New Muslim support
Our new Muslim support in Kuala Lumpur exists for the weeks after the shahadah, which is the part almost nobody prepares you for. Saying the words takes a minute. Learning to pray, working out the paperwork, and knowing who to ask a small embarrassing question takes rather longer. If you want the full picture first, read our new Muslim guide.
Everything here is free, and none of it requires you to have become Muslim through us.
The first weeks are the hard part
People tend to imagine the difficult moment is the decision itself. In our experience it is not. The difficult stretch is the month afterwards, and it is difficult for very ordinary reasons.
You do not yet know the physical movements of the prayer, and reading a description of them is nothing like being shown. You are not sure what to buy or what you are supposed to already own. You have questions that feel too basic to ask out loud in a room full of people who have been Muslim their whole lives.
And there is often nobody obvious to ask. Born Muslims frequently cannot answer the beginner questions well, not because they do not know their religion, but because they have never had to explain something they absorbed at five years old.
That gap is what this page is about. None of what follows assumes you know anything.
The Shahadah Kit
One box, given free, that answers the practical questions all at once so you are not working out what to buy in your first week.
Inside: an Arabic Qur’an and a translation in a language you read comfortably. A prayer mat. A digital tasbih counter. A kain pelekat and a kopiah, so you can walk into a mosque properly dressed the first time without having to ask anybody. A small bottle of attar. Fortress of the Muslim, the collection of morning and evening supplications. Asma ul Husna with the meanings alongside, so the names mean something rather than being recited blindly. Plus an introductory book, pamphlets, a bookmark and a fridge magnet.
The kopiah and kain pelekat sound like small items on a list. They are not. They are the difference between walking into a mosque for the first time feeling prepared and standing at the door wondering whether you are dressed wrongly.
The kit sits alongside the rest of our free resources.
Group classes
Learning the basics alongside other people who are also at the beginning. This matters more than it sounds, because the hardest thing about being new is usually the feeling that everyone else already knows.
In a group of new Muslims that feeling disappears in the first ten minutes. Somebody else asks the question you were too embarrassed to raise, and it turns out three of you were wondering the same thing.
We cover the things you actually need first rather than working through a syllabus in academic order: how to pray, how to wash before it, what to say and when, and what is expected of you as opposed to what is recommended.
Help with registration
Registering as a new Muslim in Malaysia involves state religious authorities, and the process is not identical from one state to another. It is paperwork, and paperwork in an unfamiliar system in a second language is a genuine obstacle.
We walk you through it rather than sending you a link. That means telling you which authority applies to you, what documents to bring, and what to expect when you get there.
One honest limit: we are volunteers, not officials or lawyers. Where something needs a decision from the religious authority itself, we can tell you who to approach and what to ask, but we cannot make the decision for you or promise an outcome.
One to one online
If a group is not for you, or you are not in Kuala Lumpur at all, this runs privately and at whatever pace suits you.
It is the option most people take when they have questions they would rather not ask in front of others, and there are usually a few of those. It also works if your schedule is unpredictable, or if you would rather nobody local knew about this yet.
Being online means distance is not a barrier. If you are somewhere in Malaysia with no community nearby, or outside the country entirely, this still works.
Pick the language you are most comfortable in. Sessions are free, one to one on Zoom, and run by the New Muslim Academy teacher team. Choose a language below to see how it works and how to book.
If you have not taken your shahadah yet
Then nothing on this page is being asked of you, and reading it does not commit you to anything.
People arrive at this page at very different points. Some have decided and want to know what happens next. Some are still thinking and want to see whether there would be anybody there afterwards, which is a reasonable thing to check before making a decision alone.
If you are in the second group, start somewhere lighter. Read what Islam is, ask us a question and stay anonymous if you prefer, or book a mosque tour and see the place for yourself. Nobody will push you toward a decision at any of them.
And if you have already become Muslim somewhere else entirely, you are just as welcome here. We are not counting anybody.
Getting in touch
Message us and tell us roughly where you are: newly Muslim, about to be, or somewhere in between. We will reply with what fits, and you can stay as private about it as you like.
We are at PV8, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, and replies come in the evenings because we are volunteers with jobs.
Nobody should do the first month alone
That is the whole reason this exists. A box, a class, some help with the forms, and somebody to ask.
Wisdom Hub Academy is a small dawah academy in Setapak run by a handful of volunteers. Here is who we are. If you eventually want to help other people through the same stretch, that is where it starts.