Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen, nabiyyina muhammad salallahu alayhi wasallam, wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma'een, assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh To all the brothers and sisters who are tuning in to another episode of aabir ul Sabeel.
And as you can see on the screen, I am blessed and honoured to be joined today by Ustadh Muhammad Tim Humbul. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Wa alaikumussalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuh How are you doing Ustadh, are you okay? I am very, very well, jazakallahu khairan Alhamdulillah, first time on this series for you? First time and first time recording while driving here in the car, sitting in the car with you, yeah, it's a first time for me. Yeah, it's a slightly different set up to what we're used to usually in the studio.
So, the general feel of this podcast is just very informal, nothing has been scripted, we just pick a topic in Islam and we just talk about it. So, the topic that I'd like to talk about today is giving da'wah. So, what is the ruling on da'wah, what are some of the characteristics of a da'wah, what are the do's and don'ts of giving da'wah, any conditions of giving da'wah, things like this.
As I normally do with Sheikh Abdul Rahman and some of my other guests, I allow you to start wherever you want. So, I'll give it over to you inshallah and feel free to take it from wherever you want inshallah. الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على عبد الله ورسوله نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين أما بعد I think I would like to start with an ayah that I think this ayah really encapsulates most of if not all of the main points regarding da'wah and who gives da'wah and what the ruling is on it.
And that is the statement of Allah Azzawajal. قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِ أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَى بَصِيرَهِ أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعْنِي وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَنَا مِنُّ مُشْرُكِينَ This ayah, along with the ayah, أُدْعُوا إِلَى سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ وَجَادِلْهُمْ بِالَّتِيهِ أَحْسَنَةً Two ayahs, one of them says قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِ Say this is my way. So the first thing that we can take from this is that calling to Allah أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ Calling to Allah is the way of the Prophet ﷺ That was his job.
Allah sent him with this responsibility. So it's a very honorable thing to be someone who is trying to follow in the footsteps of the Prophets and the Messengers ﷺ To call to Allah. أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ And I think also from there, a really important point is that da'wah should be to Allah ﷺ We're not calling people to follow us or calling people to our jama'ah, our group or our organization or politics or anything like that.
We're calling people to Allah and you're surprised in da'wah how many people don't call to Allah and how many people who are given da'wah but they don't call to Allah ﷻ They call either to themselves or to something like political, to gather people together or whatever it might be, but they don't call to Allah. عَلَى بَصِيرًا And this we need to stop for a while. With knowledge.
And the other ayah also mentions knowledge. أُدْعُوا إِلَى سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ Scholars they say al-hikmah is al-'ilm, knowledge. You call to Allah with knowledge.
And here the word basira right, it's not just knowledge, it's insight. So something that you can think about here in the ayah is that we're commanded to call to Allah, to follow the Prophet ﷺ. And قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِ also tells us that this is the sabeel of the Prophet ﷺ. You have to follow that sabeel then. And that's emphasised by the statement of Allah.
أَنَا وَمَنِ اِبْتَبَعْنِي That the Prophet is told to say ﷺ, me and those people who follow me. This is our way, the way we call to Allah. And we call to Allah عَلَى بَصِيرًا With knowledge and insight.
And some of the scholars they said there are different types of insight you have to have to give da'wah. There are different things you need to have. One thing you need to have is you need to have insight as to the religion of Islam.
Your knowledge of Islam generally. You know that you're calling... And I think there's a big misconception, right? A lot of people have is that do you have to be quote unquote qualified to give da'wah, right? Do I have to be a graduate of something or qualified in some way? And here there are two extremes, right? There are people who give da'wah with no knowledge. You know, stand up and talk, give da'wah.
Just go brother, go and speak, just give da'wah, you know, give da'wah. And that's wrong because Allah commanded us to have insight and knowledge. And then there are people who they do the opposite thing.
They refrain from telling people what they know out of some idea that I have to have this like... There's a certificate that says da'wah, qualified, official da'wah, you know? And it's not like that. Rather you should call to what you know. You know, so if you know that Islam is to worship Allah alone... And you understand the basic concepts of Tawheed and Islam... Then you can call people to that.
But don't go over what you... You know what you don't know. That's one thing. The second thing you should have basira in is basira or insight as to the person you're giving da'wah to.
This is a big mistake I see a lot of people when they give da'wah. Is that they are calling people and they don't know who they're speaking to. So they don't know if that person is... What religion they are or what belief they have.
Or whether they even subscribe to that belief. You know, for example, you might see someone who's nominally Christian, right? Like, I'm a Christian. But do they deeply believe in it? Are they Catholic, Protestant, are they Orthodox? Is it something really committed? Do they believe that the Bible is the literal word of God? If you don't have a little bit of information about who you're talking to... I saw a situation once where somebody was giving da'wah to a Christian.
And they started, you know, they obviously did the whole... You know, as you do, yeah? The Bible has mistakes, the mistakes in the Bible. And I'm going to prove to you that the Bible is not the word of God. And the person was nodding and they were really respectful.
They were like, wow, really? That's really interesting. And then the person finished all the way to the end of the conversation. It seemed to me like it was 10-15 minutes.
Maybe it was a few minutes. And at the end of the conversation, I said, I don't believe in it. They didn't realize that when they said they're Christian... They hadn't got to the point where... But I don't really believe in the Bible like that.
I believe in the idea, but I don't... You know, for me, it's not that it has to be this divine revelation. I just believe it's just a guideline for how to live your life, you know? So, that's really important. And from the Hadith of Mu'adh, when the Prophet s.a.w. sent him to Yemen.
You're going to go to a people of the book. So, he prepared him. This is the people you're going to go to.
These are the beliefs they're going to have. So, you have an idea. So, I said, how do you do that? Like, how do you... Do you stop someone and say, excuse me, before I start giving you dawah... Just tell me all of your beliefs.
Can you please write down the beliefs for me? Okay, can I ask you? Okay, are you a Catholic, Protestant? No? Okay, tick. So, instead of that, it's more like in the conversation. When you start talking to someone, you don't just talk, you listen.
So, you start to talk to them and say... So, you know, first of all, you know, these days you have to ask someone... Do you believe in God? Are you, you know, particular religion? So, the person says, yeah, I do believe in God. Any particular belief, religion or faith? Are you Christian? You know, for example, you're in a Christian country. Christian or... You know what they say? Yeah.
Okay. You know, so you start to tell them a bit. Because you don't want to just listen to them only.
But you start to talk and they start to talk. And you're always listening for cues and listening for... To understand what that person believes before you then start, you know? Like, for example, a simple question of, you know... I wanted to ask you something. Do you believe in God? And the person says, I'm not sure.
So, now we know that, you know, so maybe a good question might be... What background, you know? Okay, you're not sure. Is that something that happened, you know? You always felt like that? Or were you raised religious and then you felt like... So, you can start to then... I know enough to start with that person. And as I'm listening to them and going on with them, I can adjust my da'wah.
But I'm not going to just launch myself into a big lecture... And then realise that the person doesn't believe I've gone down the wrong path. On that topic, by the way, I would honestly advise everybody... When you're giving da'wah, try to give da'wah through the Qur'an and the Sunnah... Rather than launching it like your own routine, you know? The most beneficial da'wah I've ever seen and the most powerful da'wah... Is that which is rooted and based in the Qur'an. And that's how the Prophet SAW used to give da'wah, right? He used to recite the Qur'an to people and tell people what the Qur'an... What Allah said in the Qur'an.
More than just... You know, some people have like... They actually go and they learn a routine, you know? Like, first you're going to say, and then you're going to say, and then you're going to say... There's a lot of philosophy in there and a lot of like... Sort of logic and a lot of like... You're going to trap the person like this. Just give the message. Your job is al-balagh.
To just deliver a message about Islam. And the best way you can do that is through the Qur'an. So we talked about basira in the religion.
You know enough about the religion to say... Whatever you're going to say to that person, you can say it with authority and knowledge. And you know who you are... You know who you're speaking to. And you're awake and listening to what they're saying.
And then you have basira. And I think it's one of the most important things about yourself. You have insight about you.
Where do I stop and draw the line? How many people have we seen in da'wah who are really... MashaAllah, Allah Mubarak. Beautiful, you know... Da'wah, they give amazing explanation of Islam. But when they get asked questions that they're not able to answer... They are going to try to answer that question.
They're going to try and answer it. And they don't know. And they don't know themselves.
They don't know where their limits are. And that feeling that you have to answer everything that everybody asks you. This is not like a TV show or something.
You're supposed to have an answer to everything. You can say to somebody, I don't know the answer to this. Sometimes a person will actually respect you more when you say that.
And they say, okay, you're going to go back and look into it. And then come back with an answer. And they respect you more than you just answering everything they're asking.
You can give them a confidence that the answer exists. Because we know that from Islam. So you can say to them that, okay, that's a good question.
I know for sure that Islam has an answer to this. However, in Islam we are told that speaking without knowledge is one of the biggest sins you can do. So I don't want to risk saying something about Islam that isn't true.
So let me go back and look into this for you. And give you an authentic answer for it. I would rather do that than to give you an answer that isn't reliable.
And then later on it turns out that the person maybe became Islam. Or accepted Islam or became Muslim. Because they built it upon some false premise.
Like a false idea. And I think that's where the concern comes in for people a lot of the time. When they get asked a question that they don't know the answer to.
They're worried that if they say they don't know. It's almost like they're letting Islam down. Or actually making it seem like Islam doesn't have an answer to this.
But instead giving confidence that Islam does have an answer to this. But I just don't know it. There's a distinction between the two.
The fact that there is an answer in Islam but I don't know it. It's much better than actually giving an answer without knowledge. And then you're really letting Islam down.
Because you're talking about Allah. Which you don't know. Absolutely.
100%. And convince the person there is an answer. I know Islam has an answer to everything.
But if I don't know the answer. That's not a... That doesn't... Islam it's a fault. I need to go find that out for you.
And I think that leads us on to an idea of this issue of people. Trying to sweeten... Overly sweeten the deal for people. So the person says, okay, I'm interested in Islam.
But do I have to leave my girlfriend? No, no, of course not. No, no, no. Again, there's a distinction here.
Yes, you can say to the person that, look. Accept Islam. And then worry about those things later on.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. And worry about all the things that you might be doing wrong. Because it takes time for a person to correct themselves.
And to learn what's right and wrong. But yeah, there's no doubt that relationships outside of marriage are not allowed in Islam. It's not something you can stay in.
But what matters is you becoming Muslim. So that's a different thing to someone saying, nothing wrong with it. No, no, go ahead.
And people do it all the time. They think of it like a sales pitch. And they try to sweeten the deal as much as they can.
It's fine. It's nothing wrong with it. It's absolutely fine.
Until the person then later on, when someone comes and tells them that you can't do this. And this is haram. And so on.
The person might even turn back and leave Islam. And I think the saddest thing is, I don't think people realize how many new Muslims don't stay in Islam. And people say Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.
That may be the case. But what saddens me is that as fast as people are accepting Islam, there are many, many new Muslims who leave Islam. Because they either accepted Islam based on false information.
Or they didn't find within Islam someone to help them and teach them and develop their knowledge and take them on from there. So I think it's so important. And especially because the one who gives dawah to someone, usually that person will be the primary contact for that new Muslim.
For at least a few weeks until they meet somebody else. So just being honest with people. If they're doing something wrong, then yeah it is wrong.
It's not allowed in Islam and you have to leave it. It's haram. But let's not make that an obstacle to accepting Islam.
Let's look at accepting Islam and sorting the problem out. And I think in this particular topic, we can bring in the ayah. إِنَّكَ لَا تَحْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ Because a lot of that comes from trying to sweeten the deal.
It's because you want guidance for the other person, which is a good thing. You do want guidance for the other person. But you're almost willing to bend the rules just so they get guided.
And Allah told the Prophet ﷺ that you, O Muhammad ﷺ, you don't guide who you love. Allah guides whom He wills. So our responsibility is to convey the authentic message.
How we do that, yes, there's hikmah involved in that as well. But it's not upon us to guide someone's heart. Absolutely.
And hikmah, Allah mentions hikmah in the second ayah where we're talking about أُجْعُوا لَسَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ The scholars, they say hikmah is al-'ilm. Some of them say al-hikmah is al-Qur'an. Knowledge, the Qur'an is what hikmah is.
But really hikmah in the word itself, it's not what people think, like compromise and shielding the truth from people. But hikmah is knowing when to speak and when to be silent and when to be firm and harsh and when not to be. And that's why Allah mentioned أُجْعُوا لَسَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ And He mentioned the baad.
And this baad, the scholars, they say it's a musahaba. Like it means that hikmah will be in everything you do in da'wah. It will never be absent.
Whereas الموعدة الحسنى, which is mentioned, isn't mentioned with the baad. Meaning sometimes موعدة is an admonition. You really touch the person's heart and you're a little bit firm, a little bit, you really tell them something to really touch their heart and really stir their emotions.
That might not be in every situation in da'wah. It might not be every single moment that you do that. But hikmah needs to be in everything.
In other words, looking at the person, knowing what they're about, when should you push, when should you stay back, when should you start the موعدة and the admonition and be a little bit firm with them and when should you be talking about hellfire and when should you be talking about jannah, all of those things. And then وَجَدِنْهُمْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ And Allah said الموعدة الحسنى. So الموعدة here is not الموعدة which is rough and tough, you know like fire and brimstone.
The موعدة here is حسنى, it's a beautiful موعدة. It should touch their heart, it should make them fear Allah but it shouldn't be extremely harsh because that wasn't how the Prophet ﷺ started the people. فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ لِنْتَ لَهُمْ وَلَوْ كُنْتَ فَضًّا غَرِيْظَ الْقَلْبِ وَنْفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكِ By the mercy of Allah, you were gentle with them and if you were harsh and hard-hearted, they would have ran from around you.
So that موعدة, when you do speak to people and you are firm and you do give them a little bit of, you know, talk to them about the fire and about the punishment of Allah, then do so in a beautiful way. Not in a way that is nasty, in a way that leaves them a bitter taste but in a way that they understand that you're concerned and it touches their heart. وَجَادِلْهُمْ بِاللَّهِ هِيَ أَحْسَنُ In every situation in da'wah, you're going to have to do that.
Yes, yeah, yeah. So you are going to have... Do da'wah meaning just translate for the people? Back and forth. I don't want to say argumentation because sometimes it's translated as argue and that's okay.
As a translation, it's alright. But what it really means is... Discussion. Yeah, that they don't accept what you say.
That's what it means. That they say, hold on a second, I don't agree. And you then put an argument forward and they say, no, that can't be.
And then you then... And there's back and forward, back and forward. Yeah. So I think that... I want to go back to that ayah I started with because I think that gives us a really good understanding of what da'wah is.
So he says, قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِي أَجْعَوْا إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَى بَصِيرَةٍ أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي Let's break it down slowly and let's go through each piece and go into a bit more detail now. When the Prophet ﷺ is commanded to say, قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِي What exactly does this mean? What does it mean when the Prophet ﷺ is commanded to say, this is my path when we're talking about da'wah? So da'wah is the way of the Prophet ﷺ. That's the first thing. That that's the path that the Prophet ﷺ walked upon is the path of da'wah.
Calling to Allah. And that if we are commanded to walk on that path as well, أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي We're also commanded to walk upon that path. So this path that the Prophet ﷺ is upon and this methodology that he sets for us, it tells us that da'wah has to be done the way that the Prophet ﷺ did it.
It's not for us to develop our own ways and means of da'wah. Now, we're not talking about the wasa'il, the general like, for example, do you use a microphone or do you put a video on YouTube or, you know. These are just wasa'il.
But the way that you form your da'wah, the structure your da'wah has, is it following the path of the Prophet ﷺ or not? And a lot of da'wah isn't. A lot of people who give da'wah, it's not. And now the Prophet ﷺ is told to describe this sabeel, this path that he's on.
And this path that he's on, it is أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ And so when you look at each of the following parts of the ayah, you see that all of them are a description of the path that the Prophet ﷺ is on and the path that you are required to follow. أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ To call to Allah ﷻ. And as we said there, that's the issue of calling to Allah and to Islam and not calling to the way of individuals. And also here is the issue of starting with Tawheed.
أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ And I could also be in قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِ as well because that's what the Prophet ﷺ began with. That's what he began with. Following the way of the Prophet ﷺ. It's described as أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ The first thing you start with is Tawheed.
The oneness of Allah. And in da'wah, a lot of people struggle with this because of two things. First of all, they feel like they need to bring something different, like something imaginative to the table when they're speaking to someone about da'wah.
They feel like they have to bring something that hasn't been said before or something to just amaze people. And one of the... And I know this is controversial but I know you like controversial things in your podcast. Go ahead.
It's this issue of scientific miracles. العجاز والعلم I am utterly against using العجاز والعلم in da'wah. Like مطلقاً or just starting with it? In general, I would say 90% of the usage is wrong for a number of reasons.
First of all, the Prophet ﷺ didn't start with العجاز والعلم that is scientific miracles in the Qur'an. He didn't. He started with calling people to the worship of Allah alone.
The second thing is when you mention a scientific miracle, scientific miracles do exist within the Qur'an but most of the things that people think are scientific miracles may not stand up to scrutiny in the science of tafseer. Right. That means that when you look at the early generations, they didn't understand the ayah like that.
The best of generations. That's problematic. Yeah, the generation we've been told to follow and to understand the religion the way they have.
And people will say, but they didn't have the scientific... That's not the issue. They didn't understand the ayah like that. مطلقاً They didn't understand the ayah is referring to that physical phenomenon that you are referring to when you're bringing the ayah to that.
Now sometimes you can stretch it and say, yes, you know, the wording and the language does support it. But sometimes not even the Arabic language. And sometimes people bring something and they say, for example, وَالسَّمَاءِ وَالطَّارِقِ that الطارق here is something to do with the radiating, pulsating stars that have been discovered by telescopes.
The Arabic language doesn't support it. خطأ في اللغة The Arabic language is utterly incorrect to use that word لغة in the لغة of the Arabs. It's totally wrong.
So, subhanAllah, you are bringing something that because it had that meaning for you, it's a big problem. I always, sorry to interject, I always remember the statement of Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah. يَعْتَقِدُونَ ثُمَّ يَسْتَدِلُونَ ثُمَّ يَحْبِلُونَ They have like a preconceived belief.
So the person wants to prove, they've just heard this scientific thing and they want to prove that Islam also confirms this. So they have this belief originally and then they will look for the evidence and they'll clutch at straws and they'll twist the evidence just to try and meet this kind of belief and that's how they get misguided. And then the third thing, the third thing that I have a problem with, with scientific miracles in dawah, in the Qur'an, and I have a long list, but the third one I have is that you are using science as the marker or the measure of truth.
So in other words, if science supports the Qur'an, the Qur'an is true. And if science doesn't support the Qur'an, the Qur'an is false. That's the implication.
It may not be what the person believes, you know, hasha wa kalla, I'm sure the person doesn't believe that. But that's لازم القول. That's what you're really putting forward, whether you know it or not.
And the problem is that, for example, embryotic development in the Qur'an. This is a true scientific miracle, I believe that. Allah mentioned النطفة العلقة المضغة The clothing of the bones with flesh.
I believe this is a miracle because this is something that we did not know. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala described it with perfect detail. And the description is something which the scholars of tafsir have put forward.
It's a real description of embryotic development, and it's extremely accurate. However, a scientist came along recently, quite a while back. He's an expert professor of embryology and whatever.
He says this Qur'an is wrong. This ثُمَّ كَسَوْنَ الْعِظَامَ لَحْمَةً Then we covered the bones with flesh. The flesh develops before the bones.
I'm a professor. I've seen it. I can bring you the embryo, the videos.
I can bring you the camera and whatever. I can, you know, the ultrasounds and all this stuff, and I can show you. Now, we, of course, believe that person is wrong because the Qur'an tells them they're wrong.
But I don't need ultrasound. I don't need pictures and scans and 3D scans. I just, Allah said, I don't need anything else.
But when you have now based someone's Islam on that, and they then hear a professor who is, no doubt, has their own agenda and whatever, say that the description of embryology in the Qur'an is wrong, now what happens? All those people will leave Islam. Gone. Yeah, exactly.
Because their basis of Islam, the thing that they accepted Islam was because this is a scientific miracle. And that's why I personally think that the whole idea of al-ijaz al-'ilmi in the Qur'an, giving da'wah to it, is really problematic. It is the base of your da'wah.
Now, to mention things and show people the beauty of the Qur'an, show people the amazing, the ijaz of the Qur'an generally, the miraculous nature of the Qur'an, no doubt. But the miraculous nature of the Qur'an is in the meaning, in the language, in the science, in everything. The Qur'an is a mu'ajiza in every way.
So there's no need to focus on something where you are now making science the judge of what is wrong or right. Science is fickle, right? I mean, people change their theories every time. So that's what I have a problem with.
And I think it's not da'wah to Allah. You're not giving da'wah to Allah, where my focus is tawheed. The other thing is, while you're giving da'wah, it is true that people will ask you about things.
Is it true there are these miracles? And then you can answer, of course. Yes, of course. Let me show you.
Let me show you some of these miracles. Let me show you some of the Qur'an. Let me recite to you.
Let me highlight some ayat that are important for you, things to give you a copy of the translation, of the meaning of the Qur'an to read. These are all beneficial things. But always bring the person back to what really matters, and that is worshipping Allah alone.
And that is something that only exists in Islam. And I think this is a minimum qualification of a da'wah, to be honest, is that you at least know that the oneness of Allah does not exist in any religion other than Islam. There is not one single truly monotheistic religion except Islam.
And people argue about that and say, no, but what about, but what about? But if you understand tawheed with its full meaning and all of the aspects of it, and all of the aspects of what it means to single out Allah in His lordship and worship and names and attributes, there is no other religion that has the oneness of Allah except Islam. And that is, nobody can go back on it. Nobody can turn around and say, I was mis-sold, you know, like I was told.
This is the reality that there is no, there can be no argument against it, no debate with it. So that's what you have to give to people. That's what is hayat al-qulub.
That's what brings a person's heart to life. Not this, you know, building on, you know, Islam tells us to be good to our parents. Islam does.
And birr al-walideen in Islam is better than birr al-walideen in any other religion. And it's better than birr al-walideen that the, you know, atheists and agnostics and whatever do. But it's not the reason to become Muslim.
Because it does, the concept of it does exist in other beliefs and religions. And a person could say, you know, I believe my purpose on this earth is to be good to my mom. That's not the point.
The point is to worship Allah azawajal alone. So these things can be mentioned, can be shown, illustrated. But, you know, again, it's really important that all of the conversation, even if someone asks you about a shukr, a confusion they have.
So someone turns around and says, for example, doesn't Islam mistreat women? And you explain to them that it cannot be a religion from Allah that Allah sent to guide mankind, the whole of humanity, and then that religion mistreats anyone within that, you know, within humanity. It's not possible. And you explain and you show some of the ayat but you bring it back to the oneness of Allah.
What really matters is the oneness of Allah. You bring them back to that. Always aja'u ila Allah, always taking it back to that point.
When they've agreed with that point, you can move on. If they have obeyed you in this, then move on to the next thing. So Mu'adh was told, فَلْيَكُنْ أَوَّلَ مَا تَجْعُوهُمْ إِلَيْهِ أَنْ يُوَحِّدُوا اللَّهِ Let the first thing you call them be to the tawheed of Allah.
That's what the Prophet ﷺ said to Mu'adh. And the hadith is in Bukhari and elsewhere that the first thing that you tell those people is you tell them the tawheed of Allah. After they have accepted this, then tell them that Allah has made obligatory then for them five prayers in every day.
Then tell them. So they may ask you things and you answer. You don't say, I can't speak to you about that until you agree.
But speak about it and bring it back to the oneness of Allah. Don't get diverted into a long discussion on whatever it might be. Bring it back always to the oneness of Allah.
أَجْعُو إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَى بَصِيرَةٍ We talked about, right? The basira of the religion. Basira, having insight in religion. An insight into the person you're speaking to.
An insight into yourself that you know your own limits. You know where you start and stop. You know you as a person, what your strengths and weaknesses are.
And the most important thing is to be genuine. To be sincere. To be someone who wants good for that other person.
And not just to worry about learning a particular style or trying to copy somebody who gives dawah. Because a lot of times you see people who give dawah and it's almost like an entertainment, right? Like people who did the videos and oh look at this guy's arguing and debating and they're a good debater and then he specifies it back. But ultimately that's not, while that might be appropriate in some situations, it's not the core of your dawah, right? The core of your dawah is not to make these fun debates with Christian priests or with other people who are going back and forward.
That's something that might be appropriate in some situations. Especially if that person is misguiding many people and they are claiming that no one can answer them and you come and you put that person in their place by the help of Allah. That could be appropriate in some situations but it's not the core.
That's not how your day-to-day dawah is when people watch these famous du'as. We know many of them, these really famous people who give dawah to large numbers of people or are famous for debating about Islam with other religions. But that's not what your daily dawah is like.
Your daily dawah is about interacting with people, meeting with them, giving them the message of Islam in a beautiful way and so on. So that's important as well. A person knows themselves and they know what they're good at.
Not everyone is the same. Me personally, I'm not great at striking up conversations with people. Some people are super fluid, sociable people.
If you put them in a room by themselves, they start up a conversation. They're really genuinely very open and outgoing and friendly. Those people can connect with people in a certain way and other people connect with people in a different way.
But the main thing is that when you have an opportunity to share Islam with someone, you do. And this leads me to an issue which is the issue of sharing Islam with people through your actions. And everyone agrees, nobody doubts that it's true that you give dawah to people through your actions.
But the Prophet ﷺ didn't give dawah only through his actions. And I believe this is a mistake where people give dawah only through their actions. They never say to somebody, Ya Fulan, Aslim, Ad'uuka ila Islam or so and so, I'm calling you to become a Muslim.
You know what, and some of the people who give dawah, they say to him, and you call them even by their name. You say, John, I want you to become a Muslim. I'm inviting you to become a Muslim.
It's so important. As opposed to just, you know, I've shown all my colleagues at work what a lovely person and what a caring person and what, you know, I've shown them about how a Muslim should be just and honest and that's fine. But have you ever said to them, have you never thought about Islam? Have you never wanted to become a Muslim? Can I tell you something about Islam? It is important for there to be that invitation because it isn't called dawah.
The word dawah, ad'u, you can't use it for just being nice to people. Like a dawah is an invitation, right? You have to actually invite them. So for me, it's very important that, yes, there is no doubt that our actions are a huge reason for people to become Muslim and many, many, you know, how many millions of people became Muslim because of people's actions.
Allah is the best. How many people? Whole countries, that Islam came to that country because of people's actions. But actions have to come along with dawah.
You have to come along with actually speaking to people and inviting people and inviting people to Islam. And the statement of Allah Azzawajal, it emphasizes that this is not just for the Prophet. Because a lot of people might say, okay, this is the Prophet's way.
The Prophet gives dawah to Allah. The Prophet has the knowledge that Allah has given him, sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam, and so on. But here it's emphasizing me and everyone who follows me.
And this is a dalil, very strong evidence, that dawah is tawqeer. Dawah has to be done the way the Prophet, sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam, did it. You're either following the Prophet or for another means of dawah.
It has to be done the way he did it. And like we said, we're not talking about the wasa'il. Because, for example, if you look at Nuh, and the way that Nuh, alayhi salam, he gave dawah, right? He called his people laylan waraha, in the night, in the day.
He spoke to them publicly. He spoke to them publicly. ثُمَّ إِنْ عَلَنْتُوا لَهُمْ وَأَسْرَلْتُوا لَهُمْ إِسْرَارًا I spoke out publicly and I spoke to people privately.
He varied his dawah with different people. Those different wasa'il, the method has to be, the method itself has to be right. You're calling to Allah.
You're calling upon knowledge. You're not calling to yourself. You're not calling to any of these things that people gather people upon.
This idea that we should gather people first and then give them dawah. We should unite upon a political cause and then give people dawah. Then let people come to our religion or our way or our methodology.
No, you call people. That wasn't what the Prophet said. He didn't gather the people of Makkah upon a political cause and then let them, you know, slowly figure out Islam.
He called them to Islam. And when the Muslims came together as a group, then Allah gave them, when he gave them in Medina, Allah established them in Medina and so on. But he didn't, it wasn't his thing when they offered him to be the king of Makkah and that whatever.
وَلَا نَقْتَعُ أَمْرًا Doing it. We're never going to decide anything without your permission and we're going to give you our wealth. He didn't accept it.
He wanted people to become Muslim, to accept Islam. That was the goal. So it's so important that when we follow the way of the Prophet ﷺ and it shows you how much you can learn from the seerah, how much you can learn from the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, how he gave da'wah, what his goals were, what his method was.
When you follow that method, you don't go to a different way. I'll give some examples of that. وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ And exalted is Allah in perfection and that's really what your da'wah is.
It has to contain. It has to contain not only that you call to Allah and you convey the message of Islam, but that your job is to declare Allah to be free of imperfections and to remove false misconceptions, false notions people have about Allah. So it's not just that you plant the seed of Islam, but you remove the false ideas people have.
That's what subhanAllah means, right? So I'll give you an example. وَقَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدَ سُبْحَانَ They said Allah took a son. SubhanAllah.
In other words, exalted is Allah and high is Allah above all the false things that people attribute to Him. So part of your da'wah has to be clearing up people's beliefs, right? The false beliefs people have. The belief that Allah has taken a son.
The belief that the angels are the daughters of Allah. The belief that these idols and trees and what have you have some nearness to Allah or some way to get near to Allah. All of this stuff has to be cleared up.
You have to make that part of your da'wah. And again, there are some people who call to Allah, but they don't have this aspect to their da'wah. So they leave people to have to kind of to be in that misguidance and they don't clarify to them because of a feeling that this will push people away from their da'wah.
Now we're not talking about insulting other religions or being harsh with them because Allah said وَلَا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَذَوًا بِغَيْرِ إِلْمٍ Don't curse the people that they call upon besides Allah because they will just curse Allah out of ignorance. These people, you know, if you start insulting them, they will insult your religion. You know, you say.
But instead, you show people this is wrong. This religion that you have, this belief you have and you purify people's beliefs because لا إله إلا الله is made up of two things, right? It's made up of worshipping Allah alone and it's made up of disbelieving in everything that is worshipped besides Allah. فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِالطَّاغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ اسْتَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوَثْقَالَ فِي صَامَ لَهَا Whoever disbelieves in everything that is worshipped besides Allah and believes in Allah and worships Allah alone, believes in Allah alone, this person has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break.
So subhanAllah here, it's really important that we declare Allah's perfection, that we remove all the misconceptions people have in their mind about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and all the false beliefs and we challenge those false beliefs. وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْشِيْكِ And I am not from the people who make a partner with Allah. And I think one of the things you can take from that particular aspect of the ayah is clarity in your da'wah about who you are.
And this is another one of my things. It's that so many people who give da'wah are not clear. You know, they're not clear about what they believe.
And let's even talk about within the Muslims. People giving da'wah to a particular belief or calling people, but they themselves are not clear about what they're upon, what they're calling to. And they think that by remaining kind of mysterious and sitting on the fence in many issues, more people will come to their, will respond to their da'wah.
It's not like that. The Prophet ﷺ was told to say, because in the beginning of the ayah, قُلْ He was told to say, وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِ Let nobody be confused that I am not one of these people. This is my belief.
This is what I'm calling to. So your da'wah should have clarity to it. It should be easy for somebody to understand.
And that doesn't negate hikmah. It doesn't negate hikmah. But hikmah isn't that you bury all of your beliefs and you kind of stay, you know, in the middle and you try that people don't know what you believe because more people will accept.
Rather, here you are, you're clear, and everybody looks, they know what to believe. You don't conceal knowledge. كِتْمَانُ الْعِلْمِ It's a major sin that you conceal knowledge from people and you let people kind of, you hide behind something so people don't ever find out what really they're supposed to believe.
But the da'wah should be clear that when you listen to them, you know what they're calling to, you understand what's required from you, and there's no ambiguity in their da'wah at all. And I think that's again something people, it comes under that idea that when we give da'wah, a lot of people feel the need to compromise in one way or another in order to get more acceptance, right? And if they understood that, as you said, إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْتِمَ نَحْبَكُ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْتِمُ That the key thing here is just giving the message. It's Allah that guides, you don't guide people, just give the message.
Allah told us that the messenger, his job is الْبَلَاغُ الْمَدُونِ The job is just to two things, الْبَلَاغُ الْمُبِينِ الْبَلَاغُ is to convey. And الْمُبِينِ is to be clear. So clearly convey the message, that's it.
Don't convey in an ambiguous way, in a confusing way, in a way that leaves people with doubt about what they should believe or what they shouldn't believe. Give them a clear message. And if you do that, then it's up to Allah SWT who is guided and who isn't.
I just wanted to go back a little bit to what we talked about with regard to Nuh AS. And it's not just the Prophet ﷺ, because if you look at da'wah, da'wah was the job of the Prophets and the Prophets, their shari'ah in terms of da'wah doesn't change. This is shari'ah, one shari'ah for the anbiya calling to Allah.
It's not that one of them called to Allah and one of them called to something else. Their shari'ah, this is shari'atun wahid. It's one law and one method in terms of da'wah.
You can learn a lot from the da'wah of the Prophet ﷺ. If you look at Nuh, one of the things I love about the da'wah of Nuh is how he buried his da'wah as we said before. Not the same way doesn't work for everyone. When you're talking to someone who's a person of status in the society, high position, there's a certain sulub, a certain style, a certain way of talking to them.
Maybe it would be in private so they're not embarrassed in front of their people that they are leading. Like when you talk to the ulil amr, you take them by the hand in private and you talk to them because for you to shout at them in public, it causes a huge problem for them and then they don't feel responsive to your da'wah. And likewise, there are some people that you can reach them better.
They don't listen to you. They don't connect with you in private. You can reach them better by a public, could be a video, could be whatever, a public speech about Islam and the person starts to, you know, comes to Islam through that.
And there are some people that you have to implement or you have to, with them you have to implement the maw'iban. You have to bring the admonition. Some people enter Islam because of Jannah and some people enter Islam because of the hellfire, right? There are people who enter Islam because they have tama'an, their hope and their dream is about Jannah and they want Jannah.
There are some people who you can tell them about Jannah until the moment they die. They will not accept Islam. They need fire, you know.
They need to run. They need to be scared. So this is the maw'iban.
But the maw'iban, like we said, it's hasan, so varying your da'wah and having patience. Nuh stayed with his people for one thousand years minus fifty, nine hundred and fifty years. And they said the number of people that accepted Islam was time.
And the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said at the end of the hadith, وَيَأْتِ النَّبُولِ وَلَيْسَ مَعَهُ أَحَدٍ There will come a Prophet on the Day of Judgment and nobody accepted his da'wah. Not even one person. So don't feel like it's a numbers thing, right? Like people do, I've got a hundred shahadah.
I've got a hundred thousand shahadah. I say to people when they tell me, الحمد لله I've got a hundred thousand shahadah. It's one thing.
How many of them are Muslim today? How many of them are practicing praying five times a day? Tell me how many people, I mean mashaAllah, it's amazing, but it's more than that. A Prophet came, he didn't, nobody listened to him. So it's not a numbers game.
It's not about numbers. It's about you giving the message and conveying that message. That's what your job is.
So the sabr with people, patience, not giving up with people, not getting angry with people from the characteristics of the da'iyah. Look at how Nuh, the Prophets, all of them a.s.w., they were, like Allah said, وَاصْبِرْ كَمَا صَبَرَ أُولُوا الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُولِ Be patient like the people of determination among the Prophets were patient. Nuh and Ibrahim and Musa, Isa and Muhammad a.s.w. How patient were they? How many times, somebody would come to the Prophets and say, grab him by his neck until he choked him and then say, يا محمد عطل give me something, I want money.
And the Prophets would say, smile at him and give him. It was like this kindness and softness and care for people. Like Allah a.s.w. said, لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِمَا عَنِكُمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَعُوهُمْ رَحِيمٌ These are some of the characteristics of the da'i.
There's come to you a messenger from among you, حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِمَا عَنِكُمْ It's hard on him to see you suffer. There's shafaqah for people, like care for people. I don't want to see you go to Jahannam.
I don't want to see you, I don't want for me, for you. So that's why I'm telling you about Islam. Care for people, concern for people.
حِرُص Keenness for someone to be guided. A willingness to kind of sacrifice your own time and energy and effort for that person to be guided by the permission of Allah. And to be رَعُوثٌ رَحِيمٌ Kind and merciful.
That's how the Prophet ﷺ was. And we said the ayah فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ لِنْتَ لَهُمْ You are gentle with them, and lean. So for a person to be like the Prophet ﷺ, he mentioned that the fire will not touch someone who is حِيِّنٌ لَيِّنٌ وِسَهْلٌ قَرِيبٌ or كَمَا قَال Someone who is حِيِّنٌ and لَيِّنٌ Someone who is soft and easygoing.
Someone who is approachable. Someone who is حِيِّنٌ لَيِّنٌ وِسَهْلٌ قَرِيبٌ Someone who is gentle and soft and easygoing and approachable. These are the kind of characteristics that a person should develop.
If you look at the Prophets ﷺ, for example, Ibrahim. A couple of things you see from Ibrahim, which are really important in da'wah. I love the way that you see how Ibrahim spoke to his father.
Because to speak to your parents, to give da'wah to your relatives, is difficult. And your parents are not Muslim. And the way he spoke to his father when his father was... From the leaders of the people of the Mushrikeen of that time, and the people, even the idol, the one who sold the idols and made the idols.
And the way he refers to him, يَا أَبَتِي مَا تَعْبُدُ الشَّيْطَانِ My father, don't worship the Shaitan. يَا أَبَتِي قَدْ جَاءَنِي مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَمْ يَأْتِكِ فَاتَّبِعِنِي أَهْتِكَ سِرَاطِكَ My father, he calls him يَا أَبَتِي and my daddy, he calls him like a gentleman. So follow me and I will guide you to a straight way.
And he speaks to him very very gently and very respectfully, but still conveys that message. From the things that you see from Ibrahim, is البراءة من شرط الأهل That I disassociate myself from making a partner with Allah and those people do do so. And so he didn't again give that ambiguous message.
إِنَّا بُرَآءَهُ مِنكُمْ We are disassociated from you. كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ We have rejected you. وَبَدَى بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ الْعَدَاوَةُ وَالْبَغْضَاءُ We have enmity and hatred has come between us forever until we worship حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَحْتَى Until we believe in Allah alone.
So this is really also important: if someone has clarity and the fact that you have a clear Islamic identity, which is separate from other people, this doesn't block your dawah (Islamic propagation). You shouldn't say, "Well, if I'm like that, people will not approach me," and so on. There are so many things from the dawah of the Prophets and how they gave dawah—without rushing things. The stories from the lives of the Prophets are filled with valuable lessons. There are many things we can learn from them, including how they gave dawah, their characteristics, and their methods. This is the life of the Prophets, as we said from the seerah (biography of the Prophet ﷺ), how he gave dawah, and what his characteristics were. The more you implement those, the more successful your dawah will be—even if that success is not measured in numbers (e.g., how many hundreds or thousands of people converted). It doesn't matter.
We've spoken for a long time, and almost everything we've said can be traced back to قُلْ هَٰذِهِ سَبِيلِي ("Say, 'This is my way...") or أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي ("I am and those who follow me"). These two phrases are crucial in understanding dawah. You said that dawah is tawqifi (a divinely legislated act), meaning dawah is an act of worship, and therefore we must perform it the way the Prophet ﷺ performed it.
This brings up a bit of controversy about scientific miracles. What about things like anashid (Islamic songs), using these to give dawah? What about protests or demonstrations, using them to raise awareness? When we measure all these things with the scales we've been given in this ayah (verse), we find they fall short. Either they are not the way the Prophet ﷺ did it—or, to be honest, there was poetry, there was inshad (recitation of poetry), but not these boy band anashid. But let’s just say there was inshad, which was the performance of poetry, and there were great poets. The Prophet ﷺ was told to tell people, "I am not a poet," and he was told to reject poetry. وَمَا هُوَ بِشَعِرٍ ("And he is not a poet"), and Allah said, وَمَا عَلَّمْنَاهُ شِعْرًا وَمَا يَنْبَغِي لَهُ ("We have not taught him poetry, and it is not befitting for him..."). So, how about singing and playing the guitar? وَاللَّهُ مُسْتَعَان ("And Allah is the One sought for help").
The use of poetry in dawah was not appropriate, and this also applies to anashid. As for protesting, the simple answer is that it is not calling to Allah (SWT); it’s calling to a particular political goal, a particular methodology, a goal that people have. This is not how the Prophet ﷺ gave dawah, nor how the Sahabah (companions) gave dawah. Sometimes, people might argue, "That was the Prophet, but we live in a different time." However, look at the Sahabah and Tabi'een (the followers of the companions), such as Mu'adh ibn Jabal (RA), who went to Yemen as a da'yah (caller to Islam). He was given specific instructions by the Prophet ﷺ on how to give dawah, emphasizing the oneness of Allah (Tawheed).
When we compare all of this against the ayah (verse) mentioned, we find that it falls short. It's not how the Prophet ﷺ did it. Even if someone might argue, "It’s not how the Prophet did it, but it’s still permissible," we still find problems in the basic permissibility of things like anashid. The way people perform inshad today is completely different from how it was done during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. If you look at Ka'b ibn Zuhayr (a famous poet), there is no comparison—أَيْنَ هَذَا مِنْ هَذَا ("How is this compared to that?").
So, it becomes problematic in itself, and even more problematic when it's used as a means of dawah. The issue is that someone might say, "But when we held an anashid concert, ten people became Muslim." However, Islam does not ignore the means used to achieve a goal. It’s not like the Machiavellian principle where "the ends justify the means." In Islam, both the way you achieve something and the final goal are important. This is something people need to be aware of. It's a qa'ida (principle) agreed upon by scholars in the science of usul al-fiqh (fundamentals of Islamic jurisprudence), that the rules of Islam and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) do not allow us to achieve a goal by any means.
A simple evidence for this is when the Prophet ﷺ was offered political power in Makkah. He refused. They said, "We will make you a king; we will not do anything without your permission. If the ends justify the means, then become the leader of the Quraysh, stop them from torturing the Muslims, and allow people to worship Allah. We will worship Allah with you for the whole year, except for one day, when we worship our idols. On all other days, we will worship Allah alone." But the Prophet ﷺ said no, and Allah revealed what He did. They wanted him to compromise, but Islam doesn’t work like that. The way you achieve something also has its ruling.
Another piece of evidence, which is aqli (logical) evidence, is that many people have become Muslim through things that are outright haram (forbidden). For example, people have become Muslim through zina (fornication or adultery). How many people, adad (the number) of whom only Allah knows, became Muslim because of zina? They ended up in an adulterous relationship with a Muslim, and then they became Muslim. وَحَسُنَ إِسْلَامُهُمْ ("And their Islam became good"). They became righteous, made tawbah (repentance), and changed. Should we say that it's okay to have a relationship outside of marriage because, in the end, someone became Muslim? Of course not. Thousands and thousands of people have become Muslim.
I personally know hundreds of people who personally I’ve met who became Muslim because they were in relationships outside of marriage with a Muslim, and many of them became very good Muslims who made tawbah (repentance) and changed. And so there’s such a strong… you know, if there were anything to push people with, you would say this. But you cannot allow someone to do something haram (forbidden) because it might produce a good result in the end. In fact, that result that came was in spite of what they did, not because of what they did. Allah blessed them with Islam even though what they did was a huge sin, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala (Glorified and Exalted be He) blessed them and guided them to Islam by His grace and His mercy alone.
So it's not… you know, a person should not have the idea that it’s, "Well, you know, this worked in the past, you know, there was a protest, and 200 people became Muslim." You know, because these things happen in things that are clearly haram (forbidden), let alone things that are made to debate over the permissibility.
So we’ve obviously spoken a lot about the path of da’wah (inviting to Islam). The next question I wanted to ask is: who should be given da’wah? Is it a responsibility upon all of us? Is it fardu kifaya (communal obligation)? So if some people are doing it, then we don’t have to do it. What’s the ruling on da’wah?
The scholars say that the general ruling on da’wah is that, generally speaking, it’s fardu kifaya. And that means that it’s a collective obligation. If the job is being done by somebody, then not everybody has to do it as long as the job is being done. For example, like a firefighter in a city: we need to have enough people who are firefighters so that whenever a fire breaks out in the city, there’s somebody available to fight that fire. There’s enough people, that’s the concept of fardu kifaya. You have to have enough people to do the job, but not everybody has to do the job. However, fardu kifaya, like the scholars say, has many situations where it becomes fardu 'ayn (individual obligation). And that’s because it becomes fardu 'ayn because there’s nobody else who can do that job except you.
So there are two situations where it becomes fardu 'ayn:
- When not enough people are doing the job and therefore not enough people are finding out the true message of Islam. People are searching for Islam but not finding it because there are not enough people. Now it becomes everybody’s responsibility to contribute.
- There are people who don’t have access to another Muslim but you, so then it becomes your personal responsibility.
And I think that in our time, I certainly feel if you… you know, one thing that shocked me is I once was working on a project, and they were doing some work with Google searches and keywords, and there was something like when I last looked (and the number might have even increased) there were something like 30 million searches in the English language every month for "How do I become a Muslim?" Now, there are some duplicates in there, there are some, you know, and this is only the English language, and there are obviously people who search multiple times. But there are a lot of people who are asking the question, "How does somebody become Muslim?" There are different variations: "How do you convert to Islam?", "What do you do to convert to Islam?", "How do I become a Muslim?" Millions of searches every month, just Google alone, every month. There’s a lot of people looking for Islam.
And I don’t think there are enough people conveying it to them. Also, how many people’s primary contact with Islam is through you? Maybe it’s a colleague at work. Maybe not so much in a Muslim country, where they meet lots of Muslims, but even practicing Muslims—what’s their contact with a practicing Muslim? It’s you. So it’s worth a person taking the time out to be knowledgeable. Not only that, because it’s going to benefit you and your family so much. You’ll start to understand what the basics of Islam are, even for yourself and your family. Even to teach your children to know what the basics of Islam are, and to be able to explain those basics. Or, if you can’t do that, to take someone by the hand and guide them to someone who can explain. And if you can’t explain it to someone because you don’t feel you have the basira (insight) or the knowledge to do so, At least, the least you can do is take that person and say, "You know, come on, let's go and see somebody." I didn’t mean to say "take that person by the hand," but it brought to my mind da’wah (invitation to Islam) to the opposite gender. That came into my mind, and this is difficult. It’s difficult because the basic principle in Islam is that we avoid mixing with the opposite gender, and we speak to them according to need.
Sadly, there are some people who, because of their lack of shahada (testimony of faith), have started to use their da’wah as a means to contact people from the opposite gender, get married, whatever it might be. And some of them don’t even get married, but let’s look for an excuse for them—maybe they want to get married, or they want to… and this is a dangerous situation. You can only achieve success in da’wah with ikhlas (sincerity), and you can’t have ikhlas if your goal behind that girl becoming Muslim is something other than her akhira (Hereafter). It’s your benefit, or whatever it is.
So, this is where the problem lies: there might not be anyone to talk to that person except you. So I think here there is definitely a need; there is no doubt there is a hajj (need), but also the discussion should be according to qadr hajj (the degree of need).
So, what I would say is: if you're giving da’wah and you are a man giving da’wah to a woman, then I think it should only lead to the extent of the need, and as quickly as possible, you’re going to hand her over to a sister as quickly as you can. It can be a situation where she stops you in the street, you talk to her, you come across her in a situation, or she sends you an email. You cannot… you know, I cannot say to you, "I’m sorry, I’m not going to talk to you because you’re a woman," because there might not be anybody else. There is a hajj for this, no doubt. But this need… you can’t go beyond what the need is. So, as quickly as possible, we want to refer her to somebody, to a sister who can talk to her about Islam.
If you have someone available, you can refer her instantly. If you don’t, you can tell her a little bit about Islam and then say, "I’d like to introduce you to…," and this is what we tend to do: explain Islam very briefly and say, "Look, I would love to introduce you to a lady. I don’t have to say in Islam, you know, I’m not going to talk to you for two hours," I don’t have to go down that road. I can tell her, "I’m going to introduce you to a lady who’s going to help you out. She knows she’s going to give you a really nice explanation of Islam, and you’ll be more comfortable. You can sit together and talk about Islam, and I know she’s going to explain Islam in a really beautiful way to you."
Then, arrange for her to meet that sister, and that’s it. You can then hand it over. And you know that’s sincere, and if later on Allah decrees for you something from that, that’s… that’s not haram (forbidden). People who got married after that, don’t make that your hadith (narration), because there’s no ikhlas (sincerity) then. If you're speaking to that woman, and then it’s like that, really, the person doesn’t want guidance for her; what he wants is his own benefit, something for himself.
So, this I think is really important. We can’t say "don’t talk" because there are some situations where there isn’t anyone else. If there is somebody else, then you won’t let them take the responsibility, but if there isn’t, then in this situation, have someone in mind that you can bring them into contact with. Because the thing with da’wah is, people have knowledge to a certain extent, but there will always be people who are more qualified than you.
There are people I know who are far better at giving da’wah to Islam than I am, so I will have those people in mind. If I get somebody, whether it’s a sister or a brother, that I don’t think I have the knowledge to talk to—like, a brother who’s deep into Christianity, a non-Muslim who’s deep into Christianity, asking me things about Christianity that I can’t really answer—it’s not my field, I’m not really comfortable with it, I say, "Look, I’m going to bring you to this person. I’m going to take you to this person."
But it’s not going to be a cold handover. You can’t just hand someone over remotely, like, "Oh, here’s their number, call them." They might never call. You call that person, you arrange a time for you to meet, maybe the three of you together, or for example, if it’s a sister, she’s in a da’wah center, you take her to this person. You arrange to meet at the door of the da’wah center: "Okay, here, this is the sister, she’s going to look after you, insha’Allah (God willing), and this is the lady, her name is [whatever], and you know, she’s interested in Islam." And really make sure the two of them connect. Don’t just say, "Yeah, you could go to this person." Try to make the connection as real as possible.
And that can be true for anyone. Even if people meet people and they don’t feel comfortable talking about Islam with them, they might say, "Okay, there’s a da’wah center, call this number." The problem is the person might never, ever call. You really have to say, "Okay, come with me, let’s go there, and we’ll meet, we’ll go meet somebody." And you really hand it over directly.
There was another issue that just came to mind, which is the issue of whether you have to… we talked about knowing the other person’s religion, right? Do you have to be an expert? This is really common, right? Yeah, that you have to be, you know, we see these da’wah people who memorize parts of the Bible, and you know, John, chapter whatever, verse this and that, you know, like all that stuff. This is not required. Well, this is not the manhaj (methodology) of the Prophet. What did the Prophet ﷺ say to Umar when he brought the Tawrah (Torah)? What happened? He became furious with him, became angry with him. He didn’t allow the Sahabah to become attached to the previous scriptures, even. And he said that if Musa (Moses) was alive, he would have no choice other than to follow me, peace be upon him.
So here, it’s very, very important that we don’t get this impression that we have to be biblical scholars. No, you have to know your religion, not like you need to know a little bit about their religion so that you can direct them to what’s important. And if you don’t know about their religion, you can ask them.
So, for example, sometimes it happens you speak to someone who's Christian, they're going to ask you what denomination of Christianity you follow, and they say, "I'm a Mormon." You're like, "I don't know anything about Mormons. What do Mormons believe?" and you're not sure, so you can ask. You can say, "I'm not too familiar with it, you know. So, do you believe in one God? Do you believe in...?" You can give, you know, sort of... And sometimes the person might say, "I have no idea," you know, and then you know, "Okay, I know we're dealing with a Christian who's non-practicing." I can, I have my, you know, what I can say to them. But you don't need to be a scholar of the Bible. None of the prophets gave dawah like that, where they gave dawah based on extensively quoting, you know, other religions and, you know, "Let me prove from your scripture that even Islam is true from your scripture." I mean, that can be beneficial in a very limited set of circumstances, but I think because of the fame of people who've done that, you know, your people who are really famous to us, who that is, they became famous because of that. We get the impression that that's everybody's dawah should be like that. No, well, this is like a rare situation. If you need them, you can refer them to somebody who can, you know. They say, "You know, I can't, I won't become Muslim because the Bible says this, this, this." Okay, no problem. You know, it's not my area of expertise. Let me take you to somebody who knows the Bible, and you've got plenty of new Muslim brothers who were priests and pastors and, you know, we can happily get those guys to, you know, to talk about it, insha'Allah.
So that's what I really feel. It's not something that somebody should be worried about. I definitely should not be giving up studying their religion at the expense of studying the Bible or something like that, you know, because ultimately, you don't need that. It's not, it's not how the prophets gave dawah. It's not needed. It's just you need to show them the beauty of Islam only, and there can be one or two people who have expertise in these issues, which we can refer people to if they have a real, you know, question about it. Plenty of people do that.
So I want to go back to where I think a lot of people probably be able to relate with this conversation, because some people, they might be looking at this thinking, "Well, I'm not a da'i, I don't really give dawah, I don't have a YouTube channel, I don't do these kinds of things," but ultimately what you said is that there's going to be times where you're in a position, whether it's a family member or a colleague at work, where you are the kind of first and perhaps maybe the only point of contact for them coming into Islam. So this is where now... and I think the surah that comes into my mind is Surah Al-Asr, which talks about the importance of giving dawah. "By time, all of mankind is in loss," and then Allah (God) takes out those four characteristics, and within them is calling people to the truth.
Some people, they might look at this and say, "How do I reconcile this with not having enough knowledge to give dawah?" which we also said was a condition to speak about the religion. How do I reconcile the two?
Yeah, absolutely. So, I think there's two things that you can do to make it really, really simple. The first thing is everybody needs to see the responsibility they have. This is before these two things. Everybody needs to see that there are many times where you are the person, you represent Islam, you know, to those people. So you have to say something about Islam. So there isn't anybody else. There are two things that you can do. The first thing is that if you really don't feel you have the knowledge, then you can either refer them to someone, give them literature, give them a link, give them a video to watch, contact your local dawah center or da'i, introduce them to them. You can be someone who, if you can't explain Islam yourself, you can bring Islam to them in written form or take them to someone who can explain Islam to them. Everybody can do that. There's nobody who can't do that, right?
If you do give out literature, it is really important that you really make sure that literature is appropriate to the person. You know, like you're not giving, like, for somebody who's agnostic, and you're giving them like, "10 mistakes in the Bible" or a leaflet or something like that.
You know, like try to find out so that you're giving them appropriate literature. If you can't find out, give them something very generic about the oneness of Allah and belief in the prophets and just, you know, stick it at that. Maybe something about the Qur'an from the best of literature you can give. In fact, the best of literature you can give absolutely is to give them the Qur'an. And of course, I would recommend not to give the Qur'an in Arabic, firstly, because the people we're speaking about don't speak Arabic and also it's a danger of the Qur'an being, you know, misused and disrespected. There are plenty of English-only translations, but if you do, I would at the moment, at the time of this video, personally recommend Sahih International's translation for non-Muslims. I wish there was better. I believe there could be better. I believe there's a potential for those translations to improve, but it's really important to give something people can understand. Because the problem is that if you go with any of the old and all that stuff, unless the person’s got a degree in English literature, they're going to really struggle to understand.
And the second thing is, even though Mohsin Khan's translation is more accurate than Sahih International's and is closer, and the Aqeedah is better in terms of the accuracy in Masā'il Aqadiyyah (matters of Aqeedah) and what have you, the problem is that it is also a hard read, with lots of brackets and lots of footnotes. But, for example, if you look at the Quran Project's Sahih International, those ones tend to be easy for a person to read and generally reasonable in terms of their accuracy, more or less. One or two ayat (verses) here and there that we think could be translated or could be improved upon, but generally speaking, they're widely available in English-only copies and easy to give out.
But when you give them out—and I’m still on my first point, that's why—but when you give them out, I really recommend you highlight something to read. Because somebody may not read the whole translation, and it's so true. Someone gives you a book, I mean, people give me books and things and say, "Oh, look, this is for you to read." I might never read it. So, what can you do? I think one of the really, really good things you can do is just stick little post-it notes—those little tiny post-it notes. Just put one or two on key pages. On key pages. So, Surah Al-Fatiha, absolutely. If it's a Christian, I would tend to highlight Surah Maryam and maybe the last page of Surah Al-Ma'idah, stuff about that really gives a good impression of what Islam says about Isa (alayhi salaam) and about Maryam. So, Surah Maryam, for example, depending on the person's belief. And you could ask for help for this, or you can just look through the Qur'an and highlight particular aspects. If you feel that person is a person who's really affected by manners and by morals, then, you know, the last page of Surah Furqan, for example, talking, you know, or in Surah Al-An'am, قُلْ تَعَالَوْا أَفْتَرِي رَبُّكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْ لَا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا (Say: "Come, I will recite to you what your Lord has prohibited for you"), and that whole issue of the Wasiyyah (advice) of the Messenger.
If it's somebody who's really affected by morals and manners, and this is what is a summary of the manners of Islam, different things that people might be interested in, just highlight a few for them. They may read the whole thing, but they may only, you know, only select certain things. So, at least if you've highlighted for them the names and attributes of Allah, I often highlight the last page of Surah Al-Hashr, for example, just to give people that, you know, "This is your Lord." Definitely highlight قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ (Say, "He is Allah, [Who is] One") and قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ (Say, "O disbelievers"). These things will tell people this is the basic thing that Islam is calling you to. If it's someone from Ahlul Kitab (People of the Book), Jewish or Christian, maybe the ayah in Surah Al-An'am: قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَنْ لَا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ (Say, "O People of the Book, come to a word that is just between you and us: that we will not worship anyone other than Allah").
Whatever it may be, you don't have to be an expert on the Qur'an, but highlight certain things for them. At least Surah Al-Fatiha, at least Ayatul Kursi, at least قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ, قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ to give them an overview of Islam.
And if they are Christian, I would say again Surah Maryam (19) and the last page of Surah Al-Ma'idah (5), something that gives them an impression of what Islam says about Ahlul Kitab (People of the Book), and so on. This could be really, you know, just to highlight those few things. So that's all in giving literature out—you don’t know everything, but you can give literature. That’s one thing. The other thing is, you could take someone in, you can take them to meet someone who knows something about the religion.
After that, one of the best things you can do is seek knowledge. And I think a lot of people, you know, for them seeking knowledge—we're not talking about, you know, Al-Madrasah al-Umariyah full-time seeking knowledge programs and becoming a full-time talib ilm (student of knowledge), but at least just getting enough to be able to call people to Allah. Because that same skill set and that same basic amount of knowledge you need—it’s the same basic amount of knowledge you need to survive as a Muslim. It’s the same basic knowledge you need to teach your kids, you know, to be able to explain, for example, why do we worship Allah. You know, these basic things.
And it’s not that people often worry about shubhaat (doubts). What if they say to me a question I can’t answer? Well, we said that doesn’t matter. Just for you to be able to explain the basics. You know, people ask, “Why? What makes a Muslim different?” So, to be able to answer that in the context of tawhid (oneness of Allah) and worshipping Allah alone, believing in the oneness of Allah, that Allah is the only one who does what He does and we only worship Him, and we don’t worship anyone else. To believe in the Prophets alayhi as-salam (peace be upon him), that all the Prophets had the same religion, that the Prophets called all to the same thing, but they had differences in some of the laws between them. Belief in the scripture, the Qur'an as the final revelation, you know, just to be able to understand and express those few things that I said. If you can just express those very few things, then you know, you can take it to someone who can go further than that.
But those basic things are the same things you need as a Muslim to make your faith strong, the same things that you need to teach your kids when they’re little. So, I think it’s well worth a person taking out a little time to just become familiar. It’s not... sometimes the problem is in a dawah (call to Islam) course, people teach you things like how to approach people, how to talk to people, and how to answer difficult questions. That’s all fine, but it’s not what I’m talking about. I mean just to cover the most basic overview of what Islam is and what makes Islam different from other religions and why we worship Allah alone. We worship Allah because nobody has those names and attributes except Allah. Alhamdulillah Rabbul Alameen (Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds), nobody is deserving of praise because nobody else is Rabbul Alameen (Lord of the Worlds), nobody else is Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem (The Most Merciful, The Most Compassionate), no one else is Maliki Ar-Raheem (Master of the Day of Judgment), and nobody else can help you, and no one else can answer your du’a (supplication) in desperate need. No one has those names and attributes and actions except Allah, so nobody deserves to be worshipped except Allah. And Allah doesn’t need us to worship Him, right? Allah doesn’t need us. Allah is Al-Ghaniyy (The Self-Sufficient). He doesn’t need us to worship Him, but we worship Allah because Allah deserves to be worshipped because of His names, attributes, and actions.
And just those few words, if you can just use those few words and understand the basic idea behind it, that’s more than enough. Tafsir (exegesis) of Surah Al-Fatiha (1) you know, just the basic concepts, a few small things, and a person really can convey a lot about Islam to people. And as you practice, you’ll come across different people, different situations.
I’ve never spoken to a Hindu before. I’ve never spoken to an Atheist before. Atheists are a little bit tough, and the reason why is because people feel with an Atheist that they have to leave behind everything they’ve learnt. That’s what people feel. They feel like, “I have to leave behind every single thing that I’ve learnt about Islam. I can’t quote the Quran because the person doesn’t believe in Allah.” So, this is, I believe, a big misconception. First of all, leave this whole thing that I need to use logic and philosophy, and I need to go to, like, you know, I need to go down that route. Not at all. You know, the same basic principles apply: you need to convey the message of Islam, and you need to convey from the scripture, convey the Quran. That’s still the same, that doesn’t change.
Yes, there are some things that are useful to be able to talk to an Atheist about, and I think the most useful thing you can learn for talking to an Atheist is الأدلة الشرعية العقلية (the logical, Shari'ah-based evidence), right? The evidence in the Qur'an that is logical, but is proven by the Qur'an, not the logic of the Greeks, Romans, and Indian philosophers, which will cause you huge problems in your own iman (faith) and belief. But the logic that is mentioned in the Qur'an—for example: أَمْ خُلِقُوا مِنْ غَيْرِ شَيْءٍ أَمْ هُمْ الْخَالِقُونَ أَمْ خَلَقُوا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ أَنْ لَا يُوقِنُونَ (Were they created from nothing, or did they create themselves? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain)—this is the way this evidence, this ayah (verse), is presented. It’s presented in a logical manner. It addresses a person’s logic; it’s not emotive, it’s not, you know, if you talk about the ways of persuasion, it’s not emotive, it’s not necessarily authoritative, it’s logical. It appeals to people’s logic, but it’s a daliyyah shar'iyyah (Shari'ah-based evidence), you know, it’s right because Allah said it, as opposed to دليل عقلي محض (purely rational evidence), that you think of yourself, or the logic that, you know, they taught us or the logic they taught us in debating class or whatever. The problem with this is you have no guarantee that it’s correct, and often it has لوازم (consequences), which means it has follow-ons or things that could involve disbelief.
You know, for example, denying Allah’s names and attributes and things because you built a logical argument that, when you follow it to its natural conclusion, it ends in rejecting a part of what Islam came with. And people might think that’s not true, but actually, that’s exactly what happened to a huge sect of people in Islam, the Jahmiyyah (a group who denied Allah’s names and attributes), who ended up falling into very severe mistakes in Islam because they tried to prove Allah’s existence through logic.
So, this issue of using الدليل الشرعي العقلي (Shari'ah-based logical evidence), evidence that is intellectually based and logical, but also founded in the Shari'ah, keeps you away from the danger of what, for example, Jahm bin Safwan fell into when he debated with the Iblian scholars, which was, or the Indian philosophers, that he wanted to convince them using pure logic that you can prove the existence of Allah purely from logic. And he fell into arguments that actually caused huge problems, denying the names and attributes of Allah. He went to a point where he stopped praying, all sorts of things, because he got himself wound up in logical arguments that didn’t have a basis in the Qur'an.
So, it’s so important to take evidences that are found in the Qur'an, that are logically based, that appeal to somebody’s logic, and that you can talk to an atheist about. Shaykh Abdul Rahman Al-Saadi (رحمه الله تعالى) has a book like that, أدلة والبرهين (The Clear Proofs), something like that, in إبطال عقيدة الملحدين (Refuting the Beliefs of Atheists). It’s about using evidences from Islam because this issue of logic again is really a minefield, and I think people should not feel that they have to go to that minefield and navigate it through philosophers and logic and whatever. Use what the Qur'an is giving you. That’s what we’re talking about—give your dawah (invitation to Islam) from the Qur'an. Why are you struggling to make your own arguments when Allah gave you the best arguments? The best arguments! Like, you don’t need to bring in different arguments. Use the arguments from the Qur'an. I think that’s really important in giving dawah to people who are atheists.
Right, we mentioned previously some of the characteristics needed for someone who’s giving dawah. What if we have someone who is just a 9-to-5 Muslim, their relationship with Allah, so they’re not like a full-time dawah person, but they’re just, you know, maybe speaking about Islam to their work colleagues or their family members? What kind of impact—how important is it that they fix their relationship with Allah, and what kind of impact can that have on their dawah?
I think it’s huge. And we talked about, you know, how yes, you do have to invite people, you have to give dawah, you have to call them and invite them, but your actions are hugely important. One of the things that causes people a lot of confusion, who have yet to enter Islam or who have just entered Islam, is when they see Muslims openly opposing the religion. You know, like open disobedience to Allah. And you know, we’re not people—all of the children of the earth make mistakes, but for a person, first of all, to avoid fisk (open disobedience), avoid open and, you know, obvious disobedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala (glorified and exalted is He), where a person is just, you know, for example, someone’s trying to give dawah to someone, and the person, they’re drinking, they’re going out partying, they’re whatever. It’s really, really hard for that person to say, “Yeah, I want to be like you.” You know, like, you do represent Islam in that way. But if that exists, and the person has that, and they still, you know, are in a situation where they have to call someone to Islam, be honest about yourself.
Look, I know what I’m doing is absolutely not right, and it’s not what I want to do. Insha'Allah (God willing), I’m going to try to change it. Don’t think this is representative of Islam. If people see you doing something that is blatantly wrong, it’s really, really important to correct it, otherwise, they might think it’s sincere. It’s really important to fix your relationship with Allah because you can’t get success from Allah without sincerity and without following the way of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم (peace be upon him). So, you need to connect your heart to Allah. Dawah (inviting others to Islam) should help you in that process. Dawah doesn’t mean that you are perfect and now bringing others to that perfection. Dawah is something that helps you improve through it. It should be that way, but for so many people, it isn’t. Many people we see giving dawah are not getting closer to Allah. They’re actually, if anything, subhanAllah (glory be to Allah), you see people distancing themselves from Allah for all sorts of reasons—showing off, desiring status and fame, or having ulterior motives instead of calling to Allah like we were talking about. Dawah is something that should fix you as well. So, it’s really important for a person to fix themselves, their relationship with Allah, and be a good example for people through their actions because it makes a big difference. We often talk about the asbab (means), such as knowing the person you're giving dawah to and speaking with wisdom. But, like you said, there are things a person can do in their own relationship with Allah that can bring more barakah (blessing) into their dawah. Success from Allah. Success from Allah.
Okay, I want to move on to some anecdotal stories, and I’m sure you’ve got a few from your experiences in giving dawah. I’ll think of one and mention it now. Earlier, we were talking about the importance of not watering down Islam, but instead presenting it as the truth that it is and not trying to avoid topics just because the person might not like them. I remember hearing a story about a brother who was giving dawah, and someone asked him, “Why do you have your trousers above your ankles?” I think it was the opposite. He wondered, “How do I respond to this? I can’t just say that we believe the trousers should be above the ankles because it sounds weird. He’s going to think I’m strange.” But he told him the truth. He said, “This is the way the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم (peace be upon him) advised us. This is what we do.” And that was one of the reasons why the person he was speaking to accepted Islam. He said, “I found it amazing that your religion talks about issues even as small as where your trousers should be.” That was a means for him to enter Islam. Absolutely! You never know what will appeal to a person. You never know what’s going to make a difference. For me, when I became Muslim, I was so impressed by the Islamic punishments. Really. You know, like when someone asks you, “So, does Islam chop off the hand of a thief?” And you’re like, “Thief? What thief?” That may have happened in the past, but you try to get around it. But I loved it. I thought, “This is what we need.” We need to be firm on these issues. We’re not saying that everyone who commits a small mistake should be punished like this, but with all the rules and regulations of Islam, this is a really good thing. It would safeguard society, stop theft, and increase safety. I love it. You see the wisdom in it. I really thought, “This is why I want to become Muslim.” This was one of the things that really affected me—I saw the benefit in it. But people might think, “You would never… Yeah, don’t talk about that. Oh, let’s try and avoid the topic.”
One thing I will say, though, is how do you answer a tough question when people ask you? They might ask, “Why do you do this?” Right? “Why do you have your trousers above the ankles? Why do you wear the hijab? Why do you—why, why, why? What’s the wisdom in the garden? What’s the wisdom? Why do you do it?” The answer to this that you should always give is, “Because Allah commanded us, and Allah knows better for us. The One who created us knows what is good for us.”
ou can give some points of wisdom, but make it clear that when you're giving these points of wisdom, you are only giving your best effort based on what you can see from your perspective. For example, people often go wrong with this. Maybe someone asks them why Muslim women wear hijab, and they give a reason, which may be valid or invalid. However, they give a reason, and that reason is always going to be shallow because you're never going to get the depth of wisdom that is found within the Qur'an. It will always be based on what you personally found, your personal opinion, or your personal understanding. The person listens to it and thinks, "Nah, this is completely rubbish. It's not the hijab that's the problem." The problem is that you only explained what you could.
So instead of saying that, bring it back to the ayah (verse), "Doesn't the One who created you know what's best for you?" He does. Then you can say, "This is better for you, to be known and not harmed." You can bring some evidence from it. You can say that ultimately, the reason you do everything in Islam is because we know that Allah knows what is best for us. So, what you're doing here is really bringing it back to Tawheed (the concept of the oneness of Allah) and the concept of God. You're going back to who is Allah? Allah, the Creator, the One who knows everything. Once they accept that, they'll accept all of the rules of Islam. But you can't get someone to accept the rules of Islam on their own without the belief that Allah is the Creator, Sustainer, and Provider, and therefore the One who deserves to be worshiped alone because He's the One who knows what's good for you.
That is important. Yet, there may be some people who become Muslim because of a subsidiary issue in Islam. Like, there’s a woman who suffered a lot from people—abuse and people just mistreating her—and she became Muslim because of the hijab. That happens. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's very hard to attach someone to a subsidiary issue in Islam, like a secondary issue, something that's not about worshipping Allah alone. Then, to make that the core of your dawah (invitation to Islam) and what you build it upon, because it’s always going to be based on your opinion of why that's legislated and your experience of why that's legislated.
You have another woman who’s never suffered any kind of abuse or difficulty. She’s always had a really good experience interacting with other people. You say to her, "This hijab is going to protect you," and she says, "I don't need protecting. I'm just fine. I've never had a bad experience. In fact, I find people look at me more when I cover up or whatever. They're more likely to attack me because I’m living in a Muslim country." The problem is that you attached her to one single point instead of attaching her to the idea that Allah is the One who knows what's good for you, and Allah told you it’s good for you. Trust me, it’s good for you. Allah told you about it because He doesn’t want to make hardship (haraj) for you; He doesn’t want to make things difficult for you. He told you because He knows what's good for you.
As for us, some of the things we can point out are that it allows you to have a Muslim identity, to show that you're a Muslim, a believer, and therefore allow people to respect your limits and boundaries, and so on. You can talk about how it keeps you away from harm—harm that comes, not only harm physically in terms of people, abuse, catcalling, or whatever, but also the harm of disobeying Allah and the harm of Allah's punishment (Ya Allah). But if you didn’t first link it to the fact that it came from Allah, and we as Muslims understand that the whole point of Islam is submission to Allah because Allah knows what's good for us, it's very hard for you to win that argument. More often than not, you’ll give a reason that doesn’t resonate with that particular person, and then, you know, if you manage to give the right reason that resonates with them, they'll accept it. But if you don't, they might reject it because you didn't really give them the real story.
It’s the same thing with why Muslims wear the izār (garment worn around the waist), why there are rules about the ankles, and so on. These types of things people ask about. Allah knows what's best for us, and our religion is about submitting to Allah and recognizing that what Allah has told us to do is the best thing we can do because the Creator knows best what creation needs. Whether we recognize the wisdom or not, some of the wisdoms are as follows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. For example, keeping the thawb (garment) with the ankles with pride. Those who drag their garments out of kibr (pride) and arrogance... You can mention that, but if that doesn't resonate with a person because they can’t picture the idea of pride and arrogance, and they don't understand the concept of people who walk on the earth arrogantly, then your argument isn’t going to work with them, even though you may be correct in part of what you explain. Most likely, you didn’t bring the whole picture because Islam is much deeper than one ayah, one evidence, or one point that you learned from your teacher when your teacher explained it to you. That’s really important.
Now, your turn for an anecdotal story. Can you think of one? There are so many. I always love to listen to how people came to Islam. My own experience of how I came to Islam—I came to Islam at the age of 14, and it wasn’t through... It’s wrong for me to say nobody gave me dawah (invitation to Islam). I think that's unfair to the people who were there—Muslims who were around me, people who may not have even known Islam too much but still had an impression on me. Some friends had an impression on me, and that’s true. But what struck me about Islam was like You can give some points of wisdom, but make it clear that when you're giving these points of wisdom, you are only giving your best effort based on what you can see. For example, people often go wrong with this. Maybe someone asked them, "Why do Muslim women wear hijab?" and they give a reason, which may be valid or invalid, but they give a reason, and that reason is always going to be shallow. You’re never going to get the depth of wisdom that is found within the Qur'an. It’s always going to be based on what you personally found—your personal opinion or your personal understanding. And the person listens to it and they’re like, "Nah, this is completely rubbish." You know, it’s not the hijab that’s the problem; the problem is that you only explained what you could. So instead of saying that, bring it back to the ayah (verse) “Does the One who created you know what’s best for you?” He does. Then you can bring it back to the fact that this is better for them to be known and not harmed. You can bring some evidences from it, saying that ultimately, the reason you do everything in Islam is because we know that Allah knows what is best for us. So, what you’re doing here is really bringing it back to Tawheed (Oneness of Allah) and the concept of God. Going back to: Who is Allah? Allah, the Creator, the One who knows everything, and once they accept that, they’ll accept all of the rules of Islam. But you can’t get someone to accept the rules of Islam on their own without the belief that Allah is the Creator, Sustainer, and Provider, and therefore the One who deserves to be worshipped alone, because He’s the One who knows what’s good for you. That is important.
Yet, there may be some people who become Muslim because of a subsidiary issue in Islam, like a secondary issue. For example, there’s a woman who suffered a lot from abuse and mistreatment, and she became Muslim because of the hijab. That happens, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s very hard to attach someone to a subsidiary issue in Islam—something that’s not about worshipping Allah alone—and make that the core of your dawah (invitation to Islam) and what you build it upon. It’s always going to be based on your opinion of why that’s legislated and your experience of why that’s legislated.
You have another woman who’s never suffered any kind of abuse or difficulty. She’s always had a good experience interacting with people, and you say to her, “This hijab is going to protect you.” She’ll say, “I don’t need protecting. I’m just fine. I’ve never had a bad experience. In fact, I find people look at me more when I cover up or whatever. They’re more likely to attack me because I’m living in a Muslim country.” The problem is that you attached her to one single point, instead of attaching her to the idea that Allah is the One who knows what’s good for you, and Allah told you it’s good for you. Trust me, it’s good for you. Allah told you about it. He doesn’t want to make hardship for you. He told you because He knows what’s good for you.
As for us, some of the things we can point out are that it allows you to have a Muslim identity, to show that you’re a Muslim, and therefore to allow people to respect your limits and boundaries. You can also talk about how it keeps you away from harm—not only harm physically in terms of abuse or catcalling but also the harm of disobeying Allah and the harm of Allah’s punishment. Ya Allah (O Allah), and all those things. But if you didn’t first link it to the fact that it came from Allah and that we, as Muslims, are all about submitting to Allah because He knows what’s good for us, it’s very hard for you to win that argument. More often than not, you’ll give a reason that doesn’t resonate with that particular person. Then, if you manage to give the right reason that resonates with them, they’ll accept it. But if you don’t, they might reject it because you didn’t really give them the real story.
It’s the same thing with why Muslims cover the ankles and so on. People ask, “Why do Muslims cover their ankles?” The answer is, Allah knows what’s best for us, and our religion is about submitting to Allah and recognizing that what Allah has told us to do is the best thing we can do, because the Creator knows best what is good for the creation. Whether we recognize the wisdom or not, some of the wisdoms are:
- Keeping the thawb (garment) with the ankles with pride. Those who drag their garments out of khuyara (pride) are showing arrogance. A Muslim should demonstrate that they don’t have any kind of arrogance.
- You can mention that, but if it doesn’t resonate with a person because they can’t picture the idea of pride—like arrogance and the people who walk on the earth arrogantly—then your argument isn’t going to work with them. Even though you may be correct in part of what you explain, most likely you didn’t bring the whole thing because Islam is much deeper than one ayah, one evidence, or one point that you learned from your teacher when your teacher explained it to you.
That’s really important.
Now, as for anecdotal stories, can you think of one? There are so many. I always love to listen to how people came to Islam, especially those who came from the strangest backgrounds. This is my anecdote: There was a time when I heard a da'iah (caller to Islam) mention something I liked, and it reminded me of something I’ve experienced. So, one day in our masjid (mosque), there was some kind of protest—like a far-right protest in the area. You know, EDL (English Defence League) or something like this, far-right groups protesting, saying “Get rid of the Muslims, send the Muslims home.” And SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah), our Imam, who came from abroad—he’s from Iraq—approached some of these far-right protesters and spoke to them about Islam. We had a case where an EDL guy sat in the masjid, having food with the brothers, and they told him about Islam. He was nodding his head. SubhanAllah, I don’t know the end story because I don’t know whether he became Muslim, but it just shows you that you can’t have that preconception that a person won’t accept Islam.
I also want to mention a brother we met fairly recently. He comes from an extremely far-right family—extreme to the point where there’s no description of how extreme they are in their hatred of Islam. He was brought up with an utter hatred of Islam, believing that Muslims should be killed, abused, and tortured at every opportunity. He was raised to believe that Islam is an evil religion. And he didn’t passively absorb this information; he actively participated. He gave speeches and actively went out calling people to hate Islam. He was raised with an unnatural hatred of Islam, believing that Islam is the source of all evil and being willing to hurt Muslims at any cost. Growing up with no access to Islam or Muslims, he was told to effectively hate and despise Islam. He ends up accepting Islam. Not only did he accept Islam, but he also sacrificed a great deal and suffered immensely for the sake of Allah. He had to leave his home and his people, and he suffered immensely for the sake of becoming a Muslim.
You think that there is no one beyond Allah, but we just have to convey that message to them. There were certain people who went to a masjid with the idea of stealing a book, thinking they’d find out more about the bad things that Muslims do. They accidentally went in at Jummah time and didn’t realize that all the people started praying. He got trapped inside the masjid and thought the Muslims were going to kill him. He had been raised to believe that Muslims are savages, barbarians, and would kill him. He thought they were going to beat him and kill him. But SubhanAllah, when he realized what was wrong and learned more about Islam, all we had to do was present Islam to him. If we present Islam to people in a good way and get them access to the right information, that’s the key.
I want to go back to Surah Al-Asr, when Allah says, “By time, indeed mankind is in loss, except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.” (Surah Al-Asr, 103:1-3). We’ve talked about this before, and we said, “This is my way…” That ayah is so comprehensive when it comes to giving da’wah. Imam Shafi’i said about Surah Al-Asr, “If Allah had revealed no other proof to His creation except this surah, it would have sufficed.” This shows that it’s not just about da’wah but about our entire religion. We spoke about how Allah says that all of mankind is in loss, and this isn’t just talking to those who are professionals in da’wah—it’s talking about all mankind. Then, Allah takes out certain people: “Except for those who have believed.” We talked about the importance of having knowledge. Then, Allah speaks about ‘Amal as-Salih (righteous deeds), those who do righteous actions as well. We also talked about the importance of correcting one’s relationship with Allah when giving da’wah. Then, we discussed da’wah according to the truth, and the need to not water it down. There’s one extra part of the surah that we haven’t touched on: the need for patience when calling people to Islam.
Yeah, absolutely, how important this is, and how important it is for people to understand. Is this something that people are going to experience? Is it something they're never going to experience? What are your thoughts on patience?
I think if you go back to the da’wah (invitation to Islam) of the prophets, what you see is that the prophets were extremely patient. Briefly, Noah (Nuh) had a thousand years minus fifteen. What that shows you is that when you follow the way of the prophets, you will experience what they experienced, or a part of what they experienced. So, you're going to experience the same.
For example, our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) said to his people, "My people, say 'La ilaha illallah' (there is no god but Allah), and you will be successful." Yet, the majority of his people rejected him. That is the best da’wah (call to Islam) that has ever walked on this earth, and the majority of people rejected him. In fact, no prophet got 100% acceptance except for Yunus (Jonah), when he went back to his people the second time. Allah tells us that no prophet's entire people accepted Islam, except the people of Yunus. They are the only people who accepted Islam completely without any exceptions after he went back to them.
This tells us that we are going to face rejection. The Prophet ﷺ faced rejection, and he faced it more than we will. So, we have to be prepared for that. We have to remember that our job is to convey the message, not to guide people. The Prophet ﷺ was told many times that he became very, very saddened by the fact that his people didn’t accept Islam. And Allah said, “And do not grieve over their disbelief.” (Quran, 35:8). Allah ﷺ (the Exalted) also said, “We certainly know that what they say grieves you, but it is not you they deny, but it is the signs of Allah that the wrongdoers reject.” (Quran, 6:33).
This tells us that it’s natural to become saddened by the fact that people don’t accept your call, but you have to remain patient with it. You have to remember that it’s not your fault personally. It’s just that these people don't accept the signs of Allah, the evidences that Allah has given them. So, you remain patient with them. “And be patient, as the people of determination (ulul azm) were patient.” (Quran, 46:35).
Be patient like they were patient. You need to be patient like the five great Prophets: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon them all). How they were patient, be patient like they were patient. So, you're going to face rejection, you're going to have many people who don't listen, and you’ll also get insulted, because the prophets of Islam were insulted.
They said sha'ir, they said kahir, they said muallim, he's being taught, he's a poet, he's a magician, he's a fortune teller. They said all these terrible things about him. You will get insulted, you will get people who don't like what you have to say.
Really, you know, you need to remind yourself at that time that I'm giving da'wah for Allah, not for myself, not for numbers, not for people to like me or not like me. You will get people who will accept and people who won't. So it's very important to have patience and also patience with individuals.
We talked about patience as a whole, but maybe yet we haven't talked about patience with just one person. When you're giving da'wah to someone, don't give up because they didn't accept what you said the first time or the second time or the third time. If you look at Noah, he didn't give up on those people.
He kept day and night open and secret, privately, publicly. So don't give up on an individual person because they didn't accept from you the first time, but bury the method with them. So you try one way, try a different way.
Sometimes you're not the best person to reach someone. Sometimes the best person to reach someone is someone else. So you realise that they might have some antagonism with you personally.
So you introduce them to someone else and they invite them. That can be the case with relatives, sometimes relatives with you personally. Or people who may be more superior than you in terms of position, whether it be parents.
For sure, yeah. Okay, I think that's a good... I think one more thing that I'd add on to that is sometimes people giving da'wah, you don't realise that at the point you want to give up, you don't realise how close that Allah might guide that person through your efforts. As they say, when is the help of Allah going to come? When is the victory of Allah going to come? It's close, but sometimes you just push back.
And I think if you just look at the seerah, the seerah is a great teaching. Look at the seerah and you'll see how you know, years and years went by and people did not enter Islam into crowds, small numbers of people entered Islam. But the big victory, the Nasrullah wa-l-Fajr, the victory of Allah, the conquest of Makkah, people came into Islam in big crowds, huge numbers.
It felt like it was never going to happen. And until the last moment, and then finally, Allah subhana wa ta'ala, just before, shortly before the death of the Prophet ﷺ, it was a very short time, that the people started to become Muslim in crowds. That will, it will happen, but you shouldn't worry about it.
There is a delay. If the Prophet ﷺ waited the better part of 23 years before that happened, then you should not expect that for you it will happen quicker. Rather, it should happen, it should take longer, right? So you should not worry then.
It was individuals or as a group. Your dawah as a whole, the success of it, or even the dawah with individual people. But be patient.
Okay. Let's summarise a little bit about what we've spoken about today then. So we started with the ayah, قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِي أَجْعَوْا إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَىٰ بَسِيرَةٍ أَنَا وَبْنِ اتَّبَعْهُ قُلْ هَذِهِ سَبِيلِي We took a couple of benefits from this.
We said that this means that the way you give dawah, not talking about the wasa'il like using microphones or phones or cars or anything like that. We're talking about the way you give dawah in terms of what you start with. We mentioned that you have to start with tawhid.
That's what the Prophet ﷺ started with. And that should be a regular feature. It's not like, oh, I just started with tawhid, now I can talk about anything else and ignore tawhid.
It should always come back. It should always come back in your dawah and always bring everything back there. And we mentioned that also the way you do it in the sense that, you know, we mentioned a little bit about an nasheed, the islamiyah so-called, which means protests and demonstrations and things like that.
Calling to Allah. Again, that goes back to tawhid aspect that we already spoke about. But it's important not to call to a particular political agenda or anything like that.
That's not the dawah of the Prophet ﷺ. And not to yourself. That's the most important. Not to call to like, to believe in me or to follow me.
That's islamiyah. We said the importance of having knowledge with dawah. And there's something that just came into my mind, which is the hadith, I believe, in the writing of Sahih al-Bukhari.
When the Prophet ﷺ said, convey from me in just one ayah. So this shows that there should be no excuse of people basically saying that. Yes, in fact, there's probably an extreme that people go to when they actually say, oh, I know, and therefore I can enter into advanced theological, because I'm just conveying an ayah.
There's probably something people say about that. And the simple answer is that, you convey the ayah, you know. You don't convey the ayah, you don't.
Yes. And there's a beautiful thing that scholars say about this, which also nicely summarises dawah as well. When the Prophet ﷺ said, is a commanding verb.
Which shows that normally this would show an obligation. So this shows, like we spoke about, the importance of giving dawah. So that's like taqlid, they say.
So it's basically like you're becoming, not burdened, but you've been given a responsibility now to give dawah. Ani is tashreef, because you're conveying the message of the Prophet ﷺ, which is noble, which is honourable. And then walaw ayah is taqfid.
Even if you don't know a lot, you just convey what you can. And actually, I think the rest of the hadith probably gives an answer to some of the people who say, I can just talk about anything and go anywhere. Because the rest of the hadith is, And narrate from the Bani Israel, and there's no harm in that.
And I think that requires a different, it's not the time to go into that right now. And then finally it ends with, and this is really the important part which I wanted, وَمَنْ كَذَبَ عَلَيَّ فَلْيَتَبَوَّأْ مَا قَعَدَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ And the one who lies upon me, ayah of the Prophet ﷺ, intentionally, then let him prepare to take his seat in a hellfire. And this shows how dangerous it can be to give dawah without knowledge.
In fact, some of the salafis used to say that if you just mention a hadith with a grammatical mistake, you've just exchanged a fatha or a kasra, you enter into this hadith, you've lied against the Prophet ﷺ. Let alone talking about things that are way out of your depth, The hadith, مَنْ كَذَبَ عَلَيَّ فَلْيَتَبَوَّأْ مَا قَعَدَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ This is a serious, very, very serious hadith. Okay, and then after that, it says, أَنَا وَمَنْ اِتَّبَعْنِي And it shows that this command isn't just for the Prophet ﷺ, it's for us as well. And I think it was Ibn Qayyim said in نِفْتَخُ دَارِ السَّعَادَةِ that if you want to be a true follower of the Prophet ﷺ, you have to give da'wah to Allah with insight.
Because that's what the end of the ayah, or not the end of the ayah, but this part of the ayah mentions. And we said about Basirah, right, that we said the three things that you should have insight about the religion, an insight about the one you're speaking to, the one who you're giving da'wah to, an insight about your own self and your own limits, know your own limits. Those are some of the most important things.
And then of course, the other ayah that we said, to summarize it, أُجْعُلْ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمُعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ وَجَادِلْهُمْ بِالَّتِيهَا أَحْسَنَةً Hikmah, which is knowledge in the Qur'an, it has to be with you all the time, knowing what to say and when to say it. As for touching people's hearts with a bit of, you know, a bit of an admonition, then that can come sometimes and not at others. And that's why Allah didn't mention it with a bat.
But when it does come, it has to be in a good way, not in a way that pushes people away from Islam. And that da'wah by nature will have jidal in it, will have back and forth. People will say, I don't accept it, no, I don't believe what you said, or I'm not happy, you're not convinced me.
And you will need to go back and forth with them بِالَّتِيهَا أَحْسَنَةً in the best possible manner. Yeah. Yeah, we spoke about also, when you're talking about even da'wah, having some of that discussion back and forth, you're giving something which, although it's the perfect truth, it's difficult for people to accept at the same time, particularly in a society which belittles it so much, and the society's talking about other things.
So I think that aspect of patience as well, which we touched on towards the end, that also comes in here as well. And just one more thing I want to mention, when we talk about giving da'wah to Allah, you know like in, you mentioned this, it was actually really profound what you said, you said that the one thing that Islam has, well Islam has many things, but the real thing that differentiates Islam from the other religions is this aspect of talking, worshipping Allah alone, and no other religion has this aspect in it. Absolutely.
And I think that's another good reminder. You know like in marketing, it's talked about USP. Yeah, that's it.
This is like, وَلِلَّهِ مَن فِي الْعَالَىٰ but this is like the USP of Islam. Absolutely. And that doesn't mean that Islam doesn't have amazing, you know, amazing ahkam and amazing akhlaq.
All of that exists within Islam, and it's there within Islam. But it's not the greatest thing that separates Islam from everything else. It's amazing, but it's not the only thing.
So to focus on the one thing that is truly and utterly unique, and the most important thing, and the one thing that will get you Jannah, and the one thing that will save you from the fire, and that is لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله the oneness of Allah, worshipping Him alone, and then accepting Muhammad's message as the final message to mankind. Excellent. Anything else you'd like to add on before we close out the episode? I think we've covered a lot of things.
You can close now, inshaAllah. And I think inshaAllah ta'ala it's a good start for someone. Again, I would just emphasize that where you need to go from here is to learn, and that's the best thing you can do.
And yeah, it's great to have literature to hand out, it's great to have videos to refer people to, but there's no substitute for having that knowledge yourself. So just an encouragement to people, not necessarily that they have to dedicate hours and hours of their day or their week, but just give some time to learning the fundamentals so that you can convey it in the best possible way. Perfect.
Ustadh, JazakAllah Khairan. It's been a pleasure. It's been really nice.
InshaAllah, I hope we get a chance to do another topic, if Allah wills. InshaAllah. سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله أستغفرك وأتوب إليك
