“Finding God: A Workshop for new and old converts and friends” is designed to help Muslim converts and friends to negotiate their new way of life. The workshop is free of charge and everybody is free to register here.
What Inspired Me
The idea of this workshop was inspired by writing about issues pertaining to Muslim converts and directly counseling new and old converts.
Through my direct interaction with converts and being a convert myself, I noticed that programs directly targeting Muslim converts and their specific needs, questions and issues are rather rare. Therefore, early in my Muslim life I tried to cater to this gap, especially through writing but also by joining several convert circles.
However, recently I noticed another phenomenon that makes convert care more difficult. We are living in busy times and everybody is extremely busy. People move places. People get new jobs, get married, have children.
I have been studying traditional Islamic knowledge online for the past six years. So, I thought that online workshops for converts that can be accessed at everyone’s own convenience and from everywhere in the world would be a great tool to hopefully reach all these converts that can and want to benefit from such a workshop.
Hopefully, the workshop “Finding God” is only the first workshop in a series of workshops to be designed in the near future.
An Outline of the Workshop
In the first part of this workshop, interesting convert stories are supposed to motivate and strengthen our new found conviction. We will feel that we are not alone with our conversion. Through the stories, we will feel more connected with Allah and with our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. Maybe we see a pattern in the conversion stories that also resembles what we experienced.
In the second part of this workshop, several issues especially concerning converts and friends are discussed.
Here again, the aim is to empower and help in the on-going process of conversion. Some of the topics discussed here are: how to deal with one’s non-Muslim family, how to find good teachers and guides to support our conversion process; and how to go about with all the new teachings and regulations. You will find suggestions on how a person can find his place in the new community. And the importance about building a strong connection with the Quran.
The third part of this workshop touch upon several important issues in the life of the Muslim. We will discuss fasting in Ramadan, love for the Prophet (pbuh) and setting our priorities straight.
I sincerely hope that this workshop is of benefit to many new and old converts and friends. I pray that Allah accepts this effort from me and enables me to come up with follow up workshops in the future. If anybody would like to support me doing that, they can get in touch with me: [email protected]. Constructive feedback is highly appreciated.