New To Islam – Darul Uloom of the Carolinas

In the Name of Allah (SWT) the Merciful, the Compassionate

Let's begin our journey towards Enlightenment

How to Become a Muslim?

Watch this Video to understand the first step towards your journey or pronounce Testimony of Faith

Pronounce Shahada or Testimony of Faith

Transliteration: "Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah."

Translation: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."

What's next after taking Shahada or accepting Islam

First of all, Congratulations and welcome to Islam. After taking our Shahada, it will take some time for us to understand our new faith, learn daily prayers, and put it to practice. But don’t worry Allah, the most merciful, will make it easier for us when we are committed to serve Him. We will just have to be a little patient and take baby steps into our new faith. Just by putting in a few minutes a day, we will learn a lot. It may take a few days to months to learn the daily prayer. But don’t worry there is no deadline to finish our learning and the great news is that Allah rewards us for every single step we take to draw closer to Him.

While we could learn a lot from books and articles but great deal can be learned by finding the right mentor. So, how should we find a mentor? The best & easy way is to visit a local Masjid and ask help from an Imam, teacher, or an active volunteer. This will make your journey a lot easier and that’s why we strongly recommend visiting a Masjid near you. While some Masajid may not have resources, they should still be able to find you some help. And if you are in our area then feel free to contact us and we will be glad to help you.

So, for time being let’s our online learning journey begin-

Salaah / 5 times daily prayer

As we have already taken first crucial step of our journey by taking Shahadah and learning about our belief, now we are ready to work on the next step or next (second) pillar of Islam, which is Salah (Daily 5 times prayer), and in order to offer our prayer we must be clean. Cleanliness is half of faith. Our body and clothes must be clean or in the form of purity to observe prayer. It is time to be in the court of Allah the King of all kings and directly communicate with him through 5 times daily prayers, so we must be clean and our dress should be neat and clean.

Building of the Islam stands on five pillars and they are as follows

Ghusl (Obligatory Bath/Shower)

Following video shows how to perform Ghusl if you are in the form of impurity

Istinja (cleaning after call of nature)

Istinja simply means cleaning after we use the bathroom or relieving ourselves from the call of nature. We could clean ourselves with bathroom tissues, wash with water, or the best way is to use both bathroom tissue and water. Basically It is very important that when we use the bathroom no urine or stool gets on our body or our clothes.

Wudu (Ablution)

Following video shows how to perform Wadu or Ablution before prayer.

5 times daily Prayer

Fajr (Pre dawn Prayer: time begins about 90 minutes before local sunrise time)
Dhuhr (Mid-Day Prayer: when sun passes 90 degrees in horizon or little after noon time)
Asr (Late afternoon: time begins about 90 minutes before sunset time)
Maghrib (Sunset Prayer: about 1 or 2 minutes after local sunset time)
Isha (Evening/Night Prayer:time begins about 90 minutes after local sunset time)

How to perform daily 5 times prayers (Salah)

Again the best and easiest way to learn is through a local teacher or a mentor from a local Masjid near you but for time being till you find someone or to reinforce what you learn in a Masjid, we have listed a couple of videos just to help.