Dawah: The Mission of Muslim Ummah pdf download

Dawah: The Mission of Muslim Ummah

DAWAH: THE MISSION OF MUSLIM UMMAH

Shahadah is precisely what is also called dawah, or calling people towards God. It is to convey, in a peaceful manner, God’s message to humankind.

It is to explain the reality of life to people in a manner that is intelligible to them. It aims to enable seekers of Truth to learn about God’s Creation Plan.

 And as for those who do not have any desire to search for Truth, shahadah is to engage in providing them the necessary evidence for Truth so that in the Hereafter they will not be able to claim that they had no idea what God had wanted of them.

different words are used in the Quran to refer to shahadah or the dawah mission, such as tabligh (5:67), which means to preach, and ‘bearing good news and giving warning’ (4:165). The literal meaning of shahadah is ‘to witness’.

Shahadah and dawah both mean the same thing, but the former contains an element of particular emphasis, indicating that it entails engaging in the work of dawah in such a complete way that the very being of the one who does this becomes a total embodiment of dawah.

This is what shahadah or witnessing is. The belief, held by some people, that shahadah has two levels—verbal shahadah, and practical shahadah— is alien to the Quran. According to advocates of this notion, it is not enough to engage in shahadah through words, whether written or spoken.

Instead, they claim, it is also imperative to establish a ‘total system’, in this way giving practical expression to, or demonstration of, shahadah.

This notion of shahadah as a ‘system’ is, however, not present in the Quran. Neither did any of the prophets implement this notion, not even the last prophet, the Prophet Muhammad.

According to the Quran (33:45), the Prophet of Islam was a witness. Undoubtedly, he engaged in the task of witnessing to Truth in a perfect manner. But he did not express this in the form of establishing of a total system—neither in the Makkan phase of his life as a prophet, nor in the Madinan phase.

The fact of the matter is that shahadah or witnessing is a task that is accomplished through words. Along with this, the dai, or one who is engaged in dawah or shahadah, must be a well-wisher and an honest person.

That is to say, with regard to the madu, or the person whom he calls towards God, he must be a well-wisher, in the complete sense of the term, and with regard to God, he must be completely honest.

In the Quran, the word shahadah appears, in different forms, 160 times. In every place, it appears in the sense of witness. The word is used in the Quran in different contexts, but everywhere it is in this sense of witness, and not in any other sense.

According to the Quran, the role of a prophet is to be God’s witness over people. Through peaceful ideological efforts, he informs them as to why God has created them and tells them about the Hereafter and what will happen then.

This was the common purpose of all the prophets, and every prophet fully performed this task of shahadah or witnessing to the Truth, and in a non- political manner.

The chain of prophethood came to an end with the last prophet, the Prophet Muhammad, but the prophetic mission continues as before.

After the last prophet, God’s message must continue to be conveyed to humanity in every age and generation, and this must carry on till the day of Judgment.

 This task is for the ummat-e muhammadi, the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, to undertake.

This witnessing is a continuation of the Prophet’s mission after his leaving this world. This task can be carried out properly only if it is done in a spirit of honesty and well-wishing.

Honesty here means that nothing should be added to, or mixed with, the actual divine message.

 Well-wishing here means that those who engage in witnessing to Truth must be impelled, even on a purely unilateral basis, by a concern for the genuine well-being of the madus, those whom they call towards God, so that the latter can have no reasonable ground to deny this call.

This responsibility of the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad is explained in the Quran (2:143) as follows:

Thus We have made you a middle nation, so that you may act as witnesses for mankind, and the Messenger may be a witness for you.

From this we learn that as a ‘middle nation’ the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad is an intermediary between the last prophet and later generations of people.

It takes God’s religion from the last of the prophets and conveys it to later generations of people, without expecting any recompense for this and engaging in this task till the day of Judgment.

This conveying of God’s religion is not simple announcement. rather, it is necessary that the religion be conveyed, as the Quran (4:63) says, in such terms as will address people’s minds.

In line with this Quranic teaching, the world is, for all times to come, Dar ud-Dawah, an abode or domain of dawah, and nothing else.

Accordingly, the relationship between the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad and other people is just one—and that is, that the former are shahid, or those who bear witness to Truth, while the latter are mashhud, or those who are witnessed to (85:3).

This can also be expressed as the relationship between dai and madu.