Content: Understanding Dawah Realities of Dawah Challenges of Dawah Tips for Dawah

1. -MASUD ALI
DAWAH
REALITIES & CHALLENGES IN WEST

2. Content
Understanding dawah
Realities of dawah
Challenges of dawah
Tips for dawah

3. “There is no god worthy of worship, except Allah,
and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”
“This simple statement is the most powerful
declaration ever devised!
For beyond the words themselves, lies a powerful
concept and a compelling ideology.
Whole societies, cultures, and empires have been
elevated with its application, or ruined by its
rejection.”
- Yahya Emerick, in his book How to tell others about Islam.

4. Dawah: A State of Mind and Way of Life
“Dawah, prior to everything, is a state of mind, a
world view, an attitude to life, indeed a kind of life.
The critical prerequisite to Dawah is a
consciousness, personal and collective, imbued
with a true vision of Dawah in Islam.”
- Khurram Murad

5. Understanding Dawah: Islamic perspective
It is the process of connecting other with Allah (swt).
It is the process of propagating the massage of salvation.
Dawah is for all human being.
Dawah is about change and revival in the hearts and
intellect of the society.
The spirit of Dawah, or calling others towards the Truth,
comes only from within.
Perfection is not the pre-requisite for Dawah.
Success = sincerity
It is a win-win situation.

6. Reality of Dawah
Dawah is an obligation, not an option.
Dawah is not just about handing out pamphlets on
streets, schools, or prisons.
It is not only the quality of the ‘philosophy’ or
‘religion’ that matters. Quality of the ‘deliverer’ of the
massage is a vital factor in dawah.
Dawah is to ‘reach out of box’, not ‘feeling comfy
within the box’.

7. Reality of dawah
An attempt to change the attitude of a person
towards life (philosophy of life).
In modern psychology this subject is covered under
COMMUNICATION & ATTITUDE CHANGE
Some author discussed this under
OPINION CHANGE

8. Dawah activities: 2 parties involved

9. Probability of Change
Deliverer
ReceiverIt has been found that a deliverer who is
perceived as highly prestigious is more
influential in changing attitude than on who
is held in low esteem.

10. Qualities of ‘Deliverer’
Dignity
Confidence
Poise
Education
Intelligence
Consistency
Precision in speech
Moral

11. They initially oppose the
message
Convinced easily
Open to debate &
discussions.
Mostly educated.
Highly prejudiced.
Socio-economically
stable persons.
Who initially agree
with the content of the
message.
Group primarily
composed of
uneducated individual.
Victims of
discriminations.
‘Receiver’
Basically 2 types

12. Attitude/Opinion change
The attitude/opinion changes when:
A person receives new info from others or media
(idea)- Cognitive change.
Through direct experience with the attitude object
(emotion)- Affective change.
Force a person to behave in a way different than
normal (action)- Behavioural change.

13. Persuasion

14. Challenges of Dawah in west
Around our shelf:
 Western attitude towards religion
Within our shelf:
 Fellow Muslims’ attitude towards religion

15. Western attitude towards religion
Western are taught that it is impolite to discuss
religion in public.
Western are cynical. So better practice what you
preach.
Most of them equate Islam with Muslims.
Do not think that they know much about
Christianity, Trinity, Original sin etc.
Youth turning towards cults.

16. Fellow Muslims’ attitude towards religion
Religion is a private matter.
We are already Muslim- what is the big fuss?
This is a western country, we have nothing to do.
We have not much to do.
Youth turning towards violence, drugs, etc.
New converts- confused.
Back-home traditions.
Back-home politics.

17. Collective attitude towards religion
Feel more comfortable in doing work for community
itself. (Building mosque, Islamic schools, Conferences etc.)
More ethnic oriented.
Scarcity of dawah tools. (Media, TV, Islamic literature etc)
Minority feeling.
Lack of unity.

18. Tips for dawah: Personal
Make your intention sincere towards dawah
Broaden your vision
Practice what you preach
Increase your knowledge
Build your attitudes towards dawah
Acquire qualities of daee
Broaden your dawah field

19. Tips for dawah: Collective activities
Revisit the vision for dawah
Broaden the field for dawah
Let’s move out of our “boxes” and “loops”
Enrich the dawah tools
Cultivate a environment of hope among Muslims and
also non-muslims. (especially youth)
Show that Islam is relevant today and it is for everyone
on this earth!
Play a positive role in mainstream politics and social
reforms.