Salam Paul,

I live in VA and inshaAllah I know a lot of people and have good friend circle. Do you have am email and I can help out inshaAllah!

i feel very sorry after reading your posts and comments and i really wish i could be of some help to you all. i would really recommend you to visit http://www.sacredlearning.org, and contact that vibrant Muslim community in America by using the contact form on the site. Dr Husain Abdul Sattar lives in Chicago and masha’Allah benefitting the Muslim Comuunity there immensely. I myself, despite living in a land far off(Pakistan) have benefited from his works immensely. Masha’Allah they are one of the most sincere Muslim communities i know of and i have trust they wont let you down. They must know of some muslim or other near your areas who could help you out insha’Allah.
I acknowledge the spiritually weak state of Ummah, but believe me there are still individuals out there who are down to earth Muslims, striving day and night to serve the Ummah(without the distinction of black and white,born muslim or revert).
May Allah Ta’Ala also Enable you to find such hidden gems and benefit from. My duas are with you.
Please dont give up, Allah All Mighty will certainly Reward any difficulty you undertake to preserve this faith!

And certainly, i very much agree that we all need some company, some community to grow spiritually. So insha’Allah do visit and contact the brothers at that website. may Allah Ta’Ala Make it easy for you and all other reverts out there!
Let me know if i could help you in any way.

Wa alaikumus salaam. I did contact them. Much of their concentration is in Canada, understandably, and I am in the US (metro Washington, DC), so much of their activity is north of the border. Also, I suspect that many (most?) converts are much younger than I, so it can be difficult to find more mature individuals who speak good English (or French or Spanish, depending on where you are) and who are willing to take the time and effort to “buddy up” with someone.

However, someone in my area did contact me. We have met twice and talked on the phone a few times. We haven’t really struck up a friendship (or whatever else you might want to call it), at least not yet, because our circumstances are much different. I am in my sixties, retired, alone (just a temperamental pet cat), with a lot of time on my hands. That brother is younger (although still mature) with a family and work responsibilities, so it is natural that he has less time available for others. However, I am grateful for the brief contacts we have had, as there have been almost none for many years. Whether there will be more remains to be seen.

One issue for me, as for many others, I am sure, is that there are two needs, really. One is just simple human contact, the “meet over coffee” activity. The other is an opportunity to meet with (a) serious scholar(s) to hash out some things of belief. In addition to lack of simple human contact, I have almost given up any kind of meaningful belief in any kind of god at all, but I have no one available to talk to that I know of who 1) is a serious scholar; 2) speaks good English; 3) understands (which is not the same thing as accepts) westerners and their issues; and 4) can deal with western philosophical matters as well as traditional Islamic positions (for example, I have never come across a weighty English Islamic response to western philosophical atheism).

Salams Paul, How did enrolling go with this Buddy Program?

Salaam, Sister. I made Shahada over nineteen years ago, but it did not “take” very well, in that my experiences were so like yours. I, also, had to find out things on my own from books (no YouTube then, and as an older person I scarcely know how to use it). Nineteen years or not, I quit practicing Islam for such a long time that I could still be considered a “new Muslim,” one just barely hanging on. It is sad that so many of us converts have to try to “club together” among ourselves (when that is even feasible, depending on different circumstances) after the loud takbirs fade away. Such is the sorry state of the ummah today, I guess.