In the name of Allah, most
Gracious and ever Merciful. There is none worthy of worship except Allah and
our prophet Mohammed (SAW) is His messenger and slave. May Allah have mercy on
us and increase us in faith.
Abu Hurayrah said:
“The
Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: Whoever
among you sees an evil action, then let him change it with his hand [by taking
action]; if he cannot, then with his tongue [by speaking out]; and if he
cannot, then with his heart – and that is the weakest of faith”.
Sahih Muslim
From the Qur’an;
“Let
there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good (Islam),
enjoining Al-Ma‘roof (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to
do) and forbidding Al-Munkar (polytheism and disbelief and all that Islam has forbidden).
And it is they who are the successful.”
Aal
‘Imraan 3:104
This verse clearly states that
the successful ones among us are those who aim at propagating Islam.
To begin with, I would like to
bring to our attention that dawa isn't limited to the process of talking about
isn't to people or debating with non-muslim. Our actions alone do a lot of
dawa. There are many agitations and to that matter conflicts in our communities because of the
way in which some of our learned Muslims do preach.
Nonetheless, I must add that
talking to people either in public or otherwise isn't the only way to educate
people though the former is to an extent effective.Hence if you are thinking of
presenting Islam to others then you need to first prepare yourself.
These are
steps to follow;
1.
Firstly you
need to educate yourself about Islam.
“Recite in the name of your Lord who
created”. Al-'Alaq 96:1
Allah again
says ,“And follow not (O man i.e., say
not, or do not or witness not, etc.) that of which you have no knowledge.”al-Isra’
17:36.
This means
as a daee you need to have the knowledge of Islam before you can present Islam
well. It is said that the dangerous person to Islam is the ignorant Muslim.
2. Secondly, Increase your spirituality. This
increases you in faith and makes you steadfast. Allah says:
“O you who
wraps himself [in clothing], Arise [to pray] the night, except for a little”.Al-Muzzammil
73:1-2
3. Then finally you then go out to warn people
about Islam. Allah says:“O you who covers himself [with a garment], Arise and warn.”Al-Muddaththir
74:1-2.
These are
the first set of advice our messenger was given by Allah prior to his going out
to preach Islam. As part of the methodology to prepare for dawa is to train
yourself adequately. Allah then entreats us to follow same,
“Indeed in the Messenger of Allah
(Muhammad SAW) you have a good example to follow for him who hopes in (the
Meeting with) Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah much”.
al-Ahzaab
33:21
Hence as a daee you need to
prepare yourself through these 3 steps. The essence of our topic today is found
in the verse below,
“Invite
(mankind, O Muhammad SAW) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Quran) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better.”
[an-Nahl
16:125]
On the tafseer of this ayah in
Ibn Katheer, Ibn Jarir said:
“That is
what was revealed to him from the Book (Quran) and the Sunnah” and “fair
preaching”.
This statement from the verse
means, do dawa with exhortation and stories of the events that happened to
people that are mentioned in the Qur'an, and warn them of the punishment of
Allah.
In doing dawa to people we need to be careful
about what we say to people and how we say them. It is not about a matter of
not fearing to tell people the truth but as a daee you need to say it in a
manner that will not anger the people.
Despite being careful about how
to say it you still need to tell the truth but with wisdom as the verse said.
Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, had instructed His believing slaves to
be with those who are true (in word and deed), when He said;
“O you who believe! Fear Allah, and be with those who are true (in
words and deeds)”.
[at-Tawbah 9:119]
And argue with them with that which
is best.meaning, if any of them want to debate and argue, then do it in a good
manner, with kindness and respect their feelings.
I must add that with kindness and
gentleness you might insult an individual and he wouldn't be angered.
To conclude you have to be
innovative, use technology to your advantage. To be a good daee you need to
know how to use social media to do dawa,for instance this platform we are
using.To do dawa here you need to
understand the people on the platform basically don’t have time to wait on you
as you type your message. As such as a daee you need to prepare well enough.
Type all your messages somewhere and when it is time you only copy and paste
the message here. May Allah increase us in understanding and in unity?
BY ABDINA ALI YUSSUF.
No comments:
Post a Comment