THE TASK OF GLOBAL DAWAH
Raison D’etre of Muslims

GOD sent prophet after prophet to every community to inform them about God’s creation plan. The Prophet Muhammad was the Last Prophet in the series of prophets. God revealed His guidance to Prophet Muhammad through the Quran. After the Prophet, it is the responsibility of those who believe in his message to convey the message of Quran to humankind.

Blessed be He who has revealed the criterion [the Quran] to His servant that he may warn the nations. (25: 1)

This Quran has been revealed to me so that through it I may warn you and whoever it reaches. (6: 19)

The task of spreading the word of God on a global scale has been made possible and easy in this age of technology. Muslims have now at their disposal the technology and means of communication with the potential of realizing this task of global dawah. The Muslim community was given a long opportunity by God to convert this hidden potential into reality and discharge its global responsibility with respect to the Quran. But the Muslim leaders were unable to recognize this potential nor did they avail of the opportunity. They endeavoured in many fields, but they totally failed to fulfill the global requirements of dawah (calling people to God).

Thereafter, the sunnah (way) of God came into force; referred to in the Quran thus: If you turn back, He will bring in your place another people, who will not be like you. (47: 38) If one group fails in performing a divine task assigned to it by God, then it will be replaced by another group. In present times, the age of communication developed by western nations is the outcome of this “replacement” by God.

Support through Secular Nations

A number of predictions of the Prophet of Islam have been recorded in the books of Hadith. One of these predictions is: “Certainly, God will reinforce this religion through the secular folk (fajir)”. (Sahih al-Bukhari) Fajir here means a secular person. This Hadith means that when the Muslim community fails to discover and use the means and methods to discharge their duty of dawah, then God would raise secular people to perform this task. Where a religious incentive is ineffective, God would raise another group with a worldly incentive who would perform this task. These secular people will recognize the potential hidden in nature through research and investigation and develop the means and methods that can be used in dawah. This would be a supporting role played by the secular people towards the Muslim ummah.

In present times―particularly in the 19th and the 20th centuries, the discoveries made by the West in the field of science and technology are of this nature. Through these discoveries God has arranged for ‘external support’ to perform this divine dawah mission.

The Failure of Muslim Leadership

There was nothing religious about the support of the western nations towards the divine mission. This was done purely under their material and national interest. It was only natural that without any personal or worldly incentive, they could not have made these discoveries that could be used to further the divine mission. Furthermore, it was natural that these great discoveries of science would lead them on to a position of global dominance.

Together with a major role in the development of civilization, comes power. Both are inseparable. Not only did these western nations gain material benefits from these discoveries but also directly or indirectly they gained political power. This was a reward for their supporting role. Without this reward they could not have performed their supporting role to the divine mission.

Unfortunately, the Muslim leadership of the present times failed to understand this concept. They were unable to differentiate between one thing and another. They were not wise enough to embrace the relevant and discard the irrelevant.

When these western nations, equipped with modern scientific resources, entered Asia and Africa, they soon acquired political domination and rule over many of the Muslim nations there. However, there was another aspect of their domination that has been overlooked. These nations brought with them the immense blessing of modern communication that was awaited by history itself for the past thousand years, and which would be most beneficial to the religion of Islam. But the Muslim leaders could not recognize this fact and rise above worldly considerations to ignore the political problems, and avail of the opportunities provided by these modern means for dawah work. Every purported Muslim problem of the present times is a result of this lapse in wisdom.

Many Muslim scholars considered colonialism, orientalism, etc. as responsible for the problems faced by the Muslim community. Due to this wrong thinking, Muslims have been engaged in fighting the supposed ‘obstacles’ for the last 200 years. However, the result has been totally counterproductive.

The truth is that the fear of these so-called ‘obstacles’ was unfounded. Rather, according to the Hadith of the Prophet, their position was that of ‘supporters of Islam’. Through great effort and sacrifices, they had made the discoveries of science that brought modern communication into existence. Although, they had developed these means of communications for their own requirement, there is no monopoly on these methods. These means are available to all and are considered as global means of communication. Had Muslim scholars and leaders not chosen the path of collision and confrontation against them, and instead adopted peaceful methods, then undoubtedly, they could have made full use of these means of communications in their favour. By doing so they could have fulfilled the plan of global Islamic dawah that was awaited for over a thousand years.

A Historical Reference

Professor T. W Arnold (1864-1930), a distinguished British orientalist, wrote a book on Islamic missionary activity after a thorough study of the subject. This book is titled The Preaching of Islam.

This book presents a detailed analysis of the spread of Islam in different countries over a thousand years beginning from the 7th century CE. For instance, with reference to a report from Africa, he writes:

Christian missionary reports: “When I came out in 1898, there were few Muhammadans to be seen below Iddah. Now they are everywhere, excepting below Abo, and at the present rate of progress there will scarcely be a heathen village on the riverbanks by 1910.” (p. 326)

Professor Arnold wrote this about the settlements on both sides of the river Niger in West Africa. The river Niger is about 4,180 kilometres long and flows through five African countries―Guinea, Mali, Niger, Benin and Nigeria. This example illustrates the rapid spread of Islam in those times and it can be assumed that it was similar in many other countries as well.

This spread of the Islamic message of God came to a standstill in the 19th century at the same time when the discovery of the printing press and modern means of communication had opened the doors to the large scale global dissemination of the dawah message. The reason was that these new possibilities in the 19th century coincided with an alleged “problem”, that is, the domination of the western nations (western colonialism) over Muslim countries.

At that time, the entire Muslim population succumbed to negative reaction. They began a hostile campaign against western civilization and western colonialism. Some involved themselves indirectly in this communal campaign through their speeches and writing directed against the West, while others directly engaged in a violent and armed conflict as a self-proclaimed jihad.

This state of affairs remains till today. All dawah opportunities are being wasted while Muslims are engaged in a futile communal and political battle. Now, the time has come as a final warning for Muslims all over the world to totally abandon all such offensive activities and dedicate themselves totally to the true Islamic work of dawah.