Stairways To Paradise:Spreading The Love

Peace be upon you. Hi dear readers. Happy New Hijri Year to my muslim friends. How's life? Good I hope. I've been wanting to write this post earlier but what to do, time constraints. n_n

Anyway, let's go back to the topic. On 25th October, I went to an Enrichment Class for muslims and sadly, this post is only relatable to muslims. However, anyone is free to read it if you're interested. n_n

Poster promoting the class

The speaker is a friend of mine and she's a great speaker. But to be honest, just by reading the title, I really don't know what she's going to speak about. I am simply interested to know more and as I was free at that time, I went there to hear it. Alhamdulillah, I'm glad I went there. It was a sharing on why and how to spread da'wah (=spreading the love) as this is what Allah asked us to do and by doing what He ordered us to do, we will get nearer to paradise (=stairways to paradise) insyaAllah. I was a bit late to the class though so please forgive me for missing some informations. However, I will share most of what I got from the class here. n_n

The speaker asked all of us, why do we have to spread da'wah even though Allah will not be affected and will not be weak even if the number of Muslims is only a little. Do what Allah says, stay away from what Allah has forbidden. This is the main reason, Allah orders us to spread da'wah. By the way, this time, I'm using The Holy Qur'an English Translation by 'Abdullah Yusuf 'Ali.

"Say thou: 'This is my way: I do invite unto God,-on evidence clear as the seeing with one's eyes,-I and whoever follows me. Glory to God! and never will I join gods with God."      [Yusuf : 108] 

This verse shows us the definition of da'wah as a whole, which is, calling man to the way of Allah with evidences for the sake of Allah and not for anything else. They do not hope for Earthly rewards from the people but only hope for rewards from Allah. Da'wah is the best job and the most honorable speech from a muslim.

 "Who is better in speech than one who calls (men) to God, works righteousness, and says, 'I am of those who bow in Islam?' "   [Fussilat : 33]

Such is the Decree of Allah. There are more daleel about da'wah other than these two verses, therefore you might want to do extra reading on that. Plus, let's use our logical thinking. I'm sure all of us have non-muslims friends who are very good, in fact, some of them might be better than certain people who call themselves muslims. Shouldn't we sympathise with them? What will we do if later in the akhirah, they blame us for not telling them about the truth of Islam? Think about it brothers and sisters.

So, how do we spread da'wah?

"Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance."   [An-Nahl : 125]

Da'wah is not about to preach hard, but to reach the hearts. It's not about winning arguments and in the end causing people to shy away from Islam. The principles concerning da'wah are knowledge, calling to it, acting upon it and being patient.

"By (the Token of) Time (through the Ages), Verily Man is in loss, Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy."   [Al 'Asr : 1-3]

We were told a story about an Imam who is really good in preaching. One day, he was approached by some slaves and they asked him to preach about freeing slaves. He agreed. Those slaves waited for about a year and still the Imam didn't give any preachings as they asked. They all went to meet him and asked him whether he has forgotten about it. The Imam actually just finished collecting money to buy a slave and he wants to free the slave. He said he won't preach on something he never did himself. Beautiful story isn't it? Even we all know, it's easy to say but it's not always easy to do.

Then, what are the approaches of spreading da'wah? They are akhlak (bil hal), charity (bil mal), books/pamphlets (bil kitab), and speech (bil lisan). It's not important on which approaches you take. As long as there are efforts to spread da'wah, insyaAllah, the rewards are there from Allah. I think this post is already a bit too long therefore, I'll stop here for today. I'm sorry but I have to leave out the excuses people normally give when they are asked why don't they spread da'wah. To make it simple, please don't give any excuses to stop yourself from spreading da'wah because it is an obligation of a muslim. Thanks for reading. n_n

~Jaw~