Start with
the Quran. Try to read two surahs a day. They start long but soon grow much
shorter. If you do this, within one year, you will have read the whole Quran.
Take notes and ask other Muslims you know what questions arise. You can be a
Muslim on just the Quran alone; the more nuanced intricacies and beliefs come
from the sunnah and hadiths.
Don’t go in
aiming to be in one sect, branch, ideology, or another. Just go in accepting
Allah and let him guide you to where you’re meant to be. Some people are meant
to be nondenominational / Quranist. Some are meant for Ahmaddiya. Some are
meant for Sunni. Some are meant for Shia. Don’t refuse to learn about or visit
one group or other just because somebody says these other people are crazy or
heretics.
You will be tested. When it happens, you are allowed to feel the strain and lament it, but don’t forget that Allah doesn’t test those whom can’t overcome. They are opportunities for your strong faith and character to triumph. These tests aren’t fun, but you will feel great for succeeding at them and you will look back with regret the ones you do poorly on. Try your best every single day. Some things will need to change. The three main things are no more booze, no more pork, and having to integrate the salat prayers into your life etc
There is no
God but Allah. We are 100% monotheistic and absolutely serious about it. I
don’t know your religious background, but if you’re from something like
Hinduism, Wicca, Christianity, Mahayana, UU, or Animism, you’re going to have
to drop the idea of there being multiple gods, hypostatic unions, aspects, and
so on. Islam only has Allah. He has no partners, no wives, no lovers, no
husbands, no parents, no children, no faces, no avatars, no incarnations, and
no rivals. He is the only deity of all the worlds. He is one, indivisible.
Becoming a
Muslim requires a very simple act, but the meaning behind it is very deep.You
have to believe that there is only one God, Allah, who created the entire
universe, and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is his final messenger on
earth.If you recite this, with total sincerity, in front of two witnesses, you
have become a Muslim. It really is as simple as that.
Muslims
call this recitation the Shahadah, and refer to it as the first Pillar of
Islam.
And if you become
a Muslim by converting (some Muslims would say "reverting") to Islam
your fellow Muslims will accept you as if you had been born a Muslim
Submitting
to God
Becoming a
Muslim takes you into a new world.
It's a
world in which you are intensely aware of your relationship with Allah, and
aware that everything in the world exists because Allah chose that it should
This gives life a whole new meaning, it lifts many responsibilities, and replaces them with the single aim of living life in the way that Allah wants you to live it. So when you become a Muslim you have to live Allah's way. Every moment of your life has to follow Allah's will. Every choice you make must be the choice that would please Allah. This may sound pretty constricting to people brought up in cultures that put more emphasis on the individual and what they want. A Muslim would disagree. Part of the family
Women in
Muslim hedscarfs holding a child Muslims think of themselves as members of one
family
Muslims
think of themselves as members of one family, called the Ummah. It's a family
of all Muslims, and not just of all Muslims around the world, but of all
Muslims who ever existed.
Constantly
in touch with Allah
Once a
Muslim has accepted Allah as the one and only God, they have to establish a
constant link with God in their everyday lives - prayer is perhaps the best way
to do that, and prayer is the second Pillar of Islam. If it's possible, a
Muslim should pray five times a day, at set times, and facing Mecca. You can
pray almost anywhere. In mosques men and women pray separately; in some mosques
this is done with the men at the front and the women behind, in other mosques
there are separate rooms for men and women
Caring for
others
Currency Muslims
above the subsistence level must pay up 2.5% of their annual savings to help
people in need. Prayer and belief are not enough to make someone a good Muslim.
Islam is very concerned about looking after the welfare of poor people, and the
Qur'an specifies that all Muslims above the subsistence level must pay up 2.5%
of their annual savings to help people in need.
So once a
year a Muslim works out 2.5% of everything they own, and hands it to an
approved organisation to use for charitable purposes. Islam call this “Zakat”,
and it's the third pillar of Islam.
It's not a
religious tax, as some people (not Muslims) say; it's an act of worship, and
it's something that pleases God: in fact in the Qur'an you'll find that prayer
and zakat are frequently spoken of together. Zakat is an act of worship that
goes directly to making the world a better place for people who are up against
it.
Paying
Zakat also purifies the 97.5% of your wealth that remains, and you can use this
as you wish with clear heart. You can use some of it for gifts to charity, but
such spontaneous charity is called sadaqah, not Zakat.
Cheating on
zakat
Don't ever
think of fiddling this calculation in order to pay less.
This isn't
like cheating on your income tax, it's cheating on your relationship with God,
and you and God will both know about it.
It would be
like saying your prayers without meaning them. Or saying your prayers and then
doing bad deeds.
Cheating
God never, ever works. Not just because all good deeds and bad deeds are
assessed at the Day of Judgement, but also because if you cheat on your faith
you cheat yourself of everything that being a good Muslim means.
Being poor
and hungry
If you're a
Muslim it's not enough just to give money for the poor; you're expected to
understand what it feels like to be poor and hungry, and to go without food and
drink.
So once a
year, for a month called Ramadan, all Muslims fast from first light until
sunset; abstaining from food, drink, sex, and smoking.
This
fasting not only helps a Muslim understand the needy, it's a sort of ritual
purification of themselves.
Giving
things up
It's not
just at Ramadan that Muslims abstain. When you become a Muslim you have to give
up certain things like alcohol - khamr - and, of course, drugs for ever.
And Muslims
don't go to places where alcohol is served - so if you want to discuss Islam
with a Muslim friend, the pub is not the place to suggest.
You'll find
that Muslims manage to have just as good a time without them as most people do
with them - In fact they have a much better time.
Tobacco
isn't banned in the Qur'an, but the Qur'anic principles suggest that smoking is
not a good thing
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