Johari Abdul-Malik – The Power Of Dawah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Asking Allah
for
his mercy and peace and blessings
upon us, walhamdulillah,
and upon all of those who are seeking
Allah's guidance,
that they might be guided aright
and that they might be blessed to see
the example of Muhammad
as the seal of all of the prophets.
And that that
Allah might join all of us
in the deen
of Islam
and to enter us into his Jannah,
his paradise forever,
Amin.
Today, brothers and sisters,
I want
to try to give you a gift
that was given
to me
many many years ago,
But I want
to begin
by
reminding you
that in
the greatest
work
that any
of
human beings
can engage in,
greatest work,
is to save the life of someone.
And maybe we think about saving someone's life,
we think about
they were having a heart attack,
or maybe they were
having some
stroke or something, and you were able to
intervene
to save them
from death.
But there's another kind of life saving,
and that life saving is to take someone
from the worship
of
the creation,
to worshiping the creator,
to stop worshiping
one who has been there, their race.
You know, they call them
they call them racist.
Help me out, brother.
For the technical among us,
I think we need a battery.
I think the microphone needs a battery.
But, well, there
are people, we call them racists
because
they are defined
by
their worship of their race.
There are people that we call sexist.
Their defining
characteristic
is that they worship their gender,
whether you call them,
male chauvinist or feminist,
the most important
defining
characteristic
for them
is that their belief in what is important
and what is central in their life is
to maintain that.
Maybe there are some people, we call them
capitalists.
Their preoccupation
in life,
is to run, to acquire wealth.
They would define themselves proudly to say,
I'm a capitalist.
There are so
many
ways that people define themselves,
and maybe for us,
who define ourselves as being those who submit
their will
to the will of their creator.
That definition,
Muslim.
That definition, well, alhamdulillah, is the greatest definition
of any human identity.
Not to say I'm black. That's not the
best definition.
It only defines something temporary about me, or
that I'm white.
But the enduring
reality is that as a Muslim,
one who submits themselves to the will of
their Lord and creator
is an eternal
identity. Now,
what can we do with it?
The mission of all of the prophets
was simply
to convey
that message
to as many people
as they could possibly
communicate with.
With. Their job,
Please take care of my baby,
alhamdulillah.
Don't let her cry.
You know, Subhanallah,
one of the shayuk,
he said,
We know on the example of the Prophet
best example,
that when
there was
his
grandson, Hassan al Hussain, they were climbing on
his head during salah.
You don't have any citation of him saying,
Tell those children don't come to the masjid
anymore.
There's no citation of that.
The companions, when they finished the salah, they
said, Yeah, Rasool Allah,
we noticed you stayed in the siddud for
a long time. He said, Because of these
2,
they were on his head.
So alhamdulillah,
the Prophet
was very enduring. If the child was crying,
he was shot in the salah,
And if you are a follower of them,
then your assignment in life is to convey
the message
of what people should be
worshiping,
obeying,
following,
joining in a connection with,
throughout their lives, that they might be successful
in this life and in the hereafter.
This means, for many of us,
the first form of dawah
is from our akhlaq,
our example.
According to the Council on American Islamic Relations,
they said,
the average
American
will never the average American will never meet
a Muslim.
The only Muslim that they many of them
will see who live in Iowa or
Idaho and these other way faraway,
parts of the country with their very low
population, New Mexico,
very low population density.
Many of them, the only Muslims that they
see are on television.
And usually when they're on television,
they are shown in the worst light.
You and I, who live in cities,
have a great opportunity.
Aisha Radi Allahu Anha,
she said about Muhammad
He was a walking Qur'an.
He was a walking Qur'an.
If your neighbors are going to see the
Qur'an, the first one that they should see,
bayitnila,
is in you.
Walking like the Quran,
and talking like the sunnah of the Prophet
Many people will tell you,
I accepted Islam because I had a friend,
and because I saw that friend, my coworker,
or the neighbor, it made me interested in
Islam.
And sometimes it is because they are watching
you when you don't know that they're watching.
They look around, and they say,
I noticed that you're not eating.
What's that about?
And you know,
as Anna Enrique Aslan, I'm an original American,
born in Brooklyn.
Americans are very
inquisitive.
They might even be nosy.
They ask you a personal question.
If
you're from
a society that has been Muslim for a
long time,
you know, you have good manners. You don't
ask people personal questions who are not close
to you. In America, they ask you, they
say, where did you get that? Where are
you from?
What's the Do they do this back in
your country? He said, Man, you don't even
you don't even know me.
They don't have any problem asking the stranger.
If you drive taxicab, they ask you anything.
But subhanallah,
they only ask the people
who they sense that they are open.
And so part of your ability to make
dawah, is that you have to appear to
be open and confident.
Because what Kaye discovered is, 1,
people
know about Islam
first
by having
heard or read something.
2nd,
by knowing a Muslim.
When they put those 2 together, they say,
you know what? Islam is good.
If they only
hear about Islam, but they don't know a
Muslim, but they heard that Islam is good,
but they don't know anybody who's practicing it.
When they see the bad example, they say,
that's the theory of Islam, but in practice
nobody does that.
Now it makes sense if you live in
America, and there are a lot of people
who say they're Christian, but when you see
what they do, they don't do what Christianity
says.
So they say, well, Muslims must be like
us.
Well, hamdulillah, I accepted Islam
because I went to school with people
who they were the walking example of the
Qur'an, and the sun of the Prophet
Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you
in this great work of Dawah,
that Allah informed the Prophet himself
You will not guide
to Islam
those whom you love.
Allah guides to his path whomever Allah chooses.
So the burden is not on you, if
you convey the message
with as the Quran has described,
with
hikmah,
wisdom,
and Mawaida Hasina, with a good
reminder, good speech.
If you're talking to someone about Islam,
you should be, subhanallah,
having a good countenance.
Use the best example, use the best words.
But the result of whether they accept Islam
or not, is not your business.
This is between them and Allah
I'm going to invite you because sometimes
we have some words that we use,
and they have been adopted by our neighbors.
Many of them we invite them, in Ramadan
we invite them to come to the masjid,
to have Iftar with us, to fast during
the day.
Right now, they're in a period just ended
called Lent.
The Christians in our neighborhood,
and they have a fasting in Lent.
If you ask them, what what do you
do in Lent? They say, well, I gave
up chocolate.
You know what I'm talking about, bro. I
gave up chocolate, or I gave up eating
meat, or I gave up something. Right? And
I'm trying to imitate
what Isa ibn Maryam did. This is what
they say.
You tell them,
is that what he really did? They say,
we really don't know.
You say, well, the Quran
has informed us as a guidance from Allah
that,
fasting has been prescribed
for you as it has been prescribed for
those before you. And to fast like this,
from Fajr
until
Maghrib,
abstaining from this. Just like, well, hamdulillah the
prophet, we do it, billions of Muslims
every year,
for 14 centuries. We do it exactly like
that. Why don't you come and join us?
Try it, experience it.
We bring groups that come to the Masjid,
and will hamdillah, they come from churches and
synagogues and other groups. They want to learn
about Islam, because they know what they're hearing
in the media can't all be true,
because they have had some experience, some knowledge.
SubhanAllah,
after 9/11,
the 9th Surah, and the 32nd
Ayat became
more meaningful to me.
They would try, maybe back then, they were
using their mouth and their poetry to to
denigrate Islam. Now they use the media.
They use the television, radio, newspaper,
movies.
But Allah said,
Allah is going to increase his light.
Now the people are coming to the Masjid.
They wanna learn and see. They bring their
young people,
and we say to them, what come and
see Salat.
They say, what kind of prayer is this?
I said, look in the Bible in the
book of Nehemiah,
old testament.
The prophet they call Ezra raised hands to
the Lord, and all of the people said,
amen.
He bowed and prostrated.
They're like, wow. I said, yeah, we that's
what we do.
That we are living in the example, subhanAllah.
Many of your neighbors,
if they don't know that and they don't
know you, they won't be guided to this
path except that Allah guide them himself.
There are people like that too.
But, Alhamdulillah, I'm inviting you in this period
right now.
Today is so called Good Friday, reach out
to your neighbor.
Invite them, engage them, ask them questions like
they ask you questions,
But with the best manner, and the best
conduct, and in a good way.
Well, alhamdulillah,
and to share with them
our knowledge about all of the MBIA,
and their practices,
that they might become successful in this life
and in the hereafter.
Now, well, alhamdulillah, I wish we had more
time to talk about
the efficacy of dawah, how to make
a very excellent dawah.
But I just want to take the burden
off your shoulders. Many people will say, amen,
I would like to share
my faith with others, but I'm not very
knowledgeable.
So then try having humility.
When there's something that you don't know,
say half of knowledge is to say,
I don't know.
Because, well,
many of them,
they'll read, they're going to answer that. They'll
find out what you said is not true
anyway.
Right?
And some people say, Well, imam,
okay. I have some knowledge, but I'm a
bad example.
I'm gonna tell you now, in case you
don't know,
I meet many people who converted to Islam.
They had a boyfriend or a girlfriend who
was Muslim.
From the bad example,
they found out what Islam is.
They left that situation
and became Muslim.
They said, Abdullah, I'm sorry, I can't stay
with you anymore, but thank you, I used
to read the Quran when I came to
your house.
Alhamdulillah,
I'm gonna become Muslim, and Asalaamu Alaikum.
Unbelievable. You say, how can this? Because Allah
guides to Allah's path in different ways, however
Allah chooses.
So if you are not a perfect Muslim,
many people are impressed. They say, we asked,
full land, full land.
Tell me about Ramadan.
The first thing he says, well I'm not
fasting.
But
if you read in the Quran,
the second surah, the
183rd ayah, Allah says,
You ayyu aladinahaminu,
kuti baalika masiyyah. He tells the whole thing
just the way it is, even though
he's not practicing.
But he has enough house for Allah, that
he's not gonna lie.
That
many Muslims will say, I'm not a good
example of Islam, but Islam means 1, 2,
3.
Then, walhamdulillah,
people see that and they say, you know
what? This has got to be the truth.
Because I never met people who indict themselves,
but they liberate other people.
Let me give you 5 examples
of people that you will meet in your
Dawah.
I like to call them the 5 effects
of your Dawah.
The first effect is what I call
the hamza effect.
The hamza effect, you will meet someone,
and
you start talking to them about Islam, and
they say, what? Wanna become Muslim right now.
They're like, wait a minute. Wait. Wait. They're
like, no. If you're a Muslim, that's what
Islam is, I'm in.
And Hamza,
the uncle of the prophet
that's how he accepted Islam.
He said, If it's good enough for him,
I'm with him.
Based on knowing him, if he's that, I'm
in, I'm down.
2nd effect,
the Abu Talib effect.
You will find people that you talk to
them about Islam, you share information about Islam
with them, they never become Muslim on a
dying bed,
but they will
fight
to protect
your right to be a Muslim.
I can think of people now like John
Esposito,
or Karen Armstrong.
When people listen to them talk about Islam,
they write books about the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam accurate.
But what but they themselves, people say, are
you a Muslim? They say, no. You say,
how how can you know all of this?
And you're not Muslim. They say, well, I'm
I'm not, but
Islam, the Quran,
so and so, is the
unadulterated
word of Allah.
Say, wow.
Some of your dawah, you'll have people like
that, you can't understand it.
There's a third kind of effect.
I call it the Negashi effect,
where when you reach out to your neighbors
who have different faith traditions, the Negashi of
Ethiopia,
the prophet sent Jafar and the companions there,
and after they shared with him souls and
Miriam, he said, the difference between us and
you is no more than a line in
the sand.
That I respect,
even though I have a different religious tradition,
I respect Islam
as something which came from Allah.
The 4th effect.
I call the Abu Sufyan effect.
If you would study Syria, you know Abusufyan,
at the time, were bad.
The Qurays, they were planning an assault
against the Muslims,
and they were afraid that their caravan was
going to be raided, and Abu Sufyan said,
our caravan is safe.
He advised
Nadwa that they should not,
the congress at that time
of Makkah, advised them, don't attack
Muhammad and his people, leave them alone.
I'm not one of them, I don't really
care to be one of them, but I
know this, we should probably
leave them
alone. There are people who live in our
community,
who they have the Abu Sabyan effect. You
make dua to them, they learn about Islam
and so on, but
they're not an advocate, but when someone wants
to harm Muslims, they will tell you, I'm
sorry.
I think Colin Powell might be an example,
contemporarily.
He told them don't don't invade
the let the inspectors do their work. There's
no weapon of mass destruction.
There's no harm to us. Don't get involved
in this war.
So
someone's
effect of of dawah
on Colin Powell
and his family, Bayez Milah,
they know what Islam is. Now let me
tell you,
people who are in this category,
maybe
right now they won't accept Islam.
But if
political circumstances
change,
like Abusaf Jan
finally accepts Islam,
then Nagashi
secretly, he accepted Islam.
And we know from the seerah, he wrote
a letter to the Prophet
which the Prophet shared with his people after
his death. Maybe it wasn't
the right politics for him to come out
as the emperor of Ethiopia, to say I
converted to Islam, but I will continue to
guide my people
in ways that are just.
But I'm afraid to come out to say
publicly,
The 5th outcome,
It is Abu Dhabi.
Someone
who no matter how much they know that
Islam is right,
they would rather
die
than to prove
that Islam is wrong.
If you know from Nasir Abu Lahab,
he could have easily have said, okay,
Allah's messenger has said, according to the Quran,
this guy will never accept Islam.
He could have said, I'm gonna prove that
Islam is wrong
by saying,
Can't do it.
You'll find some please brothers, come forward. You'll
find some hardcore people.
No matter how
overwhelming
the evidence about Islam is, they are determined,
they are never accepted.
But, walhamdulillah,
4 out of those 5 outcomes,
when they come together,
they create a society
that is open and engaging,
and creates a safe space
for us to live and practice
our din.
I'm inviting you today, building the land,
especially around the Easter weekend,
to make some dawah.
To ask your neighbors while they are talking
about Isa Ibn Maryam,
for you to say we love Isa Ibn
Maryam, let's talk about it.
Let's talk about what it means
to live a life that is connected with
Allah
And if you engage in Binemillah,
many of them, myself included,
I know when I was young,
I never believed in the trinity, but I
used to go to church.
You don't know what people believe until you
ask them.
And if you engage in your dialogue with
them, they're in Atlanta, some of them will
say, you know what?
I believe what you believe in. Please come
forward, brother. They're brothers standing up, they wanna
pray.
Bani Illah,
I'm challenging you this weekend, Good Friday, Saturday,
Sunday, Bani Illah,
reach out to your neighbor, don't be shy.
Share what you know about Islam,
share the example of the prophet
with them,
that you might save their life,
in this life,
and in the hereafter.
I'm grateful to Allah that there were some
people who saved my life,
who they came to me and said, Asalaamu
Alaikum brother,
do you know about Islam?
Let me share with you just one thing.
Maybe we sit, we have tea, we have
coffee, we do we we have an opportunity
to get to know one another.
And then I discovered that these people who
say they
are some of the best people I have
never met on earth.
Until finally I decided,
I want to be one of them.
Shalom may Allah strengthen your ability to make
dua and to have courage, to
convey the message with veracity.
Oh,
Allah guide us among those whom you have
guided. Oh, Allah, protect us among those whom
you have protected.
Take us as a friend among those whom
you have taken as a friend. Oh, Allah,
calls us to stand up and speak out,
that we might save a life,
calling them to justice and to peace,
Allah. Oh Allah, we ask, alhamdulillah, that you
make us emissaries of your peace, you Allah.
Oh Allah, that we might spread the peace
and the joy and the love of Allah
throughout our society.
Oh, Allah. We ask, alhamdulillah, that you give
us the best in this life and the
best in the hereafter.
That best, you Allah, is to be connected
with you, you Allah. Oh, Allah, to worship
nothing except you. Oh, Allah, to submit our
will to nothing except your will. Oh Allah,
and then we ask