Category: Convert Central

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The New Muslim’s Field Guide

by Corbin

For Immediate Release

The New Muslim’s Field Guide

Publication Date: 2/1/18

From the minds behind islamwich comes a new and greatly anticipated book for converts to Islam: 

The New Muslim’s Field Guide

Available on Amazon today, The New Muslim’s Field Guide is a not-so-technical manual for new Muslims, written by people who have been there, done that.

A first-of-its-kind manual written from 20+ years of combined experience from the field, The New Muslim’s Field Guide offers insightful advice on navigating the maze of culture, politics, love, identity, and faith.

This is the guide every new Muslim needs as they take their first steps into Islam.

“Converting to Islam in a western country like America can prove daunting and overwhelming, and it’s easy to lose sight of the most important part of Islam: our own individual relationship with Allah. Some of us were blessed to have other Muslims to guide us through the sometime treacherous water. Fortunately, with The New Muslim’s Field Guide we can all have such guidance at the ready, 24 hours a day. Theresa Corbin and Kaighla Um Dayo are the two dear friends you can rely on to take your new faith with no judgment, no fear, and no regret.”

– Maryam C. Lautenschlager, new Muslim

Unlike the current books on the market that focus on explaining the Islamic rulings behind this or that and ensuring new Muslims have correct aqeedah (creed), this book offers new Muslims hard-earned wisdom in a common-sense, practical approach.

It not only briefly discusses the rites and rituals that the new Muslim must learn and develop, but it also discusses the deeper, personal journey every new Muslim must take: how to navigate this new faith without losing one’s identity, how to handle interpersonal relationships within the new Muslim’s new community, how to deal with Islamophobia, and so much more.

In addition to all the great advice, the authors share their own personal stories of tragedy and hilarity from when they were new Muslims.

For more info about the book and a free sample, check out our website newmuslimsfieldguide.com

The Authors

Theresa Corbin

Theresa Corbin is a French-creole American writer and graphic designer, who converted to Islam in 2001. She holds a degree in English Lit from the University of South Alabama and is the author and designer of The Islamic, Adult Coloring Book.

Corbin is currently a contributor to About Islam and Al Jumuah online publications. Her work has also been featured on CNN and Washington Post. She writes about and has been studying culture, gender issues, Islamic thought, and sectarianism since 1998.

Kaighla Um Dayo

Kaighla White, a.k.a. “Kaighla Um Dayo”, is a writer, mother, and women’s rights activist. Before embracing Islam in 2009, she was an evangelical Christian who attended Lincoln Christian University. She is a former contributor and editor at About Islam, and a contributor at Al Jumuah and, of course, islamwich.com.

Her greatest passion is sharing the wisdom she has garnered these 30 years: life hands you lemons, but you don’t have to be bitter. Um Dayo is finishing up her degree in English Language and Literature, and writing a novel loosely based on her experience as a second wife in rural Egypt.

Get the book

The New Muslim’s Field Guide is $15.99 USD, £11.32 GBP, €12.90 EUR

ISBN-13: 13: 978-1981328994

Available on Amazon (Kindle version to be available by Feb. 3, 2018)

Review a Copy

Journalist, bloggers, new Muslim mentors, and imams send us an email for a review copy, letting us know how you can help converts benefit from this book.

Email: authors@newmuslimsfieldguide.com

Website: newmuslimsfieldguide.com

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Your First Practical Steps as a New Muslim

by Corbin

written by Theresa Corbin

originally written for and published on About Islam

Much has been written on what a new Muslim should do after converting. What the first steps after shahadah should be is a topic even I have expounded on many times—like the article I wrote entitled, The First Step A New Convert Should Take which is all about intentions, motivation, and matters of the heart.

But sometimes this kind of advice makes it seem as if material matters aren’t important. But you should know that they are.

Islam teaches us a balance, to be in this world and to take care of one’s worldly needs while also thinking of the life of the hereafter and taking care of one’s spiritual needs.

We are beings of duality. We have a physical existence and a spiritual existence. When the needs of one or the other are ignored, bad things happen.

Far too often the worldly needs of new Muslims are brushed off as less important than spiritual needs. And what comes from this kind of treatment is understandable.

New Muslims often complain that being a Muslim is impractical or difficult. If the Islam presented to you seems Impossible, excessively difficult, or impractical, know that this is a kind of imagined Islam that ignores the worldly needs in favor of the spiritual needs.

However, Islam demands balance and that all needs are met. Here are a few practical things to think about after taking the shahadah.

Know Your Rights as a New Muslim

As a new Muslim, one of the first things you should understand about your faith are your rights in Islam. Often new Muslims’ complaints about Islam have nothing to do with Islam at all, but a failing on the part of other individual Muslims or even their community as a whole.

It is critical that you, as a new Muslim, understand that Allah has instructed your community to provide you with support. If it is not offered to you, or if support is not given when you seek it, then you need to know that that is man’s failing, and not Islam’s.

Muslims have an obligation to help new Muslims in a number of ways, including but not limited to mentorship, counseling, education, supportive community, and even financial support if need arises. You can read a declaration of the rights of new Muslims here that discusses this in more detail.

Continue reading here on About Islam

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New Muslims: Why Celebrate Eid?

New Muslims: Why Celebrate Eid?

by Corbin ♥ 13 Comments

written by Theresa Corbin for About Islam

No matter what the weather, no matter how tasty the Eid breakfast, no matter how well I felt my Ramadan went, for many years after I converted to Islam, I followed the same old Eid pattern.

Wake up. Pray fajr (morning prayer). Eat breakfast. Go to Eid Prayer.

Then I, my husband or both of us, would go to school or work. It was anti-climactic at best.

After a month of character building, spiritual highs and building a better relationship with the Quran, it was always right back to pre-Ramadan business as usual, hoping to keep the lessons and increased faith as we exited the month un-commemorated.

Until one year, I said enough! I put my foot down and didn’t go into work. I took the day off of school and insisted my husband do the same. Guess what happened?

No, the world didn’t fall apart. No, we didn’t fail our classes. We actually enjoyed ourselves.

We spent time to acknowledge what Ramadan meant to us and to celebrate our successes in it. And because of our celebration we felt more Muslim somehow. We felt closer to our community. We felt better prepared to move on and face the challenges of life outside of Ramadan.

In the Western world where few even know what Eid is, it is very difficult to get out of day to day commitments to celebrate the holiday or rather the holy day. It is even more difficult to have that holiday feeling when those around you are treating the day like any other ordinary day.

As converts, we have to give up a lot of our old holidays when we come into Islam. Giving up holidays where everyone is celebrating and everything is decorated can be difficult.

Many of us treasure our holiday memories and family traditions. But as Muslim we are not left with nothing in the place of our old tradition. As converts we can and must make new traditions and create a holiday feeling for ourselves.

Why Celebrate? For Gratification and Gratitude

Read more ›

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Practical Ramadan Tips for New Muslims

by Corbin ♥ 7 Comments

written by Theresa Corbin for Al Jumuah

Entering into my 15th [now 16th] Ramadan, I feel an excitement building. I am looking forward to the fast of Ramadan and all the amazing things that come with it: growing spiritually, strengthening community ties, coming nearer to Allah, and much more.

However, it wasn’t always this way. I converted during the month of Ramadan and jumped straight into fasting even before I knew how to pray correctly. I want to be honest here. Those first fasts were hard. Very hard. Coming from a Catholic and American background, I had never experienced real fasting. The most I knew about fasting was eating less to fit in a smaller size and not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.

So my first Ramadan was a shock to my system. And as my second Ramadan approached, I was very nervous about my ability to endure. I feared the pains of hunger, the thirst that left me dehydrated, and the fatigue that comes along with fasting. I felt like this was something no one ever talked about and for good reason. Complaining about hunger, thirst, and fatigue defeats the purpose of fasting.

I realized a couple things during my struggle to acclimate to fasting.

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Raising Real Muslim Men: Podcast ep. 6

by UmDayo ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

podcasted by Kaighla Um Dayo

In this episode of the islamwich podcast, Kaighla talks with Eva Abdullah, a convert of 22 years and mother of six, 3 of whom are teenage boys. They discuss how she has managed to raise good Muslim men. 

Raising real muslim men

Eva and Kaighla discuss intercultural marriage to her Kurdish husband, gender roles and household chores in their family, ways to inculcate love for Allah and Islam at a young age, how Eva handles issues of faith and doubt, and they tackle the really hard topics of girls, porn, and sexuality.

Enjoy and please don’t forget to give us a rating on iTunes!

Follow us (upper right of the page). Email us (islamwich@yahoo.com). Like our face with your face on Facebook (facebook.com/islamwich). Tumble with us on Tumblr (islamwich.tumblr.com). Pin with us (pinterest.com/islamwich). Follow us on twitter (@islamwich).

Like the post, share it, pin it, comment on it, and/or do whatever social media magic it is that you prefer. Find out more about us in the understandably named “About” page and browse other posts in “Table of Contents”.

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Muslim Converts Wrestle with Isolation, Seek Support

by Corbin ♥ 13 Comments

by Hana Baba producer of KALW’s Crosscurrents  

Listen here.

About 20% of American Muslims are converts — people who didn’t grow up with the religion and often don’t have any cultural ties.

In some faiths, there’s a clear path for prospective converts. Catholicism, for example, has an official course of rites, rituals, and classes for those entering the Church. Islam doesn’t have a formal conversion process like that. To become a Muslim, you declare your new belief with conviction in front of a Muslim witness, and that’s it. 

For this reason, many converts say they need help and support — but it can be surprisingly hard to find. One place it can be found is the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara, which has been offering post-conversion support classes for the last seven years.

Twenty-six-year-old Nathalia Costa is in the women’s prayer hall at the mosque. She’s here for the midday Saturday prayer. Wearing a baby blue headscarf, she stands in a straight line with her hands folded above her heart, moving in unison with about 20 other women. They kneel, then prostrate, then sit, and stand back up again, all in silence. Through the corner of her eye, head bowed, Costa follows the women closely.

Read more ›

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Pink Mosques

by Corbin ♥ 8 Comments

written by Theresa Corbin

Here on islamwich, we talk a lot about how too many mosques are not what they are meant to be.

Mostly mosques around the world are cultural clubs who marginalize or even do disservice to converts, or they make women feel unwelcome by only providing dingy closets for us pray in, or they have banned women entirely, or they are openly racist towards any arbitrary group they choose, or they don’t welcome non-Muslims, or all of the above … and more.

All of this mess is not from Islam. The mosque is meant to be for all: women, men, young, old, and people from all cultures, countries, colors. It is supposed to be a place to learn, to hang out, to enjoy each other’s company, to share meals, to pray, to supplicate to God, to foster volunteer and outreach programs, to build interfaith bridges, and more.
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