer. This
28:49 idea of Allah mentioning that he brought you into this world, Thumma Sabila Yassara, he eased you into this world, Thumma Amatahu Fa Aqbara, and then a person dies and they
29:03 go to their grave. The fact that you've taken your experience and you've turned it into a teaching moment for America is something that's deeply inspiring. And so I want you
29:16 to teach this audience, what does the Muslim community and America as a whole, the American Muslim community in America in the broader sense, need to know about racism and mass
29:25 incarceration and how it has impacted your life and how we see young people that are perhaps in the same situation that you once were. Wow. I think that what we need to know
29:39 is that they plan and Allah plans. Right now in America there's a thing called separation of church and state. That causes people to believe that what they're doing as their job
29:54 has nothing to do with their religious or faith-based life, when the exact opposite is the most truest. Everything that they do matters. Some people say, I'm just doing my
30:05 jobs. So on Friday I go to the masjid, on Saturday I go to the temple or the synagogue, and on Sunday I go to church. In Islam we marry the so-called church and state. Our
30:19 faith dictates how we move throughout our lives. There's a thing in America called the
30:27 constitution. And as we read the constitution we find that it begins with the words, we
30:35 the people. And if we stop right there and test the temperature and acts, who were they
30:43 talking about? They weren't talking about black and brown people. Black and brown people
30:52 were still considered three-fifths of a person. If you skip over and go right to the 13th amendment, you find that in the 13th amendment it says, even though slavery is abolished,
31:05 it says neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any other place subject to their jurisdiction. But that's not even the most important part.
31:18 The most important part is section 2. It says Congress shall have the power through legislation
31:29 to make this so. And so I want you to step back for a moment and look at this document and realize that this document is talking about something that was a stain on America,
31:41 being abolished but yet being allowed to continue and morph into something else. It morphed
31:51 into the prison industrial complex, a place that they would rather send you to, especially if you're black or brown. I mean, think about the Central Park jogger case for a moment.
32:04 I was the tallest out of the group. I was presumed the darkest out of the group. And
32:13 I was the only Muslim in the group. I was a threat. They wanted to arrest my development
32:23 before I had an opportunity to even grow. They wanted to give me a definition for myself
32:32 that Allah didn't choose for me. But Allah gave me a Rubik's cube to figure out with
32:40 the life that I was given. But Allah didn't do that for me. Allah gave this life and this example of me for you.
32:53 Dr. Youssef, we're at the end, but I got to ask you in one minute, inshallah ta'ala.
33:03 Al-Hajj Malik al-Shabaaz, Malcolm X, rahimahullah, said, I believe Islam has the solution to the problem of racism in America. How does Islam have the solution to racism in America in your heart and mind?
33:18 Because if we understand racism, you know how they have these movies and they have the movies and it says the origin story? So you just saw the whole movie and you saw the series and now because they need to make a little bit more money, they come to the beginning
33:32 how the people were born, what made them into this. The origin story of racism is shaitan.
33:42 Allah ta'ala says in various places of the Quran that when he created man, he told everything
33:56 that was there to bow down and shaitan refused. Allah asked, why didn't you bow down when
34:06 I commanded you to do so? The devil said, because I am better than him. There's only
34:16 one race and that's the human race. Islam gives us the ability to see every single man
34:27 as our father, our brother, or our son and gives us the ability to see every single woman
34:38 as our mother, our sister, or our daughter. I didn't say our wife. I didn't say our
34:47 wife because if you think about it, there's a problem in America, especially in the black
34:54 community. We've been given a negative viewpoint about women. Islam is the solution because
35:05 if we saw every woman as our mother, how would we treat them? If we saw every woman as our sister, how would we protect them? If we saw every woman as our daughter, we would lay
35:18 down our lives for them and in the same way as our brother, our father, and our sons.
35:27 That's Islam. Islam is not a new thing because Allah says sometimes he abrogates a faith
35:38 with something else and sometimes he supports it. Islam is the faith that we were born to
35:46 follow. This is the last brick that the prophet, peace be upon him, was put to build the house
35:56 of faith. Islam is it. Islam cleans all of that up. It allows us to be just in our dealings
36:05 in public and in private, seen and hidden. Our private life is never different than our public life or at least that's what we strive to be.
36:17 MashaAllah, MashaAllah. Dr. Yusuf, salam. For everyone to know, inshaAllah ta'ala, you
36:30 have your book and it's a beautiful book. Dr. Yusuf inshaAllah ta'ala will be at the main mass booth and he has some of his books here inshaAllah ta'ala and he'll be signing
36:40 his book so you can meet him in person. But I want you to know that you make us proud as a community, that the way that you have represented yourself, your struggle, and your
36:52 faith community has inspired us all. So may Allah bless you and keep you firm and keep you sincere and keep you steadfast and may Allah allow you to continue to be a teacher
37:04 and a student and a humble servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and raise you and all of us to the highest position of Jannatul Firdaus. Allahuma Ameen. Dr. Yusuf has been in multiple big stages but I think this is the first time you're
37:18 addressing a Muslim conference of this size. Oh and I love it. This is beautiful. You all are beautiful. This is beautiful. I don't know if you can see yourselves but you all,
37:27 this is a scene. This is my brothers and my sisters. Allahumma lakayk. I love y'all. So can you all give him, since this is the first time that he's addressed a Muslim audience
37:42 of this size, can you all give him the loudest Allahu Akbar that he has ever heard? Takbeer!
37:49 Takbeer! Takbeer! Allahu Akbar! MashaAllah. JazakAllah khair. Dr. Yusuf, congratulations once again. Salam alaikum wa rahmatullah.
38:01 Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.
