"100" wrote:

Your assumption that I was too stupid to understand says it all. :roll: means :roll: . That's all. In the context of what I was really saying, maybe you understand the :roll: a little better now.

I said your d.umb after you posted that stuff with your sarcasm, your too emotional and frankly your startin to tick me off. You just seem to have to get one over everyone....goodbye!

Here's the speech my sis done at the Ideal Muslim Women conference:

[u][b]D’awah Compulsory for Females and Ways of D'awah[/b][/u]

[size=9]“All Praises are for Allah Almighty, Peace & Blessings upon our most beloved, highly esteemed and highly revered Master Muhammad (SAW), upon his (SAW) beloved family & upon his (SAW) beloved companions.”[/size]

[b]Meaning of D’awah[/b]

Before we precede any further lets me explain the term d’awah. D’awah has a very vast terminology, and preaching is just one aspect or form of it, d’awah can mean to invite, to preach, to make someone aware, to present, to teach, basically the crux of all these is that d’awah is anything which brings people closer to Islam.

[b]D’awah compulsory upon every believer[/b]

First of all I would like to quote a very renowned verse from Holy Quran in regards to d’awah:

[i]“Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.” (Al baqarah 2:125)[/i]

The whole concept of d’awah lies within this beautiful verse but firstly I would like to bring your attention, that in this verse Allah Almighty does not refer to anyone specific, for example, if you study the whole Quran, you come to know that whenever Allah Almighty addresses anyone He says: “Ya iyoo han Naas (O Mankind!), Ya iyoo alazeena amanoo, (O Believers!), He refers to hypocrites as Munafiqoon and when Allah Almighty addresses women in Surah An Nisa, He addresses them as O Women.

But the aforementioned verse does not categorise anyone in particular thus meaning thereby that when Allah Almighty says to invite, He is referring to each and every believer whether they are male or female..

The same concept of d’awah being compulsory on all Muslims is highlighted in the following verse:

[i]“O ye who believe! Why say ye that which ye do not?” (As-Saff 61:2)[/i]

Again in this verse Allah Almighty is not just referring to men, as He didn’t say ‘O ye Men! but He said ‘O ye who believe!” Which again clearly outlines that d’awah is not just from men but also for females.

Again this is highlighted in another verse of the Holy Quran:

[i]“Do ye enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (To practise it) yourselves, and yet ye study the scripture will ye not understand?” (Al-Baqarah 2:44)[/i]

Again here Allah Almighty says do you tell people to practise good whereas you do not do yourself? The only part of this verse to which I would like to bring your attention at the moment is: “Do ye enjoin right conduct on the people,” ‘Do ye’ again Allah Almighty does not just refer to men but to women as well.

The importance to preach is further emphasised in the following hadith of Holy Prophet (SAW), this hadith is narrated in Sahih Bukhari, Kitab-ul-Ambiya, chapter 50:

[i]“Give my message to everyone, even if a single verse.”[/i]

Again you can see in this tradition that Holy Prophet (SAW) did not say to only men to preach but he referred to everyone. And another thing to note from this hadith is importance of d’awah, even if you know a single verse then a person should make an effort to spread that, to convey it to other people.

So from these 3 verses and the hadith that I have quoted it is explicit that when Allah Almighty and Holy Prophet (SAW) say 'to invite' they are referring to everyone whether male or female, old or young, rich or poor, black or white, thus in the light of this verse we come to know that d’awah is compulsory, and is a duty of each and every Muslim.

[b]Ways of Conducting D’awah[/b]

In the first verse that I quoted, Allah Almighty also tells us ways of conducting d’awah:

[i]“Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious…”[/i]

Here I would like to bring your attention to the following words, invite to the way of thy Lord with ‘wisdom’, ‘beautiful preaching’ and argue with them in ‘ways that are best’ and most ‘gracious’.

These words give us a guideline, a criteria as to what qualities a d’aee should possess, in order to be successful in attracting people towards Islam. D’aee refers to a person who gives invitation to Islam. Now I would like to bring your attention to each individual word of the above verse.

[b]1- Wisdom[/b]

‘Wisdom’ (hikmah) can only come through knowledge and when I say knowledge it doesn’t refer to just any knowledge but I refer to beneficial knowledge. So therefore wisdom is associated with ilm-e-nafay (beneficial knowledge). So the first condition of preaching I would say is to possess knowledge and the importance of knowledge is highlighted in the following Quranic verse:

[i]“Are they equal those who know and who know not?” (Az-Zumar 39:9)[/i]

So you can clearly deduce from this verse that in the eyes of Allah Almighty the literate and illiterate are not equal in status.

The importance of knowledge is also highlighted in the hadith narrated by Imam-e-Azam Abu Hanifa (RA) and Imam Ghazali (RA):

[i]“Gaining knowledge is obligatory upon every student.”[/i]

So from this hadith we come to know that we do not have a choice as to whether we want to learn or not but it is obligatory upon us to do so.

Also the following hadith highlights the status of a scholar and a worshipper, an abid:

[i]“The superiority of the scholar over the devout worshipper is like the superiority of the full moon over the rest of the heavenly bodies.”[/i]

The metaphor contains a comparison between the scholar and the full moon. The full moon represents the scholar, owing to the beautiful luminance of its light, while the planets represent devout worshippers. The difference in the radiance of the full moon and that of the planets represents the difference in virtue between the scholar and the devout worshipper. The reason behind this is, a planet’s light does not extend beyond itself, whereas the light of the full moon shines upon the earth’s inhabitants; they are illuminated by it and guided in their travels. Allah Almighty has compared the devout worshipper as planets and not stars because the planets are not used for guidance as the devout worshipper’s benefit is limited only to himself.

So you can see clearly from the aforementioned Quranic verse and ahadith that a status of a person who possesses beneficial knowledge is very high amongst people who don’t possess the knowledge and moreover the scholars possess a higher status than the devout worshipper.

[b]2- Beautiful Preaching[/b]

[i]“Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching”[/i]

In regards to ‘beautiful preaching’ Allah Almighty addresses Hazrat Musa (AS) and his brother Hazrat Haroon (AS):

[i]“Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, for he indeed transgressed all bounds; But speak to him mildly; perchance he may take warning or fear (Allah).”
(Taha 20:43-44)[/i]

You can see the importance of speaking to people in a gentle manner, here Allah is addressing Hazrat Musa (AS) to go and speak to the Pharaoh in a gentle manner, Pharaoh who was the biggest tyrant in his time, who carried out atrocities on many, many Jews, so you can see that to invite someone is a gentle manner is in fact a command of Allah Almighty.

Also the essence of preaching, inviting someone to Islam lies totally within good manners, in Urdu this is called akhlaq-e-husna. When I say good manners it includes patience, tolerance, affection and understanding, these all can be found in the life of Holy Prophet (SAW): For example a very famous incidence in the life of Holy Prophet (SAW) is when he (SAW) went to the village of Taif to invite people to towards Allah Almighty but in turn they got the children of Taif to stone Holy Prophet (SAW), due to them stoning Holy Prophet (SAW), he (SAW) was bleeding so much that the blessed sandals of Holy Prophet (SAW) was drenched in blood. And Angel Jibrael (AS) came along with the angels of the mountains to Holy Prophet (SAW), asking his (SAW) permission to crush the people of Taif, but what did Holy Prophet (SAW) say? He could have said crush them; they dare to do this to Prophet of Allah? No, because Holy Prophet (SAW) is mercy for mankind, the most perfect model ever, he showed tolerance and patience and prayed for their well being.

Another famous hadith is, when a Christian came to Madeena, he went to all the Christians of Madeena to ask them for a place to stay but no one gave him a place to stay. After being refused at every doorstep, he came to Holy Prophet (SAW) house for he knew that when all doors are closed there is only one door open and that is the door of Holy Prophet (SAW). Holy Prophet (SAW) gave him a place to stay, gave him milk from the goat which he milked with his own blessed hands, and continued to give glass of milk one after the other until the guest had drank to his full. Then the Syed-e-Kinaat (SAW) gave the Christian his own bed to sleep in. The Christian kept thinking all night of the akhlaq of Holy Prophet (SAW) and in the morning he asked to read the kalma, the declaration of tawheed and risalah.

Important point to note here is that this disbeliever did not convert when Holy Prophet (SAW) performed miracles i.e. broke the moon in half, when Holy Prophet (SAW) brought the sun back; he only became a Muslim by looking at the good conduct of Holy Prophet (SAW). So from this hadith we come to know that in order to bring someone close to you, closer to Islam is through good conduct. And this is what we lack the most in our lives today, we snap at people, we backbite, we disgrace people no wonder no one wants to come close to us or learn about Islam because we are forgetting that the essence of d’awah is good conduct.

[b]3- Argue with them Graciously[/b]

[i]“…argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious”[/i]

This is a very important to note, the thing that is common amongst us nowadays is arguing with people in a disrespectful way, not taking into consideration their point of views and as soon as they say something or disagree with us we jump down their throats. Also there are people, when a question is put forward to them they start quoting hadith and Quranic verses which makes no sense whatsoever to another person. If you look at the life of Holy Prophet (SAW) we come to know when he first invited the infidels of Mecca towards One Lord, he (SAW) could have at that time performed many miracles, gave many evidences, but did he (SAW) do that? No, instead he (SAW) presented them with irrefutable evidence and that was his own personality. He (SAW) first asked them: “In the forty years of my life, have you found anything wrong in my personality?” The infidels replied: “No.” Then Holy Prophet (SAW) asked them if he told them that there was an army coming from behind the mountain to attack them, will they believe that?” And the infidels replied: “Yes, even if we don’t see the army we will believe you as you are al-Amin, the truthful.”

So from this tradition we come to know that when we invite people towards Islam we should give them such arguments which are intellectual and easily acceptable. therefore the third quality of a d’aee is to give arguments which are best and most gracious and easy to understand.

[b]4- Practice What You Preach[/b]

Another most important aspect of preaching is to practise what you preach; the importance of this is highlighted in the following verse:

[i]“O ye who believe! Why say ye that which ye do not?” (As-Saff 61:2)[/i]

In another verse the same concept is highlighted:

[i]“Do ye enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (To practise it) yourselves, and yet ye study the scripture will ye not understand?” (Al-Baqarah 2:44)[/i]

So from these verses we come to know that it is very important to practise what you preach, because when you preach what you practise it will have a positive impact on people i.e. it will touch the core of the person’s heart and encourage them to do the same. Whereas when a person doesn’t practise what they preach then that preaching remains hollow and bounces of another person without affecting them in anyway. So therefore, it is very important to practise what you preach as you will be accountable to Allah Almighty for preaching what you do not practise.

[b]Famous Female D’aees[/b]

The best example of female D’aee who better than the beloved wife of our beloved Prophet (SAW), ummutul Momineen Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa (RA). She gave fatwa’s, jurisprudent rulings in the times of Khalifa-e-Rahideen, the first 4 caliphs, also she was a great teacher and taught thousands of people ahadith.

There are many scholars in this day and age which are doing d’awah work for example, Aisha Bewley, she is a Muslim Scholar who has translated the famous and authentic book of Qadi Ayaz’s (RA) As-Shifa bil Tareef il Haqookil Mustafa (SAW), which is based on the love and respect of Holy Prophet (SAW). Aisha Bewley has also translated other great books for example, Muw'atta Imam Malik and she has completed Tafseer Qurtabi Vol 1, and is in the process of completing Vol 2 of Tafseer Qurtabi.

So from the verses and ahadith that I have quoted you can clearly see that when Allah Almighty and Holy Prophet (SAW) order to invite people towards Islam they are not just referring to men but women also.

[b]By Ambreen (Glasgow)[/b] this is copyright protected

Admin dont moan bout it being too long but i dont have a link as this is not posted on the the ICIS website as of yet....i nicked it from her documents :twisted:

"Darth V-Hayder" wrote:

she said all that in a Glaswegian accent?

no she said it in a french accent :roll: duh what do u think :twisted:

What did u think of it considering you have read it!

"Omrow" wrote:

Salam

Prophet never allowed his wives to give speeches.

Omrow

Who said it did?

Dawah doesnt necessarily consist of speeches alone it could be as said before teaching others bout Islam.[/b]