Muslim Convert Check-in: What's Happening Now and What to Do About It

As a 30+ year Muslim convert, I share stories and thoughts about what is happening in the world at this moment, August 2025, and what to do to rise above the challenges and sadness of the moment, embrace change, and make a difference. I share my favorite prayer and other reflections from my faith journey. Real Talk on Muslims, Islam and what it means to be a convert to Islam. I share wisdom, experience, and reflections from the life God curated for me as an American-born Taiwanese (immigrant parents) California-raised, Ivy-league educated Muslim convert married to a world renowned Islamic scholar!

About Me: I am the Executive Director of The Usuli Institute (https://www.usuli.org/), where we do amazing work to elevate ethics, critical thinking, social justice and beauty and humanism in Islam. Read my writing at: https://gracesong.substack.com/

Check out our ground-breaking work on the Usuli Institute YouTube channel: @TheUsuliInstitute:

Project Illumine: The Light of the Qur'an (The first direct-to-English Qur'anic Commentaries in over 40 years) here:    • COMPLETE QUR'ANIC COMMENTARIES: Project Il...  

Project Illumine: The Light of Prophet Muhammad (new original research on the life and legacy of the Prophet of Islam) here:    • Project Illumine II: Sirah (The Life of th...  

Chapters:
0:00 Meet Doogie
1:20 For the love of dogs
3:00 Two "Unmosqued" Stories and what they reveal
4:27 Impact of The Prophet's Pulpit and The Usuli Institute
5:38 Suffering at the Mosque
7:08 TikTok Letter to Scholars (See link below)
8:17 The Existential Feeling of Change
9:55 Rethinking How to Make A Difference
10:55 The Crisis Among our Young Muslims
11:55 Meeting the Crisis
12:33 The Project Illumine Tafsir and Sirah
14:15 Our Moment in Time versus The Start of Islam
15:45 Rebuilding Faith from the Foundations
16:56 What is God Trying to Tell Us?
18:55 What I Believe and Advising New Muslims
22:33 What To Do In This Dark Moment
26:58 My Favorite Prayer, On Trusting God and Being Kind to Yourself

For more in support of the permissibility of dogs in the Islamic Tradition: https://www.searchforbeauty.org/explo...

TikTok Letter to Scholars: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8BA2BqD/

IMPORTANT BOOKS TO READ BY THE MOST IMPORTANT ISLAMIC SCHOLAR AND JURIST OF OUR TIMES ~ DR. KHALED ABOU EL FADL:
The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists
The Search For Beauty in Islam: A Conference of the Books
The Prophet's Pulpit Series: Commentaries on the State of Islam
The Palestine Sermons
Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari'ah in the Modern Age
Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women

Love the music at the end? Performed by the gifted Wietske Merison from her album WITNESS, produced by Usuli Music! This beautiful track is called, "Cuppa." For more: https://wietskemerison.hearnow.com/

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