Tom Facchine – Your First Ramadan-Advice for New Muslims – Ramadan 2022

			If it's your first Ramadan
		

			as much as sometimes it doesn't work to give blanket advice, because everybody's got a different
situation. But
		

			if possible, I think spending it with the community as much as possible is nice, right? It's good.
You know, if your machine is having Iftar, go to the Iftar. If your machine is having prayer
programs, go to the, the machine is having,
		

			you know, classes, even during the day, go to the classes.
		

			Because fasting for a convert can be very lonely, can be very lonely. And it's
		

			more lonely, if you're not taking advantage of everything that the local community has to offer. And
that is obviously assuming that the local community is welcoming and not problematic, things like
that. So try as much as you can,
		

			to lean into the community aspect of Ramadan during Ramadan.
		

			That's also the time when a lot of these relationships are formed and bonds are formed, it's an it's
kind of like a lower barrier, to make the sort of relationships that you kind of need to make
converts, you know, we're really heavy on like instructing contracts like do this and don't do that.
And my observation is that Congress usually have a higher need for social support, right, and
emotional support,
		

			then information, per se, everyone's different, but in general. And so sometimes outside of Ramadan,
it can be difficult because everybody's got their schedule, and everybody's got their cliques and
everybody's got the kind of people they're used to hanging out with. But in Ramadan, those barriers
get lowered. If people are hanging around the masjid more people are open to different sorts of
social engagements in a different way. And so Ramadan can be the beginning of new friendships, you
know, the Ramadan can be the beginning of new sort of social circles. And that's a really important
thing.
		

			The other thing I would say, is to try to spend as much time with a core as possible, and I mean,
reading it in your in your primary language.
		

			It's not going to be sustainable, to worship Allah
		

			in the way that Allah once without knowing who it is.
		

			That's just the end of it. So one of the most urgent things, if we are going to talk about
instruction, one of the most urgent projects for a convert is to understand who a lot is. And if you
understand or get a decent understanding of what a law is, it can carry you quite far. Right? That's
your bedrock?
		

			Don't I wouldn't suggest getting too caught up in the extreme, you know, minute a or the specifics
of the Islamic law about this detail, or that detail over the moon sighting wars are this, there's a
million issues that kind of are like revolving controversies. You know, even things about like, how
higher pants should be or you know, how exactly what types of covering or what you're doing prayer,
you know,
		

			it's a mistake for converts to let their district their attention be diverted to these sorts of
things when they do not have a sustainable and profound understanding of who a lot is. That takes
priority. You need to understand who a lot is, if you do not understand what it is you are not going
to last as a Muslim. It's not going to happen. Because there's too much stuff that you have to go
through. There's too much opposition that you're going to find in society. There's too much social
stigma, all these sorts of things. You're not going to last if you're not doing it for a lot, you
have to understand them a lot.
		

			And one of the one of the ways of doing that is by getting very close to the end