The same question arises with both Muslims and Non-Muslims when wanting to learn about Islam; “where do I start?” This question is one that everyone will have a different answer for. One answer is no more than another, but from experience I have found the best answer is the beginning. No matter how much we think we know, most of the time we are missing basics. So, how about we go back to the beginning and start there? Start from the very first topic that we should learn, “What is Islam?”, and build from there. In order to truly understand our religion, we must understand the very basics and fundamentals of it. We must go back into our brains and learn the same things as children do. We have to learn 1,2,3 before we can learn 10. I can honestly say that at times it has been embarrassing to admit that I need to act like a child sometimes in order to learn what I need to, but the truth is that once we can put that embarrassment aside, we can learn more than we thought we could.
Once we have learned and understood the fundamentals we can delve deeper into more issues. But the one thing we must remember is that we need to understand the things we learn so that we can implement them into our lives. If we learn truth but don’t act on it, we are nothing but ignorant hypocrites. If we use what we know in our lives, we improve ourselves. Once we know something small we can expand that knowledge until we are experts in that area. Who wouldn’t want to know all they can about their religion and way of life? Allah (swt) says “And of men and beasts and cattle are various species of it likewise; those of His servants only who are possessed of knowledge fear Allah; surely Allah is Mighty, Forgiving” (Surah Fatir: Ayah 28). “'Whoever walks in the path to seek knowledge, Allah will make the path to paradise easy for him” [Muslim]. If knowledge is held with such a high esteem in Islam, then why shouldn’t we pursue such a thing that the Creator of this Universe will forgive our sins for?
One advantage which New Muslims have is that we learn from the basics. We aren’t raised in Islam, so we have to learn everything from the beginning. If we were raised by Muslim parents, the basics would had been introduced to us early on and we would had been very likely to forget many of them. Sometimes people who are newer to Islam are able to separate culture and religion which is hard to do at times. We get to see this beautiful religion through fresh eyes. It’s not a bad thing that we come into Islam at a later age. In some ways, it’s a blessing because we are more comprehensive and more thankful of the knowledge which we receive. So the answer to where do we start is simple, start at the beginning of Allah’s gift to us. Let’s all go back to the basics and deepen our knowledge from there.
