By Damon L. Hill
Texas Metro News
The Blessing of Having Heaven at Home, Overcoming Loss, and The Words That Could Save YOUR Marriage © 2014 MASQ Media Group a book Muhammad and fellow writer Rodney Asaad Muhammad would later pen that year, as both lost their wives a month apart. Finding therapy in writing, Jihad would throughout social media, express his reflections through his hashtag LiveFromBlackSingleFatherhood.
Credit: Family
Jihad Hassan Muhammad was enjoying a joyous life, as a husband, father, contributing editor for The Final Call newspaper and media nationally, in addition to locally, the managing editor for one of Dallas- Fort Worth’s major Black news outlets; when tragedy struck him.
It would take years for him to recover from the devastating blow to his family.
“When I lost my wife, I felt I truly lost my soulmate,” he recalled. “We had so much faith that she would survive. My faith in God was never shattered, I just asked Him ‘Why, what do you want the children, me, the family, anyone to learn from such pain?’”
His wife Haziqah passed seven years ago of a sudden condition called a venous thrombosis, essentially a blood clot residing in her brain. She was also pregnant at the time.
“On March 10, 2014 my family and I were struck with a staggering blow, a blow that some never recover from, the blow of death. My friend and beloved wife had passed. Her physical form just existed as a shell now, and she was no longer alive in that form. I would never hold her again. I would never pray with her again, as we loved to start our day doing. The children would never see their mother again. They would never feel her comfort, her soft kiss, her gentle hugs and encouragement, her cooking their favorite meals, and sewing them their garments, all that was over now.”
Though therapeutic, Jihad Muhammad had much to struggle through, and he is not ashamed to say things got really trying for him after Haziqah.
displaying his weight loss journey
“I was left with four children. They are mine through Haziqah, yet their father of blood relation, so to speak, was Haziqah’s first husband, and my children from previous marriage. I really wondered sometime how would I cope,” recalled Muhammad.
As he reflects, joy came over him.
“It was like a Black sitcom at his house. I was so thankful and full of gratitude of how all my children got along. You would think two of my youngest sons were twins, they love each other so, and don’t have the same mother or father. The girls were great with each other as well,” said Muhammad.
Regardless, Muhammad’s life still began to spiral, eating his way through the pain. He gained more and more weight. “Food had become my drug of choice. I have never been high or drunk, since I was introduced to Islam from The Hon. Min. Louis Farrakhan at the age of 16, the I became a Muslim and never turned back, he declared. “So I was not going to cop some weed, crack, or get drunk to deal with my pain, but food is natural. It snuck up on me, pretty soon I was getting high on food.”
He continued to struggle for years with his food addiction, until COVID-19 awakened in him how through pre-existing conditions; deaths have become widespread in the Black community.
“I had to do something. Haziqah is always with me in spirit, she would not have wanted this for me. My son, who reflects his mother’s spirit so much, began to get on me, saying dad you gotta do something about your weight. I heard him.”
Muhammad has since lost 100 lbs, starting his weight loss journey in July of 2020. He has also started a successful business selling the supplement he created which helped him lose his weight, That Gud Elixir. www.thatgud.com
Credit: courtesy © 2014 MASQ Media Group
His children are accomplishing well, despite the tragic loss of their mother.
“A salutatorian, to one teaching at an elementary school, several in college, great high school students and more, their mother would be so proud of them,” said Muhammad.
Jihad says he is in one of the more gleeful stages of his life. He is still broadcasting #LiveFromSingleBlackFatherhood, he’s keeping the weight off, and he’s continuing to be a strong father figure for his children and their friends.
