SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax — PHP — PDO

I've looked through all the other StackOverflow (and google) posts
with the same problem, but none seemed to address my
problem.

I am using PDO and
PHP.

My
code:

$vals = array(

            ':from' => $email,
 ':to' => $recipient,
 ':name' =>
            $name,
 ':subject' => $subject,
 ':message' =
            >$message

);
print_r($vals);
try
            {
 $pdo = new PDOConfig();
 $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE,
            PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
 $sql = "SELECT * FROM messages WHERE `message` LIKE
            :message";
 $q = $pdo->prepare($sql);

            $q->execute(array(':message' => $vals[':message']));
 $resp =
            $q->fetchAll();


 foreach ($resp as $row) {

            throw new Exception('Please do not post the same message twice!');

            }

 $sql = "INSERT INTO messages (from, to, name, subject, message)
            VALUES (:from, :to, :name, :subject, :message)";
 $q =
            $pdo->prepare($sql);
 $q->execute($vals);
}
            
catch(PDOException $e) {
 echo
            $e->getMessage();

}

and
the first print_r gives

Array (
            [:from] => abc@gmail.com 
 [:to] => lala@me.com 
 [:name]
            => abc 
 [:subject] => abc 
 [:message] => abc
            )

which is
expected (none are null)

but it outputs the
error

SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1064 You have an error in
your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the
right syntax to use near 'from, to, name, subject, message) VALUES ('abc@gmail.com',
'lala@me.com' at line
1

No
idea how to fix this. any ideas?

class="post-text" itemprop="text">

class="normal">Answer

from is a keyword in
SQL. You may not used it as a column name without quoting it. In MySQL, things like
column names are quoted using backticks, i.e.
`from`.

Personally, I
wouldn't bother; I'd just rename the column.

PS.
as pointed out in the comments, to is another SQL keyword so it
needs to be quoted, too. Conveniently, the folks at drupal.org maintain a href="https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/coding-standards/list-of-sql-reserved-words"
rel="noreferrer">list of reserved words in SQL.