“I Should Have Been Dead or in Jail”: Saved from the streets of UK by Aba Al-Sadiq

UK national Jahmeel Musa from Gloster is a member of the community surrounding Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq in Crewe. However, his story begins far from where he now stands. Raised between two cultures and surrounded by a dangerous life on the streets of the United Kingdom, Jahmeel’s life took unexpected turns before he found clarity, faith, and a purpose worth pursuing.

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Jahmeel, I’m 32, and I’ve known about the call since The Arrivals days, around 2011-12. I have been with Aba Al-Sadiq for around 8 years now.

I come from a mixed background, half-Asian and half-Jamaican. My father is a Rasta and my mother was a Shia Muslim. I was raised in a single-parent household for the majority of my childhood by my mum, and we grew up as Muslims, although I went to a Church of England school.

What was your life like before the call?

I grew up in council housing and on council estates for the most part, and the streets came easy to me. Most of my friends and family on my dad's side were involved in crime, and I came from a family that was well-known for all the wrong reasons. Although I had decent 9-to-5 jobs, doing sales and insurance, crime wasn’t very far away from me, and I had been arrested a few times. Luckily, I was never convicted.  There are so many young men in the UK growing up the way that I did - surrounded by crime and drugs. It just seems like the natural way to spend your time. I have several former friends and family members that served prison time.

My life revolved around playing football, working, and being there for my family for the most part, and of course, all the other things young men from the ends do to have fun, most of which wasn’t compatible with my religion, let’s put it that way.

As for my life and religion, I always believed in God, and I believed in the prophets and messengers, but I never went to an Islamic school or madrassa, and would usually only pray behind family, which was not very frequent while I was growing up. We used to hold majlis during Muharram and fast during Ramadan, but that was most of it.

From a young age, we already knew that the systems—such as the police and the government/monarchy—were not in place to help people like us, those with similar backgrounds to mine. We did not really follow an Imam, we did not believe in the government, and there was not much guidance.

You had this sense that the whole world was corrupt and there was not much out there to help you, which could leave you feeling helpless or as though there was nothing you could do to change it. It was simply a matter of accepting things as they were and making the most of it.

When I was 16 or 17 I watched The Arrivals, and at that point it really connected the dots and showed us that it was all part of the same puzzle—the religions, the separation, good and evil, secret societies—and it really painted that picture. My mother was the one who really studied it, and in essence Aba Al-Sadiq became our Imam. That is where we received our religious knowledge and guidance.

How did you find out about the call and how did you come to believe in it?

I watched The Arrivals with my mum and family. After that, my mum jumped deep into the rabbit hole as it were, and watched everything that had to do with Aba Al-Sadiq. She became a follower of his really early on.

From there, my mother would update me and tell me everything that she had come across from Aba Al-Sadiq, and in a way he became our Imam from then on. Slowly but surely, the research and learning continued alongside my day-to-day life, and eventually, after a bit of soul-searching in 2014, I made my belief in this faith official.

I remained in the background; I did not have much to say or do, especially given my background and the things I was involved in. I did not take the microphone on Paltalk, for example, very often—and when I did, I would simply read something—because, I mean, who am I to try to advise or guide anyone, right? I just donated when I could and believed in my heart.

Eight years ago, you turned over a new leaf to be a part of the community of the Mahdi. How has this decision changed your life?

My life changed in increments. Firstly, after finishing school, I started to look more into my religion and learned about the story of Karbala and what being a Shia meant. After watching The Arrivals a couple of years later, I was shocked, but it all made sense: how secret societies, religion, media, good and evil, and all the symbolism are all part of the same story or battle. It opened my eyes to the world around me, and I could see it more for what it was, although I never broke out of it. I had one foot in and the other out.

I had a bit of a mental breakdown in 2014, during which I became reclusive for a couple of months and studied religion, took my Shahada, and believed in the religion of Ahmed Al-Hassan. It was a very dark time for me, and I put my full trust in God, and with the help of my mother, I came out of it a better person and a believer.

Meeting other believers from the UK in 2015 helped cement a lot of things for me. I realised that there were more people like me with the same beliefs, and it gave me a glimpse of what is possible and what life could be like.

Even after all this, I still fell back into my old ways. Even though I wanted to change and be better, life was coming at me too easily. The world and its temptations were just handed to me. The further I tried to distance myself from it, the easier it became. It was as if, once I stopped chasing this world, it started chasing me, and to be honest, I could not really help myself.

In my heart of hearts, I knew that the only way I would escape was if I was given the chance to join the community around Aba Al-Sadiq, but I also knew that, at the same time, I was the one holding myself and my family back as well. In the end, though, we were eventually invited out, and I dropped everything and ran. Since then, I have never looked back.

The religion and call truly saved me. If I had not joined the community, I would have been dead or in jail—that seemed to be exactly where my life was heading. There was more violence around me, and I was even arrested shortly before I left my old life. It gave me a fresh chance and a new start to become the person I wanted to be, not a product of my environment. I went from being a kid from the neighbourhood, losing my religion, to being one of the close companions of the Qaim.

Do you have any advice for the people out there, especially those who come from a background similar to your own?

There are people out there in the world who are good at their core, but unfortunately the cards they were dealt forced them to do the things they did, and a lot of the time it was in order to survive in this cold world. If they had the choice, if they had the means, if they had the courage and the belief to change it, they would — but the world has become so dark that they’ve all but given up.

Going from that darkness to this, I can say that there is a way, and this very much is the ark of Noah, and this is what the good people who are trapped in darkness are waiting for: that rope out of the abyss. I would advise everyone out there to sincerely look into their hearts and see what they truly want.

The truth, the facts, and the proof are out there, but if you are not sincerely searching or wanting, then you will never make that leap or that jump. No matter how many proofs you read, you will never act on them simply because, deep down, it is not what you want.

God came for the sinners, so never think that you are not good enough or that God’s door would not be open for you. That could not be further from reality. Here you will find purpose, belonging, and family.

Once you have made up your mind and you want to live for something bigger than yourself, it is time to ask God about this call and let Him guide you. If you take one step towards God, He will take seventy steps towards you.

Jahmeel’s story is proof that no matter who you are or what your past looks like, transformation is always possible. His journey from a life of crime to one of devotion demonstrates the power of sincerity and the desire for change. For anyone searching for purpose, belonging, or a way out of the darkness, Jahmeel’s life stands as a testament: one sincere step toward God can change everything.