18. Conditions for Doing Dawah Work

According to the Quran, a da‘ee must possess two qualities: true well-wishing and unadulterated dawah. This has been explained in the Quran through the Prophet in the following manner:

‘I am conveying my Lord’s messages to you and I am your sincere and honest adviser.’ (7:68)

Here adviser or nasih means well-wisher and sincere or ameen means to convey to the people the same unadulterated message as was sent by God.

Who is a nasih or well-wisher? A nasih or a well-wisher is a person who wants to show that he supports somebody and wants him to be successful in his life of this world as well as in the hereafter. Here, it also becomes clear that debate is not dawah work as is conceived by many people. The reason is that in debate one’s target is to defeat his opponent. In debate one makes one’s every possible effort to achieve victory over his opponent. Its incentive is not that of well-wishing for the other group.  Similarly, the national activities are also not dawah because dawah work is carried out for the well wishing of the whole humanity while the national activities are motivated by a feeling of well-wishing for one’s own nation or community. A work carried out under a motive other than true well-wishing cannot be a dawah work in the true sense of the word.

And what is meant by sincerity is that a da‘ee should not adulterate any other thing in divine message. He should present to the people only God’s pure and unadulterated message. To add economic or political complaints to dawah work is against the sincerity of a da‘ee. The dawah movement based on economic or political issues is no more than a national movement. It is not the dawah movement in the true sense.  

Being a nasih or adviser is not a simple matter for a da‘ee. It requires him of being totally free of hatred and negative feelings against his mad‘u (the one he is inviting to God). He must have positive feelings in his heart which was described by Jesus Christ in thus: ‘Love everyone even your enemies’. Only those can fulfil this Quranic standard of dawah ilallah who have completely purified themselves from negativity in the full sense of the word.