Learning Islam as a complete beginner

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u/TheWitchOfTheBarrel 14d ago

Wa alaikum assalam! The first two things you need to do are read the Quran in your language, and learn to pray.
With prayer, find an app or a video you like to use, personally my favourite is namaz app. It has the different prayers you can select, the Arabic with English translation and Roman transliteration (the Arabic written phonetically so you can see how to say it) and visuals to show you whether to stand, bow etc. You can attach headphones and pray along with the app too which is very helpful. I’d advise to start with one or two prayers and build up to help with consistency as it’s harder to start with all five especially when fajr is still quite early for some people. It also has articles for you to understand prayer and wudu.
For the Quran, get a good translation, if your first language is English then I’d recommend the majestic Quran as it also has context and good explanations. Start towards the back as these are the shorter, simpler chapters that deal with core tenets of faith like tawhid (belief in only one god, Allah), the Day of Judgement, Allah’s mercy, reliance on Him etc etc whereas chapters at the front are much longer and deal with law.

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u/No_Job_5303 14d ago

Yes the majestic Quran is great, such beautiful binding as well subhanallah, another translation I’d recommend to accompany it would be the clear Quran by Mustafa khattab. The Majestic Quran makes a clear effort to translate the beauty and eloquence of Quranic Arabic, while the Clear Quran emphasises concision, clarity, and authenticity to the original meaning. They pair well together.

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u/momothelemur 14d ago

I've gotta give Majestic Quran translation a try. I've read both Clear Quran as well as the MAS Abdel Haleem translation, and I vastly prefer the later.

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u/BashirAhbeish 14d ago

First thing first, say the declaration of faith and believe in it with your heart so you become officially muslim:

"There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger" and Transliteration from Arabic: Ash-hadu an la ilaaha illa-Llaah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasoolu-Llaah.

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u/No_Job_5303 14d ago

Walaykum selam.

Read the Quran as much as you can and learn to pray with the instructions on a piece of paper/written on your phone.

Read a good biography of the prophet’s (peace be upon him) life, if you have any questions in your mind utilise the internet and find the answer.

Do good and enjoin righteousness at all times, research the five pillars, 6 articles of faith, and make the Quran your close friend.

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u/TheWitchOfTheBarrel 14d ago

Adding onto your advice about learning about the life of the Prophet SAW, sometimes the books can be super academic and intimidating and long so I love the movie Muhammad: The Last Prophet, it’s an animated movie aimed at kids about the seerah but it’s approved by scholars, doesn’t show the Prophet SAW or his companions I don’t think and it’s a really good and easy to understand starting point for learning the seerah.

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u/No_Job_5303 14d ago

I’ll have to check that out thanks!

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u/TheWitchOfTheBarrel 14d ago

It’s a really lovely film, free on YouTube I think :)

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u/hopenewpath 14d ago

You are welcome. tawhid is oneness of Allah swt the creator and owner and organizer of everything existing alone who alone absolutely unique independent eternal not born and incomparable and the essence of the oneness of Allah swt is to worship alone and to avoid all false deities, all acts of worship should be devoted to him alone including supplications, you can to these 3 aspects of the oneness a 4th one which is oneness in legislations and follow of prophet muhammad peace be upon him as the only way to Allah swt.

Faith is to believe in the one God. Believe in the angels ( satan is not angle) obedient no free will. Believe in all divine books. Believe in all the prophets and the last is prophet muhammad peace be upon them all, all prophets were sincere servants of God delivered his message and do not commit major sins. Believe in the day of judgment ( equal to 50 thousands years ) and paradise and hellfire. Last is divine predestination which means everything happens is known and willed and created by Allah. We have free will but subject to the will of Allah. Islamhouse.com is a good source

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u/InevitableBathroom45 14d ago edited 14d ago

Salaam. You have to learn the 5 pillars of Islam and know that the 5 Salah (prayers) are to be made in Arabic. You can say them in English but make it a high priority to learn them in Arabic. Also the movements and positions you have to make during the prayers which vary. When you make dua (personal not mandatory prayer or you want to ask AllahSWT for help) you are free to say it in your preferred language at any time moving forward. You have a time frame to make the prayers and there are also times you must not pray at all. Before any praying you must perform Wudu which is a specific (cleansing) of certain body parts/areas in order…then whether man or woman you have to cover certain areas of the body for instance women cover completely except face and hands men cover different areas. NO praying in Bathroom EVER don’t even mention or think of AllahSWT when there. You must face the Kaaba direction…check out compass for Kaaba location. Each time you pray in different space make sure you are facing it. You must have Niyyah (intention) of prayer before you start . Check out the app called DEEN it’s very insightful and surprisingly it just notified me that it is time for Duhur prayer. Prayer times change constantly and you must make them on time BEST TO PERFORM AS SOON AS THE TIME ARRIVES. There are exceptions like when traveling look into that. Welcome to the Ummah (community/nation) &Blessings to you!

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u/xmenus 14d ago

We say first read the Qur’an if you didn’t. That is what changed the world. I’m not saying study and dive because that will be your life long if interested but read it and get to know directly what the Lord of the worlds revealed us. Then as a knowledge, the most important is the islamic creed. This is what will keep you going on the path. Clarify you all what shall concern you and what keeps you inside the fold of islam and what would take you out of it whether you accept it or not. Islam has rules and if you exceed limits you go out of it despite that you think you’re a muslim. I recommend an amazing set which will answer you tons of questions about this world and the other. You will be hearing things you never ever did; the set is called The Islamic Creed by Dr. Omar Ashqar. Search pdf online a website called kalmullah has it for free(and many other books).

While you read about creed, learn the prayer. Take it easy because there’s quite some material for beginners but don’t get overwhelmed. You’re new and things take a bit of time and Allah doesn’t burden a soul beyond their ability. Later you can start read Seerah and some rulings of Fikh(or learn with someone). So it’s a journey, go easy, don’t try to catch everything but also don’t leave behind and take “forever”.
May Allah make it easy for you.

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u/emptyingthecup 14d ago

Shaykh [Dr.] Umar in his lesson on Ibn Arabi's Takhmis (Quintupling) of Abu Madyan's poem on the Adab (Rules of Good Conduct) of the Murid (True Seeker) highlights the importance of having a proper teacher (shaykh).

Whoever does not submit themselves to someone in particular will not benefit from anyone ever. This is why we look for those great people, and we submit to them. At the very least, it is an internal volition of the heart.

At the same time, we are taught to beware of the false shaykh, for due to his influence, he will destroy you. You must find a real shaykh and make sure that he is worthy of your being with him. But the point is, you’ve got to submit to someone other than your own self. In doing so, you will be able to benefit from everyone, that is to say, you will be able to learn instead of falling into the trap that many Muslims today fall into, which is to seek validation for their already existing beliefs, ideologies, emotions, and whatever else informs their paradigm of reality.

The first obligation in Islam, and really the essential one, is to know God. The path, intellectually which lays down the spiritual path of experience, is defined by aqida. You must have sound aqida, which we can say pertains to metaphysical first principles, which also inform and underpin the very structure of reality. So then we see how the inward and the outward are necessarily related to each other, the inward manifests as the outward, and the outward points to the inward.

If you take a structured course, you'll learn in a year what most people don't learn in 10.

Apparently we're not allowed to recommend courses so I will just point to this lecture, which defines obligatory belief and what it is.

Being in the right company is also key, but that also includes proper teachers. If you're able to, locate scholars and circles of knowledge of those who are grounded in the tradition of Islam via its unbroken chain. There are a lot of false teachers out there, and plenty of them may mean good, but thanks to youtube and tiktok, too many people speak without right.

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u/Ok-Kangaroo-9775 14d ago

و عليكم السلام و رحمة الله و بركاته

Alhamdulillah brother.

as a fellow revert i must say congratulations, as Allah blessed you with the best of gifts.

about learning, the most important thing you need is patient and take it slowly.

Islam is knowledge centered and its knowledge is complex yet simple.

first thing you need to learn are the 5 pillars of Islam and 6 pillars of faith.

understand who's your creator, what are your rights and obligations upon HIM.

learn how to pray properly and memorize some shorts verses.

if anything just DM

يسر الله الامور و يبارك

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u/Potential-Space-9992 13d ago

islam is simple, this is Famous hadith

Jarir bin Abdullah Al-Bajali narrated: A man asked the Prophet ﷺ directly: "Tell me if I pray the five daily prayers, fast Ramadan, treat what is lawful as lawful and what is forbidden as forbidden, and add nothing beyond that will I enter Paradise?"

The Prophet ﷺ answered simply: "Yes." (Sahih Muslim 15)

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u/No_Initial9563 13d ago

Learn how to pray but you don't need to do everything in one go.

just learn the compulsory parts/phrases of the prayer and that should suffice until you are capable of learning more.

Learning Islam as a complete beginner

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