Ashraf Schneider – Dawah Training #7 – Initiation

			As Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh peace blessings and mercy be upon you all. Welcome to
the seventh episode of Tao on Thursdays. And in our episode today we are going to be discussing the
initiation part of performing dharma. So initiation when performing Dharma is probably one of the
most important aspects. Because what we do is we make another individual feel comfortable with the
conversation that we are going to have with him. And if your initiation is a little bit Rocky, your
entire conversation is going to be built on this foundation. So what I'm going to do today is I'm
going to teach you guys about the two different aspects of initiation, active and passive. Passive
		

			initiation means that you are either at $1 table, or you at a social gathering, or you're walking
outside and somebody comes to you and they ask you a question about Islam. Now, remember, in our
episode regarding the downfall of dollar, how to answer some of these questions, so you would tell
this individual, in order for you to understand the answer to this question, you need to understand
the fundamentals and foundations of Islam. And that will give you an opportunity to share the
message of Tajweed to share the message of our beautiful revelation and to speak about Prophet
Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him, which we will discuss in a later episode. Now, this gives
		

			you the foundation to start your conversation with regards to passive data. And it seems very
simplistic and truly it is, because fundamentally, if somebody asks you a question about Islam, you
just bring them back to the foundations of what we believe. The second type of initiation that we
find is active initiation. So this would be where we go on. So we walk up to individuals, and we
start a conversation with them. And this can oftentimes be a little bit more tricky until you know
how to do it. And I'm going to teach you guys as to how I perform active dalawa. And going out there
to start conversations with individuals. So the first thing we would do is ensure that our
		

			characters represented in the right way. And fundamentally the when we represent ourselves, we do so
in a way that is best. So we would walk up to an individual, and we would greet them peace and
blessings be upon you. My name is Ashraf and I'm here today with my friends, we are looking for
individuals to speak to, to ask them profound questions about things in life. And that is it. It is
truly that simple. And then you start the conversation with this individual. Now, if you said that
you are starting a conversation regarding some of the profound things in life, you would ask them a
question. For instance, do you believe that God exists? This is a simple question to ask them and it
		

			takes you directly towards the foundation. Or you can start a conversation with them to hear a
little bit more about their opinion, to be able to read this individual understand empathetically as
to who they are, where they come from, for instance, you would ask them, What do you believe is the
purpose of life? Now it's a very difficult question to answer, because a lot of people attempt at
answering this question but they're not able to find a concluding statement. Now you would give this
person an opportunity to contemplate this and to work through this process with you. And we know
that the Holy Quran tells us Allah subhanho wa Taala says that we have not created jinn or humankind
		

			except but to worship me. So fundamentally, that is our purpose in life, that everything that we do
in this life, we do so to worship the Almighty Creator. But how do you introduce that to an
individual that doesn't know about the Quran as of yet, or doesn't know Allah subhanho wa Taala. So
what I would do is I would walk up to an individual, I would smile and greet them politely. And then
I would ask them this question, what do you believe is the purpose of life, and I would sit there
and truly try to listen as to what they have to say. Because this will give you insight as to the
individual, the human being that you are speaking to, to understand where they are coming from the
		

			emotions that they hold within themselves and the perspective that they have about life. And then it
will give me an opportunity to introduce the purpose of life. And fundamentally what I start with
disaster, everything in life has a purpose. an earthworm has a purpose to cultivate the ground. A
bird has a purpose to pick up that earthworm and displaces seed. And then his tree would grow, which
has a purpose to create shade. We can cut down the street to create housing and so forth. And
everything in life has a specific purpose. But the question remains, what is our purpose as humanity
as a whole? It doesn't matter what ethnicity we come from, what background what race or history, but
		

			fundamentally for us as a collective as humanity, what is our purpose in life, and so introducing
them to this idea of a purpose of life, I have an opportunity to share our perspective. Now, how
exactly do you do that? So I would tell them, imagine I had a bag in front of me, full of a million
US dollars, and I were to gift this to you today as charity, would you accept it? Now 99% of the
people that you tell this to that there's no strings attached, that I'm truly just gifting? They
will say yes, of course I will accept it. But if you tell this individual that would you accept
this, if I tell you that you need to give me your eyes, your ears and your arms. 100% of the people
		

			will say absolutely not. Their ability to see their ability to hear their ability to work with their
arms is more valuable to them, then a mountains waiting gold. Now this explanation in itself is an
amazing stepping stone to explain the purpose of life to this individual. Because what I like to
tell them then is that we believe
		

			That through the gifts that we have been given our ability to see, to hear and to work with our
arms. We did not ask for this, we did not earn this, this was a gift that was given to us by the
Almighty Creator. And we believe that through these gifts that the Creator has given us that we
should utilize them to the best of our own capacity to serve and worship this Almighty God. Let me
give you an example how that through our eyes, whatever we look at, we only look at things that are
pleasurable to this Almighty Creator. But throughout years, everything we listen to, we only listen
to things that are pleasurable to this Almighty Creator. And through our arms, we only work in
		

			something that is pleasurable to the Almighty Creator. And that through these actions, we worship
this creator and that is what we believe is the purpose of life. Now, this means of active
initiation gives the purpose of life to a person within a natural to give them something to
contemplate and to think about. And it's also a great stepping stone for you to introduce this
methodology that we are going to discuss and in our next episode, we are going to look at this
framework to give you the capacity to go out there and speak to people now I hope that you enjoy
today's episode. And if you did, please leave a like and share this message and I look forward to
		

			seeing you at the next episode. All the best Blessings to you and your family.