I have tattoos from before Islam. Do I need to get them removed?
No. Getting a tattoo is a major sin in Islam, but everything from before your shahada is wiped clean, and islamqa.info's answer for exactly this case is that regretting it and resolving not to add more is sufficient. Removal is not required when it is difficult, costly, or harmful, and old ink does not affect your wudu, your prayer, or your standing as a Muslim. If easy removal is ever available to you, scholars consider it better, but nobody is less Muslim over a tattoo that predates their Islam.
Source: islamqa.info · answer 5452 ↗ · islamqa.info · answer 9098 ↗
My job has happy hours and parties with alcohol. Can I go if I don't drink?
islamqa.info's answer is direct: no, the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should not sit at a table where alcohol is being passed around, so their ruling is to object to it or excuse yourself, even when colleagues are involved. In practice that means: the dinner, the speeches, the send-off cake are yours; the open-bar hours are not, and 'I've got an early morning' has covered many a Muslim's graceful exit. Your career does not actually require a barstool, and if you believe skipping these events genuinely threatens your job, take that specific situation to a scholar rather than assuming either way.
Source: islamqa.info · answer 20959 ↗ · islamqa.info · answer 127981 ↗
I have a boyfriend / girlfriend. Do we have to break up?
The relationship as it stands, dating, being alone together, physical intimacy before marriage, is not permitted in Islam; islamqa.info's answer is that plain, whatever the sincerity of the feelings. But notice what that ruling actually leaves open: if this person might share your life, Islam's answer is marriage, and that conversation can start now, imams meet revert couples in exactly this position all the time, and the person who came to Islam with you at their side often makes the journey with you. If marriage is genuinely not on the table, then the relationship is what your clean slate was for. Either way, your shahada already wiped everything before it.
Source: islamqa.info · answer 1114 ↗
I already have a dog. Do I have to give it up?
islamqa.info holds the majority classical position: keeping a dog is not permitted except for genuine need, hunting, herding, guarding, and by extension service and working dogs, based on authentic hadiths that angels do not enter a house where a dog is, and that keeping one without need diminishes reward daily. Where a dog is legitimately kept, their guidance is a practical one: its own space rather than the living areas, and washing whatever its saliva touches (the impurity concern is the saliva, petting a dry dog breaks nothing). If your dog predates your Islam, do not make any panicked decision: some contemporary scholars handle existing pets and companionship cases with more accommodation, and this is exactly the kind of question to put to a scholar you trust, with your actual circumstances on the table.
Source: islamqa.info · answer 69777 ↗ · islamqa.info · answer 378208 ↗
Do I really have to give up music?
islamqa.info's answer, citing the documented position of all four classical schools, is that musical instruments are impermissible; unaccompanied singing with clean content is allowed (hence the rich nasheed tradition), with the daff hand-drum at weddings and Eids as the textual exception. Some contemporary scholars rule differently, and you will meet devout Muslims on both sides of this one. What nobody disputes: what fills your ears shapes your heart, and most new Muslims find their playlist changing on its own as prayer takes root. Move honestly at the pace you can sustain, and settle your personal line with a scholar you trust rather than with guilt.
Source: islamqa.info · answer 5000 ↗
These answers follow islamqa.info, one of the most widely used English-language fatwa references; its rulings sit at the careful, textual end of the scholarly spectrum, and Muslims you meet may follow other qualified scholarship. For anything touching your own life, the final word belongs with a knowledgeable scholar you trust, asked directly, which is exactly what imams are for.