Characteristics of a Dai
   

Characteristics of
a Da'i 

by Abu Abdullah 

All praise is to Allah and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Allah says in the Quran, "And who is better in speech than he who
invites to Allah 's deen and does righteous deeds, and says: 'I am one
of the Muslims'"(41-33). 

The person who calls people to Allah, to Islam, is a da'i and is doing
an act that is indeed very honorable in the sight of Allah. However, there
is a certain methodology that a person has to abide by before engaging
in true dawah (calling to Islam). Some people blindly throw themselves
into dawah, in the process sometimes sanctioning things that fall into
what the Prophet warned, "I have left you upon clea r proof, its night
is just like its day, no one deviates from it after me except the one who
is destroyed, ...so stick to what you know from my Sunnah and the sunnah
of the rightly guided caliphs cling to that with your molar teeth..."
(Ahmed, Ibn Majah, al-Haakim). 

The rewards for dawah with the correct intention and with the correct
methodology are innumerable. The Prophet once advised Ali that if Allah
guided one person through him that would be better than the best of wealths
(Agreed u pon). In another narration, the Prophet said that whoever guides
another to a good deed will be rewarded equally for the other person's
performance of it and that even the ant blesses the person who teaches
knowledge (Muslim). 

Ibn Umar said that the Prophet said: "For every action there is
a period of enthusiasm/activity and for every period of enthusiasm/activity
there is a period of rest/inactivity. So he whose period of rest/inactivity
is in accordance with my Sunnah then he is rightly g uided, but he whose
period of rest accords with other than this, then he is destroyed (Ahmed).

All beginnings are hard the difficulty varying from person to person.
When a Muslim truly turns his face to Allah calling to Allah then he will
begin strongly since he wishes to see Islam spread to every house. However,
after the initial activity the person will tend to slow down. If he still
keeps to the Sunnah, then insha-Allah he has been guided aright. However,
if he does not, then he has fallen onto the misguided path as it is likely
that his initial enthusiasm was due to wrong intentions. 

Also, one has to keep in mind the essence of dawah. The main reason
for dawah should be to order good and forbid evil (al-amr bil maruf wa
nahyinil al-munkar). As the Prophet said, " There was not a prophet
sent to a people before me except that he had helpers and companions who
took hold of the sunnah and followed his orders, then after them came those
who said that which they did not do, and did what they were not ordered
to do. So whoever strives against them with his hand is a believer, whoever
strives against them with his tongue is a believer, and whoever strives
against them with his heart is a believer, and there is not beyond that
a mustard seed of faith" (Muslim). 

Ordering good and forbidding evil is according to one's ability and
power. In doing so he should not abandon the characteristics that a da'i
should possess, insha-Allah: 

1) Gentleness and kindness 

Allah mentions in the Quran with respect to the Prophet, "And by
the Mercy of Allah, you dealt with them kindly. And had you been severe
and harsh-hearted, they would have certainly broken away from you..."
(3-159). 

Thus, even the Prophet the best of mankind, the best of da'is would
have failed, as Allah has told us, without being kind and gentle. Allah
commands the believers in another place in the Quran to invite people with
wisdom and fair exhortation (16-125). 

The Prop het once said to Aisha, "O Aisha! Indeed Allah is kind
and loves kindness and gives due to kindness what he does not give due
to harshness and what he does not give due to other than it" (Muslim).

2) Honesty 

This has two parts. First is honesty with respect to one's deeds. People
judge Muslims by looking at their actions and not by Islam itself. Hence,
a Muslim has to practice his own deen to be an honest example of his preaching.
Here one should remember the Prophet's wo rds as narrated by Anas ibn Malik,
"When I was taken on the Night Journey I saw some men whose lips were
being cut with scissors of fire, so I asked, 'Who are they O Jibreel?'
He replied, 'the preachers from the Ummah who order the people to do good,
but leave it themselves, whilst they recite the Book will they not understand?"
(Ibn Hibban). 

Second is honest with respect to speech. A Muslim has to present Islam
is the best of manners as the ayat quoted above (16-125) tells us. Howeve
r, he should not lie upon Islam as how can he lie and yet think that he
is doing good dawah. As Allah says in the Quran, " Who does more wrong
than such a forge a lie against Allah, or deny His signs? But never
will they prosper those who sin..."(10-313). 

Many ignorant people, in the name of dawah, are incessantly falling
into this trap of shaytan. Like those amongst the Muslims, who try to spread
'Islamic goodwill' by saying that the 'good' Jews and Christians will go
to heave n. What could be farther from the truth? As Allah refutes such
people in the Quran, "And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam,
it will never be accepted of him and in the Hereafter, he will be
one of the losers" (3-85). 

3) Possessing knowledge 

Allah commands the Prophet to say, "This is my way; I invite unto
Allah with sure knowledge..." (12-108). 

The two main signposts for the way of the da'i are the Quran and Sunnah
as the Prophet said, " O people I have left among you that which if
you cling onto, you will never go astray: The Quran and my Sunnah"
(Al-Haakim, Baihaqee). 

The Prophet also said, "It is sufficient falsehood for a person
that he narrates everything that he hears" (Muslim). The da'i has
to be careful and knowledgeable of everything he says, hears and reads.
It is an obligation upon him to check the sources and references of what
he hears, since lying upon Allah (as alluded to before) and/or the Prophet
is from among the great sins. 

Also, one has to be careful about presenting too many rationale arguments
as each rationale argument might bring about an equally rationale reply.
However, if arguments are rooted firmly in La-illah illa Allah, then no
one can defeat them as they will be based upon the ultimate truth. 

4) Patience 

A da'i may have undergo many hardships and trials. Allah comforted the
Prophet in the Quran that he (the Prophet) "would kill [himself]...
in grief over their footsteps [for their turning away from him], because
they believe no in this narration [the Quran]" (18-6). 

The Prophet described in a long hadith the trials faced by a believer
who was buried in a hole, and then his head sawn into half, his body torn
with iron combs, yet he would not give up his religion (Bukhari). 

Hence, a da'i has to always keep in mind that guidance ultimately comes
from Allah, and that his duty is to merely pass on the message of truth.

5) Desire to see people embrace Allah's guidance 

Every kaffir out there is a potential Muslim. This is the crux of dawah
an absolutely necessary ingredient of the thought process of a da'i. Only
with such enthusiasm and love for the deen of Allah, can a da'i achieve
any reasonable success. The ayat quoted above shows the extreme love that
the Prophet possessed for seeing people become Muslims so much so that
without Allah's guidance and support, he would even kill himself in the
grief o f the kuffars not turning to Islam. 

What better lesson than this can we take? The example of the best of
humankind in the best of books and guidance.

Keeping all the above rules in mind, one should not forget the ultimate
goal of a Muslim's life, "Indeed he succeeds who purifies his ownself"
(91-9). 

Also, one should not be overbearing in dawah that he causes more harm
than benefit. As the Prophet said, " Give glad tidings and do not
cause [people] to flee; make things easy and do not make things difficult"
(Muslim). 

Finally, the goal of a da'i should not be to concentrate on gaining
quantity but rather to gain quality. As the Prophet said in a hadith, "[the
believers] will be numerous! But [they] will be like the froth/scum like
the froth/scum carried by the torrent..." (Abu Dawood). This is a
clear indication of the uselessness of large numbers without strength and
true belief. In retrospect, large numbers can cause harm if they do not
possess knowledge and understanding of the deen. 

May Allah forgive me if I made any mistakes and may Allah make all of
us better Muslims first and better da'is next. Ameen

Compiled and edited from "The Call to Islam and
the Caller" by Shaikh Ali Hasan and a lecture by Shaikh Jamal-uddin
Zarabozo. 

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