He Left Everything for the Sake of Allah

Before IMA, Michael was living the life most people spend their whole youth chasing.

Touring across Europe and North America. Performing at major festivals. Deep inside the music industry… the stages, the crowds, the lifestyle your feed sells you as the finish line.

And in 2023, newly married, with no backup plan and no clear path forward, he walked away from all of it.

Not for a better offer. Not for a business opportunity.

For the sake of Allah.

I want to tell you what happened next

The Dream, From the Inside

First, let Michael ruin the fantasy for you, because he earned the right to.

From the outside, the touring life looked exciting. From the inside: an environment that stood against everything he valued, surrounded by people he didn't respect, with no real long term direction.

And the money? Nothing like people imagine. An entire tour run brought in around $20K and tours only came around occasionally. No consistency. A life balanced on an unreliable income.

His verdict, in his own words: "Once I got there… I realized it was a dead-end road."

Remember that the next time you envy someone's highlight reel. Michael reached the place your nafs tells you to chase, looked around, and chose Allah over all of it.

The Valley

This is where Michael's story separates itself from every cheap transformation post on the internet.

Leaving for Allah didn't mean the replacement arrived by Friday.

He went from stages and tour buses to working construction. 40 plus hours a week, living paycheck to paycheck, supporting his wife on limited income. His words: "At the end of the month… we were back on zero."

Then life pressed harder. A newborn child. Then he got laid off. Then he started driving Uber just to get by.

A man who performed at festivals across two continents, now driving strangers around to cover the month with a wife and baby depending on him.

And he did it without shame, because our deen taught him there is none. The Prophet ﷺ said "it is better for a man to carry firewood on his back and sell it than to beg." Michael quotes that hadith himself.

But he also knew hauling wood forever wasn't the plan. He needed to build something.

The "No" That Became Preparation

Michael found IMA. He got on the call.

And he had to say no. He simply couldn't afford it.

Now pay attention, because what he did next is the single most useful lesson in this story for anyone reading it broke.

He didn't close the tab, and disappear which is what most people do with an opportunity they can't reach yet.

He treated "not yet" as a goal.

He set up his domain. He warmed up his email accounts. He studied every piece of free content he could find so that the day the money was there, not one week would be wasted on setup.

When the opportunity came back around, he was ready to move fast.

There are two kinds of brothers who can't afford something: the ones who wait, and the ones who prepare. Only one of them is actually moving.

150 Hours

When Michael finally joined, he went all in.

Uber part time to keep the family fed. Every remaining hour into IMA.

And he tracked those hours… literally. His own advice to students: "Stopwatch every single work session. Every time you step away, pause it. See how much work you are truly putting in."

Five weeks in, 150 tracked hours of work, he closed his first deal. A $9,000 deal with $2,000 profit.

He announced it to the community with a hadith about gratitude and humility, called it a small win, and got back to work.

Shortly after, he hit his first $10,000 month.

That's when everything clicked.

Allahouma barik.

The Better Life He Was Promised

From there, the income became consistent. If you read Saleh's story, Michael is one of the brothers Saleh named as a motivator on his own way up. He won an Umrah trip through the community.

And then he made the move that ties the whole story together.

He took his wife and child and moved to Malaysia.

Today Michael works fully online and controls his own schedule. He travels freely between countries. His income stretches two to three times further than it would back home. There's a masjid in his own building. He prays in jama'ah every day. He trains MMA. He's with his family during the day, not in a gap between shifts.

His summary of it all: "Life is just easier now."

From an environment that fought his deen daily, to a life where the jama'ah is an elevator ride away. That's a life rebuilt around what actually matters.

Michael's Advice to You

Michael's first win post is one of the most valuable things ever written in our community, so I'll hand you its essentials in his own framing.

On accountability: "Seeking provision after the salah is a duty after a duty. We are men and have to hold ourselves accountable. Showing up every day, doing real work, facing the tasks that are most uncomfortable, this is where the growth comes from. The harder it gets, the more people have given up, therefore the closer you are to that win."

On starting: send your first outreach within your very first day. Make mistakes, there's no avoiding it, and every mistake now smooths the process later. And be mindful: "Shaytan will whisper to us that scrolling reels is getting work done."

On adab: the people you're emailing are people. Be kind, be likable, in a natural, non desperate way. "Embodying the characteristics our deen teaches us will assist us in the outreach, in the negotiations, and in the close."

And above all: call upon your Rabb. He is Ar-Razzaq, it's His provision you're seeking, so watch how you go about acquiring it.

What I Want You to Take From This

Some of you are inside an environment you already know is wrong. The money isn't even that good, you've done the honest math like Michael did but it's familiar, and leaving feels like jumping without a parachute.

Michael jumped. But he left for the sake of Allah, and Allah does not lose track of a sacrifice. The door appeared, and when he couldn't walk through it yet, he prepared at the doorstep until he could.

"I left everything for the sake of Allah… and got a better life in return."

May Allah bless Michael's family, preserve the life He built for them, and grant every brother stuck between money and his values the courage to choose correctly.

Barakallahufik,

Abu Lahya