bismillah you love me
bismillah r-rahman r-rahim al-hamdu
lillahi rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa
salamu ala rasulina muhammad while he
was happy you ascended
assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa
barakaatuh my name is Musa McGwire 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 become Muslim 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 it 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 they're not
acceptable in the religion of Islam
among the most notable are foods that
are not permitted such as pork such as
drinks alcohol the use of drugs 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 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 your flooded with information
it's not just maybe a way it was in the
past where you'd learn a little bit
about the religion you get the Quran and
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 then muhammad salallahu alayhi
wasalam is his last prophet and
messenger is the core of our religion
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 gonna want to do right away are
really to focus on these and
understanding the creative Islam beyond
that there are certain acts of worship
which are mandatory for Muslims
there's the prayer the salah there's a
cat giving in charity this liam or sone
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 morning person so the
idea of getting up early was I thought
was going to be impossible I never gonna
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 well how much time do I
have between when the Sun sets and when
it's fully night and when and really
measuring your life according to the
prayer times and this can be
intimidating 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
likewise Ramadan the idea of fasting
every
day from the break of dawn until sunset
it's difficult to imagine oneself doing
that
but what advice I can give you for these
basic acts of worship and 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 envied
people who have the stories about you
know becoming Muslim and diving right
into it and being kind of really sort of
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 had 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 gonna
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 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
one of 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 gonna hear some ideas that may
seem very difficult 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
gonna 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 of knowledge of the
scholars 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 Sunna or
the life example of the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wasallam these have
always been the the core elements of
Islamic law someone was 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 these kind of
people are not if they don't have these
qualifications they're not going to be
really equipped to give you the best
advice in terms of how to guide yourself
in this society second of all when you
especially living in the internet age
you're gonna 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
it's very hard to kind of digest all
this and figure out who really has
authority who really doesn't is that is
somebody who's been a an imam of a
message it in a large city the same as
somebody who's you know some young kid
who runs a website they have the same
level of authority the same level of
standing so what you want to do is 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 and 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 are
not well established you don't want to
rely on those as much as you rely on
those people who are well established
within living Islamic communities 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
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 western Muslim and
that's the Muslim jurist of North
America the web site is a MJ online.com
and you can look at various issues there
and look up different Fatah WA 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 another thing that
you'll find among responsible scholars
is that they're 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 fulfilling their
responsibilities 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
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 gonna stand out that I was going
to be far and that everything about you
know my culture as an American was gonna
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 were 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
so you know and remember of course that
you know Shaitaan is always there busy
trying to give you any reason not to
want to become Muslim not to want to
become part of the community Shaitaan 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
ethnic background most people who grew
up in America which is probably the
majority of the people you meet in the
community especially if you're a younger
person and you're dealing with the
younger age group those people are
culturally American and it Islamic Lee
there's nothing wrong about being
culturally American as long as you're
not transgression the limits of the
religion so I remain as American today
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 the things that I'm interested in
that are permissible 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 racial
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 giving
up certain things as becoming a Muslim
you're giving up certain maybe holiday
is there certain kind of cultural
experiences that do exist in the society
and having that community around you of
Muslims gives you the you know much of
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
so to integrate yourself within the
community to find people that you're
going to get along with 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
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 and you know these
these are the steps that people need to
take and then Charlotte will help you
with the transition to the new life
before concluding I just want to say
that you know now that you've embarked
on this path or will be challenges there
will be tests it's not meant to be easy
and the greatest thing you can do too is
equip yourself with the knowledge to
navigate that path and to continue to
learn about Islam so you're not left
confused and kind of wayward and blowing
in the wind so just like Allah Harry
thank you for these these words thank
you for listening assalamu alaikum o
toole a better counsel
you