My passion to WRITE preceeds me, My urge to be RIGHT defeats me, Certainly, my intent not to be WRONG, guides me. This is my journal, abt life. Abt how I see life. Pls dispute me if you may!...I don't want anyone to agree with me...totally.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The call to Islamic dakwah

salam,

In the recent decade (of our time), i think we have witnessed (and our parents, brothers, sisters and relatives have experienced ) the irony of islamic dakwah and the approaches in handling the world problems - let alone our daily problems. It is not Islam in questioned but rather our approaches - our daily way-of-life (ad-deen), our sentiments and our faith that translate to our Islamic vitues. (so what is the Islamic virtue again?)

I've heard of this slogan just too often : there is 1001 ways to solve a problem. (Sure! violent and / or compulsion cannot be one of them - even by insinuation!!) But what does this mean? In essence I reckoned and discovered that this statement is just a ploy and as cliche as "don't be judgemental". These phrases are often used to shut others out (muslims or non-muslims alike) - when the concerned parties want to depart from the responsibilities presented to him / her. But when the concerned parties want to harp n their values and approaches towards others, these statements do not seem to apply to them...and his / her way seems to be the only way.....ahh???

The irony is, we are in a free world and like it or not we are to listen or succumb to all that freedom-of-speech craps. And for the freedom-of-speech speakers / writers, mind you, others are free to speak their minds too and you have to take your own medicine too. So when some one voiced up their concerns, it is not an attempt to enforce their values towards others, but an opportunity (hidayah(?) maybe) for one to ponder and really react as ummah with wisdom.

Coming back to the Islamic ummah is trapped in he above "phenomenon"/ mentality, I like us to question ourselves:

1. what ever happened to "Dakwah with wisdom" (?) - the reminder by the prophet
2. what ever happened to "there is no compulsion in religion" (?) - reminder from Allah
3. what ever happened to "Rasulllullah S.A.W is the best exampler" (?) - reminder from Allah.

There are more than 1 reminders and guidance from Allah or from Rasul on how to conduct ourselves before others. Yet again, when we want to justify our "misdeeds", we would use some current figures we hold dearly - failling to see that if we listened to Allah's Qalam, we have no choice but to follow what Rasullullah did or said .

In one of the book written by a recent ulama on ISLAMIC DAKWAH (can't remember the wirter and the book) title, he cautioned his readers "that - while we want to make our point in our message, we do not have to resort in adopting the same approach of our opponents and we do not have to borrow their "materials" just to make our points. "

The truth is, our opponents (western world and non-muslims) have borrowed /used many of our knowledge and called it their own by repackaging and rebranding it eg. the 7 habits, the FISH etc etc etc. So why would I even want to choose YUSOF ISLAM or Bernard Shaw as my life example?

I don't really understand why, and I don't think I want to spend my time in understanding it. Live-Die and to ReLive, I don't wish to understand why our ummah is getting deeper in this mentalitly and irony.

But I'm calling myself and everyone that we must understand the message of Islam - its essense and its values. Otherwise, we be more and more gullible in our own world...and we are trapped in our delusional "truth" - whatever that means.

We are NOT one Brainless Ummah of yesterday, today and in future. Islam had liberated the human civilization, but sadly the current ummah has yet to liberate themselves.

So, moving forward, should we let others (schools, organization, cult, or somekind of ulama) shape our kids' minds? I for one, striving hard to dispel this irony in my own ummah (aka family). Don't wait, act (or react) now - to liberate our ummah. Lets liberate our minds that will contribute to the world peace with wisdom. Lets tear down the four walls - school walls, cave walls etc... the promise for heaven is from Allah S.W.T and not from our guru!!

Waallahualam.

/dzan

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