Allah says:

“Invite (mankind, O Muhammad) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Quran) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.” [Surah An-Nahl (16) :125]

“ Who is better in speech than one who calls to God, works righteousness and says ‘I am one of those who submit’? ” Qur’an 41:33

As Muslims we often feel inhibited from talking about Islam, despite it being such a core part of our being, perhaps out of fear of rejection or a self imposed inferiority complex - there are two points to consider.

• Firstly, Islamic references tell us that on the Day of Judgement – a day so large in magnitude that pregnant mothers will drop their loads, we will be interrogated by non-Muslims as to why we did not inform them of this reality. What will we say to our Creator when knowing that Islam had such great capacity to alleviate human suffering, including depression, debt and poverty that we said nothing? Are we more conscious of our responsibility to God or to people?

• Secondly, if we have a role to play, in creating positive change and protecting the disadvantaged in society from those who wish to exploit them for their own gain, then let us see what Islam has to say in truth. And if people cannot see the beauty in the perspectives that it offers then let us all co-exist peacefully with greater insight and respect for each other’s views.

Non-muslims perceptions of islam

According to a recent study carried out in the UK on non-muslims' perception on islam: The following results were obtained:

80% have less than very little knowledge about Islam

51% learnt Islam from school

95% had come into contact with the Bible

20% had come into contact with the Qur’an

93% had very little knowledge or no knowledge at all about the Qur’an

40% did not know who Allah is

Now you might say, well that is in the UK, But you will be surprised at the figures you will get in Nigeria.

Dawah is a duty upon every muslim; Rasul Allah (S.A.W) said:

All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and it may be that the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness, O God, that I have conveyed your message to your people.”

O my brothers/sisters, are we learning and passing the message?

How many times have we heard this statements?

When asked about their perception of the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh):

“I don’t like the idea of chopping off people’s hands and feet sometimes without making sure they are innocent. It’s not a fair way.”

“Don’t know, don’t care. We don’t choose religion when we were born and where we were born.”

Do you have the basic knowledge to answer questions about the deen?

We have about 70 million muslim and no dawah::: My beloved brothers/sisters, learn and pass the knowledge,

Recomendation

• Resource and finance existing dawah organisations

• Disseminate information about the Prophet Muhammad

• Develop a dawah strategy with student organisations

• Attend dawah training courses

• Create a new language by removing overtly religious connotations and build concepts

• Promote religion and show Islam’s uniqueness

• Plan for positive community engagement

• Show the good nature of the Muslim community

• Develop engaging Islamic education at school

• Review existing dawah activities

• Use all formats and mediums

• Show similarities and differences to the Bible

• Promote Islamic civilisation and Islam’s solutions to modern problems

• Promote Muslim women as agents of positive change

• Remove psychological and mental barriers that prevent Islam from being understood

• Invite people to adopt the Islamic world view

References

http://www.iera.org.uk/downloads/iERA_NonMuslimPerceptionsOnIslam_and_Muslims_ResearchReport.pdf

http://attafsir./2010/07/22/the-methodology-of-dawah-as-mentioned-in-ayah-no-125-of-surah-an-nahl/

jazakallahu khairan brother