Cultivating Mercy: Music, Spirituality, and the Man of Real

In this episode of Beyond Names, Dr. Habib welcomes artist, former imam, and spiritual teacher Abdul Karim Pinckney — also known as The Man of Real — for a heartfelt conversation on faith, transformation, and his latest project, Project Inspire. From his journey through Islam and Sufism to his love of music as a vehicle for sacred expression, Abdul Karim shares how life itself becomes a spiritual practice. Together, they explore themes of remembrance, mercy, culture, and connection — and how hip-hop can be a bridge between worlds. This episode includes a special listen to his track “We Give It All We Got” and a moving reflection on spirituality as a lived, embodied experience

Highlights include:

• A powerful spiritual turning point from the Bronx to the Qur’an
• The roots of Project Inspire and using music as a teaching tool
• Cultivating mercy in daily life and building spiritual resilience
• The sacred role of curiosity and living remembrance
• Why “spirituality starts in the stomach”

Tune in for inspiration that’s real, grounded, and full of heart.

Transcript

Dr. Habib: Welcome to Beyond Names — I’m Dr. Habib.

This is a space for spiritual seekers and soulful misfits, for the curious and the committed, for those grounded in a tradition and those who aren’t sure what they believe. Whether you call the Divine Allah, Yahweh, Elohim, Brahman, Higher Power — or you’re still searching for language that fits — you are welcome here. Together, we’ll explore the intersection of spirituality and daily life, the wisdom of many traditions, and the ways we return to our True Selves, to our Source, to the light we carry within. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s begin.

First of all, Abdul Karim Pinkney, thank you for being here. Abdul Karim, also known as The Man of Real, is a former imam (the person who leads prayers in a mosque) and has just released a new album, Project Inspire, and I'm a big fan.

So, here we are. Thanks for being here. Thanks for making the time to talk about your album and to talk about you and what's important to you and what's going on with you, and what you want to uplift in the world these days.

To introduce yourself to our listeners, would you first just tell us a bit about your spiritual story so people get an idea of who you are -- from the standpoint of your spiritual story.

Abdul Karim: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

My spiritual story -- I can say at least for the last, little over 25 years, I've embarked on the path of Islam and Sufism. Before that I was born into a family that was Christian. My schooling was all Catholic schools. 

And I've had my own journeys through traditional learning. I also visited Africa and Mauritania to visit some scholars there. I studied some time in California for five years.

I was an assistant imam in Mount Vernon for about four years, I believe.

And I was an imam myself for four years after that.

And, you know, mostly, the journey really began, I'll say from answering of a prayer that....

You know, I was working a legitimate job. I'm born and raised in New York, I’m from the Bronx. And for, for whatever reason, I still don't really understand. I think it's just the programming that goes on and that we accept.

I was actually going to start selling drugs, and I realized that's not what I wanted to do. All of this happened within 24 hours. So on the way home from, you know, telling the person to bring whatever the stuff, the next day, when I got home, I realized, you know, I realized there was really no reason for me to do that at all. So I just started to prayed and asked God for help to get me out of the situation. And the next day when I was meeting the guy, he just said for some odd reason, he forgot to bring it.

And that was it for me. That was the fireworks that said, okay, this is what it is now. What do You want from me? And then you know, from that point on, I went to the Bible because that's what I knew. I read, I was trying to read it from cover to cover. I never actually was able to finish.

And then someone, uh, there was a few books in between -- a Bahai book and, then someone introduced me to the Qur’an that summer. I read it from cover to cover. And it was, that was it for me, that's really what took off. I felt that that was God talking to me directly.

And there were many instances in between that really increased my faith and certainty. And now with all of these experiences from not only just the religious side, but also from farming experiences. I was a shepherd also for two and a half years. And that experience definitely held a lot of lessons, but there's a lot of different backgrounds that brought me to this place right now, and then also to releasing this album.

Dr. Habib: Alhamdulillah. Thank you for sharing that story. That's, it's awe inspiring how some of our prayers are answered in surprising ways, right?

Abdul Karim: Yes, definitely.

Dr. Habib: And, and sometimes, sometimes the answer has to be pretty obvious for us to be like, oh, yeah, okay, okay. Alright. I got to, I got to go in this different direction or this direction, or, yeah.

So, speaking of, of getting to the place of doing your album, I know that as we've mentioned, you've been a former imam, you're a father, you have different roles being in the world. So sort of how are you showing up in the world today -- like what brings you to the place of releasing this album and what brings you to the place of what it is that you want to share with the world? And what is it that inspired you to do this project?

Abdul Karim: For me, it's, I've always had a love of music. I've been writing songs since I say like the fifth grade. And looking at the current state of affairs in the world, at least in my experience, music is used in a very detrimental way in the environments that I've been in. And I've seen the impact when it can be used in a positive way. And also I've been seeing like there's a void of spirituality and also a sort of misunderstanding of spirituality too.

And I wanted to be able to present what I learned traditionally through the art of music. And also I plan on giving classes that are based on the songs and the knowledge that's contained inside of it. Because in some of the traditions that I've learned, these scholars actually wrote poems and the sheiks, they would teach from the poetry line by line, and they put it in poetry so that you could memorize it. And then there was so much commentary that was given for each line.

I thought it would be advantageous or beneficial to be able to do that for people like us, the converts, people who are just an American, you know, our life and the variety that we come in. It's different because when people think about Muslims, they definitely, at least in my experience, don't think about music or they don't think about, definitely not rap, outside of the black community, because a lot of the rap originally had a lot of Islamic influence, whether it was from other sects, but the names and the ideas were at least there. And so I really wanted to be able to bring forth a new perception of God, because there's a lot of understandings out there, in my conversations with people that don't match anything that I've learned. So they, they, I'll say some people are rejecting things that they ought to reject, but they haven't heard something that they should accept.

Dr. Habib: You mentioned, I think you used the term or the phrase void of spirituality -- can you tell, I think I probably mentioned it in our phone call the other day, that part of my objective with this podcast is to open the doors to different ways of experiencing spirituality. Some of us grow up in a context of, oh, like speaking for myself, like, if I don't do everything the way I'm taught in this church, you know, if I don't follow the doctrine as it's taught in this church, you know, like that's the only way for me to know and experience, God, Spirit, Divine, however you name That, in your tradition or no tradition. I mean that part of my objective is to open the doors to say, one, you don't have to be in a particular synagogue or a particular church, or a particular mosque or whatever, temple, and so on, for spirituality to be a part of your life. I want to open that door to say, we can all, each and every single heart and soul can experience spirituality.

So, would you tell us a little bit about what does spirituality mean to you?

Abdul Karim: Sure. So spirituality for me is synonymous with life. So regardless of whatever label you carry, how you exist and how you interact with creation is a reflection of your spirituality. And when it comes to God, that's where, for me, at least in spirituality, you get different fragrances according to your understanding, or what I would say sometimes misunderstanding.

I've had, I've had tons of conversations where there were misunderstandings and, uh, I, I would say a lot of them came on early where I wasn't grounded enough to give a response where it was almost like a punch in the nose. 

I'll give an example. One of my friends came to a barbecue and somehow the conversation came about around about God. And he said, I don't believe in some white guy on the cloud looking down to me. And I was looking, I was like, You know what I'm about. You really think that's what I believe. But I never really responded. I was just in like a shock, a shell shock moment when he.... I was like where did you hear that from? And that's, you hear that in some of the songs, um, that I, there's a question like, what is God in your, like, where do you get your definition of God from? And does it come, is it something that's lived or is it a mental cognition? Is it something in your mind but not something that you experience? Because that's what real, the spirituality comes from actual living existence. You, you don't, you, I would say you don't need a book because life itself is a book. And to have a book of revelation makes that clarity that much more, uh, penetrating because it's just reflecting what you're already experiencing.

Dr. Habib: So it's saying that, this is probably not exact words you used, but along the lines of spirituality is life, you know, like it is living, can you give us some examples for how you, obviously your album is going to, it's a huge example, so yeah, that's a pretty big example, so we'll get, we'll get to that in just a second, but can you, can you, um, provide an example of how you live your spirituality just in your daily life?

Abdul Karim: So aside from like the prescribed orders, like the five daily prayers, there's just the witnessing of existence. So how I'm reflecting my own self, what am I believing about myself in each moment? And then what am what is it that I'm telling myself I'm seeing in the moment? And so there's that, the first attribute we usually teach about a lot is the necessary existence. So while I'm living, I'm trying to, as much as I can bring to the remembrance of my heart that what I'm experiencing is being created in that moment and sustained in that moment by God. 

And so when I choose to make an action or choose a thought, I don't want to have the absence of remembering that God is present in that moment. And so from, from that comes a multitude. There's no, like, one way that that kind of manifests. I can even be sad. I can be angry, I can be happy. It's not just one way, but if that's the foundation that I start my motion or being from, that's what like ignites my spirituality moment to moment. 

And, and there's, yeah, there's certain experiences you get from that that's, you can't, there's, it's not you doing anything. But, but reflecting those experiences that, that definitely sweetens the pot.

Dr. Habib: Alhamdulillah. And for those of you who are not familiar with the term, alhamdulillah is praise be to God. So, alhamdulillah.

You may know, I think I've mentioned I'm kind of all about spiritual practices and, you know, I'm was super excited that you agreed to be part of the podcast because I am excited about saying, you know, hey, we can experience spirituality in things that we don't necessarily think about as spiritual, um, per se.

Like, we can experience spirituality in art, we can experience spirituality in nature. We can experience spirituality in culture, we can experience spirituality in social justice work. We can experience spirituality in activism. Pretty much any aspect, or I would say not pretty much -- any aspect -- without the pretty much -- any and every aspect of our life there's a way that we can engage spirituality. And that's what you're talking about. So, alhamdulillah. I also want to ask, given all that, do you have any favorites? Like, do you have any favorite go-to, like, this is the spiritual practice that you, that is just your, like your touchstone, this is what sustains you when you're struggling, this is what you go to, or this is what brings you uplifts you, like, what's,

what's, what is that for you?

Abdul Karim: For me, it would be the salawat, that is sending prayers and salutations or blessings and salutations upon the Prophet Muhammad, sallallah alayhi wa salam (peace and blessings upon him). That is something that, uh, gets me up.

And also, uh, yes, just yesterday, because while I'm at workout, whether it's my songs or just listening to lectures, I was listening to the Qur’an in English on the Audible, and I was texting my beloved, my wife, and I said, you know, do you ever just listen to the Qur’an and like, like, yeah, like, just like that you feel that energy like cheering, Allah said something about Himself or just a certain statement, and that really, those, those two listening to the Qur’an and doing salawat are, are definitely energizing, because like I said yesterday, I was actually, no, I'm, I'm not, I'm getting over a cold and I was feeling tired at work and I had a few hours left to go and so I threw that on and the tiredness went away, alhamdulillah, and so that's something that, uh, it really ignites me, mashallah (as God wills [used to express awe, gratitude]).

Dr. Habib: Yeah. So salawat and listening to the Qur’an. Yeah. Wonderful. Okay.

So, let's talk about that sign behind you, or the image, the image that is your background. Let's talk about Cultivate Mercy. What do you want to say about that?

Abdul Karim: So Cultivate Mercy is, um, project that I started, it’s been a little over a year now. And it started from, right, well, a little bit right after I left the Farm of Peace as the imam. And what I'm trying to do is I release videos, little short clips on Instagram, YouTube, God willing, there will be some classes going on. And this also was, I used Cultivate Mercy to help get the recording of the album done as well. And so, Cultivate Mercy, essentially the concept is to throughout day to day, cultivating mercy in one our heart, mercy for ourselves, and then mercy for each other and in creation as an extension. And this is through various means, whether it's what we eat is, that's another phrase that I say in Cultivate Mercy, spirituality starts in the stomach. And so a lot of things that we ingest actually have an effect on our attitude, our state of being, to eat healthy. And so really trying to create connection at a time that I feel that it is essential to create connections with people because we're, we need each other. And the more that I look out and listen, I hear a lot of division. And that's, that's in some of the songs too. Whereas the rather is men versus women, young versus the old, parents versus children, children versus it's just.... And then we, we really need more connection and less disconnection. So this is my effort and my service to humanity in the name of God, and hopefully He accepts it. 

Dr. Habib: Great. So I'll do a, a quick screen share so everyone can see how they can go to the site. Let's see here. Here we go. Yep. There we go. So cultivatemercy.com is the website. And then right here, Project Inspire, which is really, you know, how -- we met however many years ago in LA but you doing Project Inspire is how we reconnected. Alhamdulillah. How about I play a song from that? So give me one second. I've got share sound and there we go. So this is, We Give It All We Got. Do you want to say anything about this before I click play?

Abdul Karim: Sure. Yeah. This, this song was special. I had put this on, this is the first track that's actually on the project and it's special to me because while I was recording it, in the middle of recording it, I got a phone call from my father to, to let me know that my mother had a stroke. And so that was very emotional for me. Alhamdulillah, she is on the road to recovery now, but at the time, and she was out of state, so I couldn't even be there. So I just, you know, I went back to the, to the microphone and said, you know, we give it all we got and really put my heart into it. So that's, that's what's behind the song. 

Dr. Habib: Alright, well let's give it a listen.

“We give it all we got
 Yeah, and we won’t stop
 We give it all we got
 Yeah, and we won’t stop

“This life is a gift from God
 And We seek to give whatever we get from God
 Remembrance is a daily diet
 If you haven’t done it yet I suggest you try it
 Apply it, as much as you can
 Laying, sitting down or wherever you stand
 This is the plan, for every single woman or man
 Giving, authentic living with our heart in our hand.

“We give it all we got
 Yeah, and we won’t stop
 We give it all we got
 Yeah, and we won’t stop
 We give it all we got
 Yeah, and we won’t stop
 There’s always so much we go through.
 Got to let the Grace of Allah hold you, to the Mercy of God we keep on holding on
 Admit we’re weak, He’s making us strong
 The calm of our storm, protect us from harm.
 Moving us on, when people be doing us wrong.
 That’s why we give it all we got like the name of this song.
 Cultivating Mercy, yeah we keeping it building
 Been through a couple trials but it makes us resilient
 InshaAllah bear fruit and give it to children.
 Been through a lot of loss but with Allah you still win
 Been through a lot of loss but with Allah you still win

“Yeah no matter how many times we fall, we keep getting back up,
 cause we know who we doing it for, but in reality who’s doing it for us,
 and its all perfect.
 We give it all we got
 Yeah, we just won’t stop
 We give it all we got
 We just won’t stop”

[— Written by K. Pinckney © 2025 Abdul Karim Pinckney from Project Inspire]

Dr. Habib: I noticed in that song, the phrase remembrance as a daily diet stood out. Abdul Karim: Yeah.

Dr. Habib: Yeah. And you and I know as Muslims, as students and teachers of Sufism, we know what you mean by that.... Hopefully we're going to have some listeners who don't know what you mean by that. So could you, could you tell us a little bit about, about what you mean by remembrance as a daily diet? 

Abdul Karim: So it's almost just the echo of what I had said earlier about trying to remember, remember bringing the remembrance of the presence of God to your forefront in life. And, and this is where, as you said, spirituality can be a part of anything. And you have the intention of bringing yourself, God willing into the presence of God through the remembrance as you move and whatever it is you do now. I used to tell people, you know, you have pets. I have a pet. I used to have two cats. And whenever I would get frustrated or whenever I'd go to them and pet them and say “Bismillah” (in the name of God), it an extension of mercy. And so you, you're remembering God and you're remembering, you know, being kind, being merciful. And with any action that, I tell my son, I said, if you go to do workout, lifting weights, that you're doing this to be healthy, to, to maintain the gift of the body that God gave you. So these are different manifestations of remembrance. It's not just, you know, you can say Allah or say God or, or, or read the Qur’an, those are different forms, but the everyday aspect can be transformed. And so that's what was one of the lines in this song. Sitting, standing, or lying down, like in, in any format, you can really bring the remembrance to your heart. As you do it as a practice, you'll feel grounded. You'll feel peace, you'll feel a foundation building up inside you. 

Dr. Habib: Yeah. Okay. Obviously we hope that people are going to go to cultivatemercy.com, that they're going to listen to Project Inspire and that they too will be inspired. I know I have sung its praises and, and I hope, and well, I just, what do I want to say? I guess I just want to say that I really value it as a bridge. You know, I think it's a bridge for young old to bring spirituality and art, music, spirituality and culture, spirituality and daily life. Like, I, I feel like it's a great bridging project and I think it's so commendable and I think it does in fact live up to its name. It does.... It's very real. So it lives up to, you are also known as The Man of Real, those aspects, but it, you know, so like, there, there are parts of that it's like, yeah, there's some stuff that's going on in the world today that's tough, you know, and, so like I appreciate that it acknowledges that, but it also has the parts of it that are just really uplifting. So, yeah, thanks for, for making it, I suppose, and thank you for sharing it in the world. And are there any last insights or takeaways that you, that you hope, listeners to the podcast will, will carry with them? 

Abdul Karim: One takeaway -- to be curious. And, and seek out, there's more out there than we may be aware of. And to keep your heart open with curiosity, and like you said in cultivatemercy.com, but also https://themanofreal.net/ is where you can.... cultivatemercy.com has the link to https://themanofreal.net/ to see the album. That's just the music outlet, https://themanofreal.net/. And there's more songs coming. I just finished one this morning, but there's more songs coming that way. There's also blogs on cultivatemercy.com that hopefully we'll be able to interact with questions, because don't stop at what you know, because there's, there's just so much more out there. I consider myself a forever student, and I, I definitely recommend that curiosity and seeking knowledge and specifically knowledge of God, because a lot of things that we've been introduced to isn't the whole of what's out there. And, and I think that's kind of by design sometimes. And so it, it takes the, the, the, the goal that's within your own heart to, to really seek out past what you're presented with and, and if you're sincere, I really believe you'll find exactly what you're looking for. 

Dr. Habib: Thank you for that. Yeah, that's, I, there's a lot of wisdom in practicing openness and practicing curiosity, and I think it's all something that we, we, yeah, we can all learn from. And I think it's something that we all can grow in. Like if, like, it's just such a fundamental way of like, it's a fundamental wisdom and a way of life, if you like, approach things instead of like jumping to conclusions and thinking you know, what somebody means, or thinking you know, you know, just like, or even when you're confronted with the difficulty, like, Hey, can I be curious about that? Can I stay open? Can I stay so connected so in remembrance that I'm able to be curious? Abdul Karim: Yeah. 

Dr. Habib: Well, thank you for being here. cultivatemercy.com, https://themanofreal.net/. 

Abdul Karim: Yes. 

Dr. Habib: Okay, great. Thank you for joining me on Beyond Names. Before we go, I invite you, the listeners, to take a breath and reflect for just a moment on what stayed with you from this conversation. Just one breath. I'm going to remember “remembrance is a daily diet” of course, but I am also going to remember that spirituality starts in the stomach. 

Abdul Karim: Yeah. InshaAllah (God willing), there'll be some t-shirts.

Dr. Habib: May something you heard today help you reconnect with the light in your own heart. May you grow in compassion, clarity, and courage. May you find your way — again and again — back home to yourself, back home to the Divine, however you name it. If today’s conversation or practice spoke to you, I’d love for you to share it, leave a review, or reach out. Until next time, peace be with you. May you be light, may you carry light, and may you share your light.