{"id":106784,"date":"2018-02-19T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=106784"},"modified":"2018-02-19T07:45:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T07:45:51","slug":"the-heavens-caravan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/02\/the-heavens-caravan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heaven\u2019s Caravan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity.<\/em>
\n\u2013 (Quran 3: 104)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

16 Feb 2018 – <\/em>The Muslim world is in crisis and a biased media has added its own biased colour to it. The negative stereotyping has created an impression that everything Muslim is evil. However, away from public glare, there is a silent revolution that has Prophet Muhammad\u2019s mission placed on the top of all priorities \u2013 the spreading of the authentic message of Islam. Called da\u2018wah \u2013 the concept of propagation of Islamic faith- a humongous army of preachers is silently striving to make Muslims better practitioners of their faith.<\/p>\n

Religions have jostled with each other for millenniums. Many missionaries of today are returning to practices of proselytising that were long ago abandoned by the mainline missionaries. Armed only with sleeping bag backpacks, and a simple message, da\u2019wah activists are going door-to-door in more than 200 countries. They can be easily recognised, and most are unfailingly polite. This mission evokes tales of Prophet Muhammad\u2019s companions who trekked hundreds of miles and braved bandits and armies to spread the word of Islam back in the 7th century. Historically, missionary da\u2019wah accompanied commercial ventures or followed military conquests.<\/p>\n

Now, in the modern digital world, the hardships are fewer, but challenges and prejudices are much stronger. However, if the Prophet\u2019s companions could sacrifice their lives for propagating Islam if hard times, surely present age Muslims can emulate them.<\/p>\n

Da\u2018wah means the issuing of a call or invitation. It is an important duty of every Muslim to invite people to their faith or to recall nominal or lapsed Muslims to a deeper faith.\u00a0 A Muslim who practices da\u2018wah, either as a preacher, religious worker or someone engaged in a faith- building community work is called a da\u2019I,plural du\u2019at.<\/p>\n

Islam\u2019s propagation remains a cardinal duty of every Muslim. This is particularly relevant in modern times where negative stereotyping of Muslims has brought a bad name to the faith. It also underlines the importance of the participation of educated Muslims because the knowledge explosion requires more sophisticated intellectual equipment to navigate the complex environment.<\/p>\n

For Islamic civilization, moral conduct is the rationale for its existence. It is this fundamental trait that distinguishes it from any other civilization in history. The argument that other civilizations, too, have a moral core is countered by the fact that Islam is a way of life\u00a0— ad-deen —<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and not simply a religion. Our values shape our lives; they are the qualities that define us. They make us who we are and guide us in our life choices, what we believe in and what we commit to. It is finally our conduct that will influence the perception of others about us<\/p>\n

Islam has a simple but highly effective evangelical message that boils down to five points to mirror Islam\u2019s five cardinal pillars of practice: Grasp the true meaning and implications of the credal statement that there is no deity except Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger; pray conscientiously five times a day; acquire learning and engage in the frequent remembrance of God; honor fellow believers; and participate in missionary work (da\u2019wah<\/em>) by spreading awareness of Islam. Da\u2019wah is God\u2019s way of bringing believers to faith.<\/p>\n

The \u201cinvitation<\/em>\u201d, or call, to accept Islam has to be extended not just to non-Muslims, but also to Muslims who do not observe Islam in its fullest form. Calling non-Muslims and \u201cinconsistent<\/em>\u201d Muslims to Islam is considered by Muslim theologians to be an unconditional duty of every Muslim.\u00a0 Every Muslim is considered a missionary of Islam.<\/p>\n

The da\u2019wah message is nonviolent and harbours no hatred for other faiths or peoples. Instead, it seeks to show Muslims that the injustice and oppression they face are\u00a0\u00a0 symptoms of their waning morality. It insists that the solution lies in spiritual renewal.\u00a0The aim is less about conversion and more about\u00a0propagating their view of correct Qur\u2019anic teachings about sin and salvation.<\/p>\n

The most accomplished modern missionary is Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi (1885-1944), a puritan, religious scholar. When he began his revivalist movement called Tablighi Jamaat<\/em> (\u201cProselytising Group<\/em>\u201c) in a rural setting in Mewat in northern India in 1927, it was a response to a dominant Hindu culture that was influencing Muslims and their way of life. However, the seeds were germinated in British-ruled India, emerging from the Islamic Deoband movement active in South Asia.\u00a0From its inception in 1867, the Deoband movement fused some aspects of Sufism with the study of the\u00a0hadith <\/em>and strict adherence to\u00a0sharia<\/em>, as well as advocating non-state-sponsored Islamic\u00a0da`wah<\/em>\u00a0(missionary activity).\u00a0In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Muslim minority in British India felt caught between the resurgent Hindu majority and the small but British-supported Christian missionary agenda.<\/p>\n

Kandhlawi graduated from the central Deoband\u00a0madrassa<\/em>\u00a0in 1910 and, while working among the Muslim masses of Mewat, India (just south of Delhi) came to question whether education alone could renew Islam.\u00a0He eventually decided that \u201conly through physical movement away from one\u2019s place could one leave behind one\u2019s esteem for life and its comforts for the cause of God<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>Indeed, some have even described his movement as the missionary arm of the Deobandis. Other Muslim groups in the subcontinent, notably the Barelvis,\u00a0had previously developed the idea of itinerant missionary work\u2014tabligh<\/em>\u2014in order to counter Hindu (and Christian) conversions of Muslims, but it was Ilyas\u2019s genius to teach that\u00a0tabligh<\/em>\u00a0should be the responsibility of each and every individual\u00a0\u00a0 Muslim. He aimed to recapitulate the\u00a0 piety and practice of Muhammad and his companions in the 7th century A.D., and as such was concerned not just with Hindu or Christian inroads into the Muslim community but with stemming the rising tide of Westernization and secularisation. Unlike other contemporary Islamic revivalists, Ilyas did not believe that Islam could be reconciled with Western science, technology, and political ideologies<\/p>\n

Ilyas wanted to take his teachings from the classroom to the common people. The mission was meant to devote itself largely to the business of preaching, The Meos, the community in which Ilyas began his work, were Muslims but mostly followed several Hindu traditions. The movement grew out as an offshoot of Deobandism, a socially conservative school of Islam. The adherents of the movement are popularly known as \u201ctablighis<\/em>\u201d. The tablighis lead spartan lives, shunning the outside world. They strive to create an ambiance of spirituality, solidarity, and purpose that is extremely compelling to the youth.<\/p>\n

By the mid-1930s, Ilyas was promulgating a more detailed program of belief and praxis. This new doctrine went beyond the five pillars of Islam12<\/sup>\u00a0and belief in the usual Islamic doctrinal staples,\u00a0to include:<\/p>\n