اُدۡعُ اِلٰی سَبِیۡلِ رَبِّکَ بِالۡحِکۡمَۃِ وَالۡمَوۡعِظَۃِ الۡحَسَنَۃِ
Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation
This verse of the Holy Quran is talking about the topic of Tabligh. Allah tells us to “call unto the way of thy Lord”. This means all Muslims should speak to the people around them and tell them about “the way of thy Lord”. What is “the way of thy Lord”? It is the religion of Islam.
From this verse we can understand that tabligh is important for every single Muslim. How can we do it? Again, Allah gives us the answer in this verse. He says we should use “wisdom and good exhortation”.
The Arabic word Hikmah (wisdom) which is used, has several meanings:
- Knowledge or science – this means we should do tabligh by using arguments based on knowledge and reasoning, and not just according to people’s emotions
- Equity or justice – we should take care of people’s emotions and explain our religion according to their beliefs
- Forbearance or clemency – this means that we should show the beauty of our religion with patience
- Firmness – we must remember our goal (to spread Allah’s message) and stick to it
- Conforming to the truth – Muslims should not say anything which is untrue and should speak in accordance with the exigencies (need) of the occasion
- A gift of prophecy – we should use arguments from the Quran, not make things up ourselves
- Something which stops foolish behaviour – the language we use should be understood by the person we are doing tabligh to
In one word, Allah has explained so many ways in which we can do tabligh. The second part of this sentence is “goodly exhortation”. The word exhortation means to urge or persuade someone. In this context, “goodly exhortation” means our tabligh should appeal to the hearts of the listeners to make a deep impression on them.
We must remember that every Muslim, whether man, woman or child, has a responsibility to spread the message of Islam. If we follow this guidance and with prayers, we will have the best formula to successfully call people to Allah, inshAllah.
Beloved Huzur (aba) has explained to us in his Friday Sermon of 8th September 2017:
“First become a model yourself and then preach the message of Islam and spread its excellences throughout the world. In order to do Tabligh, one needs to bring about a pure change within themselves. When one becomes a true model of a Muslim then there is no question of people’s attention not being drawn towards you. It is by observing your very example that people’s attention will be drawn towards you and in this way without even formally doing any Tabligh, the avenues of Tabligh open up.”
If we follow this guidance and with prayers, we will have the best formula to successfully call people to Allah, inshAllah.