When Prophet Muhammad (Peace be to him) was chosen and deputed by God as the role model and benefactor for entire humankind, the world in general and Arabian peninsula in particular was almost ful\ly devoid of True Faith with its purest form of monotheism. It can be said that he was the first and only Believer in true and full sense of the term. He was the only Muslim. He was assigned with the great prophetic mission of inviting directly his immediate audience and indirectly the whole global human race to know the reality of God and submit to Him. That invitation and call is termed as Dawah. The Prophet was primarily a Da’ee and Dawah was his mission.
His native people listened to him. Some responded positively, favoured, supported, and followed him, and some others reacted adversely. The latter became antagonist and opposed him tooth and nail. This happened with all Messengers. The Prophet’s mission was twofold. One: Dawah to non-believers. Two: teaching, training, purifying and organising the believers, and transforming them into one entity – Ummah – whom God himself called “Khair-e-Ummah,” the best of people. [Q-3:110]
In God’s own words “in the Messenger is the best role model for the Believers”. [Q-35:21] This clearly means the Muslims too have a twofold mission. One: Dawah to non-believers; and Two: preparing and organising themselves as best individuals and best people who live this life in full submission to God. This is the Ummah’s Mission and whole Ummah is thus a missionary Ummah.
In the particular context of the Ummah in India, Muslims are confronted with many political, cultural, civic, and civilisational complexities and challenges. Protecting their Islamic identity, preserving their basic religious values, retaining their physical existence, safeguarding their specific institutions are some of these challenges. During seven decades of post-independence era they by and large are being pressed and entrapped into abundance of issues, problems, and challenges. Thus occurred massive imbalance in meeting the requisites of the aforementioned dual duties of the Mission. We may say in statistical terms that their 98 to 99 per cent energies are spent on their own individual, social and collective requirements and the remaining 1 to 2 per cent energy, talents and resources are being spent on Dawah. This amounts to an un-intentional deviation from their being Khair-e-Ummah and the Prophet being their best role model.
The Prophetic Dawah met with opposition and repression in earlier period of the mission. Events in Taif were the worst and painfully sordid. In spite of having all moral justification for cursing the oppressors, the Prophet forgave them, as he took full care of the fact that they were ignorant while he was their well-wisher and benefactor.
Muslim Indians too are facing a semblance of Makkan period oppression. So, they have a great lesson to learn from this model of the Prophet, considering their distinctive high moral status as da’ees and well-wishers of their fellow citizens.
In this age of talks on one’s rights, Muslims are struggling for their rights. At the same time, they need to give due importance to their God-assigned duties towards their compatriots. It’s the latter’s right and hence the duty of Muslims to introduce, explain and present Islam to them.
Two terms – ‘Minority’ and ‘Majority’ – are widely used in the Indian national context. Rights of minorities are emphasised upon. Muslims constitute a major part of this category. Their rights are mostly under pressure, threat and subjugation, making them feel perpetually insecure, restive and devoid of their due share in development. This is turning them into a protesting, demanding, and contending community. As a rival to the majority community they have developed in themselves a sort of permanent minority psychosis. This negative psychology has driven them out very far from the sense of their being the da’ae Ummah, whose distinct identity is of one who prefers giving over taking, irrespective of their being less in numbers or more.
Muslims have the Amanah of Islam, most valuable thing to be handed over to their compatriots. They are not merely a community among many communities, nor a mere minority surrounded by a majority, but they are trustees of the Divine Message and a da’ee ummah.
Misinformation and disinformation about Islam and a widespread atmosphere of misunderstandings, and a continuous negative propaganda against Islam has resulted in suspicion, misgivings, hatred, fear, and Islamophobia. This is largely due to the vacuum created by lack of Dawah. This is harming Islam and Muslims both. The discredit of this situation goes mostly to the laxity and indifference of Muslims towards their intentional or unintentional abstinence from Dawah, which was prime mission of theirs and that of their beloved Prophet, who is their role model.
In the atmosphere of an insatiable lust for money, power, sex and crushing thirst of mundane gains, the entire humanity is in dire need of an alternative but finds no alternative. In this national and global situation, it has become an imperative to make the bliss of Islam accessible to humankind.
In this age of knowledge explosion, digital informatics, internet, a huge range of social media platforms and above all, the failure of all isms, ideologies and systems in liberating the humankind from the clutches of innumerable evil and complex problems, the situation has made wide open the gates for Islamic Dawah. Let us reflect upon our mission in the prevailing scenario and take concrete steps.