New Muslims · The First Days
You said the shahada. Now what?
What to do today, and how to memorise the prayer after that. You pray your first prayer today, reading it straight off the cheat sheet.
You say the shahada, the testimony of faith, and you mean it, and you are a Muslim. You do not need an imam, a ceremony, or a certificate. Saying it in front of witnesses at a mosque is recommended, because it connects you to the community, but it is not a condition.
أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ
Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illallaah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasoolullaah.
"I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."
The short version
- Everything before this moment is forgiven. Completely. You begin clean.
- Your Islam counts from today. The rest (diet, clothes, speech, old habits) you put right as you go; none of it has to be sorted before you start.
- Prayer is the backbone. Start praying today, reading from the cheat sheet, and memorise the words as you go.
- Find one mosque and one knowledgeable person you can ask. Do not learn your religion from strangers on the internet alone.
Today
Take the full shower
Do a ghusl, a full-body wash with the intention of purifying yourself as a new Muslim. Thank Allah. Everything before this moment is wiped clean.
Learn wudu
This is the wash before prayer, and it takes about a minute once you know it. The wudu guide →
Look up your prayer times
Google “prayer times” with your city to get today’s times, and use Google’s Qibla Finder to see which way to face. If you travel, look them up again wherever you are. The five prayers →
Pray your next prayer off the cheat sheet
Bookmark the cheat sheet, open it on your phone, and read every word straight off it while you pray. It will feel clumsy at first, and that’s fine. Pray all five this way from today. Open the cheat sheet →
Memorising it
Keep reading the whole prayer off the sheet, all five times a day. Reading it over and over is how it sticks. Start with Al-Fatihah, since you say it in every unit, and pick one of the short surahs on the sheet to go after it.
Then keep going
Pray those five, in their times, for the rest of your life. Add a little each week, another surah, the words after the prayer, the sunnah units. Start reading a readable translation of the Qur’an. Keep good company.
All five are required from day one. If a prayer is hard to place, look at your real day: Fajr, Maghrib and Isha fall outside work hours, and Dhuhr and Asr have wide windows. Make up on the spot any you genuinely cannot pray on time, and keep tightening until all five land in their windows.
Jordan, who runs Amanah Coach, reverted in 2013 and has written about that road in his story, and about the habits that hold a man together in the method. His book, The Amanah Protocol, is on Amazon and Kindle.