My name is Rachel and I’m an American convert to Islam. I’m a master’s student of religion at the university of Georgia and next year I’ll be teaching introductory courses in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam which is exciting.

I’ve been an Arabic student for five years now and that was my initial gateway into Islam.

I went on a program in summer as a part of my Arabic program we took a field trip to a mosque and that was a very spiritual and life changing experience for me because the service was in Arabic and mode of prayer was very inspiring for me and the people that I met were very inspiring and since then I’ve been so lucky to have two Arabic teachers as converts to Islam and my other three Arabic teachers as Muslims from various Muslim countries.

My Advice to New Converts

Sit with yourself think about the person you want to be.

I actually did this and I wrote it down. I wrote down even the languages that I want to learn, my life goals, what I want to look like, what I want to act like, where I want to be emotionally…

And just think about that, think hard and decide who you want to be. Decide who Allah wants you to be. And everyday try to be that person.

The hardest part of being a Muslim in the United States is really going to be trusting yourself. Because the environment is hostile to religion in general not just Islam.

These traditional values are starting to slip away from the world and we really we have to hold on to them. So make friends that support you, they don’t have to be Muslims, trust yourself and know that you would always support someone else to be their best self. So don’t expect any less from other people.

And just know that there is a good community out there and you may feel isolated wherever you are but there is other people in the world who want to help you.

So I really encourage all of you to upload videos and grow to this community so that we all have support no matter where we are in the world.

And I just wish you the best on your journey through your spirituality and your relationship with Allah.

May every difficulty you go through just make you stronger and stronger in your religion because this is beautiful religion.

I feel that everyday I grow as a person and I grow in my spirituality and no matter what happens, whatever difficulty you go through, there is nothing like the calm in your heart of having this relationship with God.

Be very happy that Allah shows you for this. And be very grateful no matter what difficulty you face.

Best of luck!

This video is transcribed by Reading Islam team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSq38nxnWqg