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Dawah: Are We Wasting Our Precious Resources on It? [Part-4]

by Shakeel Ahmad

In part-3, we concluded that our actions should be compatible with our role as brand ambassadors of Islam. We must set examples of whatever is perceived as the best; we must work very hard to raise our attractiveness index; we must become the true Khalifa (appointed vicegerent) that Allah wants us to become.

Where do people look for, today? Individuals apart, even the Muslim nations look towards the non-Muslims, and probably rightly so. Who are the Nobel prize winners? Who developed various modern technologies? Who is a pioneer in Physics? Chemistry? Biology? These are difficult areas! What about Sociology? A few months back, I visited a madarsa which is one of the best in Bihar, with about 1,000 students getting trained to be future Khalifas. When I saw a few boys playing in a mango garden, my curiosity grew, and I asked the manager who was taking me through the madarsa facilities, "Do you have a period for sports activities?" Well, I bet you know the answer!

All the madarsas under the infamous Madarsa Board, in Bihar, became centers of be-hayaee (shamelessness) and behisee (insensitivity), and the Muslims are silent spectators, as they think those who cannot do anything else will at least get employment by grabbing some certificate/ degree. What message is this Ummah giving to those whom they ask to accept Islam? Cheating the system, openly and with no regard to any modesty, insulting the Quran during the exams, by tearing off pages and molesting them in so many different ways (e.g., hiding under the buttocks) – insulting a book that should carry more value to Muslims than their physical self, holding the sanctity of which compels them to kill those who even hurl insult by their tongues (considered as blasphemy). What are we? Blasphemous Muslims? Possibly using “Muslims” for those who indulge in such blasphemous acts, and those who promote these, would be no more than shamelessness. Where has our haya (modesty) gone?

Hazrat 'Abdullah bin Umar (Raziallahu Anhu) reports that prophet (Sallalloho Alaihe Wasallam) said, "Haya and Imaan are joined together; when one of them leaves, the other is lifted too." (Baihaqi).

madrassa

And, what are our youth being taught in large number of Islamic institutions? To cheat, to insult the holiest of scriptures, to manipulate the system for personal worldly benefits, with complete disregard to the teachings of Islam? Deception is the characteristics of Shaitan (devil/Satan) alone. Those of us who indulge in such deception are the agents of Shaitan while those who abet, encourage, or support directly or indirectly are worthy friends of Shaitan. These agents of Shaitan would be the Ulema of tomorrow; and what message would they give away to the society? We, the so called Muslims, never try to stop this from happening. What happened to Allah's commandment of Ahya-anil-munkar? On the contrary, we encourage them, by giving our donations to them, by sending the worthless boys and girls of our community there to become Mullahs, Maulvis, etc., by bribing the board officials to grant acceptance to a new madarsa that gets established by our donations, and so on… These Mullahs and Maulvis, and the character that we have portrayed in making them, form the core of our Dawah, and we think we are doing great service to the cause of Islam! If this is not a blatant shameless waste of our precious resources, what else is!

Where has our haya (shame) gone? Have we mortgaged our haya and imaan to the certificates that we would get to possibly make a living for ourselves and mislead the Ummah? Or, is it selling of Quranic verses for a few Rupees, neglecting Allah’s clear warning in Quran (2:41)? When the worst of crimes start seeming to be fair, we are slaves of the devil rather than of Allah.

When we do not feel shy in doing prohibited things but feel ashamed of praying obligatory namaz in office, feel proud in sporting a neck-tie, but feel shy in sporting a beard, when we feel great visiting a musical concert, watching scantily dressed film starts perform live while feel awkward attending Islamic programs, time has probably come for our destruction and replacement by another Ummah (Quran, 9:39).

As best of peoples (Quran, 3:110), that Allah created us to be, we are supposed to strive continuously to reach that level of perfection worthy of being termed as “the best”. If we, the Muslims-of-namesake, reach that level and become true Muslims, we would not even need to invite anyone to Islam. Everyone would then queue up to accept Islam with total assurance that no other way of life could be any better. When we are perceived as harbingers of all that is bad, our Nafs-e-Ammara (Nafs that commands us to all that is wrong, as an agent of shaitan; a nafs that is lower than that of animals) commanding us all that we do, however hard we try to convince others that ours is the best religion, who would believe the "worst of peoples"?
madrasa
When we invite people to all that is good, and all that is just, let us make sure that our culture is storehouse of all that is good, and all of behavior is just and fair, otherwise what use is for the invitee to come from bad to worse? We are an Ummah which is commanded by our creator to enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong (e.g., Quran 3:104, 3:110, 3:114, 9:67, 9:71, 9:112, 22:41, 31:17), but we may in fact be doing exactly the opposite – enjoining what is wrong (sectarianism, casteism, nationalism, nepotism, patronizing the strong and oppressing the weak, apart from the more common ones like telling lies, deceiving individuals, groups and systems, etc.) and forbidding what is good and just, e.g., depriving one set of children (the poor) from conventional (modern) education, by sending them to madarsas that don't teach science and English; and depriving (forbidding) another set of children (the rich) from Islamic education (Where is the time for this? He has to do so much of home work, and watch serials on TV for relaxation). Are we not enjoining what is wrong by pursuing the worldly pleasures alone, while forbidding what is right by nurturing a culture that makes fun of those who grow beard, spend time on social work, come to us for chanda (donations), call for prayers - after all these are things to be done in old age (after retirement from active life)?

As long as the bad seems bad, there is a chance to stop doing that, and return to good, but when the bad starts appearing good (e.g., murder of own brother, Quran 5:30), it becomes embedded in our culture, it becomes just impossible to revert back. We are so sure that all these are good deeds (cheating in exam, bribing the board officials to get affiliation of madarsa, indulge in sycophancy and bribing to progress in life, getting rid of hijab to look enlightened, roaming around in skirts or shorts to be termed as progressive or coool, etc.) that anyone who terms them as bad is outdated or an enemy. When Shaitan makes every bad deed fair-seeming (Quran, 6:43, 6:122, 9:37, 10:12, 13:33, 15:39, 16:63, 27:4, 27:24, 29:38, 35:8, 40:37, 41:25) – there is at least someone else to blame, although Allah says Shaitan, the open enemy, has no power over Believers (Quran, 16:99) – what will happen of our Dawah (inviting to bad deeds seeming good)?

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