# Things I Left For Islam | Imam Tom Facchine

**Author:** Tom Facchine
**Series:** Shorts
**Published:** 2025-02-04
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/n8IinOnKTIw
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/shorts/things-i-left-for-islam-imam-tom-facchine-shorts
**Topics:** Faith, Sharia

## Description
Is it easy to give up pork, or to pray at work? For those who convert to Islam or begin to practice after having been distant, the changes Allah requires us to make—for our own benefit—are not always easy. Imam Tom Facchine speaks candidly about what he found easy or challenging in his early days...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Some things as a convert, you know, I left right away immediately. Like alcohol. You know, that was something that was just very easy for me. Actually, I stopped eating pork even before I formally became a Muslim. And it was funny because one of my, one of the moms of my, one of my Muslim friends

**[0:16]** basically noticed and like said something like, like, like, you notice he didn't take the pork, you know, like, so it was something that I started doing. It was very easy for me. Other things that are hard for you, you know, they take longer. So, for example, it was really important for me, I was a musician. Before I accepted Islam to the point where I was in all types of bands

**[0:33]** and played tons of different instruments and was classically trained in voice and a whole bunch of other things. Now, what's crazy, the sidebar is how Allah used those skills for me later as a Muslim. Having a repertoire, singing in languages that I didn't understand made it very easy for me to learn Quran, Alhamdulillah.

**[0:49]** It made it very easy for me to learn tajweed of the Quran. So, that was something that I was sort of a skill that I was able to carry over. But other things, you know, I was sort of feeling very conflicted about it and I, you know, did as much research as I could and asked as many people as I could. And I knew performance culture enough to know that it was something that

**[1:09]** in the back of my head I knew it was like at some point I'm going to have to just like cut this off completely. So, it did take me a little bit, but there was definitely a point where I actually I not only like got rid of all my instruments, but I actually destroyed them. You know, I had guitars and bass and different things like that. And I actually took it to a dumpster and smashed it and threw it in.

**[1:27]** And having that sort of clean break was something that was very empowering. And back then you had CDs and you had mix CDs and folders and folders and folders of CDs and I tossed them all in there in the dumpster as well. Other things like when it came to making halal income and things like that,

**[1:43]** those were things that took longer. And even prayer. Here's another thing. Okay, so here's a good one. Making all your prayers on time. That was something that took me a bit. That when I was in as a green Muslim, you know, a new Muslim, I was working in restaurants.

**[1:58]** I was working 10 hour days. I felt too shy to ask the boss. I wasn't confident enough to ask the boss for time to pray. And so I did that thing that many people do or it's like you kind of make up your prayers at the end of the day after you get home from work. But, you know, I talked to some mentors at the time and they were like,

**[2:15]** the important thing is that just you don't you don't walk backwards. You might walk slow, but you don't walk backwards. And so when I just became more comfortable in my faith and sort of more grounded in it, I started having an easier time sort of advocating for myself and sort of found my voice

**[2:32]** and there was there that came that day where I talked to my boss and I said, look, I'm going to need to just pop out for 10 minutes between these hours and these hours. And of course, it was not a problem. That's part of how the shaytan works on you. The devil gets you to think, oh, it's going to be such a big deal.

**[2:47]** And you imagine this horrible confrontation and situation, but it wasn't that big of a deal at the end. You know, it was like, yeah, as long as you got someone covering for you on the floor at that moment, what does he care? So sometimes it takes you a little bit and sometimes there are things that you need.

**[3:03]** What one of my mentors called an exit strategy, like you're involved in a sin and it's something where you need to like reduce harm and make a plan to get into a better situation. So imagine you had a job and like, for example, when I was in the restaurant industry, people come in with alcohol, right?

**[3:19]** And sometimes you have to open their bottles and stuff like that. You minimize it as much as you possibly can and you plan for tomorrow. Like, so I'm not planning on being a waiter forever. What's the next thing? What's the next thing? Now for me, I eventually did get to the point where I quit the job without having something else lined up,

**[3:36]** but I wasn't ready to do that in the beginning. You know, I was sort of still fragile enough in my faith to not trust Allah, that Allah was going to provide for me no matter what I did. So some things are easy to throw off, you know, immediately and some things and some things take time and it's all a process, but sometimes you just have to trust the process.

## Other Episodes in "Shorts"
- [Making Du'a for the Imam to STOP PRAYING during Ramadan?!](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/shorts/making-dua-for-imam-to-stop-praying-during-ramadan-shorts.md)