Abdullah Hakim Quick – Dawah A Prophetic Legacy- Necessity and Approaches
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All praise are due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds,
and peace and blessings
be constantly showered
upon our beloved prophet Muhammad,
his family, his companions, and all those who
call to his way
and establish his sunnah
to the day of judgement.
As to what follows,
This is the 3rd part of our summer
series,
of
interactions
with the community
to keep things going, and we're now at
the end of the summer.
And,
this is a special program
because it's connected
not only to the main
body here,
but tomorrow
as well, tomorrow evening
at the new Muslim corner.
There will also be a feedback.
This is like a report back,
that will be happening. So it's today and
tomorrow as well in case somebody misses
the slide presentation.
And,
we are looking at the the topic of,
Adawa,
the call to Allah,
that this is a prophetic
legacy.
And this is one of the forgotten,
aspects
of Islam.
But it is so important
that you will see that it is the
essence of the message of all of the
prophets.
And so we want to look at Dawah
itself,
especially for those,
young people, those activists
who are online,
those here,
and for the future, to understand something about
Dawah,
and then,
to look at a practical application of the
principles
that we are talking about.
So when we look at the issue of
dawah,
it comes from the Arabic,
which means to call,
or to invite.
This is a general
concept.
But we are talking about a
and one of the
scholarly definitions
for dawah
is to encourage humanity
to righteousness
and divine guidance.
In joining righteousness, forbidding evil,
in order that they would attain
success
in this life and the hereafter.
So the essence of dua
is not just a word,
but it is
an action.
There's a process,
that
the great prophets and messengers went through,
with their people.
Prophet Muhammad was
the seal,
of the prophets and messengers.
And his,
responsibility
was not like the other prophets because he
not only
had to call his people living in Mecca
and in the Hejaz area of Arabia,
but he was also
given the responsibility
to call all of humanity.
And even further,
he was a prophet to the jinn
as well. Creatures made from smokeless fire.
And so
the call to itself,
begins
with the prophet himself,
and then it starts to spread out.
So everybody who accepts Islam,
once they are able to secure themselves,
then
they have a responsibility
whether male, female,
young, especially if a person reaches puberty,
there is a responsibility
to reach out to others,
and not just hold the message to ourself,
but we have to actually be able to,
engage with other people. And the province all
settled them said in one authentic
that you should spread
this message
even if it is one
verse,
even if it is one sign.
And
is the plural
form in Arabic.
So that includes
male and female.
It also,
is dealing with not only a group, but
individuals as well.
So this is an individual,
type of job in a sense we all
need to try to do something.
But in terms of the actual,
legal,
reality of Dawa,
the scholars consider it to be
And means it is a compulsory
act
that has to be done
by somebody in the community.
And if it's not done,
then the whole community is in sin.
And so if somebody dies, if a Muslim
dies,
then it is that
Janaza has to be done for that Muslim.
And if nobody, if there are Muslims in
the area and nobody does
for the fallen brother or sister,
then the whole community
is is actually living in sin.
So this is
the
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That is
on all of the Muslims
wherever they are.
And it has great rewards.
And the prophet
said, if Allah guides
one person
through you,
it is better
than the most expensive red camel. In other
words, it is the most valuable thing
that can happen to you
if some if Allah guides a person on
your hands.
Because you will get the blessings
of that person. When that person is doing
good deeds,
you will get the blessing according to the
prophet
without taking away from the blessings of the
person.
So, Dawah really is,
the essence of the message.
And you'll see that all of the prophets
had to be involved in this.
Some of them weren't successful,
but they had to make the effort.
And
to look at Dawa itself, to understand it,
and I wanna go just a little bit
into the science of Dawa
because there is a science,
behind this.
And and looking at the science of dawah,
you have,
what is called,
and Adaiya.
For those who study Arabic language,
you know, you have a construction. They say
Mudaf
Mudaf Ilehi.
So you say,
kitab,
book.
And you say kitabola.
So when when something is, you know, connected
to the other words
called.
So so the scholars of Dawa, because it
is a science as well,
tried to break it down so that a
person could have,
a scientific understanding to be able to understand
really what they are doing and to apply
Dawa,
in its essence,
anywhere you found themselves. So Al Madru
is the one who is being called.
Al Madru.
So if you called somebody
to come to a wedding,
then that person receives your invitation.
Okay. So that's.
In this case, we're dealing with a dawah
Then Al Madru,
is all of humanity.
So it is our responsibility
that this message should get to all of
humanity.
When the prophet
was in his final,
years, final part of his life at the
Arafat sermon,
he said that those people present
should spread this message, take this message
to all those who are not present.
So he put it on the shoulders of
the companions
that they should take this out.
And even though they were accustomed to the
Arabian Peninsula,
everybody has their own type of food,
their own environment.
The majority of the companions
died outside of Hejaz.
Outside of the Mecca and Medina area, the
majority of the command did not
die in their own area.
They went out.
And so this is important because in in
in in some cases, we tend to think
that there are certain type of people
who we should spread the message to other
ones we don't.
But that's not the case. Like in the
case of Musa alaihi salam,
he spread the message. His job, he had
to go to Faron.
He had to go to pharaoh and
spread the message.
So, technically speaking,
the message needs to be spread to all
people. However,
high they think they are or powerful they
think they are, the message in one way
or another
needs to get to them.
Also to the poorest people,
to those who don't have access,
to media, who don't have power, the message
is supposed to get to them as well.
And so this is important in certain parts
of the world.
You will see
that,
it was a mistake.
It's a weakness sometimes,
on the part of the Muslims,
but it happens.
For example,
I was in Malaysia
in the city of Kuala Lumpur,
and
there is a certain section as you go
toward the university.
There's a a turn off and it says
Orang Asli,
area.
And Orang Asli,
these are the original
people of Malaysia.
The original Malaysians.
And in in Australia, they use the word,
Aborigines.
Here would
be first nations or indigenous,
native people. So the indigenous people,
of Malaysia
were actually a people
who
descendants who came from Africa to be straightforward.
Because all human beings originally came from Africa
and spread. So the orangusli
of Malaysia
are actually African,
people,
And they live in certain areas.
And maybe it was a weakness. I don't
know exactly what happened.
But
when the Malays, which you know as Malaysians
came, they came from Thailand.
So when they migrated south and then they
populated
and they had embraced Islam,
they did not do dawah to the Orang
Asli.
So the majority of the Orang Asli people,
maybe 90% of them today, are Christians.
The Christians went to the Orang Asli,
and the Muslim did not do this. And
that is a mistake.
Because it was a responsibility
of the Muslims.
Especially how Allah blessed Malaysia with its climate,
and, you know, with its
natural resources.
It was their responsibility
to go to the people,
and it's still their responsibility
to do that.
And so
this is the first
section
of, you could say, principles of dawah.
The foundations of dawah. The second is.
What are you calling to? What is the
message
that you're calling to?
And it is scholars agree that the essence
of the message
has to be the book of Allah and
the sunnah of prophet Muhammad That's
what we're calling to. We're not calling to
our
leader.
We're not calling to our national nationality.
We're not calling to our organizations,
but we're calling to Islam itself
submission to the will of Allah.
And that is really important point,
when we're going out to people
to recognize that,
we are open minded. We can be very
open minded.
The the message is a broad message.
And if we're dealing with,
the Quran itself
and the prophetic methodology,
we can then apply
this message
to the people.
And the scholars look at different people. When
you are going out,
in the field,
there are people who
the message
has come to,
and they accepted it. And those are the
Muslims.
There are people who
the message came to them
and
they
refused to accept it.
Those people are the kufa
or the kafirun.
But there are some people who are in
the original
condition,
and the message has not come to them
yet properly.
They have not understood it.
And scholars agree that
a person who's in that condition
is under the mercy of Allah.
Allah can decide
to punish that person
or to forgive them.
And I remember being in Guyana,
and we went, south along one of the
rivers,
which is Amazon territory when you start to
go to the jungle areas.
And we came across
the Arawak,
people.
And I spoke with the leader of the
Arawak
there, and I asked him about their concept
of god.
Do you have a concept of the great
spirit?
And he said, yes.
We believe in our we we believe in
so he said,
so they have a concept of the great
spirit.
So according to our understanding, because we're not
Christians. The Christians would come in an area
and say, you're infidels.
If you don't accept the blood of Jesus,
you're going to *.
That's not opposition.
Opposition is that the people who live deep
in the Amazon region,
who never heard
of Jesus, Moses, Mohammed,
none none of these people.
If a person believes in one god
and lives a good life,
Then technically speaking, that person
is a Muslim.
And they are under
the shadow of Allah. Allah will decide
whether that person will enter paradise or hellfire.
Even though the Quran has been revealed
and it is on earth, but it didn't
reach that person.
Okay? So this is the essence of our
message,
in terms of,
going out in the path and our responsibility.
The third part is Adaiya.
And Adaiya is the one who calls.
And there are there's a lot of studies
done on this and, you know, there's this
but there's basic
qualities that we need,
to go out in the path,
especially today. Because today's situation has changed a
lot,
in, how we are
dealing with people and the tensions and whatever.
So
there's a few
qualities
I wanna talk about. Number 1
is that the person who's going out to
give the message
should have basic knowledge
of the message.
And that they don't have to be a
scholar,
but they need to at least
have a a decent under their faith needs
to be intact.
Right? Their belief in Allah, their their, you
know, and angels and his book. Right? The
sections of iman and, you know, whatnot.
And they should
know the basic of halal and haram.
So if they know this, then at least
they are
grounded enough,
to go out, you know, to somebody and
to spread the message. But the second part
is they need to apply it to themselves.
So they have to be actively
applying Islam
to themselves. And those who go out in
the path
have found
that, it actually helps the one who's going
in the path.
Because when you're out there giving dua to
people and you and you start talking about
certain principles
and certain issues,
there's a voice in the back of your
head. Am I doing this myself?
So you might go home and say, okay.
You debated about prayer.
Right? And, you know, are we actually doing
our prayers?
You debated about telling the truth. Do we
tell lies?
So it actually helps the person who is
doing
dawah, but the basic application is necessary.
3,
that the person who does dawah, especially today,
needs to seek their reward
from Allah
and not from people.
Because if you do it to to to
think that you're gonna get, you know,
a high salary or you're gonna become famous,
then this is not the right work for
you because this work
is is supposed it is for Allah
The reward is great.
The most valuable thing on earth
you can get.
Okay? But the intention,
the
the sincerity
has to be there for the person who
is going out on the path.
Next is a sabar,
and that is patience.
That going out on the path requires,
the ability to,
not overreact.
Especially today with Islamophobia
being out there and the things that we
have to face,
it's not easy, but patience
has always been one of the greatest
qualities.
Now there's 2 areas
that that is specific to our situation today.
And that is that the people who are
representing
Islam
need to be
courageous
and humble at the same time.
Normally, when you think of somebody who's courageous,
then that person is powerful and
almost appearing to be arrogant.
But the best caller to Islam is
is a courageous person,
unafraid to go into certain areas and to
do what they're humble as well.
Humility.
And and and that is the quality
of even some of the greatest martial artists
in the world.
The more a person learns the science of
self defense,
they actually become more humble.
So courage and humility
and very polite.
We have to be polite. And if somebody
insults you,
because they will be insulting you. You don't
insult back.
They say a bad word and you throw
a bigger bad word back at them. No.
You have to you have to you have
to take it.
You have to be able to withstand,
being insulted
and sometimes even being physically harmed.
And the last point of the so many,
issues and qualities
is open mindedness
and commitment.
So the person needs to be multizim.
That means they are committed to their faith.
But open minded.
And and and that is a special quality
today because if we are used to talking
to a certain type of people,
if we're only used to functioning Islamically
in the masjid
and you go out on the streets, what
are you gonna do
when you face something
that you've never heard of before?
How you gonna handle it?
So we're committed but open minded.
I remember years ago,
here in Toronto, we were on the streets
in Yonge Street,
doing dawah.
And this group came and they had gray
shirts on and they had this cross
with horns.
The cross and horns around it.
So we said, what is this?
Because normally, the horns
are connected
associated with the devil. Right?
And the cross with Jesus.
K. So this is a new group on
the street. They said, what is this? They
said, Jesus said,
love your enemies.
Who is the greatest enemy of mankind but
Satan?
So they were a type of church of
Satan
that was coming up under Christianity.
Now how are you gonna handle this? Right?
We had to reason with them. Right? You
gotta reason with them.
So we're committed to our faith, but now
I wanna understand
how did this person come to this
this understanding?
And how can I help them out of
it? You see? So you're gonna run into
all types of things,
out in the path of Allah
And,
in terms of methodology, I just wanna touch
on the methodology,
there
without going into too much details.
But Allah
tells us in
verse 1 2025.
Call to the way of your lord with
wisdom
and fear preaching
and debate with them
in the best way.
These are some of the principles of giving
dua itself.
And so the key word here is hikmah,
wisdom.
And in Arabic, hikmah is
putting things in the proper perspective.
Okay. So this is a key quality
of, the dawah itself.
In terms
of the practical application today,
to gain wisdom
and because the verse says
so so so the Quran is gonna give
you a lot of wisdom.
The prophetic stories gives you a lot of
wisdom.
Okay.
Age gives wisdom.
But there's some other things that we need
to know now. Because we're in a very
conflicting,
complicated
situation.
Number 1,
we need to know
non
Muslim
politics.
We have to know if you're gonna call
to Allah,
you can't be somebody buried in the Masjid
and then go out on the street and
then start talking to people.
We have to know what is happening in
the society.
What are the trends?
In society.
What are some of the latest events that
have gone on?
What what, you know, what's going on on
the streets? If you're gonna go on the
streets, you need to know what's happening on
the streets.
Even to go further, we need to know
something about what they call pop culture.
What is the especially amongst the youth.
What is the pop culture? What are the
trends?
Because this is gonna come at us.
And the youth might talk to us with
certain vocabularies
that we're not even aware of.
All of this gives us the wisdom
to say the right thing
at the right time.
Okay? And this is something that we
workshop.
We go out in the path, and the
more you're in the path,
the more you're able to,
gain this wisdom.
Next is
and this is a special point. I believe
that wherever you are, we need to know
the history of Islam in the particular area
where we are calling.
K. So when you understand the history of
Islam,
what was the relationship of Muslims to the
people in the past?
It gives you an understanding about what to
do today.
We also need to know
what are some of the movements
that are impacting
Muslims.
Impacting Muslims.
I was in a situation in,
in Cape Town, South Africa,
and there were different
religions there. And, you know, it was an
open forum.
And a group came on the side and
start passing out,
pamphlets.
And so I looked I I asked for
a pamphlet and I looked at it and
they were calling to the Ahmadiyya Qadiyani movement.
Gulam Ahmed.
And we're dealing with non muslims.
Yeah.
So I called the person on the side
and I said to him,
you need to stand down.
Because your call
is now a complication. We're calling
to Islam.
We're calling to prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
We're calling to the Quran. You're talking about
a movement that started
like in the 19th century. So
so stand down. So he he stood down,
and we got the pamphlets.
He tried to
put them on the side, but we confiscated
all of the pamphlets.
But if you don't know who the Cardianis
are,
you might have a problem because they might
give something out in your name.
Not calling to Muhammad ibn Abdullah but calling
to Gulam
Ahmed.
Right? The liar prophet,
you know, who came, in Indo Pakistani subcontinent.
We also need to know
anti Islamic
elements. The things
which how we're being attacked. You've gotta be
prepared for this
Because it will come to you in different
ways.
You you understand their symbols and and and
and their signs and something about them. And
this gives us the wisdom
to go in the path.
So I want to give you, instead of
going theoretical, I wanna give you a practical
application.
Time is not with us,
so we're gonna go through it tonight. And
tomorrow night, for those who want more, in
detail at the new Muslim,
corner, which will be upstairs at 7:30,
we'll be going in more depth,
over this. So this is a Dawa Islamic
awareness,
week program that I just came back, you
know, from,
on Thursday,
last, Thursday.
And I I was in Trinidad and Tobago,
right, for,
a week.
And this program
so this is the base base of of
the the Americas as you may know. For
those of you of you who who are
not aware of Trinidad, are there any Trinidadians
here?
Okay.
For those of you who might not know,
if you look down by Venezuela,
if you can see that,
just above Venezuela is Trinidad.
So Trinidad is literally,
right off the coast of South America.
And even in terms of
the environment, they say that
the trees
and the animals
in Trinidad are different than you'd find in
Jamaica
and in other Caribbean Islands because Trinidad actually
broke away from South America
in the past.
So literally, it is a piece of South
America in the water.
Okay. And Tobago is a small island there
and and and Trinidad and Tobago,
make up, this country.
And,
again, because time is not with us,
one of the key issues to understand the
presence of Muslims
there in this region.
It was during the Atlantic slave trade.
And that's from 1500
to 18 70
that African people were captured
and taken to the Americas
as prisoners of war and enslaved people. And
you can see here those arrows
going from,
West Africa and Central Africa.
It shows you the ports and where they
took the slaves to, from different parts of
West and Central Africa.
Okay? So,
this is millions of people who came into,
the region. Now we have documented proof that
somewhere between 15 to 30 percent
of the African,
enslaved people
were Muslims.
1 out of 3.
And in some areas, it was more than
1 out of 3 was Muslims.
And that's something that people didn't realize,
before.
But,
really the first presence,
of organized Islam came with the African people,
who were enslaved and came into the how
do you get this proof?
There's a number of eyewitness reports, written documents.
There are autobiographies
and records.
Like you see to the left there, that's
Arabic written by a person who was enslaved.
So there were there were scholars amongst the
people who were enslaved,
who came into the Americas
reason. Some of them wrote the Quran, the
whole Quran from memory.
And and we have some of these books,
today.
This is just a couple examples
in the region itself.
These are some documents of a liberated African
slave at Carmichael.
This is in Nassau, Bahamas.
Okay. So this came to the surface.
It's in it's in the archives there in,
Nassau.
And, so this is Arabic writing,
and there are whole islands. The island of
Exuma,
there in the in the Bahamas chain was
majority Muslims.
Okay. Now this is from in Jamaica.
In Jamaica, Mohammed Kaaba
from Buka in Malinke of Guinea. He was
studying to be a judge and he was
captured at 20 years old and deported to
Jamaica. He was studying Akadi. He's gonna be
a judge.
This this is a learned person. He was
captured during a war, taken to the coastline,
and sent to Jamaica.
And Abu Bakr Siddiq
was a scholar from Timbuktu.
You heard of the Timbuktu, the great city
of knowledge there in Mali. He was captured
and taken to Jamaica in 18/34,
but he wrote extensively in Arabic. So see
the writing is there. These are some of
the Arabic writings.
And in Jamaica and in Haiti
and in Suriname
and Brazil
and in many parts during the slavery period,
we actually have documented evidence
of the presence of these people.
And
But in Trinidad itself,
Trinidad is probably
we have more documentation
about presence of African Muslims
than maybe anywhere else in the whole region.
That's something special about Trinidad.
And not only during the slavery period,
but in the 19th century,
when the British,
started to bring indentured laborers,
they also,
hired
and contracted people to serve in their military.
And this was called the West Indian
regiment.
They even used these people in the Napoleonic
to fight Napoleon
and whatnot. It's interesting if you if you
if you look at the,
the the clothing of the people. Can anybody
does that look like something that you've seen
before?
Look at the dress of of the African
people there. Has anybody ever seen this dress
before?
It's Turkish.
It's Ottoman dress.
So if you if you study the Ottoman
Empire,
what the British was so impressed by the
Ottomans
that they actually started to use Ottoman dress,
either coming from Turkiye or Algeria
where the Ottomans were controlling as well. And
this became
the dress of
the regiment. All these these people were not
all Muslims. Most of them maybe were not
even Muslims.
But you see the dress. It's got Turkish
pants. It's got a like a turban and
a red cap,
there.
So this is the West Indian,
regiment. Now there was one person who was
was originally cap captured. He he joined He
was in the regiment. His name was Eunice
Mohammed Baas.
And Eunice Mohammed was very active person
and he formed a community in Port of
Spain.
And he went around to the different
first slave ships
in different areas to find Muslims.
And,
he,
was able to form a community
and he along with,
you know, others formed this Mandingo community. I
think we're coming close to the time now.
We still got time.
Okay. So,
Eunice Mohammed Bath,
he was a community and religious leader.
Okay. Enslaved, transported to Trinidad.
So you see the biography 1804.
He was able to purchase his own freedom
and he went on to be the leader
of the Mandingo
population. These are the Mande people of West
Africa and Trinidad. He was described as the
chief priest and patriarch
of the entire
Muslim population
of the colony.
So so the British, when they were dealing
with Muslims,
African Muslims at the time in the colony,
Eunice Mohammed Baas was considered to be representative
in the Trinidad area.
Okay. And he made a petition
to the British government to repatriate
the Mandingo community in, to Africa.
But the British rejected this.
They didn't wanna get involved in this.
Okay. But his area,
Eunice Mohammed bath, is the area. There's a
bath street now on in Port of Spain.
It's generally known where his masjid was and,
it's a very interesting,
story.
Another
interesting person, Mohammed Sisi.
Okay. And he,
was part of the
West
Indian regiment as well. You can see the
dress
of the West Indian regiment.
And,
they disbanded the group in Trinidad,
and some of them settled in Port of
Spain.
And in the south of of of Trinidad,
they were given land in
in in the Manzanilla
area.
Okay. Sorry. In the northeast
section of Trinidad.
Okay. And this became,
an Islamic area.
So they literally had a community.
They had an amir.
They were growing crops.
And it is said that when port of
when a port of Spain, when there was
a drought, they actually
fed
the city.
That's how well they were doing.
And there's some traces of their land,
that is still there.
They petitioned to the British government,
to to they wanted to go back to
Africa, but they refused to do that.
But,
he himself, very interesting,
he was actually able to make it back
to his home country in Gambia.
You know, Senegal, Gambia, where he was from
Gambia. He made it back,
to his own, village
there in Gambia,
but his community,
continued on.
So the African Muslims there
have, a strong past.
There's there's a very strong past that's there.
So we organized,
along with the Islamic dawah movement.
Okay. We organized,
this week
from August,
9th to 17th
was the Dawah week.
And it first began with,
a Khutba
that was done in the Jama Masjid
there in Port of Spain.
Now
for those of you who are not, Trinidadians,
most of our activities were
in
sort of the north central area. You can
see Port of Spain to the left, and
then you see the north central area of
San Juan,
Tunapuna,
Arima,
Chaguanas,
and these areas there. This is where we
concentrated,
the efforts
because,
unfortunately, there's so much traffic in Trinidad. It's
like Toronto now.
There's so much traffic that that it it's
it takes a a long time,
to go from one part to another. So
this was the Jumuah Masjid in in the
Jammu Masjid. Now you can see the side
of this Masjid. One of the issues now,
remember Hikma,
wisdom.
One of the big issues now in Port
of Spain is crime.
The gangsters.
The gangs are controlling
certain sections of the town.
And we had decided to do the there
in the JAMA Masjid.
And,
we came in on the other side. I
wanted to go to the front of the
Masjid here. This is called the East Dry
River,
in Masjid, the Jama Masjid.
And, the police were there, and they said
you can't go on the other side
because the the gangs are there. And
but so many cars came that they had
to send a special squad
to ring the area where the cars were
because the gangs in certain areas there are
carrying automatic weapons.
But, you
can see some of the brothers, the strong
brothers are there.
The masjid was packed and even overflowing on
the outside,
and we began,
you know, our program of,
Islamic awareness.
Following this was a was a TV,
interview with the IBN,
you know, programmed to put out a a
message, you know, on television.
And
then we did a special dinner,
dinner for Dawa,
there and community support,
for the call to Allah.
It was well attended.
It was held at the University of the
West Indies,
campus.
There,
and,
it was well attended,
there.
And the question that was being that we
spoke about that night is why the world
needs Islam.
So this is now outreach.
Why does the world need Islam?
These are the messages that we're giving out
to the public, radio, television,
on the streets.
This is part of the wisdom of Dawah.
And,
yeah, this is part of the community there.
Well attended dinner.
Then we went to Mashrul Hadi in Charlieville.
Alhamdulillah,
the the the topic was Palestine and the
Muslim Ummah.
Alhamdulillah,
in Trinidad, they have a strong Palestinian
support group.
And
they went to the streets,
and the ambassador of Palestine in the region
came to Trinidad.
And even Riyadh Mansoor, he's the representative of
the Palestinians in the UN. He came to
Trinidad.
And so, this is Masjid Al Hadi.
There,
one of the centers of the resistance movement,
there in Trinidad. Trinidad has a high consciousness
in terms of things that are going on.
The place was packed,
and and the spirit was high
in dealing with resistance.
And people understood the importance of understanding
the history of Palestine.
And that's part of the wisdom of Dawah
that we need to know
the history of things that came before
us. And so this is some shots,
there from,
Masjid,
Al Hadi,
there in Charlieville.
And we had boots
in different areas, San Juan and Arima,
in different sections. So this is how a
typical Dawa booth would look. You're entering into
the main super this is your metro soup
supermarket.
They are the extra
supermarket. And right next to it,
we worked out a relationship with the owner
of the of the of the, our shop.
And so we set a dower booth. You
can see the sister right there. And, so
this is the where we had the dower
booth set up
as the people are entering into,
the marketplace,
and they are engaged
in a positive way with the message,
a positive message,
for Islam.
Then we had a the next day, we
had a community interaction
with one of the solid communities in Port
of Spain. This is again in that really
tough area there.
And the brother on the right with his
family, Kwesi, Atiba, he was here in Toronto
for a long time.
And, he's one of the leaders, there in
the community,
there.
Interestingly enough, he has been chosen by the
government of Trinidad
to a 3,
person committee.
And what they're doing, they're repatriating
some of the,
Trinidadian
families who were who were caught with ISIS.
Remember the ISIS situation?
Well, some of the families
are caught in
these huge,
desert
tent places.
So the government is now considering to to
repatriate,
because the women and the children are still
there. And so, Quacy is part of the
deck committee,
chosen by the government to work out a
strategy for repatriation,
you know, of the families back, to Trinidad.
Following this, we went, to a place called
Enterprise. This is a section in Chaguanas.
It's a very tough area, actually. There are
strong gangs,
in this area. We had open house.
So they went to the neighbors, and we
brought the neighbors in. The food was there.
And as a general call,
to Islam was done,
in the masjid, the enterprise
community
masjid.
K? Then we had a webinar
online dealing Islamic solution to crime
and social problems.
Okay. So that was something for the online
community,
who couldn't necessarily make it out,
to the programs.
So these are some of the,
things that we did. It's a practical application
of
a dawah, the call to Allah, and the
wisdom that was needed in this circumstance.
So I wanna open up the floor for
any feedback or questions,
that anybody has concerning Trinidad,
Tobago, and the Dawa movement that is happening
there.
Floor is open for any questions,
federal questions.
Well, really, for, you know, for us, in
terms of the different negative movements that are
out there, our message is a positive message.
Right? So so
the point is that, you know, people
still do not have a good understanding about
what what Islam is.
The media says one thing.
But do they know what the Islamic message
actually is?
So we can counteract these movements with a
positive message.
That is the way of, prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
Now any other, general questions, anybody has?
Floor is open, for any questions.
This is concerning,
the Dawa,
in this Caribbean region
in the Caribbean region. Trinidad is,
I would say, a unique
island in that region
because of the past.
It has such a deep past,
in terms of
documented evidence. We can connect things
directly from way back in the slavery period.
Of course, the indentured labor period as you
know, just like in Guyana,
waves of Muslims came also from India
and other places as well.
And then there were also economic migrants that
came
from Syria and the Arab world who came
in this region as well.
So so Trinidad as a port city,
has always been a place where there's a
lot of information
and a lot of interaction
that goes on. So it is unique,
but it it's just a reflection of the
potential,
of the Caribbean region for the spread of
Islam.
Floor is open for any other question anybody,
may have.
Yes. So so right. So this is a
good question about,
there were there was a wave of African
people enslaved,
then the indentured laborers came from India and
Java,
Indonesia as well. But there's waves that came,
but the most dominant group
right now are the Indian,
Muslims that are there.
I would look at the type of
relationship they had with the colonial system.
Slavery
totally destroys your culture.
So the slaves were brutalized, their names were
taken away, their religion was taken away. So
even though there were scholars amongst them, for
the most part, Islam was crushed.
Totally crushed.
And they were not allowed to, like, own
property and
maintain stable families.
So it's only recently now in 20th century
that African people have begun to now come
back into Islam. Whereas during the indentured labor
period,
the people, as you know,
were able to at least maintain their identity.
And, it was really rough,
but they could even have a piece of
land
and, eventually even build. So resistance was done
through the building of masjids and madrasas
that was there. So therefore, the colonial system
actually,
enabled them to a certain extent
to preserve,
their faith. Whereas in in the case of
the Africans,
it was totally crushed.
Their names were taken away. Their identity was
taken away. Christianity
was forced upon them.
And so they were not able to return,
you know, to their original, you know, roots
as well.
The Arabs that came,
you know, maybe 90% of the Arabs who
came to the region were Christians.
Well, you don't find that many,
Arab,
Muslims who are in the region. But in
certain places,
if you go to,
Virgin Islands and,
you know, some other places, you'll see Arab
business people who are there, who are who
identify,
with Islam.
Now, any other general questions, we have before
we,
break for Salat and Mavrib? Floor is open
for any questions.
So this is the last, of our summer
series.
And inshallah, we want to we will be
continuing on with these special programs,
that will be coming here and there, leading
into October, which would be Islamic history month.
Inshallah, we want to have, again, our series,
you know, to be there.
And we pray that Allah would enable,
those people in the Dawah movement to be
strong and to continue
and to grow from strength to strength.
May Allah bless the members of the Islamic
Dawa movement
and those on the ground
who are carrying the banner of Islam.