The importance of Dawah
Bismillahirahmanirraheem,
Allah SWT says:
“Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.” - Surah An Nahl 16:125
“And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful.” - Surah Al Imran 3:104
Inviting to Islam and enjoining upon what is good is a commandment of Allah. Islam is a mercy and we are ordered to share this mercy with mankind, whoever is not merciful Allah will not be merciful to him. It is also a command of Allah to warn the people,
Allah says “Arise and warn ˹all˺. Revere your Lord ˹alone˺. Purify your garments. ˹Continue to˺ shun idols.” - Quran 74:2-5
Whoever conceals knowledge of Islam that has been given to him is cursed by Allah and cursed by those who curse:
Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily, those who conceal the clear proofs, evidences and the guidance, which We have sent down, after We have made it clear for the people in the book, they are the ones cursed by Allah and cursed by the cursers.
Except those who repent and do righteous deeds, and openly declare (the truth which they concealed). These, I will accept their repentance. And I am the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful”Al-Baqarah 2:159-160
Abu Huraira RA reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever is asked about knowledge and he conceals it, Allah will clothe him with a bridle of fire on the Day of Resurrection.”
- Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2649 Grade: Sahih.
There are evil consequences for not fulfilling this command of Allah.
Narrated `Abdullah bin `Amr: The Prophet ﷺ said, "Convey (my teachings) to the people even if it were a single sentence, and tell others the stories of Bani Israel (which have been taught to you), for it is not sinful to do so. And whoever tells a lie on me intentionally, will surely take his place in the (Hell) Fire." - Sahih al-Bukhari 3461
The manner of Dawah:
We are obliged to call people with the best manners and charachter in a soft & welcoming manner…
Allah says:
“It was thanks to Allah's mercy that you were gentle to them. Had you been rough, hard-hearted, they would surely have scattered away from you. So pardon them, and pray for their forgiveness, and take counsel from them in matters of importance. And when you are resolved on a course of action place your trust in Allah; surely Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him).” - Quran 3:159
Make things easy not difficult:
Ibn Abbas said,
"The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Teach and make it easy. Teach and make it easy.' three
times. He went on, 'When you are
angry, be silent' twice. - Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 1320
One of the common mistakes of those who start practicing Islam is the assumption that others who are not to the same level need to be dealt with 'harshly'. There is this notion of enforcing one's newly-found zeal on everyone else, thinking that otherwise, the religion will be lost. And sometimes it's not just newly practicing Muslims who are guilty: even people of knowledge can be guilty too!
In the famous incident reported in al-Bukhārī, the great scholar-Companion Mu`ādh b. Jabal was leading his people in prayer, and he began reciting Surah al-Baqarah in Isha. At this, one person broke his prayer, prayed on his own, and went home. When Mu`ādh heard this, he said, 'Has he become a hypocrite?!' Enraged, the man went and complained directly to the Prophet ﷺ, saying that he was a hard worker who worked all day, and couldn't spend too much time in Isha prayer. Immediately, the Prophet ﷺ turned to Mu'ādh, irritated with him for reciting a long Sūrah, and said, "O Mu'ādh! Do you wish to cause trouble for the people? Instead, recite such-and-such Sūrahs..." and he told him some of the smaller Sūrahs of Juz `Amma. In another incident, a companion led Salat al-Fajr with a lengthy recitation, causing someone to complain to the Prophet ﷺ. In this narration, we are told that anger was visible from his face, and he gave a public lecture, chastising this Imam, and said, "O people! Some of you cause others to turn away [from religion]..." - Sahih Bukhari.
And when he ﷺ sent Mu`ādh to Yemen towards the end of his life, he said to him, "Make sure you make things easy for the people, and don't make things difficult. And make sure you give glad tidings, and don't cause people to turn away [from the religion]."
In all of these traditions, we learn that the preacher and teacher must embody gentleness, and make matters as easy as Islamically allowed (without crossing the boundaries of Allah). We cannot act in a manner that will turn people away from our faith.
The most successful caller to Allah isn't the one with the strictest opinions or the most hard-core rants against others. Notice in the above incidents, people walked away from the obligatory prayers in the masjid! They literally broke their salat and walked out of the masjid! Can you imagine the verdict that some of our online preachers would have made if that happened in front of them?! Even someone as learned as Mu'ādh (r) was not able to differentiate between someone walking away from salah versus someone walking away from his leading of the salah, and hence accused him of hypocrisy.
All too often, a person equates his version of Islam, or his opinion, or his religiosity, with the entirety of the faith itself. Hence, a disagreement with such an individual is then interpreted as a disagreement with Islam, after which accusations begin to fly (rather than 'munāfiq', today's main libel is the accusation of 'watering Islam down' or being 'compassionate' or 'liberal').
Let us follow this Sunnah from our Prophet ﷺ and understand that all too often, people are turned away from religion, and from piety itself, because of our own over-zealousness and harshness. In your private life, be as strict as you want, and pray as long as you want; in your manners and dealings with others, however, be encouraging, kind, merciful, easy-going and as compassionate as you can.
The Prophet (pbuh) said,
"Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by worshipping in the mornings, the nights." - Sahih Bukhari - Vol 1 book 2 no.38.
A reward for the teacher and the student:
Narrated on the authority of Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “One who guides to something good has a reward similar to that of its doer.” - Sahih Muslim 1893a
It was narrated that ‘Abu’d-Darda’ said:
I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: “Whoever follows a path in the pursuit of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise. The angels lower their wings in approval of the seeker of knowledge, and everyone in the heavens and on earth prays for forgiveness for the seeker of knowledge, even the fish in the sea. The superiority of the scholar over the worshipper is like the superiority of the moon over all other heavenly bodies. The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets, for the Prophets did not leave behind dinars or dirhams, rather they left behind knowledge, so whoever takes it has taken a great share.” - Narrated by at-Tirmidhi 2682, Abu Dawood 3541 and Ibn Majah 223; classed as hasan.
And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah and does righteousness and says, "Indeed, I am of the Muslims." - Quran 41:33
Prophet Muhammad pbuh said,
"May Allah brighten a man who hears a hadith from us, learns it by heart and passes it on to others. - Abu Dawud
&
“The best of you are those who learn Quran and teach it.” - Sahih Bukhari 5207
“The ink of the scholars is weighed on Judgment Day and the blood of the martyrs, and the ink of the scholars outweighs the blood of the martyrs.”
— Al-Jāmi' as Saghīr, Hadith 14582 - reported by As-Suyooti. It is also mentioned by Ibn Al-Jawzi in his book Al-‘Ilal as well.
Dawah is also another means of cihad which means striving in the cause of Allah, we physically fight for Allahs word and justice to reign supreme on earth and dawah is a key non physical part of that fight. It is one of the ways aside from physical fighting that counts as jihad.
May Allah untie the know from our tongues and allow people to understand our speech and use us to guide the people to his paradise,
Amin.
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