Tom Facchine – Advice for New Muslims

			I think one of the biggest things for a new Muslim is to take things slow.
		

			And part of that advice is to not make any major, irrevocable life decisions within the first three
to five years of becoming a new Muslim. Right? Sometimes it'll work out much saying like a marriage
or a,
		

			you know, some major life decision and big move, but usually, it's best for a new Muslim to just
kind of stay in their place, where they're their job and just kind of work on themselves and feel
comfortable in their skin, so to speak, as a new Muslim.
		

			It's a marathon, it's not a sprint. Right? So what happens is, when you become a Muslim, and you're,
you've got 100%, emotion and zeal and excitement, but you haven't yet developed the maturity for
where to put it, or to what to do with that motivation or zeal. And so it actually ends up working
against you sometimes.
		

			And sometimes you end up making decisions that eventually you're going to go look back on and
regret.
		

			So it's really, really important to just keep it basic, the things that are uncontroversial that
have to do with just becoming a better person, if you if you're looking to volunteer your time for
charity, or you want to help poor people, or you want to just be a better family member, or be a
better daughter, or son or brother or sister,
		

			spending time with people and just being helpful and work on your prayers. I think that's really
just basic, basic stuff, you don't need to get in over your head with a lot of the details. You
don't need to overwhelm yourself with the rules, all that stuff that's going to come with time and
experience.
		

			The other piece of advice, maybe the last piece of advice of advice I would give to someone who
wants to know what they should do, okay, let's say that they're not content
		

			with just kind of the action aspects of the religion, and they they're looking to learn and they
want to know, where should they start? Honestly, I think the place to start is, is with
understanding who Allah is really trying to learn a laws names, who he is who he's trying to tell
us, that he is through his names and what he does and what he doesn't do. Because a lot of people
come to Islam from other religious backgrounds, and they have a warped conception of who a lot is.
And that causes a lot of problems and hardship for them, they might think that a lot is very, very
harsh.
		

			Or they might think that a lot is out to get them. That's another really common thing that I
encounter. And all of that comes back to at its foundation, not understanding who Allah is not
understanding how a lot of Mercy works, not understanding how his justice fits in with his mercy and
his love and his goodwill towards the creation. So I would really encourage a new Muslim, if they're
looking to learn anything to try to meditate upon Allah's names and who Allah is first and foremost,
so that you draw closer to your Creator.
		

			You're going to feel more present in your prayer, even if you don't know all the rules yet, or all
the things to say in Arabic, you at least know who you're talking to. Right? So that's, that's, I
think the first advice that I would give