Tazkiyah and Renunciation
of the World

In later times one group adopted the path of renunciation of the world in order to attain tazkiyah. But disenchantment with the world is required in the psychological sense rather than in the practical sense. The concept of the renunciation of the world is a product of non-dawah (missionary) thinking. The world is inhabited by human beings, as such, renouncing the world is akin to renouncing people. A da‘i cannot afford to abandon people on any pretext. Others may see people from other angles, but a da‘i looks at man as a potential madu. In the eyes of a da‘i, every man is a madu, be he rich or poor, a commoner or a VIP, ruler or ruled. Even if he is a rival or a tyrant, in the eyes of the da‘i, he is a human being. And a da‘i’s first desire is to convey the truth to him.

A da‘i cannot afford to say that if someone enters from one gate, he will go out from another gate. He will instead say that the coming person (visitor) is a madu for him and, as such, he will meet him and convey the message of truth to him with wisdom.

Renouncing the world is, in fact, renouncing the madu. Renouncing the world is, in effect, to go away from those to whom the da‘i would normally want to convey the divine truth. A businessman can walk away from everything but he cannot walk away from his customers. In a similar way, a da‘i can tolerate everything but he cannot tolerate going to a secluded place where there are no madus. When he remains among the madus, he may be beset by certain problems, but he overlooks them because he cannot afford to break off his relations with them. Along with tazkiyah, dawah is an equally important goal for the believer. And if a believer is sincere it is not possible for him either to give up his efforts to attain tazkiyah or to give up his dawah activities.