Once upon a time there was a friendly hobbit-looking fellow named Sam.

He spent his childhood in an English countryside village (so basically the Shire). At age 17 he grew a beard, not because he’s a Tolkien character, but because he fell in love with the Qur’an and embraced Islam.

I’m talking about me. I am Sam… 

I’m sick of people writing these bios in the third person. We all know you wrote it yourself. It’s not that I don’t have an assistant to do it for me - I do. She’s just nowhere near as funny as me. But she will check the mail, so stop writing in telling me I look like some Ertugal-come-Hobbit type character… I know! I’m trying run a business here. I don’t need her laughing at me all day!

Anyway…I’m the Sam that didn’t accompany Frodo on the way to Mordor. I’m not saying I chose a much safer journey, it’s just that Allah didn’t send the Qur’an down in (or create my wife speaking) Elvish so it would have been a complete waste of time.

The shire I grew up in wasn't a place where you could learn Arabic at your local college or get help from an Arab neighbour. So I got huge inspiration from online content, particularly podcasts from a website called 'ArabicPod.net'. I would download their episodes and listen as I did my morning paper round, getting my tongue used to the new sounds and fantasising about a day when I would be fluent. 

I set out for London a year later to complete an Arabic language degree with a year at Al-najah university in Palestine. On return home from the Holy Land, I was invited to Uganda to teach for the summer of 2013. It was there where I met many Somali people and a love for their language was born. Thus at the start of my final year, sat across from my academic supervisor, my Legolas of sorts, I was presented with the opportunity to study Somali formally that year. 

I graduated in 2015, married into a Somali family and began my career as a YouTuber sharing the Arabic and Somali languages and whatever joy people could find in my ‘From the Shire to Islam’ story.

Over the coming years, The Arabic in 60 Steps program reached over 1,000 students with it’s accompanying podcast and Youtube channels achieving over 1 millions hits. I've also produced over 1,000 educational Somali videos and I have had the pleasure of being hosted on my industry's largest platforms.

In August of 2022 I migrated to Mogadishu with my wife and two sons where we are now building a new life. There are days when I miss the green hills and trickling streams of the Shire. But there are two main missions I am focussed on:

1) Inspire people to learn Arabic, the way ArabicPod.net inspired me.

2) To have thousands of people on the day of judgement testify that they understood Allah and His messenger because of my work.

I'm so grateful for the journey so far and all of the students who have joined me! I've joined an organisation I've admired for years; 'Arabic Unlocked' to be part of their amazing mission for the Arabic language. I am set to improve and revamp my own Arabic content experience on my youtube channel and podcast and I have plans to run a community of the most ambitious Arabic students!