1. The Status of a Muslim
From the view point of real status, a Muslim is a da‘ee and all other nations his mad‘u. That is to say that God has made the Muslims the trustee of His final book the Quran. Now it is their responsibility to convey the message of this book to all humanity. The success of both the worlds, the present world and the hereafter, lies in fulfilling this duty.
This is not a simple matter. This is an extreme delicate matter of divine responsibility. The Muslims can discharge this responsibility only when they realize the requirements of this responsibility and make full use of it throughout their whole life. This missionary duty can be discharged only with the missionary character. To discharge the duty of dawah without missionary character is impossible in the same way as it is impossible to discharge the duty of motherhood without motherly affection.
According to the words of the Quran, dawah work should be started with all sincerity and honesty, that is, with unilateral well-wishing for the mad‘u. Missionary character requires that a da‘ee should have only positive feelings in his heart for the mad‘u; his heart should be totally free from negative feelings. This is what called unilateral well-wishing. Without such type of unilateral well-wishing a da‘ee cannot discharge his missionary responsibilities.
The present world has been designed in such a way that here a man always comes to have unpleasant experiences with another man and similarly, a group with another group. This is the law of nature. And no one can make a change in the law of nature. In such case, the feeling of unilateral well-wishing for the mad‘u can last only in that case when one adheres to the principle of unilateral character. His attitude towards the people does not come to form under the actions of others rather it should come to form under his own principles. He should be totally free from the psychology of reaction.
The Muslims have the status of da‘ees. And from this point of view, it is not right for the Muslims to launch movements of complaints and protests. In missionary Shariah there is no place for complaints and protests. The reason behind it is that the nation against which the Muslims will launch the movements of complaints and protests will be a mad‘u nation in reality. And it is not proper for the Muslims that they should treat any of their mad‘u nations like an enemy nation. The Muslims have to always maintain cordial relations with every nation and at any cost because it is in the atmosphere of cordial relations that the task of dawah can be performed. Where there are no cordial relations between Muslims and non-Muslims performing dawah work is not possible.
It has been commanded in surah 33 of the Quran:
‘Do not yield to those who deny the truth and the hypocrites: ignore their hurtful talk. Put your trust in God; God is your all sufficient guardian.’ (33:48)
This verse means that one should ask for their needs only from God, he should pray only to God, he should leave the method of protest and demand.
That is why each prophet said to his people:
‘I ask of you no recompense for this; my reward is only with the Lord of the universe.’ (26:180)
This clearly shows that to launch movements of demands in the name of rights is quite against the traditions of the prophets.
