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Consultation, Dealing with Trials, Limitations of Dawah

Issue 315 » February 25, 2005 - Muharram 16, 1426

General

Living the Quran

Al-Shura (The Mutual Consultation)
Chapter 42: Verse 38 (Partial)

Mutual Consultation
 "And whose affairs are a matter of counsel."

The Muslim Jurists have said that when mutual consultation (Shura) was made necessary for the Prophet himself to follow, it becomes incumbent upon his followers to resort to Shura in all our activities whether individual, social or political matters. The Messenger of Allah used to receive revelation from Allah, hence, seemingly he was not in need of mutual consultation but still he was asked to do so through divine commandment. It is on this basis that Ibn Taimiyyah has said that "The leader has no other option but to resort to Shura since Allah had commanded his Prophet to do so. All others, therefore, have a special need for mutual consultation." The Prophet has said in a Hadith: "If I were to make any one a caliph without consultation I would have named Abdallah bin Masud." Likewise, Caliph Umar has also said that caliphate can never function without mutual consultation.

Mutual consultation is, therefore, one of the great qualities that the Faithful (Mumin) has to cultivate in himself. On this basis, consultation among Muslims is an important pillar of the beautiful and elaborate building of the Islamic way of life. To do any collective work without prior mutual consultation is not only a way of the ignorant but is also a clear defiance of the regulation laid down by Allah. The great importance given to the whole process of consultation is based upon three reasons:

Firstly, it is very unfair to decide alone a matter concerning two or more people. In collective matters nobody has a right to do according to one's sweet will. All the people concerned with the matter should be consulted, and if it is concerned with a very large number of persons then their representatives should be sounded for their considered opinion.

Secondly, if a man tries to act autocratically or arbitrarily, either he wants to usurp the right of others or he considers himself superior to other whom he holds in contempt. From moral point of view both these attitudes are bad and reprehensible. However, even a trace of these wrong attributes cannot be found in the Faithful (Mumin), who is neither selfish so as to take unfair advantage of others, nor is proud and self-concerted so as to believe himself to be a paragon of intelligence and knowledge.

Thirdly, it is a concern of great responsibility to take decisions on mater relating to the rights and interests of others. Anyone, who is conscious of Allah and His inevitable judgement, cannot dare to bear the burden of such responsibility all alone. Such reckless acts are done by only those people who are devoid of fear of Allah and are without care of the hereafter.

Islamic way of life requires that the principle of consultation should be applicable to every small or big collective affair. In the affairs of the household husband and wife should consult each other before doing anything, and when the children attain the age of puberty their opinion should also be taken into account.

Source:
"Shariah: The Islamic Law" - Abdur Rahman I. Doi, pp. 15-19
Understanding the Prophet's Life

Dealing With Trials

The Prophet (peace be upon him) suffered many kinds of trials for the sake of Allah and conveying the message of Islam to mankind. A reflective reading of the seerah (biography of the Prophet) would enable us to see how the Prophet overcame and transcended various circumstances and marched to glory and success. Such an exercise would be highly insightful and illuminating for us in our own predicament today. Following are a few points that we can readily discern from the seerah:

1. The Prophet always had a tremendous reservoir of spiritual energy to draw upon. We find him turning to Allah in the darkest moments of his life when all that he could see around him was rejection and mocking. When he was being chased out of Ta’if by hooligans and children, who pelted him with stones and ridiculed him, he did not feel weakened or disempowered, rather he sought solace and strength in Allah by opening his heart before Him through a fervent supplication.

2. The Prophet was always optimistic and positive in his mindset. He always looked at every setback or trial as an opportunity. He never failed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. His mind was always focused on the end of his journey. While he was facing persecution and ridicule in Makkah, he said “I will continue the struggle until a woman can travel all by herself all the way from San`a’ to Hadramawt without any fear of molestation!”

3. The Prophet consistently cultivated the habit of [demonstrating] shukr (gratitude) and sabr (patience and perseverance). Through gratitude we come to appreciate Allah’s blessings, while through perseverance, we learn to preserve patience. Allah exposes us to trials not to destroy us but only to help us grow.

4. The Prophet was ever willing to surrender Himself to the Lord. He strove to achieve his goals as humanly as possible and hoped his efforts would bear fruit, yet if they didn’t turn out the way he had expected, he never complained or fretted over it, rather he accepted the inevitable will of Allah with full grace and serenity.

5. The Prophet looked at every trial he faced in life as an empowering experience. Thus, when he suffered defeat at Uhud, he used it to learn the lesson of better discipline. Likewise, he looked at the initial setback at Hunayn as a lesson in humility so that he [and we who follow him] never get carried away by our might or large numbers, forgetting about spiritual and moral strength.

Source:
IslamOnline.net Fatwa Bank - Ahmad Kutty
Blindspot!

Limitations of Dawah

Limitations under which we shall have to proceed to our task of Dawah:

Firstly, problems for Dawah among non-Muslims exist at various levels: (1) at the level of overall Ummah (Muslim Community) and Muslim societies and states, or what we may call the 'macro level'; (2) at the level of very large groups, institutions and structures, or what we may call the 'intermediate level'; e.g. a Muslim community, a mosque, a neighbourhood, a school, a business; (3) at the level of the individual person, and small organization, or what we may call the 'micro level'. The issues and problems at each level are different, and must be so recognized in order to deal with them sensibly.

There is no harm in admitting frankly that most of the problems, especially those at the macro and intermediate levels, are, and will for long remain, beyond our reach and competence to do something about them. For example, we may not change the broad behaviour of the Ummah as a whole into an Islamic one; we may not be in a position to point out even one place where Islam could be 'observed' with its full blessings; we may not have the strength to stop a Muslim country from doing something which is against Islam, whether it be Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia; we may not be able to force the visiting shaykhs to behave in a proper Islamic manner; we may not turn Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries into living examples of Islam. All these we may find to be simply beyond our power.

Even at the micro-level, to be realistic, that point in time seems far away when a significant number of Muslim individuals will become Shahid (witness) and Da'iya (caller), or the Islamic groups will accord the work of Dawah among non-Muslims the top priority. It is only on the micro-level, and to a very limited extent on the intermediate level, that we can reasonably hope to achieve something.

Does this mean we should shelve or put off the work of Dawah among non-Muslims until we have achieved some or all of the above? Not at all. Dawah can still find its way, provided we take it up in the right manner. What is important is that we should take cognizance of these macro, insoluble problems, we should note their implications, we should remain aware of them, we should keep in view the limitations imposed by them. Doing so is necessary because it would help us formulate and follow suitable approaches and methodologies, which will make due allowance for, even if not solve, all such problems.

Secondly, most problems exist or become inflated because we take up the issue of Dawah in isolation from the Muslim situation. If placed in proper perspective, they will be reduced to a proper size or will dissolve. Some problems are not really problems; they become problems only because we look at them from the wrong perspective. Lack of suitable resources is the least important of all the problems. Lack of part-time or whole-time workers or professional Da'iyas, of suitable literature, of suitable psychological techniques may turn out to be not so important as we often consider them to be.

Thirdly, problems also vary from situation to situation and from country to country. Non-Muslims are not a uniform, homogenous entity. They are not similar in all places. Nor has their history of interaction with Islam taken a similar course at all times and in all lands. A Christian in the West, in Nigeria, in Egypt, a Hindu in India, a black in South Africa, a Chinese in Malaysia, a Japanese each is very different from the other, each may pose a very different challenge, each may require a different approach. Indeed each individual must be looked at as different and special.

Source:
"Da'wah Among Non-Muslims in the West" - Khurram Murad, pp. 9-11