Da’wah
is a duty
Most Muslims know that
Islam is a universal religion, meant for all mankind.
Allah (swt) is the Lord
of the entire Universe, and Muslims have been entrusted
with the duty of
conveying His message to all mankind. Alas, most Muslims
today have become
callous towards this duty! While accepting Islam as the best
way of life for
ourselves, most of us are unwilling to share this knowledge with
those to whom the
message has not yet been conveyed.
The Arabic word Da’wah
means a call or an invitation. In Islamic context, it
means to strive for the
propagation of Islam.
The Glorious Qur’an
says:
“Ah!
Who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they
have
from Allah? But Allah is not unmindful of what ye do!”
[Al-Qur’an
2:140]
Twenty
Most Common Questions
In order to convey the
message of Islam, dialogue and debate become
inevitable. The Glorious
Qur’an says:
“Invite
(all) to the way of thy Lord, with wisdom and beautiful
preaching,
and argue with them in ways that are best and most
gracious!”
[Al-Qur’an
16:125]
In conveying the message
of Islam to a non-Muslim, it is usually not sufficient to
highlight only the
positive nature of Islam. Most non-Muslims are not convinced
about the truth of Islam
because there are a few questions about Islam at the
back of their minds that
remain unanswered.
They may agree with your
contentions about the positive nature of Islam. But,
in the same breath, they
will say - “Ah! But you are the same Muslims who
marry more than one
woman. You are the same people who subjugate women
by keeping them behind
the veil. You are fundamentalists, etc.”
I personally prefer
asking the non-Muslims upfront, with their limited
knowledge, whether right
or wrong, from whichever source it may be, what they
feel is wrong in Islam.
I encourage them to be very frank and open and convince
them that I can take
criticism about Islam.
In the past few years of
my Da’wah experience, I have realized that there are
barely twenty most
common questions that a common non-Muslim has
regarding Islam.
Whenever you ask a non-Muslim, “what do you feel is wrong in
Islam?”, he poses five
or six questions, and these questions invariably fall
among the twenty most
common questions.
Logical
replies can convince the majority
The twenty most common
questions about Islam can be answered with reason
and logic. A majority of
non-Muslims can be convinced with these answers. If a
Muslim memorizes or
simply remembers these answers, Inshallah he will be
successful, if not in
convincing non-Muslims about the complete truth of Islam,
then at least in
removing misconceptions about Islam and neutralizing the
negative thinking about
Islam and Muslims that the non-Muslims have. A very
few non-Muslims may have
counter arguments to these replies, for which
further information may
be required.
Misconceptions
due to media
The common
misconceptions about Islam arise in the minds of a majority of
non-Muslims, because
they are constantly being bombarded with
misinformation about
Islam. International media is mainly controlled by the
western world, whether
it is international satellite channels, radio stations, news
papers, magazines or
books. Recently the Internet has become a powerful
medium of information.
Though it is not controlled by anybody, one finds a large
amount of virulent
propaganda about Islam on the Internet. Of course, Muslims
too are utilizing this
tool to portray the right image of Islam and Muslims, but
they are far behind as
compared to the propaganda against Islam. I hope the
efforts by the Muslims
will increase and continue to be pursued.
Misconceptions
change with time
The most common
questions about Islam are different in different periods and
eras. This set of twenty
most common questions is based on present times.
Decades earlier, the set
of questions was different and decades later too, the
set of questions may
change depending upon how Islam is projected by the
media.
Misconceptions
are the same throughout the world
I have interacted with
people in different parts of the world and have found these
twenty most common
questions about Islam to be the same everywhere. There
may be a couple of
additional questions depending upon the locale, the
surrounding or culture.
For instance in America, the additional common
question is - “Why does
Islam prohibit taking and giving of interest?”
I have included among
these twenty most common questions, certain questions
more common among the
Indian non-Muslims. For instance, “why do Muslims
have non-vegetarian
food?” The reason for including such questions is that
people of Indian origin
are spread throughout the world and constitute about
20% i.e. 1/5th of the
world population. Thus, their questions become common
questions asked by
non-Muslims throughout the world.
Misconceptions
of non-Muslims who have studied Islam
There are many
non-Muslims who have studied Islam. Most of them have only
read books on Islam
written by biased critics of Islam. These non-Muslims have
an additional set of
twenty common misconceptions about Islam. For instance,
they claim to have found
contradictions in the Qur’an, they contend that the
Qur’an is unscientific,
etc. There is another set of additional replies clearing
these twenty
misconceptions among non-Muslims who have studied Islam from
distorted sources. I
have also given the replies to twenty additional less
common questions among
the non-Muslims in my public talks and book on
“Answers to Common
Questions about Islam by Non-Muslims who have some
knowledge about Islam”.
