Advice for One Trying to Return to the Deen
The Context
A sister had posted to our sub about wanting to come back to the Deen, but feeling a little overwhelmed and also guilty for her past. Most of the rest can be gleaned from my response, in sha’ Allah.
I broke it down into steps to denote priority, so that she (and any others) can know how to distribute their energies, by the permission of Allah.
The Advice
﷽
#1 Take Your Shahada
Don’t delay it, and don’t wait until Ramadan. You don’t even know if you’ll live to read the end of my comment. You also don’t need a witness or to be in a masjid to take the shahada—Allah is a sufficient witness over the believer for this. Please don’t delay this, sister, it is of the utmost importance.
It was narrated that Mu’aadh ibn Jabal (radhiAllah anhu) said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (ﷺ) say: "If a person’s last words are Laa ilaaha ill-Allaah, Paradise will be guaranteed for him."
—Musnad Ahmad 21529, Sunan Abu Dawood 3116
And on the Day of Judgement, this testimony, this shahada of "La ilaha ilAllah" will be a weighty matter indeed:
In the hadith below, wherever the pronoun “he” refers to the man, I’ve kept it lowercase, even if it’s grammatically incorrect (like at the beginning of a sentence), in order to help differentiate.
It was narrated that ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas said:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "Allah will bring forth a man belonging to my ummah before all creatures and will spread ninety-nine scrolls [containing the record of his bad deeds] for him, each scroll extending as far as the eye can see. Then He will say, ‘Do you object to anything in this? Have my scribes who keep note wronged you?’
he will say, ‘No, my Lord.’
He will ask him, ‘Do you have any excuse?’
he will say, ‘No my Lord.’
Allah will say, ‘On the contrary, you have with Us a good deed, and you will not be wronged this Day.’ A slip of paper will then be brought out, on which are the words ‘Ashhadu an laa ilaaha ill-Allah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhu wa rasooluhu (I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger).’ Allah will say, ‘Bring your balance.’
The man will say, ‘O Lord, what is this slip of paper in comparison to these scrolls?’
And He will reply, ‘You will not be wronged.’ The scrolls will then be put in one side of the Balance and the slip of paper in the other, and the scrolls will become light and the slip of paper heavy, for nothing could compare in weight to the name of Allah."
—Musnad Ahmad 6699, Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2639
#2 Establish the Prayer
This can seem overwhelming at first. Take it one step at a time. For those who don’t know the Arabic prayer completely, they can say things like "﷽, alhamdulillah," or recite al-Fatiha while they continue to learn.
If praying all the prayers is difficult, start with just the fardh. If that’s still difficult, start with one fardh prayer (maybe Fajr because it’s only 2 rak’ah). But start and make a sincere intention every time that you would like to perform them all, by the permission of Allah.
Here’s a post I made recently on the importance of establishing the prayer for someone recently, perhaps it might help?
#3 Learn Your Religion
It is a process for everyone, and many of us were once where you are today. You can’t become a good, practicing Muslim without knowing what Islam is. For this, I sincerely and earnestly recommend the Foundations program we made. Go through it at your own pace, whatever’s comfortable for you.
There’s no need to overburden yourself. Some of us have other obligations (work, families, etc.), so you don’t have to do it all at once. But you have to start and you have to make a sincere intention to put in the work, in sha’ Allah.
#4 Tawbah and Istighfar
These are really important concepts and I only recently really learned them more completely, through this excellent espisode of On The Road. When you have time, I’d highly recommend going through it!
Allah is The Most Merciful, and we have endless ayat from the Qur’an and ahadith that speak about this beautiful and incredible quality:
"And said, ‘Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver."
—Qur’an (Nuh) 71:10
and also:
"Allah will forgive you of your sins and delay you for a specified term. Indeed, the time [set by] Allah , when it comes, will not be delayed, if you only knew.’"
—Qur’an (Nuh) 71:4
and from hadith, a humbling narration:
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks I am, (i.e. I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than they; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.‘"
#5 Make Du’a
Du’a is the weapon of the believer, don’t sleep on it. Make du’a for every single thing you want to happen:
- that you’re able to pray your prayers
- that you’re able to learn them in Arabic
- that you’re able to learn your religion
- that your past sins are forgiven
- that Allah grants you the tawfeeq to continue to improve
- and also make du’a for your worldly affairs (job, house, family, etc.)
In Closing
I know this was a long post, and I apologize for that. There’s just a lot to say and I didn’t want to leave out anything important. Please feel free to reach out to me at anytime.
May Allah make it easy for you and bless you with guidance, knowledge, and wisdom. Ameen.