Call of Duty The Obligation of Da wah

Call of Duty: The Obligation of Da'wah

Opening Supplication

Translation: We begin by praising Allah, we praise Him, we seek His help and we ask for His forgiveness. And we take refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequence of our evil actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, no one can misguide. But whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray, no one can guide. And I testify that Allah alone is worthy of worship and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger. After that:

Translation: The best speech is the book of Allah and the best way is the way of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And the worst of all the affairs are those matters that have been newly introduced into the religion. And every matter that is newly introduced into the religion of Islam is an innovation. All of the innovations are misguidance. All misguidance is going astray and all going astray is in the fire.

Greetings and Introduction

My dear brothers and sisters, (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh). MashaAllah. It's a real pleasure to be here today. And I have really one topic that I want to talk to you about. The call of duty, my brothers and sisters, is a call. A call to you. A call to you, my brothers and sisters, to take up a duty. To fulfill an obligation. To do something that has been ordered by Allah upon you. And that is, my brothers and sisters, the duty, the obligation of calling those people who are not Muslim to Islam.

The Reality of Hellfire

We've heard, brothers and sisters, about the hellfire. We've heard the wisdom of this religion. Even the rulings, the sharia, the hudud. Part of the wisdom of that is to save people from the hellfire. Brothers and sisters, let's remind ourselves of hellfire. Let's remind ourselves of this fire. The hellfire, which has 70,000 bridles. And each bridle is pulled by 70,000 angels. A place that is so huge, that a stone that was dropped from the top of the hellfire took 70 years. 70 years to reach the bottom.

And hellfire exists now, brothers and sisters. It influences even our climate. The extreme heat is a by-product of the heat of the hellfire. But Allah has allowed this hellfire to take breaths. One in and one out. Because otherwise the hellfire will consume itself. This is a place, the fuel of which is men and stones. And what is this hellfire, my brothers and sisters? How is the agony? How is the pain? How is the suffering of this hellfire? A place where the skin will be burnt and re-created, and re-burnt, and re-created, so that its inhabitants can taste

the punishment. Where thirst, raging thirst, people will call for drink, and they will get drink. Boiling water that will scald their faces and burn their insides.

The Compassion We Must Have

Brothers and sisters, I think all of you in these rooms today are people of compassion. You are people of mercy. You are people of empathy. You care about others. And we need to care about our fellow human beings. And what we need to care about them more than anything else is that they will suffer that fate.

And as Shaykh Haytham said, well, think about this, my brothers and sisters. Why did the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the first thing he said when he called the people, not only the Quraysh, he called all the people, everybody. What did he warn them about? What did he say (peace and blessings be upon him)? The fire, the fire, the fire. I have come to warn you of a terrible punishment from your Lord. And this, my brothers and sisters, is from concern.

The Prophet's Overwhelming Concern

This is from the concern of Rasulullah (peace and blessings be upon him). He was someone who is consumed at times by concern. He was so consumed by his concern and by his worry for the people, for their fate, that even it was as if he was gonna kill himself, that this worry was gonna consume him and destroy him. Allah had to warn him, had to say to him (peace and blessings be upon him), it's not up to you, it's not in your hands. You are a warner and you are a bringer of glad tidings. You can't make the people Muslim. You can't make the people believe. That's not in your power.

And that's not in our power, brothers and sisters. And you know what, in a very profound way, that releases us from a burden. It releases us from a burden. Allah didn't make it upon us to make anybody Muslim. No. It's not in your power to make someone Muslim. But what we do have to do, what we do have to fulfill, the obligation that we have to see through, my brothers and sisters, is we do have to tell people, we have to warn them, we have to enlighten them, we have to bring them the message in a way that is of course within the confines of the sharia, and in a way that they will understand, in a way that insha'Allah they will accept it. The rest is up to Allah.

The Problem of Sugarcoating the Truth

But look at us, brothers and sisters. I'm not a person who's known for beating around the bush or sugarcoating things too much. I do a bit of sugarcoating when I have to, you know, with my wife sometimes, sugarcoat things. You know, but seriously, brothers and sisters, let's not sugarcoat this. Let's be frank.

Let's look at us, brothers and sisters. There are people, students of knowledge, maybe even people who are respected as sheikhs and scholars, and I've heard it, and you've heard it said, that, you know, da'wah is not really something you have to worry about. Yes, it's important, but you individually, you don't need to give da'wah. You

can live in the West, you can have your businesses, say your prayers, and really this issue of da'wah you don't have to worry about. In fact, even they will say, da'wah is smiling, and da'wah is, you see a piece of litter and you pick it up in the street, and, you know, that's da'wah. That's all the da'wah you need to give.

The Misconception of Silent Da'wah

You know, brothers and sisters, this is highly problematic. I mean, the first problem with that is, how do they know that you're a Muslim? They may think you're a Sikh, or a Hindu, or... I mean, how would they say, this is a Muslim? This goodness is because that person is a Muslim. And even conceptually, you have to understand something, brothers and sisters.

I mean, this is a failure to understand the people amongst whom we live. Even if you do something good, unless you say to them, this is a good thing I am doing, and I'm doing it because this is what my religion teaches me to do. Unless you vocalize that, unless you say it to them, you know what they're thinking? They're thinking, oh, those people came from those backward countries, and they came here and we civilized them a bit. Now at least they know how to behave. They know how to be civil. They know how to queue. They've learnt some good things from us. They're not gonna think that this is Islam. They're gonna think this is what you benefited from coming to our civilization.

What da'wah is that? It's not da'wah. At the very least, it's making them think that, okay, we Muslims are okay, you know, we can behave ourselves. Is that da'wah, brothers and sisters? Is that how low your level is of da'wah?

The Parable of Abdullah the Messenger

But you know what I really want to do, brothers and sisters? Is I want to tell you a story. I want to tell you a story. A story about a king. A great and powerful king. This great powerful king received the subjugation of a new land. So the ruler of this land voluntarily decided to make himself a subject of this king. So the king sent his trusted servant, Abdullah. And he said, Abdullah, go to this land and tell these people that I am the king. And tell them that they should follow my laws and pay taxes to me. So Abdullah goes to this new land.

Many years pass. And the king has heard no word from Abdullah. So he sends his other trusted servant, Ahmed. Ahmed, go and see what has happened to Abdullah. Because I haven't heard from him for many years. So Ahmed travels to this land. And he begins to inquire from the people of this land, could you tell me where Abdullah is? They say, Abdullah, we don't know anyone of that name. So he begins to describe Abdullah. And they say, yes, yes. We know someone like that, but his name is not Abdullah, it's Abs. And you know, he lives on the outskirts of the city. He has a nice house. He's a good honest businessman. He has a family. He's a very nice man. Yes, yes, we do know him.

So now you can... Ahmed is a bit confused. So he goes and he finds Abdullah. Abdullah, what's happened to you? Didn't the king give you a mission? Didn't the king give you a task to tell the people that he is the king of

this land? To tell them that they should follow his laws and pay his taxes? Abdullah says, oh, Ahmed, I have always loved the king. I have always been sincere to the king. And I have never once myself disobeyed the king. But what I thought I should do is I thought maybe I should come, live amongst these people a bit. They will get to know me. I will get to know them. Show them that really, you know, the servants of the king, we are nice people and, you know, we can get on.

But really, my brothers and sisters, I'm asking you, did Abdullah do what he was commanded to do? Did Abdullah fulfill his mission? Did he really perform his duty or not? This is the question I want you to think about, my dear brothers and sisters.

The Example of the Prophets in the Qur'an

And the other issue I want you to contemplate is an issue concerning the examples before us of the prophets in the Qur'an. This is something I began to think about. Because surely the best guidance is the book of Allah. Is this true or not? Is it not that the best guidance is the book of Allah? Yes or not? It is without doubts. The Qur'an is not a book of stories, brothers and sisters. It's not a book of fairy tales. It's not a book that, you know, we sit there and we tell our kids some bedtime stories. The Qur'an is supposed to empower our lives. The Qur'an is supposed to give us direction. The Qur'an is supposed to give us guidance and inspiration.

I'd like you to think about something. Wouldn't we all agree? And I'm sure no one would disagree. The best of all the human beings are who? Are they the doctors? Are they doctors? Which category of human beings are the best? The doctors, the farmers, what, the politicians, the rich businessmen? Which category of human beings are the best of all the human beings? Tell me. The prophets. Of course it's not a profession, but the best of all human beings, they are the prophets. The best of examples for us are the prophets. They are an example for us. And Allah sent us prophets, so we should follow them, obey them.

What Do We Know About Prophet Nuh?

I would like you to think about the stories of the prophets in the Qur'an. Let's take the first prophet, Nuh (peace be upon him). And I would like to ask you a question. Can anyone describe to me the salah of Nuh from the Qur'an? Can anyone describe to me the tahajjud of Nuh from the Qur'an? Can anyone describe to me the sadaqa of Nuh from the Qur'an? His helping the poor from the Qur'an? His dhikr from the Qur'an? Anyone, please?

I mean, imagine if we... Today I ask you, describe to me a pious man. What does he look like? He has a beard, masha'Allah. He wears a thobe, you know. He goes to the mosque five times a day. Masha'Allah, he makes dhikr regularly. He reads Qur'an regularly. He fasts, what? Mondays and Thursdays, yeah? Fast the white days as well, insha'Allah. Am I describing what most of us would imagine? He practices zuhud, yeah? You know, he renounces the world. He doesn't care about the dunya. This is how we describe a pious man. Yet, if I ask for you to match those things in Nuh (عليه السلام - peace be upon him), from what we know of him in the Qur'an, you'd be hard-pressed to find any of that.

In fact, really the only thing we know about Nuh (عليه السلام) from the Qur'an is what? Is what? It's his da'wah. That's really what we know about Nuh from the Qur'an, his da'wah.

The Examples of Ibrahim and Musa

Even Ibrahim (عليه السلام - peace be upon him). Most of what we know about Ibrahim (عليه السلام) yes, we do know a bit about his hospitality to his guests when the angels come, the angels who are going to destroy the people of Lut, his slaughters for them. We know about his hospitality. We know something about his remembering Allah. We certainly know how Ibrahim was someone who submitted and surrendered to Allah. Truly he was someone who submitted to Allah. But most of what we know, think about it, about Ibrahim (عليه السلام) from the Qur'an is his da'wah.

Musa, similarly, look at the prophets in the Qur'an, look at their stories, whoever it may be. We look at the prophets and the main thing that we get, the main lesson we understand, the main emphasis that comes to us from the Qur'an about these human beings, these great human beings, is their da'wah. They're calling people to Allah. They're calling people away from shirk to single out Allah for worship. This is what we know about the prophets from the Qur'an. This is there for a reason, my brothers and sisters.

Why? Is this not the example that we're supposed to be following? Is this not the inspiration that we should be taking? Think about Abdullah in my story. Think about the messengers. And think about our situation today.

The Seal of the Prophets

There's another question I have for you, my brothers and sisters. Is it not true that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is (خاتم النبيين - khataman nabiyyin - the seal of the prophets)? Yes or no? He is the seal of the messengers. True or not? Is there another prophet after Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)? Maybe not Ghulam Mirza of Qadian? Okay, alhamdulillah, we're the right bunch of people. Alhamdulillah. Elijah Muhammad maybe? No. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), ibn Abdullah, he is the last, he is the seal of the messengers. There will be no more prophets. Even when Isa (peace be upon him), he returns, he will come as a follower of the sharia of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Upon Whom Does the Duty Fall?

So my brothers, so my sisters, let me ask you a question then. If there are no more prophets, there are no more messengers, upon whom does it fall the duty to carry on the message of the prophets? Upon whom then? Who is it upon? Huh? Let me hear that again. Yeah. Sometimes some people say the ummah. Mashallah, I'm very happy I didn't hear anyone say the ummah. If anyone said the ummah, alhamdulillah, got drowned in the us. You know, because you know when you say the ummah, you know what that means brothers and sisters? You know what that means? You want to externalize the problem. You don't want to take responsibility. You want to put it onto the ummah to do it. It's not my problem, it's the ummah. This the ummah, you know, anywhere except me.

Even us, it really should be me. It's my job. It's your job. Individually according to your own capacity. Brothers and sisters, according to your capacity.

Increasing Our Capacity

What I want you to do, what I want to invite you to do, is to increase your capacity. That's what I want to invite you to do. I want you to increase your capacity. I want you to improve upon your ability to fulfill that obligation that you most of you encounter every day in your lives. With your neighbors, with your work colleagues, with the people you go to school with, with the people you go to college or university with, with the people you do business with. They all have a right on you. And the right that they have on you is that you should let them know about this message. You should let them know about this truth. You should warn them of this terrible punishment that awaits those who make shirk with Allah. That you should give them the glad tidings of paradise. That's their right on you. That is your duty towards them, brothers and sisters.

And I know from my experience that most of you want to fulfill that duty. You want to fulfill that obligation. You want to do it. I would like to talk to my friends, to my colleagues, to my neighbors about Islam. But most of us just don't know where to begin. How do I start that conversation? How do I finish that conversation? How do I deal with all the issues that they present to me?

The Core Message of Da'wah

Brothers and sisters, you need to keep in mind a very important point. That fundamentally our task and our obligation is to call them to worship Allah, to single out Allah for worship. And to avoid the worship of everything and everyone else except Allah. Many people in their efforts to call people to Islam, they get distracted. They get distracted by things which in reality are not essential. They're not... They compared to the main core aspect, they're not essential. We get distracted by talking about why I wear hijab, and why I grow a beard, and why we don't eat pork, and why do we have a punishment for apostasy, and why we have four wives, and why, and why, and why, and why, and why.

Yet none of these things on their own or even if you combine them, even if you manage to give a convincing explanation for every single one of these things, brothers and sisters, you still wouldn't have succeeded in giving them real da'wah. Because you haven't really told them about Allah. You haven't told them they need to worship Allah alone. You haven't taken them away from shirk. You haven't convinced them that the Qur'an is from Allah, that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the messenger of Allah. And this is the mistake.

Focus on the Core Issues

This is the mistake we make in our da'wah. What we need to do is we need to get to the core issue. The core issue, brothers and sisters, is to make them know who Allah is. To make them understand the things that they worship besides Allah, they are false. To realize, make them awaken within them. They have a fitrah, but we

need to reawaken that natural disposition to remind them of the next life. That this life is not the end of all things, rather this life is a test. So these are the core things, my brothers and sisters. These are the core things.

The Work of iERA

And that is what... Alhamdulillah, brothers and sisters, there are many mashaAllah organizations who are doing good work in the field of da'wah. They have many other things and, you know, they have a da'wah project. And there are some dedicated da'wah organizations also doing good work within their capacity. But why did we start iERA? You know, why just start another organization? Well, there's something a little bit unique about what we're doing. And what we're trying to do is really teach people. I don't mean it in a derogatory if I say ordinary people. I mean, we're all ordinary people. I don't mean to sort of make a separation. But what I mean is that we want to reach the masses. We want to reach everybody.

The Prophecy Coming True

Because I truly believe, I truly believe that we live in a time where we could see what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said come true. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told us, and this is the meaning that I'm taking from several different narrations, that Islam will enter every country, every city, every town, every village, every home. Even if it is a home of mud or hair. There will be someone whom Allah will honor with the Qur'an. And there will be others who will be disgraced by being away from it. It means there will be a Muslim. There will be a Muslim in every home, even a home of hair, meaning a tent.

It's gonna happen, brothers and sisters. Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it's gonna happen. If he said it's gonna happen, it is definitely gonna happen. But the question is, brothers and sisters, who is it gonna happen through? The reward is there, the potential is there. Who is gonna pick up the potential? Who is going to answer that call of duty and convey that message? Through whom is Allah gonna manifest this reality? Why not see and make that intention that it could be through you, my brothers and sisters?

Closing Words

So please, inshallah, my encouragement is for you to get involved in whatever capacity you can in this very, very important obligation. May Allah bless you. May Allah guide all of us. May Allah bless us. May Allah guide all of us closer to the truth.

Translation: Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise be to You. I bear witness that there is no god but You. I seek Your forgiveness and repent to You.