The Importance of Da'awa : Part III

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Da’awa Fields

General Da’awa

There are two major fields of da’awa which are the general and the specific ones. The general one has many subs as the society is of different sub-sections. It is the da’awa in Muslim communities itself so that they may properly hold their religion and living it. Muslims are of varied society such as the farmers, merchants, skilled workers, labors and officials. Also the intellectual levels being considered as important such as those in the village, in the city, men, women, young, old, those with high academic achievements and those of lower education background. There is also the effort to explain the purity of religion to others as a general da’awa. It is characterized by the calling for others to understand the wisdom and the virtue of Islam and the teachings of Allah through Muhammad s.a.w. Sometimes it has to deflect nonsensical accusations and attacks by others made on the path.  

Specific Da’awa

It is the da’awa among our family member. Bringing the religious atmosphere into the family, educate everyone to obey the command of the Lord and competing to perform charity. Da’awa never stops even among us. 

I found that this is the most difficult part of da’awa dear brothers and sisters. People in my family are not as religious as our ancestors because time passing many had also disconnected from the teachings and forgetting who they are. They live like nomads moving here and there. They don’t care about religion, manners, traditions and customs nor bother to get help from religious teachers or listening to lectures anymore. Sometimes I feel like giving up because it is so suffocating and just run away yet I still feel pitiful to people around that stops me. 

When I talked with brothers outside of my family for example brother Idris in the hostel, he did listen to me and obeyed the sunans that I mentioned to him though he maybe knew about those things earlier than me. I feel so happy at least I know there are people listening for their own goodness and looking at them also reminding to perform worship for Him but they are not my family member.

Obligations upon Every Muslim to Perform Da'awa

In the verse 104 that we learned just now, we could see three obligations being placed upon us. I’ll put them in the form of points where the first one is the center which brings forth the following two:

• Calling for ma’aruf or calling everyone to perform obedience to the Lord and perform charity.
• Helping others to avoid munkar or vices and crimes through differentiation between what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. 
• Calling for ma’aruf and reminding others about the disasters caused by munkar vices and crimes.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

The Importance of Da'awa : Part II

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Introduction

This is just a sharing with brothers and sisters in faith about the importance of da'awa according to the tafsir written by Mr. Abdul Malik Amrullah from Indonesia. I read his books since before my full repentance and trying to be a "submitting" Muslim again. My dad has a collection of religious books and literatures but he never read any of them. It was me who read them even though I was just a young little kid. One does not have to be labeled as a member of Jama'at Tabligh or Ikhwan al-Muslimun to perform this noble work. It does not need any brand or mission order.

Ancestral Mission Order 

During my research about our ancestors and their heritage, I found that those who landed here were merchant alias da'ie and they also had the hierarchical basis like those of Tabligh Jama'at and the Ikhwan al-Muslimun. Nowadays many were ex-communicated from the tariqa due to that they were scattered everywhere and disconnected from the centers of mission. If brothers and sisters could guess, our paternal community is a minority community which could be founded in Northern Yemen mountainous region, in Najran which is a province in Southern Saudi Arabia, in Saudi Arabian Eastern province, in Gujarat of India and in Sindh of Pakistan. 

Our ancestors were from the second branch of the tariqa which was known in general by those who claim themselves as the Sunnis as deviating tariqa because of their confusion which leads to generalization with the first branch group's practices or maybe its doctrine. The tariqa generally traced its genealogy from the Fatimid Empire of Egypt around 10^th century. However, many people in our ancestral branch of tariqa were also specialized in any of four “Salafi Imams” jurisprudence apart of the belief that they have with them and those originated from Yemen practicing the jurisprudence almost identical to the Shafi’ie madzhab practices except with little differences as I could still remember how I was taught to pray at home by elders when I was a five years old little boy where we have the takbeer during the sitting between two sujoods. I recalled this act when I saw an Iranian praying in our hostel’s musalla before he gets his student visa and later disappear because he already get what he wants. One of our ancestral faiths is that da’awa is an obligation on every Muslim and it is a part of the faith articles.

Da’awa as a Way to Preserve the Grace of Allah   

It is mentioned by the Lord in Glorious Quran in Surah Aali 'Imran verse 104. Says Allah : "And there must be some of you a group (or nation) who call toward goodness and telling others to perform charity and to prohibit vices. And they are those among who will achieve success".

For us, our Path is not only a way of life but also a grace from the Lord. To preserve His grace upon everyone, there must be a group of Muslim congregation as what has been mentioned by the Lord with the word “nation” who prepare themselves for the mission to call people to Him. These people are calling others to perform charity and chastity. They behave politely and propagating love besides prohibiting vices and anything which opposes the norms of society and human-being as a whole.

In the verse, there are two important words which is ma’aruf or charity which was rooted from the word ‘uroof. It means something which is accepted and being perceived by society as a healthy norm performed by every sane human-being. The second word is munkar or vice which means something unpleasant, detested and rejected by society because it is inappropriate. Vice is not something which is accepted by sane human-being. 

The path or religion here is a mean to help human-being to differentiate which one is ma’aruf and which one is munkar. Because of this, the munkar and ma’aruf are never separated from general opinion. If a person is performing charity and chastity, most of people in society will generally accept his acts, accepting the acts and praising the acts. If the acts are those categorized as munkar or vices, society generally will reject them, detest them and dislike them. That is why, when a person is highly immersed in his religion or path, he will get to know more what the ma’aruf are and what are the munkar acts or behavior? Before we go further, can anyone sense the basis of law-making here? Is it so hard to understand this law of nature? This is not only about Islam, this is not only about Muhammad s.a.w if some people are so anti to these without any basis. This is about the nature…

As such, it is an obligation on every Muslim man and woman in a congregation to work hard in order to lead people toward the ma’aruf and to help people from committing munkar so the society will be a valuable society. Not a low-life society. Calling people toward goodness, charity and chastity and helping people to avoid vices, crimes, and evil acts is known as da’awa or mission. Da’awa is the spirit of religion and without it, the religion is dead.

Allahumma salli 'alaa Muhammad, wa 'alaa aali Muhammad wa sahbihi ajma'iin! Dear the God, please be in contact with Muhammad s.a.w and with his family and with his companions all, amin!

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!