Understanding Dawah – Calling to Allah

Getting into the discussion of the Creator is my first effort:

If you already read a few of my posts and my conversations you might think how this long conversation is possible, it’s like giving a lecture. That’s true.

My main intention was to give a CLUE as to how to TURN a conversation towards Allah, towards Tawheed or to say, I initiate a conversation keeping Dawah in my mind. So, those initial conversations came as a conversation mode but then when I have to give the information to the person it comes in many ways. As I am not a storyteller, I just avoided making it look like a drama rather I put the information as a form of an article. If you think this information is useful for you then use it as you think helps you to credibly pass the knowledge you have.
Just a few things I would like to mention for you to consider:

Human is Egoistic.

One very important issue you need to keep in mind when talking with people, even with your own family. You can talk whole day about all the things in the world you like, things will go just fine, especially when you talk how everybody is wrong about everything but the moment you talk an issue that other person has disagreement or doesn’t like or have opposite views, watch from that moment, the EGO comes in with its entire shape and colour in the appearance, in the face and in the body language. People with a different level of intellect and wisdom try to hide them as they can. Check it yourself with everyday friends, colleagues, with your brother or spouse even. This happens with yourself and this happens with me too! so, how you handle from there?

Nobody likes a lecture. People can pay to go to learn from a lecture. But when he is not paying for that he is not ready for a lecture or in a mood for seeking knowledge from just somebody. But in the process of logical conversation, you have to obviously put some knowledgeable information but keep it just in minimum and only to the necessary limit and put in an interactive manner, so it will make him feel that he is into the conversation, he is included in the conversation and he will feel himself engaged.

Show Respect.

To make the person pay attention to your points you need to show utmost respect to the person as an individual as well as showing respect to his thoughts and opinion. Make him feel respect personally and that his intellect is also being respected.

What happens in the opposite situation is that, you keep speaking, he keeps silent but he is not really listening or trying to understand your points, in his mind he just devising his speech to tell you and these becomes a matter of ego which turns out to unnecessary arguments only and just waste of time. This happens because he feels you are overpowering him which he feels is an insult to him as an individual as well as an insult to his intellect.

Show compassion.

You will find people in different psychological condition. Some people you will find like ‘you are imposing your belief on me’, ‘you are just trying to make your team bigger’, therefore academic style discussion will have just ZERO impact on the person unless you show your intention of saving a person from a path he does not know leads him to a disaster.

Assess the acceptability:

This is so important to evaluate. In the entire process of conversation, this is the most important part, what level of information you will choose to deliver?
The person could be
an Atheist, who is
–     Just spiritual but does not believe in any religion,
–     Just philosophical and believes in a force or energy that keeps things together,
–     Just believe science is everything and he  doesn’t need a ‘God’
or an agnostics because

–     his religion just does not make sense to him,
–     he already has ‘knowledge’ about all religions and none seems attracted to him
–     he has got a ‘type of knowledge’ about religion that ‘all religions are men made’
so you will find many types of atheists and many types of agnostics.

And then those believers in a ‘God’. If you ask why you believe in God? He will answer you, because
–     “I was born and raised to be in that particular religious community”
–     He has developed the philosophy that “whatever you believe does not matter as long as you remain good to other”, So, he believes because he has to believe but he has no idea about the ‘God’ he believes in (unfortunately included many Muslims too)
–     There are some extraordinary types of believers out there who think that ‘God’ is such that it is not befitting him to put himself in words (in the books that people believe in), so he has some kind of fantasy thought about his God. (Subhan Allah, how many different philosophical minds people developed)

Take every individual differently.

So, in the very first scope, you get, try to know his mindset about religion or whatever he believes about the purpose of life or philosophies.
and then decide how to go:

I will give you a rhetorical example here. Imagine each single person lives in a big bolder with many small compartments of different philosophies for different aspects of life where these compartments are his background environment, Whatever knowledge he possesses, whatever intellect he has but he is so much protective of his ideas, thoughts and beliefs like a fort protects its inhabitants from outside attack and he lives in his fortress so comfortably. What you can do with such people? You also have to equip yourself with all the tools you have like drill machine, Hammer, pliers, ranch etc at least to make a tiny rat hole on the wall if not breaking the wall.

Therefore with a particular person, you might,
–     straight hit one of the blocks of the bolder frame and make a hole there
–     cut through one side of the one of the block only
–     Just only a scratch on one side of one of the block
If Allah wills even with that scratch might become a large hole one day.

Understanding Qadr of Allah:

You can do only whatever Allah written for you and for that person
Even If it is not possible to make just a little physical scratch (rhetorically speaking) then try to make a blow of air from your mouth to that bolder. What I mean by that is ( I really have to give you another picture of human psychology). Everything you see or hear or smell or even every single place you put your step on shapes your destination towards your Qadr that Allah set for you and Allah already knew this. But don’t think of Qadr for now a much. That’s entirely a separate discussion, InShaaAllah. For now, think psychologically. You know sometimes we run on 100 km speed in a car or train and then suddenly we look at some other car or train coming from an opposite direction in same 100 km speed. Can you see a face or an image of a person in the car or train coming opposite to you? not even a second, not even a 10th of a second. It is less than that. And then you see something for that second but it captures an image in your mind that can last for some period of time or even for a longer period in your mind. That milli-second also a part of Qadr and might have an impact on your life. We hear a single word from a person which makes an impact in our mind for some moments to a long time or even to a long period. Even a smell comes in your nose shapes your destination, your Qadr. You can test these yourself. Just you have to be watchful and thoughtful.

So, even a word comes out from your mouth that goes to a person’s ear is a Qadr set by Allah, that has been written before and the angels will write it again now and that is true for that person too. If Allah wills that one word can have an impact in that person’s life which might add with other things set by Allah for that person, eventually can make the difference In Shaa Allah.

Nothing is little:

So, bottom line is, if anything is not possible with a person then just let him have a milli-second glance of his eyes on something about Allah, the owner of the universe or let him hear about just only a word about Allah, his creator which he might not have known in his entire life as if you are giving a clue to person about his lost parent, maybe he is searching for it or maybe not but Allah already put instinct in him to attach and align things about Allah in his heart throughout his life. So every single word counts as a ‘single drops make an ocean’ for him that might save him from the eternal fire In Shaa Allah.

That’s the extreme level of a mindset of dawah a Muslim should develop. I hope In Shaa Allah you can benefit from it.

How far to go?

You have to assess that yourself. If a person is simple and understanding you can describe him the consequence of not being Muslim.

With a group of persons, you can just

•    make them THINK that who created them?
•    give the Quran
•    explain to them that the universe has a creator
•    make them understand that they should be grateful for the blessings they have.

May Allah give us strength and give us wisdom and guide us.