EVERY ONE IS A DA’I
Over there is our bother gulping the salty water of aberration but we are shunning. What shall we tell father? The same old story our ten obsessed brothers told to Yaqub (A) concerning Yusuf (A)? No! We must change our plan! We must go back and save him! At least we will try!
Indeed. Both the drowning and the saving brothers would be liked and favored by the latter decision. But the nation of Muhammad Mustapha (S) is today predisposed to the former. We see individuals and nations drowning in the whirlpool of sin and misbelieve but the best we do for them is pinpoint their mistakes while we fail to draft any efficient and prolific programme for their rectitude.
Our brothers need guidance. We all do. But how do we get this guidance? From who? In what quantity? The answer to these questions simply is: Everyone is a Da’i. We are all callers to the way of Allah because we know something. We know as much as Shahada, ablution, and perhaps Salat. It is then our duty to teach those who do not know as much as we do.
Many Muslims, a group to which we (you and i) belong, have neglected this duty (Da’awa) and relinquished it to a learned few. This has led to our heedlessness as to the religion sciences and the death of our enthusiasm to practice. As a result, the incentive of personal development and rectitude which we can gain as we call people to the good and forbid them the evil is no longer ours. We forget the old lesson that; as we apply detergent in order to cleanse our stained white garment, our hands end up getting cleaner and more radiant than the garment itself.
The second group which is made up of the learned is also not favored by our (the first group) collective attitude of resignation from our duty. For our relinquishment of the duty solely to them has distorted their astuteness and has tended them more to corruption than intellectual buoyancy. They turn their intellectual circles into markets for fame and intellectual monopolization. Many of them become pompous, looking down at others with disdain and self-righteousness. In an attempt to increase their popularity and estimation in the eyes of their admirers, they hinder any idea or knowledge that lies outside their own ken of knowledge, no matter how sublime and provable it may be.
But the most sinister of results is that which is faced by the third group- the drowning brothers. The truth is that there are millions of heedless but sincere people in this world within and outside the religion who haven’t gotten the message of Islam the proper way. What else other than disinformed can we call a person who sees Islam and Muslims as terrorists when practically it is the Muslims who are killed every day and imperialized? And what else other than nescient may we call a person who sees Islam as outdated and barbaric despite Islam’s perfect correlation with everyday discovery in all fields of science and knowledge?
Alas! These filthy notions are not in all their making. For we give them the impression that we are what they think us to be. We have neglected our duty- Da’awa. When they look at us- people of the first group, they see nothing dissimilar with their life style. They see the corpses of our hearts laying side by side theirs on the altar of their immoral culture which we have assimilated in exchange for our priceless Islamic culture. They get discouraged by us. And when they look at the second group- the learned among the Muslims, they see a rigid and intolerant people who keep dooming them with hell and infidelity. They get discouraged by them.
Note: Muhammad Mustapha (S) was a Da’i. And every Muslim who seeks to live the life of Muhammad Mustapha (S) and die his death must be a Da’i. It doesn’t matter how much we know, how much money we have or how many people are willing to listen. It always yields fruits if God is our motive, and if goodness is what we intend. Rasullalah(S) told his Iman Ali (A) : “that Allah guides a single man through you is more endearing than you are given red camels (much wealth).”
For our Da’awa to yield meaningful fruits, it must be in tandem with the principles of Muhammad Mustapha (S), sincerity and patience. It must be in tandem with the principles of the Quran, subtlety and understanding. Also, we must seek acquaintance with various sciences of religion and exigencies of our time. Again, adherence in entirety to the Islamic culture must be our inclination, such that the difference that appears today between Islam and Muslims would be bridged. Such that our drowning brothers of other faith will find it hard to tell who is it that saved them- Islam or Muslims?
An educator would say: “The non-Muslims would not read the Quran, they will not read the Hadith; they will read you (the Muslims).”
Remember, Da’awa is a duty on you not a privilege offered by you. Also remember that the price is high but the profit is inexorable by you. Peace be upon you.
by UMAR ABUBILAL