Do you know your parents’ story? In Episode 5 of Suhbah Stories, Called to Serve: The Story of Mama Carmen, Hadiyah Muhammad interviews Yusuf Alwattar as he shares the extraordinary life of his mother, Dr. Carmen Botero.

Yusuf begins generations before her, starting with his great-grandparents, so we can understand all the forces that shaped his mother: the lineage, the trials, the values, and the quiet strengths that formed her character and her calling.

Yusuf, his brother (Al-Hasan Botero), and their mother founded El Encuentro, a community dedicated to nurturing a healthy, centered, and spiritually grounded space. Their work invites people to live Islam through traditional understandings while honoring the realities of our cultural context, inspiring a passion to love and serve others wherever they are and wherever they come from.

Through Yusuf’s gentle and compassionate storytelling, you’ll see why knowing our parents’ stories matters. It deepens our understanding, expands our compassion, and opens the door to the kind of blessing God bestows for those who honor the ones who raised them.

This conversation was recorded at The Dawām Seminary retreat, hosted at the Cannua Lodge, in Colombia, South America.

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Suhbah Stories Podcast

A Muhammad-Evans family production, Suhbah Stories is what happens when good friends, good vibes, and good stories come together. Suhbah (Arabic: صُحبة) means companionship or fellowship, being together on the path of life and faith.

Suhbah is the kind of circle that feeds your soul and reminds you of what really matters. Around our table, stories are gifts: funny, raw, heartfelt, and always real. We talk with friends, family, teachers, and mentors about life, faith, and the moments that make us who we are. Pull up a chair, you’re in the suhbah now.

Now streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Join the Suhbah! Follow @SuhbahStories on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.

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In this episode, Ubaydullah Evans and iman nacer boundaoui explore what it means to care for the body as an Amanah, a sacred trust, through somatic practice rooted in the Islamic tradition.

Drawing from iman’s journey from law to embodied healing, the discussion reintroduces us to the body as central to healing, not separate from our spiritual or intellectual lives.

Together, they examine how trauma lives in our flesh and nervous systems, how disembodiment has been normalized through colonial legacies and spiritual bypassing, and how returning to the body is both a personal and collective act of liberation. They reflect on how the prophetic tradition itself was deeply embodied, grounded in presence, movement, breath and what it means to recover that wisdom in our modern lives.

This conversation invites listeners to reimagine healing as a sacred act of trust: to feel what faith asks us to feel, to bring the body back into prayer, and to treat embodied awareness as an integral part of spiritual care. It’s a dialogue for anyone longing to move from concept to connection, from knowing to feeling their way back to God.

Want to dive deeper? Learn to release and move emotions safely from the inside out:

iman’s Virtual Somatics Studio at Forward to Health 🔗 forwardtohealth.com

Now streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Support the show

Suhbah Stories Podcast

A Muhammad-Evans family production, Suhbah Stories is what happens when good friends, good vibes, and good stories come together. Suhbah (Arabic: صُحبة) means companionship or fellowship, being together on the path of life and faith.

Suhbah is the kind of circle that feeds your soul and reminds you of what really matters. Around our table, stories are gifts: funny, raw, heartfelt, and always real. We talk with friends, family, teachers, and mentors about life, faith, and the moments that make us who we are. Pull up a chair, you’re in the suhbah now.

Now streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Join the Suhbah! Follow @SuhbahStories on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.

Send us a text

In this episode of Suhbah Stories, Ubaydullah Evans sits down with Dr. Khalid El Hakim, Founder of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum and Professor Griff - American rapper, spoken word artist, author and lecturer, for a rich, soulful conversation on history, hip hop, and purpose.

For 30 years, Dr. El-Hakim has carried the stories of our people across the country, turning classrooms and community spaces into living museums. Together, they build on the power of collecting our artifacts, telling our own stories, and following the path God sets before you — even when it’s not the easy one.

It’s part history lesson, part hip hop cipher, and all heart, a reminder that preserving our past is one of the realest acts of love.

Suhbah Stories Podcast

A Muhammad-Evans family production, Suhbah Stories is what happens when good friends, good vibes, and good stories come together. Suhbah (Arabic: صُحبة) means companionship or fellowship, being together on the path of life and faith.

Suhbah is the kind of circle that feeds your soul and reminds you of what really matters. Around our table, stories are gifts: funny, raw, heartfelt, and always real. We talk with friends, family, teachers, and mentors about life, faith, and the moments that make us who we are. Pull up a chair, you’re in the suhbah now.

Now streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Join the Suhbah! Follow @SuhbahStories on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.