Saturday, November 24, 2007

Da'wah, Da'wah Da'wah

Its taken me a long time to write this post.... I've tried to write it a couple of times with no success...I think that there are so many things that I want to say that I just get stuck. Anyway, here goes...

I've heard that the best way we can give
da’wah as a Muslim is to provide a good example of what Islam really is. We can do this by living as a Muslim should, and showing kindness and respect. Part of the reason that people don't understand Islam is because they fear what they do not know. All they see is what is portrayed on the news, and we can all agree that this is not what Islam is all about.

Now on to the hard part... There are other ways of giving
da’wah. I've experienced a few of them recently. One being by posting to a forum. I have a feeling that this will never really be a good source of da’wah. It is too uncontrolled, there are too many people arguing and too much 'my opinion is' kind of stuff. The people that volunteer to moderate the forum are good people, but no experts in Islam. The other issue (and I hate to say it) is that some of these da’wah forums are not specific to a sect of Islam and there are some Sufi or shia influence in there. This can be more confusing than anything. Personally I don't like the labels that the sects give to themselves. I try to follow Quran and Sunnah. I'm a Muslim. That is how I identify myself. If I were a non Muslim looking at these forums I would never be able to find what the real meaning of Islam was. Then there are the people that come to an Islamic da’wah forum who just want to stir up trouble. I never understand why someone who has NO interest in Islam hangs about the forum so long. Inshallah they are guided to the straight path.

Another way of giving
da’wah would be through lectures and conferences. I went to ICNA's convention this past July and we were able to take my father in law to a lecture specifically for non muslims. Yusef Estes was the speaker and he did an excellent job. I can't say as much for the rest of the conference. There were some good speakers and I enjoyed seeing some of them, but they also had some people that I totally disagree with. People that spread the wrong message of Islam. Anyway that is another post entirely. Getting back to lectures. I think that its a great thing to have events that allow non Muslims to learn about Islam from an expert. They can ask questions and get true and HONEST answers. This avoids the issues of forums where they are getting answers from people that may be based on opinion and not quran and sunnah.

Finally there is interfaith. I'm not sure really what this means. If we are to just come together with people of other faiths and all agree to disagree, I wonder what the point is. Personally I know more about Christianity now than I did when I was a Christian, so I really don't need to learn anything from anyone. So what really is the point of an interfaith event? I don't think its a horrible idea or anything, just not my thing I guess.

In times such as these portraying Islam in a positive light is a challenge. May Allah guide us all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As Salaamu Alaikum Jamilah,

Nice blog. I think that it is far better to give dawah in person. ICNA and whyislam has very successful programs with doing dawah booths... they need to just shut that fitna forum down, because it is definitely not serving it's purpose.

Anyway, I think lectures probably are a good way of giving dawah, and also of course for us to be a walking talking example...

As far as anything online, maybe instead of forums having places where questions can be submitted and answered by scholars or people who are qualified to do so would be better than forums, or email correspondance.

Overall, I think face to face dawah is best. On a computer you don't know the other person's tone or mood and people always take things how they want to take them, irregardless of how they were intended to be taken.

I enjoyed reading this blog, sorry for the long response....

WaSalaam
Metta
aka
Hala

http://mitwacity.wordpress.com

simplelife said...

asllamo alaikom JAMILAH.

i hope that u know the real value of ur so nice blog.it show clearly a pure vision towards islam ..it show the pure desire to change to world to better .

i agree with you conferences..mettings etc are so good to show the real face of islam and beat the lies born by comercial news and yellow pages of whom have profits in letting people in dark..
most important in da,wah.is how to act to others its an unheared voice to the deep spirit of others ..i mean as u be polite calm human ...clear make sure that you would get result .it would take long time then u have to be patient like nature.

at the end i wana say .that evry good muslim is proud of what u do .may allah pay you buy happiness in your heart and inside ur familly

salamo alaikom

ruggy

Anonymous said...

Masha`allah

Loga'Abdullah said...

Salaam alaykum wa rahmatullah sister, I found your blog today masha'Allah may Allah reward you.

I recently wrote a couple pieces on dawah, maybe you'll find them informative when giving dawah. Here is the link for the most recent:

http://loga-abdullah.blogspot.com/2009/03/dawah-biblical-errors.html

And, if you click on the other previous post headings you can read those which you are interested in insha'Allah.

BarakAllah fiikum

salaam alaykum