Daawah and things Da'ai usually hears

Daawah and things Da'ai usually hears

﷽

Verily all praise is for Allah, we praise Him and seek His aid and ask for His forgiveness and we seek refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and our evil actions. Whomever Allah guides there is none who can misguide him, and whomever Allah misguides there is none who can guide him, and I bear witness that none has the right to be worshiped except Allah alone, having no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger

(this is how Prophet SAW used to start his speech Nisai 3278)

My Lord, open up my heart [with assurance] And ease for me my task And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech.[20:25-28] Ameen

Let's first talk a little about daawah, is giving daawah obligatory on every Muslim? Do a Muslim needs to become a scholar to start giving daawah? Mostly people would say YES, you need to have a certain degree with THEIR sects certification. The Prophet SAW said otherwise

Narrated `Abdullah bin `Amr:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Convey (my teachings) to the people even if it were a single sentence (verse)..." [Sahih Bukhari 3461]

So the Prophet SAW said to convey from me even if it is a single ayah/verse (so any teachings of Islam which is transmitted to us by Prophet can be conveyed without any degree but the teaching of a saint or baba, for that you need a special degree or something 😒😄) but along with it the Prophet warned his ummah that don't tell a lie on me, as some people do nowadays they preach something that they like or are there own wishes and wrap it around saying that it is what the Prophet said and in reality it is not. The Prophet SAW said in the same hadith: 

"...And whoever tells a lie on me intentionally, will surely take his place in the (Hell) Fire." [Sahih Bukhari 3461]

So what if someone asks you something regarding the Deen and you know it but you don't tell him about it

Narrated Abu Hurairah:

that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "Whoever is asked about some knowledge that he knows, then he conceals it, he will be bridled with bridle of fire." [Tirmidhi (Hasn) 2649] [Abu Dawud 3658]

After reading all of this one would get scared but there is nothing to be scared about, the only thing which you should be careful about is whatever you are preaching/spreading/doing should be according to Quran or Hadith and if on a certain matter you don't have any knowledge keep silent. 

So, is it compulsory on every Muslim to preach Islam? Let's see what Allah has to say about this

By time, (1) Indeed, mankind is in loss, (2) Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience. (3) [Al Asr 103:1-3]

One quick note here, it is said that the minimum requirement to pass this world and enter Jannah are these. Why is "advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience" said together? The reason is when you enjoin people to truth they will not listen they might ridicule you, fight you, hurt you and maybe even boycott you but you have to show patience. Their is a Hadith which support this theory, when the first revelation was revealed on the Prophet SAW he was taken to Warqa bin Noufal and he said that:

....Waraqa said, "This is the same one who keeps the secrets (angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people would turn you out." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) asked, "Will they drive me out?" Waraqa replied in the affirmative and said, "Anyone (man) who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility;... [Bukhari 3]

So if you are preaching Quran and Hadith and the people are opposing you it means you have to show patience this is only if you are preaching Quran and Sunnah NOT if you are preaching some saint's ideology or some baba's ideology. (it means that if you are preaching Islam and no one is opposing you then that means there is something wrong even if Prophets were opposed then you are just preaching what everyone preaches in general that God is one, which every religion believes that Wallahu Alam)

Aside from this Allah also said:

And from among you there must be a party who invite people to all that is good and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong. It is they who will attain true success. [Ale Imran 3:104]

Those who do these three things only they will be successful. One might say that it is said that "from among you there must be a party" there should be one group like the molvis or the ulamas and muftis they have to do this BUT Allah said that only "they will attain true success". Allah also removed the confusion in the next couple of ayahs.

You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah....[Ale Imran 3:110]

For further regarding this I have written another article on it the purpose of life.

So in short it is a duty of every Muslim to tell your fellow Muslim that what is right and what is wrong. The most important thing is you only have to convey it whether he accepts it or rejects it is totally up to him even the Prophets were not allowed to force people to accept the word of Allah. Every Prophet said:

and our duty is no more than to clearly convey the Message. [Ya Sin 36:17]

So now coming back to the main topic whenever you will deliver a message of Allah or for example someone is doing something wrong. First thing first, you have no authority over him unless he is your son or daughter. You can only advise him. You may hear stuff like for example:

You: (saw your friend doing a deed and you asked) why you do this?

He: it is a good deed you get rewards for it.

You: Okay that's good but did the Prophet SAW did this or is it prescribed in any Hadith?

He: Some Alim mentioned it in his Khutbah or My grandpa/father told me this or I am not hurting anyone or Not everything is found in Ahadith.

Now this is the most dangerous thing. What is a standard of a good deed in Islam? I also wrote an article about it few months back. The main thing to convey to people is that the Quran is our Text book and different book of Ahadith (Sahih ul isnad Ahadith) are our Reference book. 

When books of saint and Aalims become our Text book and Quran becomes a mere Reference book or in some cases just a book through which you earn good deeds without understanding it. Now that is an alarming situation. When someone tells you that Hadith says this but the other person say that the Imam said this, you are giving more priority to Imam's word than to Allah's or Prophet's word.

Believers, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet... [Hujraat 49:2]

These are the various replies you hear when you tell someone that this is written in a Hadith.

• I follow such and such Imam/sect (where in Quran has Allah prescribed that follow one imam or sect?)
• You are a Wahabi or Ahle Hadith
• Who gave you the authority to judge (they should read this Hadith of Bukhari 2641)
• All the Alims or Imam were wrong only you know the truth (no what I am telling you is not my wording but work of  Muhadetheen)

When you preach you have to preach people that the standard in Islam is Quran and Sunnah.

There is a difference in following an Imam's sunnah and Prophet's sunnah. When a person say's he follows Imam Abu Haneefa, Shaafi, Malik, Ahmad bin Hanbal (may Allah be pleased with them all) and whatever they say I follow. It means you are following there sunnah not Prophet's Sunnah. There are many cases in which one of these Imam's teaching contradicts Quran or Hadith. Normally people say how can the Imam be wrong! brother they were not Prophet!! even the companions of Prophet made some decisions during their Khilafah which they had to reverse because they were against the teachings of Prophet. The most common is in the Era of both Umar R.A and Usman R.A they forbade people from doing Hajj e Tamatuh but the Sahaba said it is the sunnah of Prophet even Ibn Umar said that. Similarly in the era of Ali R.A he burned those people who had left Islam on which Ibn Abbas said that you would have killed them and not burned them because Prophet said that only Allah can give the punishment of burning someone on this Ali R.A said I didn't knew about it.

The other most important thing is Umar R.A A.S didn't understood two of the Ahadith of Prophet and he passed away without knowing it's true meaning which Umm ul Momineen Ayesha R.A reported in Bukhari 1286, 1287,1288 there are many more examples as well.

So if a Companion of Prophet can misunderstand something then what about Imams are they better than the Companions?!

One last thing, you must have heard all of them are right, all leads to the same path... Ahhh okaaayyy, let's see an example, reciting Surah Fatiha behind Imam in Farz prayer

1. one says whoever recites anything behind imam put a brittle in his mouth. ( I don't blame whoever gave this fatwa he might have not known the hadith for it as we have seen that even Sahaba sometimes didn't knew)
2. one says you have to recite atleast surah fatiha behind Imam in Jehri Salah 

Who is right? let's see what the Prophet says

Ubadah bin As-Samit narrated:

"Allah's Messenger prayed the Subh prayer, and he had difficulty with the recitation. When turned (after finishing) he said: 'I think that you are reciting behind your Imam?'" He said: "We said: 'Yes, Messenger of Allah, by Allah!' He said: 'Do not do that, except for Umm Al-Kitab, for there is no Salat for one who does not recite it.'" [Tirmidhi 311]

Another example, in one fiqh an Imam says that the age limit for breastfeeding is 2 and a half years but Allah says in Surah Baqara 

Mothers may breastfeed their children two complete years for whoever wishes to complete the nursing [period].... [Al Baqara 2:233]

For those who say that all are right then why did Prophet say this (he drew a fish bone diagram):

‘Abdallah b. Mas'ud told how God’s messenger drew a line for them and then said, “This is God’s path.” Thereafter he drew several lines on his right and left and said, “These are paths on each of which there is a devil who invites people to follow it.” And he recited, “And that this is my path, straight; follow it...” [Mishkaat ul Masabih 166]

Say no to sects and follow only Quran and Sunnah.

O Allah! Enable us to see the Truth as Truth and give us the ability to follow it. And show us the falsehood as false and give us the ability to refrain from it. Ameen