Dawah Through Actions
Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Rahim Asalam o Aleikum Wa Rehmatullahi Wa Barakatahu Dear Dr Farhat,
I hope and pray that Allah SWT accepts all of our efforts and always uses us for His Deen Amin. i would like to share with you my experience on the impact of silent tabligh through actions over the negative impact of harsh but truthful explanations. I would request that you with hold my name if you should chose to share this with anybody. I seek no appreciation or rewards except from Allah SWT. May He SWT accept all good deeds that He Blesses me with the ability to perform and may He forgive me for all the sins I commit, have committed, or will commit. Amin.
About a year ago I moved to a new town. After spending a few months without a weekend school i decided to propose the use of the Colors of Islam program as a guideline for the Sunday school. as is the case in most such situations, parents had questions–as they should–and wanted to meet me. an emergency meeting was called where it was anticipated that about twenty parents would attend. when i arrived–on time–no one was there. after a wait of about 15 minutes we had two parents out of which one parent was not even going to send his kids–due to prior commitments. AlhumduLillah not at all dismayed by the turnout i continued to explain how the curriculum worked and that made the attendees very excited. After looking at the book one of the parents asked in a very hushed tone where this curriculum was from? Of course i told him exactly what I knew he did not want to hear but AlhumduLillah Allah SWT made me chose my words carefully where i did not have to compromise the truth.
So he just told me not to tell anybody about the source as there was a very big ‘anti al-huda’ following in this American City. I was needless to say deeply saddened but at the same time realized that there was no reason to ask the next question which would be–why? i swallowed all of this with a pinch of salt and thought and prayed for the prophet SAW who had to face much worse situations and then he handled those in such an ehsan way.
A few weeks after that I was by the Grace of Allah SWT asked to join a friday youth halaqa at the masjid due to my ‘eloquence’–which of course is not due to any greatness in me but rather to the fact that whatever is said about Allah SWT and that too in the words of Quran and then the words of prophet SAW can be nothing but eloquent.
Then came what i dreaded–a lady asked me to give a dars in urdu but when I told her that I could do it in English she asked by the way where have you studied from. when I told her, that was pretty much when the conversation became one sided. I could sense anger and sadness overtaking my emotions but I prayed real hard to Allah SWT to keep me composed and to say only that which is right. I cannot go into-and see no point in doing so either–the details of the questions but they were mostly futile–argument for the sake of argument. I silently listened and prayed that with the passage of time Allah SWT will make things clear Himself and choose me to say only the Truth and promote only that which is correct.
AlhumduLillah as the days passed i was invited to speak at a wednesday halaqa for ladies where i opted to talk about Allah SWT, who He is and what our relationship with Him should be. AlhumduLillah slowly people started showing their softer side and when the time was right i offered them the website address to go find out and judge for themselves rather than just go on hearsay as is often the easiest way. I make no claim of having turned a whole city but I feel that patience and steadfastness is what opens the gates to Allah’s Mercy to let one do something for His deen. What is important is not that people log onto specifically alhuda or farhathashmi.com–and i mean this with the greatest respect as you for me are like my mother who i love dearly–but rather that people should not stay away from the truth just because of rumors or half truths.
The point of all this is just to make students realize that emotional talk accomplishes very little compared to actions carried out with taqwa, iman, patience and perseverance. and most importantly it should not be to save face of an institute or person but rather to promote Al-Haq.
Jazak Allah Khair.
May Allah SWT strengthen His Taqwa and Iman in our hearts Amin
Wassalam,
A Student of Knowledge