Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
The Techniques of Preaching & Good Advice
Introduction: The success of your preaching (dawah) and good advice can be measured by looking at any positive changes on the behavior or practices of your audience or target group. This success in achieving desired results through religious propagation is basically a function of both divine and human factors. While any positive outcome from dawah activities primarily depends on God’s blessings, the quality of techniques employed therein also matters much in this regard. Now we turn to the details.
(1) Knowledge: As a preacher, you should start with a necessary minimum amount of knowledge (‘ilm’) to meet the requirements of your audience. Otherwise, (i) people may not recommend you as a good preacher and therefore your sessions may not be well-attended. (ii) they may not trust in what you are saying, much less of practicing your advice (iii) if they are misguided by your any faulty advice, you are mainly to blame. You should therefore prioritize gaining of knowledge by “devoting yourselves) to studies in religion” (9:122). This however does not justify your long wait for an advanced degree in Islamic Studies before you get started. You will begin your dawah with whatever knowledge you have by choosing the right kind of audience matching your knowledge level. At the same time, you will keep on adding up your knowledge as ever.
(2) Character: If knowledge is a symbol of light, then your personal character and action as a preacher may work like heat that can warm up the surrounding. For successful preaching, you need to have an ideal character that can be inspiring for others. In particular, your personal actions need to match up with your advice. Therefore God has angry words for those who “advise right conduct on the people and forget (to practice it) for their own” (2:44), asking “Why do you say what you do not do?” (61:2). Accordingly, a little-known pious man with meticulous practices (muttaqi) is preferable to God than a high-profile Islamic scholar cum speaker, in case of exclusive choice between the two.
The Prophet used to personally practice every piece of advice before giving that to others. Mindless of this, if you simply advise people which you never practice, people may not like to follow you. If otherwise, you have a noble character fashioned by Islam, your very action may act like a silent preacher with powers to attract followers, even if you do not give verbal advice or are not good at doing so. That is why the Muslims love to practice the sunnah of the Prophet based on not only what he said but also what he did.
(3) Personality: Success in preaching largely depends on the personality of preachers which is shaped by a variety of factors like their appearance, talents, morality, wisdom, leadership, charisma, verbal power, persuasive skills, patience etc. In real life, a preacher perfected in all these qualities is hard to come by, but the following two factors can be helpful in this regard. (i) You can bypass your aforesaid problem if you preach among people matching your personal competence. (ii) Continuous engagement in preaching efforts may sharpen your preaching skills. You should therefore not wait indefinitely to reach up to your expectation as a qualified preacher. Rather you should follow ‘now and here’ approach by delivering God’s Message to any right kind of persons you presently find around you. As a reminder, God sent Moses as a Messenger to Pharaoh and He also helped him succeed by overcoming his limitations of “breast” and “speech” (26:13).
(4) Social Service: Islam is firmly opposed to converting people “by force” (50:45) as that does not change your heart to believe. This leaves persuasion as the only option open in this regard. You should, therefore, try to give a humane face to dawah efforts by embodying social service programs. This may mean broad ranges of things including love, smile, charity, counseling, hospitality etc. Integration of dawah and social service is necessary for multiple reasons. First, as a good Muslim, you should never be indifferent to the basic needs of people. Second, financially struggling people seldom make good listeners. Third, if you want to win the hearts of those who are less interested in religion, some material sweetener may be needed for attracting them to your message.
Now a question remains if the Muslim community is spending enough to help the needy. It appears that presently the Muslims have a setback of being less wealthy than others. However, if you do a research on the extent of their monetary sacrifice (charity as % of national income), your conclusion will probably favor the Muslims, given the following factors. First, Islam puts in place powerful incentives to charity, through a system of both prize and penalty. Second, the Muslims are encouraged to donate privately for ensuring solid divine pleasure (not mixed with social fame etc.) as primary goal. Third, Muslim charity mostly goes undocumented and unnoticed owing to relative shortage of organizational networks.
All these mean that the actual amount of Muslim charity is obviously greater than what meets the public eye. This, however, does not give any reason for you Muslims to rest on your present level of generosity. Instead, you should step up your giving regardless of your income level. Second, you should expand the network of your aid organizations bearing titles linking Islam or Muslim etc. Third, you should funnel charity through these bodies to benefit on two counts: avoiding public show through impersonal spending and promotional impact of visible charity as part of dawah program.
(5) Effective Communication: (i) Right Delivery: You should try your best to ensure that your audience gets everything you say. Follow the Prophet by pronouncing every word clearly and slowly. Repeat what you say if needed for making the Messages “clear” (22:49). Analyze any complex issues and patiently answer any questions for clarification. Don’t forget you are on a mission of God and He will reward your patience. In case of monolingual audience, try to speak in their language if you can; otherwise speak in a popular language like Arabic, English etc. along with necessary translation services. Do not always engage in monologue making your delivery a one-way traffic. Give your listeners or audience a chance to question, talk and discuss when you will be a patient listener and sympathetic answerer, in order to give them a sense of importance.
(ii) Right Contents: Match the quality of your talking with the cognitive level of your audience. Classify your messages according to the stage of their faith and level of knowledge. Do not present, for example, mystical theology to an illiterate group or repeat elementary contents to educated audience. Do not deliver any confusing or misguiding examples with shaky or baseless foundation like “One prostitute qualified for Paradise by feeding water to a thirsty cat”. Make your delivery smooth, pointed and audience-friendly. Remove any roadblocks like difficult words that make people dependent on dictionary or complex sentences or themes that find them in struggles for breaking down the meaning. Be reminded, the main purpose of your mission is promoting the cause of God and not making your name as a scholar. Make your presentation interesting in order to catch their attention. To that end, try to make use of modern technology like power point presentation and various audio-visual devices among others.
(iii) Matching Audience: Communication will be more effective if you are assigned to speak to a group that you better match with, e.g. a woman speaker for a women’s group, a modern scholar for a youth conference, an influential celebrity giving messages to dignified leaders and so on. Otherwise, a wrong selection of speaker may create negative reactions among the audience instead of positive impacts.
(6) Quality of Messages: Good quality of messages is essential for successful preaching.
(i) Focusing on The Basics: You should give more importance to the fundamental aspects mainly “admonishing with the Quran” (50:45) than optional ones particularly in the introductory phase of invitation. For example, talk about the 5 Pillars of Islam when dealing with a Muslim group. Likewise, highlight the reality of Abrahamic monotheism “We worship none but One God” as a common bond while talking to the People of the Book (3:64). It is expected if you can convince them about these basics, then their faith in optional matters may not remain far off. Do not block their way to embracing Islam through pre-mature restrictions against shaving beard or enjoying songs, for examples. First let them get started with the basics like prayer; then other things may fall in line. Be reminded that perfection is a relative matter, since absolute perfection is very elusive and almost unachievable even for those who claim to be very pious Muslims.
(ii) Clarity: Keep your messages authentic and clear as your duty is only to “preach the clear (message)” (24:54). Avoid any unnecessary details or issues that can lead to confusions or misunderstandings particularly among the less educated people.
(iii) Relevance: Make the contents relevant for any classified groups. Talk about Islamic labor laws to the factory workers, highlight Islamic source of their rights among female audience and so on. Similarly, if you target an atheist, don’t begin by asking him about the attributes of God before resolving his confusion about His existence. For personalized advice, assess the spiritual needs of your target person so you can deliver suitable messages and in right doses.
(7) Pleasant Manners: (i) Positives: Try to do everything possible and desirable to please the mind of your target person(s). This is like preparing the lands for planting the messages on their mind where they make positive or negative decision following your advice. In any preaching program, you should appear neat, well-dressed and smiling and welcoming so your audience form a positive opinion about you and feel attracted to your dawah. You should be respectful, well-behaved, mild-spoken, and showing a measured sense of humor. “As Mercy of God, you deal gently with them. If you were harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from you” (3:159). Always “speak (to them) mildly” (20:44), in a tone of optimism, focusing on the positives of God’s religion e.g. talking more of Paradise than Hell.
(ii) Avoid Negatives: On the prohibitive side, you should keep from saying or doing anything that may upset your audience and give them a cause to backtrack from guidance. You should avoid all aggressive methods like annoying, rebuking, insulting etc. Strong language is not recommended unless in special circumstances like parents sometimes might need to deal with their wayward children.
Do not make any negative comments against any individual like saying “You are not a believer” (4:94) or condemn a group in generic terms like “the Westerners are adulterous or infidels”, as there may be many good people among them with potentials to embrace Islam. Do not engage with people in silly and unsound arguments over religion, leading up to verbal or physical exchanges. “Do not dispute” with them “except with better means. Argue with them in ways that are the best and most gracious” (29:46; 16:125). If you cannot win them over through logical arguments, “have patience with what they say” and leave them alone “with noble (dignity)”, saying “peace” (73:10; 43:89). If, however, they broadcast irreligious theories without any provocation, you should only give them logical responses.
(8) Wisdom and Tactics: Preaching success closely links with the use of wisdom and tactics. If you do not invite people with “wisdom and beautiful preaching” (16:125), your efforts may be counterproductive as you may see them going farther from God. You should therefore give advice that hopefully might “profit” the listeners (87:9).
Let us now present some general guidelines in this regard.
(i) Right Moment: In case of one-on-one delivery, try to choose right moment when their mood is favorable and receptive. Don’t pick a time when they are mentally upset or physically exhausted. Don’t make them bored by repeating the same content and following the same style. Nor should you annoy people by delivering something at the wrong time (for example, loud recitation of the Quran during nighttime) when they would not or even should not listen.
(ii) Personalized Advice: When your open approach is likely to hurt the mind of your listeners, speak to them individually or “secretly in private” (71:9). Alternatively, present your sermon in a common gathering without singling anyone out. Once a person was seen performing ablution the wrong way. The Prophet, instead of correcting him publicly, gave a demonstration lesson on ablution in an assembly attended by that person as well.
(iii) Tactics: You should be artful in your communication as well. For example, “I love to go to the mosque with you” is a better approach than “Come with me to the mosque”. You may request a caring mom to pray 5 times for making ‘dua’ for her son’s wellbeing who would otherwise be reluctant to do so. Similarly, you better appreciate a person for having performed a prayer (past) rather than advising him to do so (future). When you inspire someone to a good deed, leave him at answers of ‘yes’ or ‘later’ instead of ‘no’.
(iv) Practicable Advice: Do not overload people with too much of advice. Nor should you push them for doing something they do not like to. Instead you program for gradually increased doses of actions according to their ability. Take a lesson from the Quran that outlawed drinking, a deeply rooted Arabian culture, not abruptly but through 3 successive rulings: first went out its comment discouraging drinking in which “the sin is greater than the benefit” (2:219), next came the ruling against attending mosque drunk “with befogged state of mind” (4:43), and then finally came the order for total “abstention” from drinking for all the Muslims, at all times and places (5:91).
(v) Targeting Leadership: Your mission may be more productive if you target a popular leader rather than his ordinary followers. If you can win him over, his followers will probably follow suit. With that in mind, try to reach out to him, personalize your relation with him and follow that up like a tactician. We remember that the Prophet did send delegations with his letters to non-Muslim leaders in distant lands including Ethiopian king, Byzantine emperor, Persian emperor etc. Prior to that, King Solomon did send a letter to Queen Bilquis inviting her to “submit (to the true religion)” (27:31). However, that does not mean you will always turn your back on someone who seriously wants to learn Islam while focusing on only a reluctant leader.
(vi) Reasonable Adaptation: Islamic dress is a norm for preaching among the Muslim group. If you aim to preach among modern-minded non-Muslim audience, then probably it may not be wrong to make some minor adjustments about optional matters. For example, you could temporarily prefer long pant or suit to flowing robe and cap if you think that might work better for your mission among the non-Muslims, as thereby they may count you as one of their own. However, such adaptation cannot be extended to violation of essentials like postponing prayer for attending them, joining their drinking party, or shaving beard etc.
(9) Inter-Group Cooperation: Promotion of Islam is the single common goal even if different dawah groups are trying to reach to people in different ways with varied methods, emphasis etc. This goal will be better achieved if all of you engage in cooperation rather than harmful competition, placing the interest of Islam above your personal interest, by putting aside your negatives. For example, if you are driven by jealousy to unjustly criticize or discourage others and therefore their efforts are reduced or dampened, then you will be responsible for proportionate blame for any damage thereby done to Islam. So you are expected to cooperate and “help one another in righteousness” (5:2) which certainly includes the act of preaching programs as well.
Now some examples will show possible roads to dawah cooperation. Even if you are a reputed Islamic scholar, still sometimes you should participate in Islamic event at a local mosque for using your presence as an inspiration for other Muslims. If an Imam allows a Muslim group meeting inside his mosque or announces an Islamic event to be held inside or outside the mosque, then that will be a valuable cooperation. Likewise, as an author of an Islamic book protected by copyright laws, you may give generous permission for its partial reprint in a pro-Islamic journal (of course with due recognition) which will help Islam expand at no cost to you.
(10) Strategy for the Non-Muslims: There are many Muslims who are active out there for promoting Islam among their fellow Muslims. In comparison, the necessity for dawah program among the non-Muslims is nothing less, probably it’s more. Reasons are obvious. (i) They are the majority representing about 75% of world population. As valued creations of God, they have the right to know about Islam so they can wisely compare among the religions in order to make a right choice probably in favor of Islam. (ii) In the non-Muslim world, there are abundance of wrong ideas and false rumors about Islam which need to be clarified in order to reveal the true identity of Islam.
For propagating Islam among the non-Muslims, you need to employ a variety of different type of strategy. For example, you can offer a good introductory book on Islam to a non-Muslim with whom you have already cultivated some personal relations. For collective approach, if you are competent, you could participate in inter-faith dialogues in a public forum or host some non-Muslim leaders to a dinner for an intimate discussion. Alternatively, you could present Islam if you are invited to speak in any religious forum, talk about Islam in the TV, radio or other mass media, write books or articles on Islam and the like. Whenever possible, you could also follow the example of the Prophet who went out beyond his base of Mecca (e.g. Medina, Taif etc.) for promoting Islam.
(11) Sacrifice & Patience: Islamic dawah program calls for a good measure of sacrifices in time, labor and money. These voluntary sacrifices may not be enough when your task becomes challenging in a hostile environment. Then you also may need to show patience as “your patience is only from (and also for) God” (16:127). If your efforts fail to bear fruits, do not feel disheartened, as your reward is tied to your efforts and not with the results. Do not forget that guidance as the fruit of your preaching comes from God while “your job (as His agent) is only to “make (the message) reach them” (13:40). You have “no responsibility on their account” (6:69) as you “cannot guide everyone whom you love but God guides those whom He will” (28:56). Accordingly, you should rely more on God’s Mercy than your own preaching skill and your dawah should go hand in hand with prayer to God for success in your efforts.
(12) Conversion and Rehabilitation: Your success in dawah will be measured by improved guidance for the Muslims as well as conversion of the non-Muslims. In case of conversion, you need to be mindful of many practical considerations, as discussed below:
(i) Before formal conversion, you should check the law of the land with regard to restrictions about any steps you plan to take and accordingly make necessary adjustments. Ordinarily, there should not be any problem in the case your client is adult and conversion is voluntary. Try not to be holed up in any legal battle, as your money and energy have better ways to spend on.
(ii) Conversion method virtually is as simple as reciting the statement of faith (‘shahada’), preferably administered by an Imam, in the middle of a few Muslims.
(iii) The new converts must be given hands-on training on the basics of Islam and thereby make them ready for practicing Islam.
(iv) If they become rootless following conversion, they are likely to run short on cash. You should therefore try to help them finding a job and until they get one, help them out by using zakat fund that God reserved for this type of people. Be warned that if they do not receive such crucial help in early period after conversion, they may renounce their new faith creating a very bad example. So the Muslims should seriously try to help them overcome their early problems until they gain sure footing in Islam.
(v) Family rejection is often a heavy price they might have to pay for conversion. In order to fill up their emotional vacuum, Muslims should do everything possible (hosting, greeting, befriending etc.) to make them feel welcome.
All these actions have invaluable reward in waiting for both groups: the helper and the helped. For the converts, all past sins will be erased paving their way to Paradise and the cooperative Muslims may also share in the credits of their lifetime good deeds.
Conclusion: It appears from above that there is a wide variety of methods and techniques that you should employ if you want to bring a measure of success in your dawah efforts.