Zakir Naik – Living in Pakistan How To Study Comparative Religion for Dawah

As-salamu alaykum, Dr. Sahib.

Walaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Muhammad Nawaz, University teacher from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Alhamdulillah, I have studied the Quran.

I want to study other religions.

What way should I adopt to study comparative

religion?

If there are your lectures in which you

have taught the way, so please share the

link.

The brother said that he has studied the

Quran, he wants to study comparative religion.

So can I guide him which lecture should

he refer to?

Is there any talk of mine, any program

where I teach about comparative religion?

There are many of my talks, my public

lectures which are on comparative religion and there

are books written by me.

Since you are from Pakistan, you can surely

in the religions that you should concentrate more

on comparative religion is Hinduism and Christianity.

Since these two religions are the religions which

are maximum followed besides Islam.

So if you want to study on comparative

religion, Hinduism, my talk on similarities between Hinduism

and Islam is a very good talk.

You can even refer to my talk on

Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam in the various world

religious scriptures.

You can refer to my talk on Muhammad

sallallahu alaihi wasallam in Hindu scriptures.

There is also a talk of mine concept

of God image over religion.

Regarding Hinduism, you can refer to my talk

as well as my book on similarities between

Islam and Christianity.

You can refer to my book on Muhammad

sallallahu alaihi wasallam in the Bible and the

other lectures and books on concept of God

image over religion, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam in

the various world religious scriptures and various lectures

of mine are there on comparative religion like

Salah, the program of righteousness.

These talks, if you hear, it is mainly

based on one of the important verses of

Dawah where Allah says in the Quran, in

Surah Imran, chapter number 3, verse number 64,

Qul Jahlil Kitab, three or four pages of

the book.

Ta'ala ila kalimatin sawa im bainuna mainakum.

Come to common terms, ask us and you.

Which is the first term?

Allah na'amuda izzallah.

That we worship none but Allah.

Wala nushrika bihi shayyam.

That we associate no partner with the thing.

Wala ittakhidha ba'dhuna ba'dhana arba'a bimrindunillah.

That we erect not among ourselves lords and

pits other than Allah.

Fainthawallahu.

Then if you turn back.

Fakullu shaddu.

Say it by vectors.

Bi anna muslimun.

That we are Muslims bowing our heads to

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So this is the master key for Dawah.

Allah says Ta'ala ila kalimatin sawa im

bainuna mainakum.

Come to common terms, ask us and you.

So while doing Dawah to a non-Muslim,

it's very important that if you start with

common terms, inshallah you'll be able to break

the ice and you'll be successful.

So you can start talking about common terms

and Allah reminds us here in this verse.

The most important is Allah na'amuda izzallah.

That we worship none but Allah.

Wala nushrika bihi shayyam.

That we associate no partner with the thing.

So while you're doing Dawah, you can start

with things which are common for example science

or maybe literature or whatever you feel is

common between the person you're speaking and yourself

or the religion who you're talking about and

Islam but your main aim should be Tawhid.

You may convince him to be truthful, you

may convince him not to have alcohol, you

may convince him not to have pork but

if you do not remove the shirk from

the life of your friend or the person

you're talking to, your Dawah is useless.

The most important is Tawhid.

You can talk about other things but the

most important is Tawhid.

If you're not able to remove the shirk

in his life, if you're not able to

instill Tawhid, your Dawah is useless.

So in comparative religion, the most important point

of comparative religion is the concept of God

in major world religions.

If you're speaking to a Christian, you should

try and prove Tawhid from the Bible.

First you have to prove that Jesus Christ

peace be upon him.

He never claimed divinity and we can prove

from the Bible and I say that in

my talk and in my book.

There is not a single unequivocal statement in

the complete Bible where Jesus Christ peace be

upon him says that he is God or

he says worship me.

He says I am God or he says

worship me and you can hear my talks.

So similarly when you're doing Dawah to a

Hindu, your first concept should be that you

should remove the idol worship from the life

of the Hindu.

Prove to him that according to the Vedas

there is one God, you should worship him

alone almighty God has got no image.

So your first aspect of Dawah is Tawhid.

Concept of one God that you worship him

alone and no one else.

So while doing Dawah this is the most

important aspect.

So first you should master the commonalities between

the concept of God and Islam and other

religion and try and win him over to

Tawhid.

The second most important aspect while doing Dawah

which is the pillar of Islam.

First pillar, we bear witness that there is

no God but Allah and we bear witness

that Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

The second aspect of Dawah is to prove

to the non-Muslim that Prophet Muhammad is

the last and final messenger of Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala.

You can start with you know proving him

about science if you think he is a

man of science.

No problem but your final goal should be

first Tawhid, second is Risalah that Prophet Muhammad

is the last and final messenger.

As I mentioned earlier I've given talks on

this topic.

Muhammad peace be upon him in the Bible

Muhammad peace be upon him in the Hindu

scriptures Muhammad peace be upon him in the

world religious scriptures and then you can go

on for Akhira and for Salah and various

aspects but these two are the most important

aspects and if you are able to convince

the non-Muslim on these two aspects, he

can enter the fold of Islam.

The remaining will follow.

As far as knowing the structure of how

should you be well-versed in compact religion

or how should you do Dawah, I would

advise you that you can visit our platform

Al-Hidayah.

Al-Hidayah is the largest Islamic video on

demand platform in the world.

It has the largest number of Islamic courses

in the world.

There are more than 200 Islamic courses on

that out of which many of the courses

are by me and many on compact religion

and there are thousands of hours of Islamic

video on this platform.

This platform is absolutely free.

You can visit it and there is a

course which is called as Let's Become Effective

Da'ee.

The International Dawah Training Program.

It's a long course and if you take

this course, there is a study guide, there

are questions, inshallah that will help you a

lot in the comparative religion and will help

you to become a good da'ee also.

Hope that answers the question.