abu mohammed wrote:
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I guess this is what I meant about it being "foreign".
I have learned quite a lot in a short period of time.
But learning it isn't the same as being in the habit of doing it.
I'm a "lefty". All of my life it was okay to do anything with my left hand.
In Islam, I need to eat and drink with my right hand (something new or "foreign").
I now have the knowledge, but it will take a long time before it ever becomes habit and normal for me.
That's the breakdown between knowledge and doing for a lot of things.
I've almost mastered the drinking, I still slip occasionally.
The eating part, I start out intending to eat with my right, but most of the time I subconsciously switch to my left and don't catch it.
(It would probably be a little amusing watching me attempt to eat this way. I feel like a baby without the ability to master a knife and fork. :) )
So I've accumulated the knowledge about more than a few rules and practices. Now I have to make them become a normal habit, which in a sense involves overwriting some previous habits.
Forming an intention to do something is not difficult, remembering to make the proper reference to Allah ta'ala is.
That's pretty much what I meant about there being many rules and practices that are foreign to me. (Brand new, never even had the knowledge before.)


did almost everything with his right hand. There are only a few things that are done with the left.