Nahela Morales – Is Islam Hard or Easy for New Muslims
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Let me show you that rajim Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem
Subhanallah he will become the watershed to Allah ilaha illallah
wa should do and Mohammad Rasool Allah Salam aleikum. Everyone, I'm
going to give it a couple seconds
to inshallah
allow folks to jump on.
And this way gives me a couple seconds to share out.
So as you can see from the title today, we're going to be talking
about how easy or hard is it for a new Muslim to practice this faith.
And we're going to be talking about a few important points
that speak about this subject. So just let's wait a couple seconds.
So folks start connecting in sha Allah. And if you can share out
that'd be great as well with Nila, then we can get
more to benefit in sha Allah from this
much needed conversation. So again, today we're going to be
talking to to everyone because these topics actually align
and they are important for both
our convert community and also our born Muslims. So inshallah let's
just give it a couple of seconds. So folks, have a minute to join
Salam aleikum. Everyone, tell me where you're connecting from
and how are you doing?
I'm gonna be sharing this out sha Allah
so
we're going to be starting in a few seconds inshallah.
Okay,
so as you can read from today's topic is how hard or easy is it
for new Muslims, right.
I think many of us don't think about it or kind of tend to
forget. And so we're going to be talking about that today how we
should not forget where we came from, and how easy or difficult
our journeys have been.
We also are going to talk about our responsibilities in sha Allah
as an OMA to one another, which is very important. Because
we are one right and we belong to the same
to the same Amma of Rasul allah sallallahu alayhi salam. So just a
couple more seconds and we'll dive in. Again, today we were will be
talking to both our revert convert community as well as our born
Muslims or community at large in sha Allah, our ummah. Today's
topic is very important and dear to me. As many of you may or may
not know, I'm actually a convert to Islam.
I am from Mexican descent. So my ethnicity I was born in Mexico
City. And so I converted a just a few months prior to 911. So I am
going to take you a little bit through my journey and also I want
you to, I'm going to be sharing a couple of deeds, where our beloved
Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, you know, tells us exactly how we
should be engaging with one another, both the new Muslims and
our community at large, and as converts right as reverts as those
who have been invited to this faith by our beloved
a love by by by a law who has actually guided us and, and
granted us that hedaya to actually
make this our way of life. So
with no further ado, let's, let's begin I want to begin with a very
important Hadith
where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam specifically
right, we know that he was sent as as mercy to mankind. And we are
also aware that Allah subhanaw taala wants ease for us and how do
we know this? We know that Islam is a religion of ease and peace.
And so in Sudan belcarra i a 185, Allah Subhana Allah says Allah
intends for you ease and does
not want to make things difficult for you. So oftentimes, we
ourselves make things difficult. And the question today is, is
practicing Islam easy or hard for a new Muslim,
and we're going to be talking about a couple of things that
inshallah we can
both, again, the Born Muslims and our, our new converts, many of you
may not or may know that when we enter the faith, it's really,
really difficult for our families to accept this new way of life,
right, because when we embrace Islam, a lot of changes come
about, some are immediate, and some take some time. And so that's
what I want to talk about today that our journey is ours. And we
shouldn't rush into anything, just because anyone tells us. And what
I mean by that is, you know, Islam came in a period of 23 years and
13 of those years, Subhan Allah, you know, the Prophet saw some was
talking to the people, not about the actual aspect or outer layers,
but he focus mainly on the heart. And I think that's one of the
disconnects that we have today, that we want to focus on the
hijab, we want to focus on the beer, we want to focus on all
these outer,
you know, things while they're important, but the most important
thing is to make sure that we don't break family ties. And
that's why I want to start with family. Many, many of us, you
know, have a very difficult time telling our family, as a matter of
fact, subhanAllah
I think I've mentioned this in the past, but my first trip to Mexico,
was very difficult. At first I was wearing the hijab, and so it was
very obvious. But secondly, you know, a lot of our family members
don't understand. And they're ignorant. Just like once upon a
time, we were ignorant of all of this new knowledge and this new
practice. And so we can blame them for feeling the way they do. But
we cannot break those ties, either, no matter how difficult it
may be. And for some, it is more difficult than for others. And
that's what this title is about. Right? So how difficult is it. So
two things,
a loved one's ease, and therefore he does not want difficulty. So
we know our family members, we know where we come from, we know
the dynamic within our family, we know what's acceptable and what's
not. And so you want to act accordingly. One of the ways to do
that is by showing the best character in best manners, when
you are around them, and even when you're not, right, so when you're
not. And, for example, if you did not call them often, now make it a
habit to call them. And perhaps even when you see them, take small
gifts, we're not talking to break the bank, but perhaps about a box
of chocolate and slowly start educating your family with your
behavior and your good manners and what Islam teaches us. So it's
important that we don't break family ties. So that's number one.
Don't make that difficult because Allah did that make that
difficult. As a matter of fact, we have a responsibility with our
families. And it is very important that we keep those ties.
And I remember
I remember one time you know, one of my cousin's did not understand
the whole attire and she was very upset she was her her reaction was
you're never going to be an Arab. That's really the whole take of
it. Like she thought I was trying to pretend someone that I was not.
And so all of that disconnect, you know, it takes time to educate our
loved ones. And so take it easy baby steps, you know, learn who
your Muhammara so if you're in a circle with only women, you know,
you're already observing the hijab, you can feel free to take
off the hijab that way you know you you don't become such a
stranger to them. And so don't make things difficult. If you know
it's your uncle's, your dad, your brothers, you don't have to wear
your scarf. So you want to make things easy, easy in the sense of
you know that you understand who you take off your scarf and who
you don't. I mean, that's just a brief example.
There are some
changes, but don't make them drastic, right? It's a process,
it's not a marathon, it's a journey, it's going to take some
time. So try to take it easy with yourself. First and foremost, make
sure that you are merciful and compassionate to yourself before
anything else. And so do not try to implement things you have not
even started learning, or do not allow anyone to tell you what to
do. In the sense, if you're not ready, you can take advice, and
you know, and say thank you to sokola hair. But if you're not
ready for a certain things, such as the hijab, then you know, you
just you just think whoever is giving you this advice, but you do
it at your own pace, always with the intention of pleasing Allah
subhanaw taala. Because that should be our end goal, our
intention should be very clear that we are doing it for our
creator for our maker and not for the people. And that alone makes
it so much easier. Because, you know, we have this notion that we
have to follow, the only one that we need to follow is the Sunnah of
Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi, Salam and the Koran. So do take
your time, don't try to do everything overnight.
It's not going to happen, and you're gonna be in, you're going,
you're only going to end up burning yourself and overwhelming
yourself to the point where I have seen it, people end up saying,
Okay, this is not for me, and, you know, they kind of walk away, or
they get discouraged. And so make sure that you don't burden
yourself, you take things slow, accordingly to whatever you're
able to handle. Number two, which is very, very important, and I
cannot stress this enough. Our salon, our salons should not be
difficult. You know, we get reward, double reward or more
reward. Because of our efforts. Allah knows exactly what we're
capable of, and what we're able to do. And therefore, we want to make
sure that again, we don't overburden ourselves, but we
understand our obligations, right? So when we took that shahada when
we said, I should do a lie ilaha illa, Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah,
when we took that testimony of faith, we understood the five
pillars of Islam and six articles of faith. And the second pillar of
Islam is our salon, our prayer. And it's the first thing that
Allah subhanho wa Taala will be asking us on the Day of Judgment,
so it is extremely important. But don't make it difficult. I
remember.
I remember early on, I used to have like little pads, and I used
to put them on the floor, there was a time where I would write it
in my hand, try to do also at your own pace, make sure that you
memorize it, my biggest advice to you would be to memorize it first
in English. That way, there's meaning when you learn it in
Arabic. Why is that because you want to make sure there's a
connection. And the connection is obviously through our through our
language, right? If we are able to comprehend to understand we will
also be able to implement. And so, you know, our salon is extremely
important. And that's something that we should never compromise.
But take your time.
Don't make things difficult. I know when I when I embrace Islam,
one of the hardest things for me was praying in public. So instead
of making things hard on yourself, make sure that if you're going out
in sha Allah that you make your salon before you go out if you're
still not comfortable praying in public, and that's okay. Work
around your salon, your salons shouldn't be working around your
schedule.
You know, if you need to talk to your workplace, make sure that you
do that initially when you after you embrace the slam. Or if it's a
new job, make sure that you allocate this time so whether it's
through breaks or your lunchtime, so you bring ease to that
practice, right you you make sure that you're implementing it based
on your schedule, and don't make it difficult right.
But do not compromise your salon. Your salon is the most important
thing that we need to make sure we're holding on to and this will
be your place of refuge. Especially when times of trial
when you know when you're going through any type of difficulty
when you're being
tested, you know, you have five times a day where you get to
connect with your Creator. And so this is why it's so important to
make sure you start implementing it almost immediately. I would
say, if that day after your shahada, you take your shahada
Maghrib make sure that you allocate time at Isha, and make
sure that even if you're not praying that you, you, you put
this space that you know, this is what's going to happen for the
rest of your life. Right. So what I used to do when I, when I
started praying is and I didn't know that prayer yet. And I was
still looking, and it was still difficult for me, you know, I just
allocated a space, a quiet space, a clean space, and it was a one on
one kind of dialogue with my Creator. And as time progressed,
and I started getting the resources, I mean, today, we have
tons of resources Alhamdulillah, so that shouldn't be a problem.
But back then resources were limited. And so I had to use
whatever I had. And if it was that time, that time that I allocated
in that space, it was just kind of meditation and my one on one
talking until I started progressing in my Islam, and I
learned my, my salon, and then I implemented so make sure that you
focus. You know, don't make it hard on yourself, but make sure
that you're not compromising anything or anyone during your
time of salaat.
Allah again, doesn't want difficulty he wants ease. And so
if you're not ready to pray in public, that's okay. Eventually,
we want to start gaining more knowledge. Inshallah you
understand that. There's actually a beautiful Hadith where the
prophet says Psalm says that the Earth is a masjid, which means
that we can pray anywhere, right. And so once you start becoming
more comfortable in doing this, it becomes a bit easier. Today, I can
tell you that I've prayed in airports, I've prayed at the park,
I've prayed aside by my car, as long as I feel safe. And that's
also something to
to be very mindful, about, about when you are doing your salon. In
the past, I would pray side by side with my son when we were
traveling, let's say at an airport, but today, I must admit
that we actually prayed separate, to make sure that we're taking
care of each other, but we still don't miss a lot. And we still
feel comfortable praying in public. Now we just take the extra
precaution. And that's what a law says ease, right? However, I feel
ease at ease. And that's what I'm going to do.
And don't make things difficult for yourself. Now, things begin to
change and shift and you know, Islam is a way of life. It's not
just a religion, it's not that we go to church only on Sundays, like
perhaps some of us did, or once a once in a while when there was a
wedding or a baptism. Islam is a way of life and therefore things
change almost immediately. Two things right. Obviously, one of
them is that we don't drink alcohol, and the other is that we
don't need swine, we don't need pork. And so that's relatively
easy in terms of staying away from from it. You want to work towards
Inshallah, one day eating only Sabetha. Right? Because it's
healthier, it's cleaner. But it's again, Allah doesn't want
difficult from us. Therefore, the Quran tells us that we are able to
eat from people from the book, what does that mean that we're
able to eat kosher or,
or meat if we don't have some behalf per se, but it's
recommended that we work towards that. And the way I see this is
normally when we get a new job, we want to escalate right? We want to
get another position we were working towards becoming a manager
or a supervisor or a CEO. In Islam, we should look at it this
way too. We should never feel like we're going to stay stagnant.
Right like in one place we should think about you know, well today I
am eating only Halal having that to the Sabetha but one day I want
to get there and or today. I'm not praying my sunnah yet, but that's
my next goal. So that's the next thing. I want to talk about
setting those goals for yourself right to make sure that you are
doing this at your own pace to make it easy for you. But also
don't stay. Don't you don't always if you entered let's say
As a restaurant and you started as a dishwasher, there's nothing
wrong with that job. But you want to become a waiter, and then the
manager and perhaps even own your own restaurant. This is the way we
want to think about when we're talking about how and where we
want to go with our deen, spiritually how much we want to
grow. And so it's important for us to make sure that if we're not
wearing hijab, yet, we're not there yet. But that is the intent
and that is the goal. If you don't have a beard yet, that is the
intent to follow the Sunnah. But you'll get there when you get
there right.
Inshallah and and that goes with everything else. One thing that I
do recommend for Sisters is to start by, you know, dressing
modest. And what that means is obviously covering everything as
much as you can, there's a lot of clothes today, where Huntelaar
we're able to cover, there's a lot of fabrics, I live in Texas, which
is very, very hot. But that doesn't.
That doesn't prevent me from seeking for, you know, different
fabrics such as cotton that breathe and keep me cool. So
eventually you will learn this and you will feel comfortable. But I
do highly recommend to start with that intention, that intention
that you're seeking to please your Creator and that everything that
you're doing is really for his pleasure in sha Allah.
Number four, I would say, you know, one of the one of the most
difficult things that was for me is to let go of friends did not
bring any good to my life. And so building that new circle, I always
call it my tribe, you know,
is so important because the prophets, Allah alayhi salam tells
us that we become who our friends are. And so it's important for us
to be selective in the sense of that your friends should be
reminding you of Allah should be encouraging you to do good,
whether it's a lot, it's a lot comes in, you should mutually be
encouraging one another and pushing each other, you know, for
good. If there's opportunity for volunteering for good deeds, then
you should be encouraging and these are the people that you want
to surround yourself with, because they will, you know, keep you on
your toes when it comes to the remembrance of Allah to the
worship, to being a better individual for yourself if you're
a mother for your children. And so, it is important for us to
choose these friends that are you know, good for us year round, you
know, not not only during certain times,
I strongly encourage people to do attend a masjid a community center
where you can inshallah integrate yourself into. Sometimes it's
difficult because the other day I was talking to a colleague, but
these sometimes these centers are we now as converts as reverts that
these centers were not made for us. And what I mean by that is
that most of the people that created these institutions were
made for them to remember from back home, so it's kind of
difficult. Sometimes I've had a lot of reverts, have a hard time
at masjid, and what have you, but I still don't discourage you from
going, we can be the change that we want to see. So if you are
seeing that people are not greeting you, then you change
that. One of the things that I tell my reverts in the circles
that I that I guide is we have to remember that there's so much has
to net to earn. And if we focus on that, then the hardship will never
touch our hearts, we always want to make sure that we're protecting
our hearts, from everything to make sure that
no one or nothing keeps us away from the remembrance of Allah from
growing from going to the masjid from surrounding ourselves with a
good company. And so, you know, when I converted it was it was so
heartbreaking when somebody wouldn't give me salons. It really
was. And I tell today I hear it all the time. You know, I get so
excited when I see another sister and I greet her and she doesn't
give me salons back. And it's heartbreaking. And what I learned
is that you get that reward. So we know that the greeting is in three
parts we know that salam ala
EComm is 10 Hassane Salam alaykum. warahmatullahi is 20 hasna Salam
alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh is 30 Hassan. So at the end of
that encounter, you could walk away with 60 Hassanein, if that
other individual didn't reply to you. So how beautiful and easy is
that? And once we start gaining this knowledge and understanding
that Islam is easy, we make it difficult.
And we make it difficult for so many reasons. So let's, let's try
in sha Allah to not make things difficult for for our own sake.
It's very easy for Shakedown to come and whisper and kind of want
to pull us away. So let's make sure that we hold on to the rope
of Allah, let's make sure that we are kind to one another. When you
hear of a new Muslim, welcome them, invite them now that we are
coming out of pandemic in sha Allah, you know, make sure that
you gravitate to teach as well if you have something to teach to
make sure you you ask this new revert this new convert, have you
learned how to pray? Would you like me to teach you imagine all
the hassle that you're gonna get from just teaching an individual
al Fatiha SubhanAllah 17 minimum 17 times a day we recite this
surah imagine all the hassle, not just because you taught a new
revert this Surah So when we started looking at the beauty of
our deen and how much we can gain from one one another, it just
becomes so much more pleasant and more welcoming, and easy. So
again, a lot does not want any hardship from us. As a matter of
fact, you know, there is a Hadith from Sahih Muslim that says, Make
things easy.
Rasulullah sallallahu sallam said make things easy for people do not
make things difficult for them. So it's instructed for us to make
sure that we bring ease to one another. The other thing is, if
you have to, two things always choose the easiest,
the easiest way. So it was narrated by Anna's been Malik that
the Prophet sallahu wa salam said, Make things easy for the people
and do not make things difficult for them and make them calm with
glad tidings and do not repulse them. So let's make sure that we
implement all of these Hadith that perhaps we are aware of, and
sometimes we fall short. And may Allah subhanaw taala, forgive us,
and make us better
Muslims and brothers and sisters to one another.
So inshallah I just want to leave you with, again, this this surah
from Surah Baqarah, where it says, Allah intends for you ease and he
does not want to make things difficult for you. That's in Surah
Baqarah I 185 remember that to do not make things hard on yourself,
take it easy, be kind with yourself, and with one another. If
you see someone struggling, make sure that you reach out to them
you never know if you are their dua. And what I mean by that is
perhaps that individuals making dua and Allah send you so
Subhanallah let's make sure that we implement everything that we
are learning. That way when we meet our maker, we are we are on
the good side of of, of that list in sha Allah. And
finally, remember that Allah subhanaw taala, you know, does not
allow anything bad to happen to us. And anything that was written
for us will never miss us. And so do not ever get impatient. You
know, sometimes you're making dua and it's not happening. There's
always a reason behind it. Either. Allah is saying not now I have
something better for you or simply just hold off, hold off for a
little bit. But do exercise patience with yourself with
others. Always give excuses as you want excuses for yourself. And
finally, the same mercy that we're looking, you know, to obtain from
our Creator, be merciful to others be kind.
And last but not least, if you have nothing nice to say, our
beloved Prophet says some said Do not say anything at all. I asked a
lot to accept this talk. Please go ahead and share it in sha Allah.
And if there's anything that I said that is good is from Allah,
anything that I said that was wrong
As from me and I ask Allah Subhana Allah to forgive me until next
time take care of Be kind to each other smile Salam alaykum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh