THE WORK OF DAKWAH

Allah has blessed the Muslim with the great words. The great word is I bear witness there is no God except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah. The great words are the words given to all Prophets and all the Prophets have been ordered by Allah to call the people to recite the great words. Although Umat Muhammad s.a.w is not Prophets but the task of calling the people to recite the great words is also given to them. The Umat Muhammad s.a.w has been blessed with the work of Prophet. The great works has been given to the entire Umat Muhammad s.a.w, men and women. Once a person has recited the great words and has entered Islam, upon him or her lays the obligatory duty of conveying the great words to others who has not recited the great words and to invite them to do the same. The acts of conveying and inviting others to recite the great words are known as the work of dakwah or tabligh.

This great order of Allah has been neglected by all Muslims. The Muslims only claimed that they are doing the work dakwah or tabligh but in reality they are only doing the work of reminding the Muslims about some orders of Allah. Some Muslims claimed that they are doing the work of tabligh but in reality they are only inviting the Muslims to join their organization. The work of the organization totally neglected the work of conveying and inviting the non Muslims to recite the great words yet they claimed that they are doing the work of tabligh. Ironically the Muslims also believe that they are doing the work of tabligh. The Muslims generally have not understood what it means by the work of dakwah or tabligh. Tabligh means to convey even if you know only one verse or words. When a person enters Islam he knows one great words and it is incumbent obligatory duty upon him or her to convey the great words to others who have not recited the great words. When Abu Bakar entered Islam, Prophet Muhammad s.a.w told him to do the same work as the Prophet did, that is to convey and to invite people to recite the great words.This is to show that the work of dakwah or tabligh is not only the work of our Prophet but also the work of his followers and that dakwah is the first obligatory order of Allah after a person has recited the great words or has entered Islam. The second obligatory order of Allah is to performed the five times daily solat with aggregation.

Upon reciting the great words in the presence of a witness a person is said to have entered Islam and the first obligatory duty that he has to perform is to do dakwah or to convey and to invite the non Muslim to recite the great words. Dakwah or tabligh is the first order of Allah to be performed by a person who has just entered Islam. Ironically however, the Muslims believe that the first order of Allah is to perform five time daily solat and not dakwah or tabligh. As a result the work of dakwah is not being told to a person who has just entered Islam as his or her first obligatory duty. The Muslims believes that the work of dakwah is to make others correct or to correct others and so only those who is correct can do the work of dakwah. Muslims believes that the work of dakwah is the work of the Islamic scholars and not the work of everyone who knows even one word as being told by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w in his last sermon to the entire Muslims till doomsday.

As a result the Muslims do not teach their children at schools or at homes that the first obligatory duty of the Muslims is to convey and to invite the non Muslims to recite the great words instead they teach their children that the first obligatory duty is to perform five times solat and the work of dakwah is the work of only the Islamic scholars. Due to this wrong believe the work of dakwah vanishes from the life of the common Muslims and as times goes on the work of dakwah also vanishes from lives of the Islamic scholars. Now the work of dakwah is completely neglected by the entire Muslims. Now the Muslims and the Muslims scholars believe that Muslims are very weak in faith and the Muslims is no longer capable of doing dakwah. In order to enable the Muslim to do dakwah or to convey and invite the non Muslims to recite the great words the Muslim must make themselves correct first. They asked the Muslims to leave their homes and families in order to enable them to undergo spiritual trainings for certain period of times and by doing so they believe the Muslims will become correct. When all the Muslims become correct they believe that the non Muslims will accept Islam without the Muslims needs to give dakwah like Prophet Muhammad s.a.w used to do.

The arguments seem logical and to the simple minded Muslims, the points are correct and they accept it as truth. Unfortunately the arguments are using the minds instead of using the Quran and Hadis and the arguments are made in order not to obey Allah and His Prophet. The arguments are against the wishes of Allah and His Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Allah and His Prophet s.a.w have ordered us to convey and to invite the non Muslims to recite the great words and the prerequisite to do the work is only to know the great words. Allah and His Prophet do not ordered us to make the non Muslims to become Muslim or to make or to force them to recite the great words. Allah and His Prophet only ordered us to convey and to invite them to recite the great words and there should be no compulsion. Allah has ordered us to convey and to invite the non Muslims to recite the great words and we should do it not because we are good or correct but because it is the order of Allah and our intention of doing it is only to please Allah. Whether we are capable or not capable doing the work of dakwah should not be our concerned. Our responsibilities are to obey Allah and the Prophets. When we obey the orders of Allah to please Allah, it is incumbent duty of Allah to help us and to make us capable of doing the work of dakwah. We just do it. We simply obeyed Allah to please Allah, Allah will teach us how to do dakwah and Allah will give us the capabilities, knowledge and wisdom and Allah will help us as He has help all the Prophets and His companions in the past.
Dr Nasoha Saabin
January 2010
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 http://mthago.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/the-work-of-dakwah/