Tom Facchine – Should Converts Change Their Name-Muslim Converts

			converts don't need to change their names.
		

			Unless unless their name has some sort of idolatry in it, or some sort of bad meaning,
		

			some sort of negative insulting meaning. And this is the practice of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, because the companions were all Congress didn't change all their names, right? He
only changed a few names, when those names kind of had
		

			meanings that either were insulting to Allah or insulting to themselves.
		

			And there's benefit to this when it comes to Dow. And there's an exception, I'll mention that in a
second. But there's benefit to this. and Dow, for example, my name is Tom. And my father's name is
Tom Wright. And
		

			if I had changed my name, at any one point, it probably would have been insulting to my father. And
I probably would have created a barrier between me and him. And I probably would have
		

			kind of solidified the perception that Islam is something foreign, and something that's not
compatible with other cultures, that it's just an Arab thing. Or it's just an Arab cultural thing.
Right, which isn't true Islam as universal, it's meant for every culture, every language every time
every place. And so how is it that we're only going to have Arabic names,
		

			doesn't really make sense. And it was interesting, because I actually ended up doing some research
about my name, and you know, kind of checking it out, it's fine.
		

			So that's unless your name is, you know, some sort of IO or something like that, or any it does
happen. I mean, there are like, for example, names of Greek goddesses and gods and things like that,
that are fairly common names.
		

			But if that's not the situation, then the default situation
		

			is to leave your name. And you certainly don't have to change your name. Now, I've spoken to many
individuals, that they feel that it's truly empowering to change their name. And some people, they
need to turn the page in their lives. They, you know, this usually happens with people who have had
a really, really hard past, got involved in things that they didn't want to get involved in, and
they're really looking to make a clean break. For people like that changing your name can be a very
empowering thing.
		

			And yeah, those people are encouraged to do so just like it's, it's fine to keep your name and it's
fine to change it. You know, it's not
		

			it's not a real hard, strict thing either way. But that's what I would say that say that the default
is to leave it. But if you feel that you really, really want a symbolic break from who you were and
the life that you were living before and you're ready to turn over a completely new leaf, then, you
know, maybe you can consider it and there's no there's nothing wrong with that.