The first night in prison is the hardest. When that door slams shut at night, that's when you know this is real. It's happening.

The flap to my door opened and there was a man standing there...

My name is Babar Ahmad. I spent 11 years in prison from 2004-2015 in two countries, the UK and the US.

Ten of those years were without trial so I did not know when, or if, I may ever be released.

Six of those years were in isolation, including two years in complete solitary confinement.

During my years in prison, Allah inspired me with hope through the Quran. Sometimes He would show me verses of the Quran in my dreams. Sometimes it would be via something another prisoner told me.

Every night before I went to sleep I would close my eyes and open the Quran at random and put my finger on a page. Wherever my finger would land I would understand to be the message Allah wanted to give me at that particular moment.

Scholars said that if you want to talk to Allah, make salah (pray) and if you want Allah to talk to you, recite the Quran.

Join me this Ramadan for a series of short stories of hope inspired by the Quran in prison.

Subscribe to my channel for more prison stories. There are hundreds of stories to come inshallah!

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