Dawah

Daʿwah (Arabic: دعوة, Arabic: [ˈdæʕwæ], "invitation", also spelt dâvah, daawa, dawah, daawah or dakwah) is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is daʿwāt (دَعْوات) or daʿawāt (دَعَوات). Preachers who engage in dawah are known as da'i.
Daʿwah [ˈdæʕwæh] literally means "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation". Grammatically, the word represents a gerund of a verb with the triconsonantal root d-ʕ-w (د-ع-و) meaning variously "to summon" or "to invite". A Muslim who practices daʿwah, either as a religious worker or in a volunteer community effort, is called a dāʿī (داعي, plural duʿāh دعاة [dʊˈʕæː]).
A dāʿī, is a person who invites people to understand and accept Islam through dialogue and other techniques, who may be regarded as a missionary inviting people to the faith, prayer, and manner of Islamic life.
The term daʿwah[Qur'an]]. In sura (chapter) 30:25, for example, it denotes the call to the dead to rise on the Day of Judgment. When used in the Qur'an, it generally refers to Allah's invitation to live according to His will. Thus, when used in the first centuries of Islam, it usually referred to that message and was sometimes used interchangeably with sharī‘a and dīn.
Daʿwah is also described as the duty to "actively encourage fellow Muslims in the pursuance of greater piety in all aspects of their lives", a definition which has become central to contemporary Islamic thought.
During the Expedition of Al Raji in 625, Muhammad sent some men as missionaries to various different tribes. Some men came to Muhammad and requested that Muhammad send instructors to teach them Islam, but the men were bribed by the two tribes of Khuzaymah, who wanted revenge for the assassination of Khalid bin Sufyan (Chief of the Banu Lahyan tribe) by Muhammad's followers. A number of missionaries were killed in this expedition, either eight or, according to another account, ten.
Then during the Expedition of Bir Maona in July 625 Muhammad sent some missionaries at the request of some men from the Banu Amir tribe, but the Muslims were again killed in revenge for the assassination of Khalid bin Sufyan by Muhammad's followers. 70 Muslims were killed during this expedition.
During the Expedition of Khalid ibn al-Walid (Banu Jadhimah) in January 630, Muhammad sent Khalid ibn Walid to invite the Banu Jadhimah tribe to Islam. This is mentioned in the Sunni Hadith Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:628.
Mus'ab ibn 'Umair was the first Muslim envoy in September 621. He was sent to Yathrib (now Medina) to teach the people the doctrines of Islam and give them guidance.
After Muhammad's death in 632, from the available historical evidence, it appears that after Muhammad's death Muslims did not immediately embark upon daʿwah activities—during and after the rapid conquests of the Byzantine and Persian lands, they ventured little if at all to preach to local non-Muslims. Daʿwah came into wider usage almost a hundred years after Muhammad's death, in the wake of 'Abbasid propaganda against the then ruling Umayyad clan in the 720s. However, the 'Abbasid daʿwah ceased as soon as the 'Abbasids were in power—a fact that attests to its political nature. Daʿwah as a truly missionary activity, albeit still within the Muslim Ummah, appeared in the form of the Isma'ili daʿwah of the 9th through 13th centuries. Isma'ilis, in many ways, can be seen as the pioneers of the organized Muslim missionary activities: their highly institutionalized and sophisticated daʿwah structure has hardly been repeated until today. Moreover, for the Isma'ilis, daʿwah was a state priority. The Isma'ili daʿwah encompassed extra- and intra-ummatic forms and blended both theology and politics.
In Islamic theology, the purpose of daʿwah is to invite people, Muslims and non-Muslims, to understand the worship of God as expressed in the Qur'an and the sunnah of Muhammad and to inform them about Muhammad.
Daʿwah as the "Call towards God" is the means by which Muhammad began spreading the message of the Qur'an to mankind. After Muhammad, his followers and the Ummah (Muslim community) assumed responsibility for it. They convey the message of the Qur'an by providing information on why and how the Qur'an preaches monotheism. Muhammad saw Islam as the true religion and mission of all earlier prophets. He believed that their call had been limited to their own people but that his was universal. His mission as the final prophet was to repeat to the whole world this call and invitation (daʿwah) to Islam. Muhammad wrote to various non-Muslim rulers, inviting them to convert.
The importance of daʿwah has been emphasised many times in the Quran:
In the Hadith ("sayings") of Muhammad, daʿwah is mentioned to emphasise importance and virtues:
Muhammad sent Muadh ibn Jabal to Yemen and told him "You will be going to Christians and Jews, so the first thing you should invite them to is the assertion of the oneness of Allah, Most High. If they realize that, then inform them that Allah has made five daily prayers obligatory on them. If they pray them, then inform them that Allah has made the payment of charity from their wealth obligatory on their rich to be given to their poor. If they accept that, then take it from them and avoid the best part of people's property."
With regard to Muhammad's mild nature in preaching Islam, the Quran says:
The Quran says about Moses and Aaron who preached to Pharaoh, the claimant of God:
Muhammad was reported by his wife, Aisha to have said "Whenever gentleness is in a thing, it beautifies it, and whenever it is withdrawn from something, it defaces."
Muhammad was quoted by Jareer as saying,"One deprived of gentleness is deprived of all good."
Muslims made it a part of their political theory (through relating daʿwah to jihad) and life (using the concept of daʿwah in their political agendas). Taken in general, the intertwining of daʿwah and politics, then, has been a feature throughout the Muslim history, though practical implications of this have been different in different ages.
A classical example of diversion in daʿwah can be seen in the case of Yusuf in prison when two prisoners asked him to interpret their dreams. One of them said: "I saw myself pressing wine." The other said: "I saw myself carrying bread on my head and birds were eating from it." They asked: "Inform us of the interpretation of these things. Indeed, we believe you are one of the righteous." He replied: "Whenever food came to you as your provision, I informed you about it before it came. That is from what my Lord has taught me.... As for one of you, he will pour wine for his lord to drink, and as for the other, he will be crucified and birds will eat from his head. This is the case judged concerning which you both inquire." (Quran 12:35–41)
Doing daʿwah in the right location. For example, Mount Safa in the time of Muhammad was used for announcements. So Muhammad went there to make his point. He chose that particular location because he knew the people who he was inviting to Islam. He knew their nature and characteristics, so he chose Mount Safa. He climbed up to its summit and addressed his people saying: "O people of Quraysh, if I were to tell you there was an army behind this hill would you listen to me?"
Various Islamic institutions provide elaborate manuals, trainings and workshops to daʿi to prepare them for successful daʿwah.
Daʿis are given trainings in the form of physical workshops and training sessions. Daʿwah trainings are also provided in the form of online video lessons, webinars, online discussion forums, handouts and quizzes.
Modern daʿwah movements are varied in their objectives and activities. Examples include:
Methods may also depend upon specific creeds. For instance, among Ismailis, al-Naysaburi's Code of Conduct depicts the values in which dais should spread the word of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims. Idris Imad al-Din's work presents us with an indigenous account of the traditions of the daʿwa in Yaman. His account of the Nizari–Musta'li succession dispute reflects the official view of the Tayyibis. Similarly, modern-day platforms designated for open-air public speaking in the western world also provide platforms for debate between different denominations in Islam, with documented instances of dialogue being reported between demographics such as Quranists and Mahdi'ist based creeds such as Mahdavia.
There are also Da'wah inspired movements that do not focus on the dissemination of Islamic creed, but rather on the promotion of secularism. Termed by Maya Mikdashi as evangelical secularism, these evangelical secularists in Lebanon attempt to encounter the sectarian state of their country by increasing the space of robust Secularism in a sectarian Lebanon. During the Laïque Pride, the organizers of the pride, referred to the Islamic Da' wah to describe the tactics of expanding their ideology.