Produce or Perish: a Novel of Faith, Struggle, and Building Legacy

In the shadows of the American Dream, Jamal Washington is drowning. At twenty-three, he’s already survived more than most—a brother murdered on the corner, a mother lost to addiction, a grandmother raising him for the second time while rationing medication to afford groceries. He works the soul-crushing graveyard shift at an Amazon warehouse, scanning boxes that represent other people’s consumption while his own life wastes away.But when his grandmother’s health crisis forces an impossible choice between keeping his job and keeping his family, Jamal makes a decision that terrifies and electrifies him: he walks away from the only security he’s ever known.Newly converted to Islam and mentored by Uncle Rashid—a wise elder who teaches that “building is worship”—Jamal launches Barakah Bites, a halal meal prep business started in his grandmother’s kitchen with $320 in community investment and a prayer that faith might be enough.He’s not the only one desperate for change.Aisha Rodriguez, a Latina revert escaping an abusive past, pours her trauma into designing modest fashion that empowers rather than exploits. Marcus Jenkins, fresh from incarceration, fights the invisible chains of a felony record while trying to prove his past doesn’t define his future. Sister Khadijah, a single mother drowning in debt despite working two jobs, dreams of something more sustainable than survival. And five teenagers—Khalid, Tariq, Isaiah, Hassan, and Little Mike—stand at the crossroads where so many young Black and brown boys are lost to streets that promise fast money and deliver faster graves.Together, they form the Futuwwa Collective, an experiment in Islamic cooperative economics that flies in the face of everything capitalism teaches. No handouts—opportunities. No charity—investment. No shortcuts—principles. They pool resources, invest in each other’s ventures, hold each other accountable, and build together what none could build alone.When the model starts working and other communities want to replicate it, can success be scaled without losing soul?Produce or Perish is more than a novel—it’s a manifesto in story form. Inspired by Bilal Abdulsamad’s groundbreaking non-fiction work Build Don’t Beg, this fictional narrative brings economic empowerment principles to life through characters who bleed, struggle, fail, and ultimately transform not just their own lives, but their entire community.This is a story about:Faith in action: How Islamic principles of mutual aid, interest-free loans (qard hassan), and ongoing charity (sadaqah jariyah) create sustainable economic modelsGroup economics: The power of pooling resources, sharing knowledge, and investing in each otherPrincipled entrepreneurship: Choosing integrity over profit and discovering that barakah (divine blessing) multiplies honest efforts beyond calculationBreaking cycles: How one generation’s courage to produce creates ladders for the nextCommunity transformation: Not through gentrification, but through generation after generation choosing to buildWith authentic urban voices, deep Islamic spirituality, and unflinching honesty about the barriers facing marginalized communities, Produce or Perish offers both mirror and map—reflecting the struggles readers know intimately while charting a path forward that honors faith, values community, and refuses to beg for scraps when we could be producing feasts.By the final page, readers will close the book asking not “Could this work?” but “How do I start?”Because that’s exactly the question Uncle Rashid would want them asking.