Sheikh Mateen Charbonneau Daily Updates

THOUGHTS ON MY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF FREEDOM

THOUGHTS ON MY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF BEING FREE
Life has suprising twists and turns which are unexpected. at age 16 I was sentenced to 10 years and transferred to a maximum security prison upon my 17th birthday. I knew I didnt want to continue living life being in a gang, because this would lead me to death or Life in prison all for something pointless. So, I sought out for truth and began reading about many different paths and studied their scriptures and lessons. Upon researching the different religions Shia Islam held the proofs and guidance I was searching for. We are all lost without the guidance of of our Imam (as). Let us take a moment to thank God for bringing us out of the darkness of a life of ignorance into the light of Truth. May we all remain firm on this path.
 
“Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us and grant us from Yourself mercy. Indeed, You are the Bestower.” Quran 3:8
 
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ الْوَهَّابُ – 3:8
 
I am very thankful that I was able to use my time from an early age, of accepting Islam when I was 17 years old, to study numerous books over the 9 years of my incarceration. I looked at being in prison as being in a University, instead of being in an actual prison.
 
I was finally released on August 1st 2007 and I cannot even begin to explain the feeling of that day! Upon coming home I set out with certain goals in life and by Gods grace I was able to achieve many of them. Some of the things that have helped me the most during this journey of life was having strong determination, being organized, making action plans, not listening to others who try to discourage you or tell you that you can’t do something and most of all being consistent.
 
My story (filmed in 2011):
Sheikh Mateen Charbonneau Book Info, Daily Updates

New Book: Prophetic Gems

This book is very dear to me and I thank God that I was able to complete it after many years of hard work. I started compiling these narrations shortly after I converted to Islam, which was in in 1999. At that time, I was 17 years old serving a 10-year sentence in a maximum-security prison of South Carolina, USA. I was reading so many books that I wanted to preserve all of the highlighted things that stood out to me the most. 
Unfortunately, the prison only allowed us 10 books at a time, so I wondered how in the world would I ever be able to have all of these narrations when I needed them. How could be possible if I were to continue reading more books over my 10-year prison term? Luckily, I found a loophole which was that they did not have a limit of notebooks that we were allowed to have, so I started writing all of my favorite narrations from all these books I was reading over the years along with their sources in notebooks. By the end of my 10-year sentence I had three notebooks written: front and back of each page! I used the hard cover of an old book to place over these three notebooks. I still have this original handwritten book till this day: 17 years later! 
I was finally able to type all of these narrations out into a document which added up to about 1,700 narrations on various subjects dealing with beliefs, morality, status of the Prophet (s) and his Family (as), etc. (614 pages)
I wanted to leave this as a legacy for my children to benefit from and be a guide for them throughout their life. I hope that others can benefit from this endeavor as well.  
We at 2nd Chance Books will also, will be sending this book into the prisons of South Carolina that I left behind and also prisons throughout the United States. To help contribute to this cause please visit our webpage at: 

http://www.2ndChanceBooks.org
THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT: https://www.yasinpublications.com/product-page/prophetic-gems-advice-from-prophet-muhammad-and-his-family