Messengers of the 20th Century

Bismillāh ar-Rahmān ar-Rahīm In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Alhamdulillah, All Praises to Allah Most High for giving me the opportunity to attend a workshop organised by Darul Arqam this week. I have benefitted a lot and I hope & pray that I would be able to share whatever that was learnt insyaAllah. The speaker was Syed Raziuddin Ali - an old but wise & learned man. He is still active in conducting workshops around the world and also mosque tours at the beautiful Al-Fateh Mosque in Bahrain (where he resides).

Having done da'wah work to particularly non-Muslims for the past 22 years, he has a wealth of experience that he was most generous to share. Although his workshop was targeted particularly at mosque staff, volunteers and docents, there were several things that are relevant for anyone interested in doing such da'wah work. Firstly, he talked about the intended result for da'wah. Da'wah means invitation. Although the general understanding is to convert others into Islam, he said that it is important to remember that guidance only lies in Allah's hands and not ours. Da'ie (people who are engaged in da'wah) has to remind themselves of this endlessly because not all our efforts would bear fruit (or at least bear the fruit that we expect.) It would come in other way.

• He said that at the very least, people should leave having a positive image of Islam.
• A higher level would be to be our defenders and ambassadors. For tourists that come to mosques for tours, they might have come from places having been exposed to only negative representations of Islam. But if we leave a good impression and do our job well, they might [...]
  
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