Introduction: Once Upon the Straight Path

Tawhid Olasunmade

June 11, 2025

Tawhid Olasunmade

June 11, 2025

“My name is Musa. This is my path.”

Before Nigeria. Before borders. Before I was ever called Musa, there was a story, one older than maps, deeper than names. A story of people rooted in spirit, guided by stars, and held up by something greater than blood: belief.

My family didn’t start with me. It started with faith.

Islam came before I did. It found its way into the bones of my grandfather before Nigeria found her independence. It called him to something truer than freedom. He listened. And that call led to the path I now walk.

But the road wasn’t straight.

I was born into a storm, a birth that shook two homes, a love that never fully arrived. My first cry didn’t come with a blanket of peace, it came with questions, with chaos.

I was passed from mother to grandmother, from house to heart, like the child in the basket. And yet… I survived. Not by chance. But by design.

There were years of silence, moments where my name didn’t even feel like mine. I wore uniforms. Sat in classrooms. Memorized verses. But none of them taught me how to be whole.

Especially not when the ones who named me, my father, my mother, my grandmother, all returned to Allah within months. I was left holding memories. And questions. Who am I now?

But every broken piece led me back to something ancient. To Jummah days. To pages of Qur’an.

To the one name that never left my lips even in pain: Allah. And I realized… I wasn’t just carrying a name. I was carrying a message. Like the Prophet I was named after, I was being prepared.

Not to escape Pharaoh.
But to escape self-doubt.
Not to split a sea.
But to make space for healing.

Now, I tell this story not because I have arrived, but because I know what it means to run… and stop.

To look back and see how even my missteps were part of the map.

To learn that purpose doesn’t come fully formed, it’s built, blow by blow, prayer by prayer.

This is not just my story.
This is your story too.

Every 11th. Every Truth. One Path.

My name is Musa. This is what I found when I stopped running.

See you on the next one, July 11th. That’s when Episode One drops: “Before the Name — A Story Older than Nigeria.”

Save the date!

One Response

Dr. Ogunkoya N.J. says:

June 12, 2025 at 8:41 am

Awesome! I read this write-up, and I feel I share a sense of connection, and belonging to the formation of Musa-from his birth to his unfolding present. Thank you Musa, for making me to realise that all my missteps in my journey of life are actually ment to be my growing formation. You are absolutely right Musa! The story you told here is not only your story, but my story as well. So, every 11th is significantly Every Truth, that leads to One Path!

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