Muslim Revert Survival Skills: Part 2 Learn from appropriate places and people!

In the last post we talked about the difficulty an individual who is new to Islam may have when trying to learn everything at once.  I am thankful that early on I spoke to an Imam who told me very point blank not to try and change everything at once.  This is something that I believed really helped me out. 

            Another thing that helped me out was realizing early on that other individuals who were relatively new to Islam and even those who have been Muslim their entire life don’t know everything about Islam.  Yes, this is very true.  People’s beliefs are influenced by a lot of things, things they may not even realize.  Beliefs are influenced by one’s environment, culture, traditions, social status, and upbringing to name a few.  This means that there are a lot of different ideas about Islam.  This can be very confusing, especially if you don’t know where to find the answers. So, that brings us to part two of this series:

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1.      Learn from appropriate places and people!  I think this is also a very important message. One of my favorite sayings is, “Islam is perfect but Muslims are not.”  I think this is an important lesson for anyone new to Islam.  I suggest NOT asking other Muslims for advice unless he or she is a knowledgeable scholar. There are different schools of thought (fiqh) in Islam.  In Sunni Islam there are Wahabis, Salafis, Malikis, Hanafis and Shafi’is.  While they all believe in the same basic principles they do differ on subjects such as inheritance, marriage, and the exact steps in prayer.  There are also Sufis and Shias which have different beliefs than Sunnis. 

This can all be quite confusing for the individual new to Islam.  One person may tell you to pray one way while another will bicker and say they are wrong and tell you to pray another way.  Someone may say you have to have a wali at your wedding while others may say you don’t.  How do you know which way is correct?  This is why I suggest going to a sheikh, Imam, or Islamic scholar for advice. 

The truth is, even people born into Islam don’t know everything.  I once heard a story about one of my husband’s friends who said if you touch a dog you have to bathe 7 times, and one of them with sand.  This is absolutely ridiculous and completely false, but he insisted it was the right way.

There are also a lot of books on Islam, many of which you can get for free.  Islamic Books for Free is a website that offers a wide variety of free publications on Islam, on various topics.  There is also a chat section where a scholar attempts to answer your questions.  One last thing on this topic… Please, please, do not rely on Google to answer your questions about Islam.  You’re better talking to other Muslims than asking Google religious advice.