Akbar Nurid-Din Shabazz, Texas Prison Chaplain, Dies at 70

This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Throughout his four decades as the first Muslim chaplain in the Texas prison system, Akbar Nurid-Din Shabazz somehow found a way to instill hope among inmates who were often without it.

In 1995, Charlesetta Myers of Dallas was, in her words, “spiraling out of control.” After violating parole, she was sent back to prison for a third time. She picked up a copy of the Quran and decided to go to a Muslim service, where she met Mr. Shabazz. She soon converted to Islam and took the name Rashidah Muhammad.

Mr. Shabazz “just had a way of encouraging people,” Ms. Muhammad said, crediting him with turning her life around. Twenty years after leaving prison, she is a small-business woman and an active figure in Dallas Muslim circles who travels to prisons each month as a volunteer teacher.