Page 29 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

of some political power, contrive to destroy the da‘i’s movement.
Another possibility is that God may create such circumstances as
may help either the da‘i or his successors to acquire authority in
the land. Then acquisition of authority may take various forms. It
may be just political control; or the movement may receive such
extensive support from the public that an organized society may
come into existence on the basis of Islam. All the above results
are probable, and instances of all of them are recorded in the long
history of the Dawah struggle of the prophets.
However, none of these forms serve as a condition for bearing
witness to truth or a standard formula for it. The only valid form
of bearing witness is communication of God’s message to the
people in total honesty and sincerity (7:68) and in such a manner
as to touch the heart (4:63). This conveying of the message has to
be continued, whatever the hurdles which may arise. Whatever
follows after that, will be the worldly results of the Dawah struggle
or, to put it another way, the outcome of the history of Dawah
which assumes different forms in different circumstances. Thus,
all that is required of the preacher is that he should convey God’s
message to the fullest possible extent and that he should continue
to perform this duty all his life. Any further developments depend
upon the response of the madu. It is obvious that no fixed list of the
outcomes of Dawah can be foretold nor can difference in the nature
of the response determine the completeness or incompleteness of
the work of the da‘i.
The next important consideration is that, in the carrying
out of dawah work, there is no need to present all aspects of the
religion on a single occasion to non-Muslims. The proper way
is to start with the basic teachings of Islam. God, prophethood,
the Life Hereafter are the concepts which are first put to non-
Muslim addressees. And these are matters which have to be
regularly explained to them from various angles. Effective logical
explanation has to be resorted to solve any problems they may face
in understanding these points and, once they have come to accept
these concepts, they are taught the remainder of God’s commands
for the faithful. In the tenth year of Hijrah, when the Prophet sent
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