[Music]
my name is musim Maguire I'm a convert
to Islam I've been Muslim for about
eight years and I just wanted to convey
this message to all those new Muslims
out there who are struggling with all
the issues that you're facing now that
you've become
Muslim uh first of all it's important to
emphasize that Islam is a new beginning
for you and if you've already accepted
Islam I know you've heard people tell
you this that the past is completely
wiped clean that you have a fresh start
on your life and that you're really
approaching your life now like like a
newborn child in terms of what you're
bringing to it the other side of that is
now that you're Muslim you have to start
working on yourself you have to start to
change it's not enough that you've just
said the words now you have to put it
into practice and this is one of the
biggest challenges that most new
converts face so the first thing I want
to mention is just some of the basic
ideas of how you can approach that to
make it easier on you first of all it's
very important that you identify those
things which are crucial to the religion
of Islam both in terms of what's
prohibited and in terms of what is
required these are the major changes
that you have to make as a new Muslim
and the habits that you have to
establish for the rest of your life all
the other matters that you're going to
deal with are things that you can
develop through time and that you can
learn about gradually so let's start
with the prohibitions obviously growing
up in the west growing up in American
society we have a lot of habits we're
exposed to a lot of things that are not
part of the religion Islam that are not
acceptable in the religion of Islam
among the most notable are foods that
are not permitted such as pork uh such
as drinks alcohol uh the use of drugs uh
these are things that many people engage
in some more than others but as a Muslim
you have to abstain you have to dedicate
yourself from the start to to abstain
from these things all right the next
step is looking at the things that are
required in Islam now one of the things
about accepting Islam especially in this
day and age is that you're flooded with
information it's not just maybe way it
was in the past where you'd learn a
little bit about the religion you get
the Quran you get some manageable a bit
of information now when you become
Muslim you're literally exposed to a
whole flood of resources from Islamic
history from Islamic scholarship
throughout time various perspectives
various schools of thought and you're
really not in any position to make any
clear sense out of it so the Practical
advice that I have is that you have to
take these things slow and you have to
focus on what are the most important
things first of all the basic Creed of
the Muslim that you say when you when
you enter Islam that there is none
worthy of worship except Allah and that
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
his last prophet and messenger is the
core of of our religion uh and then
there's many other resources you can
learn to see what are really the
implications of this Creed and to
understand what the Creed is and and and
what a proper Muslim is supposed to
believe so some of the extra readings
you're going to want to do right away
are really to focus on these and
understanding the Creed of Islam beyond
that there are certain acts of worship
which are mandatory for Muslims there's
the prayer the Salah the zaka giving in
charity the or S the fasting in Ramadan
and if you're able to go on Hajj
so you really want to take yourself and
prioritize those aspects of the religion
don't worry about other things there may
be other things that you'll learn later
are required or things that are
recommended and you may want to embrace
those some people will go at different a
different pace than others but the
crucial aspects are those things now I
know when I became Muslim the idea of
praying five times a day was really
intimidating first of all I was always I
was never a morning person so the idea
of getting up early was I thought was
going to be impossible I never going to
get up and pray that early morning
prayer also I wondered what's it going
to be like to go through life and have
to pay attention to things like when the
sun sets and what time of day is it and
you know is that how much time do I have
between when the sun sets and when it's
fully night and when and and really
measuring your life according to the
prayer times and this can be
intimidating um it can feel like quite a
burden when you first become Muslim but
in fact these are things that are very
easy to adjust to um likewise Ramadan
the idea of fasting every day from the
break of dawn until uh Sunset it's
difficult to to imagine oneself doing
that but what what advice I can give you
for these basic acts of worship and as
as difficult as it may sound I can
almost virtually guarantee that this
will work what you need to do is to make
the sincere effort all right you can say
this seems really hard on me you can say
I don't know if I can do this you can
say I feel burdened by all these
requirements but you have to make the
sincere effort and I'll tell you my
story just as an example when I first
became Muslim I I always envy people who
have the stories about um you know
becoming Muslim and Diving right into it
and being kind of really sort of uh
perfect or as close to perfect as they
can from the start me I was a little bit
more stubborn than that I accepted Islam
and I wasn't really you know sure about
how to do it and I was a little bit
nervous and I didn't really feel like I
fit in it took me a long time before I
actually started to establish the prayer
and what I did is I got to a point where
I'd come to the realization that I
couldn't go on living in the same way I
had to change I had to really commit
myself I believed in the religion I had
to start practicing the religion and I
said to myself one day okay I'm going to
pray all five prayers today just to see
what it's like just to see if I can do
it and the difference between that
moment and all the other moments before
when I had thought about doing it is
that in that moment I was making sincere
effort and from that day forward I
prayed all the five prayers so what you
have to realize is that when you make
the sincere effort Allah will make the
path easy for you and this is a very
important lesson for you to learn as a
new Muslim because you have to realize
you have to internalize this idea that
Allah is Sovereign over you that Allah
has given you this blessing Allah has
opened this door for you and it's not
because of your own capacities or
abilities that you'll be able to succeed
as a Muslim it's because of the
blessings that Allah bestows on you so
that's really the the the first issue to
talk about when you face these
prohibitions you face these requirements
you see it's kind of
overwhelming number one you have to say
what is really important what are really
The crucial things what are the
absolutes that I have to abstain from
what are the absolutes that I have to do
and then make the sincere effort and
Allah will make the path easy for you
now inevitably as you become a new
Muslim you're going to start to
encounter a lot of different views a lot
of different opinions you'll see that
there are different schools of thought
within Islam different sects within
Islam and like I said before because of
the flood of information you're exposed
to almost all of this at once so how do
you make sense out of it well first of
all as a Muslim living in the west you
really are not equipped to answer all
the problems yourself and as Muslims
have always had to do you have to refer
to qualified Scholars of the Islamic
religion to understand how to apply the
religion in this in this world how to
understand what the limits are for you
and it's going to be difficult because
you're going to hear different opinions
you're going to hear some ideas that may
seem uh very very difficult or or or
things that you're supposed to adopt
that may seem very difficult and then
you'll hear other people saying well
maybe you don't necessarily have to do
that so you're you're going to be
confused about what exactly do I need to
follow so there are a few bits of advice
I have about this and ultimately this is
something that you really need to take
on yourself you need to take on the
responsibility of seeking the Knowledge
Learning the knowledge but let me give
you some guidelines first of all when
you're seeking knowledge about how to
live Islam in this Society there's two
things you should look for among the
people uh of knowledge of the knowledge
of Islam first of all they should be
well grounded in the core religious
sources the core knowledge of Islam
which is the Quran knowledge of the
Quran and knowledge of the Sunnah or the
life example of the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam these have
always been the the core elements of
Islamic law someone who is not well-
grounded in these and by well- grounded
I mean has has memorized the Quran has
studied the Hadith in depth has studied
Islamic law in some depth uh these kind
of people are not if they don't have the
qualifications they're not going to be
really equipped to give you the best
advice in terms of how to guide yourself
in the society second of all when you
especially living in the internet age
you're going to see a lot of different
sources of knowledge that are coming
from from all over the place you'll see
and everyone's claiming to have the
ultimate Authority so you'll go to
websites and you'll see people telling
you one thing you'll go maybe to certain
mosques and you'll see people telling
you another thing it's very hard to kind
of digest all this and figure out who
really has Authority who really doesn't
is is is somebody who's been a uh an
Imam of a Masid in a large city the same
as somebody who's you know some young
kid who runs a website do they have the
same level of authority the same level
of standing so what you want to do is to
to look at some other factors as well
someone who has a record of strong
Community leadership and respect amongst
the community is a sign that the person
has a certain responsibility in
leadership all right someone who is kind
of obscure a figure who maybe you don't
know personally or you see online who
goes by a nickname or who you know
sources that are not well authored
they're not well established you you
don't want to rely on those as much as
you rely on those people who are well
established within living Islamic
communities um and just to give you a
little bit more practical advice there
is an organization called the Muslim
jurists of North America which I believe
fulfills the requirements I mentioned
before of both being well- grounded in
in the in the uh the sources of Islam
but also being aware of the context of
this
society that they can give you accurate
and wise advice on how to live your life
as an American Muslim or a western
Muslim and that's the Muslim jurist of
North America the website is AMJ
online.com uh and you can look at
various issues there and look up
different fwa which of course means just
Islamic legal opinions about a whole
variety of issues and that can help you
to get a clearer sense of what the
limits are um another thing that you'll
find among responsible Scholars is that
they are willing to discuss the various
differences of opinion that they're not
constantly interested in pushing only
their view but they they recognize that
there are various viewpoints and then
they will give you the various strengths
of evidence for those various viewpoints
and in that sense you can get a greater
sense of trust from those Scholars
because you understand that they're
they're fulfilling their responsibility
they're not just trying to lead you to a
certain position but they're really
trying to give you the full picture and
really Empower you with the knowledge
that they
have um the final thing that I want to
talk about and this is really
important the social relationships are
an important part of being a Muslim and
I know when I became a Muslim I was
afraid that I was always going to stand
out that I was going to be foreign that
everything about you know my culture as
an American was going to be different
than those people I met in the mosque
and you know as much as this may seem
like a secondary matter we're human
beings we're social creatures we need to
have that kind of community environment
that kind of Community Support to be
successful as Muslims it's very hard to
do it when you're isolated um so you
know and and remember of course that you
know Shayan is always there busy trying
to give you any reason not to want to
become uh Muslim not to want to become
part of the community Shayan is going to
be whispering to you these people aren't
going to accept you you know you need to
be nervous about it you need to isolate
yourself this is not the right approach
what you'll find actually is that for
most Muslims who grew up in America okay
whether they be converts whether they
are coming from another uh ethnic
background most people who grew up in
America which is probably the majority
of the people you meet in in the
community especially if you're a younger
person and you're dealing with a younger
age group those people are culturally
American and it islamically there's
nothing wrong about being culturally
American as long as you're not
transgressing the limits of the religion
so I remain as American today as I as I
always was I just don't you know eat
sausages anymore I don't drink beer I
don't do any of those things but in
terms of culturally who I am my sense of
humor uh the things that I'm interested
in that are permissible it it's it's the
same as I was before so you don't need
to feel that sense of
intimidation and establishing those
social relationships and having that
good companionship is one of the most
important ways that you can really
develop as a Muslim feel secure as a
Muslim to really feel part of the
community and especially when it comes
to things where you know you're you're
giving up certain things as becoming a
Muslim you're giving up certain uh maybe
holidays or certain kind of uh uh
cultural experiences that do exist in
the society and having that Community
around you of Muslims
gives you the you know what you'll what
you'll find to be better than whatever
you've left you know but but it's really
a task that you have to take upon
yourself to integrate yourself within
the community to to find people that
you're going to get along with uh and to
really you know embrace them and to find
good friendship and remember of course
that this is the responsibility anyone
else who's watching this if you are
dealing with new Muslims in your
community it's your responsibility to
make them feel welcome don't burden them
with things that you would not burden
yourself with um don't make things more
difficult than to them than they need to
be make sure you understand what is
actually required in Islam that you're
not telling them they need to do things
which are going to be difficult which in
fact are not necessarily required um and
you know these These are the steps that
people need to take and inshallah it
will help you with the transition to the
new life uh before concluding I just
want to say that um you know now that
you've embarked on this path there will
be challenges there will be tests it's
not meant to be easy and the greatest
thing you can do to is equip yourself
with the knowledge to navigate that path
uh and to continue to learn about Islam
so you're not left confused and kind of
wayward and blowing in the wind so we
thank you for these these words thank
you for
listening e