| 24 September 2009
Book Name: Islamic Dawah In The Contemporary World
Author: Dr Nazir Ahmad Zargar
Publisher: Wisdom House Publishers & Distributors, Srinagar Kashmir.
Year Of Publication: 2009
Price: Rs 125; Pages: 166
Reviewed by: Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander
Dawah as the term suggests is one of the essential features of Islamic Movement. Dawah is a powerful tool which has proved a success in the turbulent times for Muslims and is responsible for the survival of Islam through centuries as well as preserving the Muslim Identity.
With changing times the Strategy and Methodology of Dawah too needs an overhaul. The present book under review attempts to address this change. The book is divided in five chapters each catering the need of a particular aspect of Dawah. The first chapter deals with the importance, essence and objectives of dawah.
The second chapter deals with the development of Dawah Methodology and its Implementation by various Dawah movements prominent among them Al-Ikhwan Al Muslimun, Jamaat-e-Islami,Tablighi Jamaat and Jamiati-e-Ahle Hadith the foremost in the Arab World and the later three in the subcontinent. Though the author acknowledges their contribution in the field of Dawah and making Muslims in general aware about this essential duty of Islam for which Muslim Ummah was credited as being best of the created because of this duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil, but the author is not monologist in this attempt as he factually acknowledges the shortcomings of these movements, thus enumerates the need for a “Universal Islamic Movement”(P-62).In his criticism the author seems less harsh on the Tablighi Jamaat and emphasizes that by keeping itself aloof from the Politics this Jamaat is welcome in every Nation thus needing Kudos but the author fails to understand that due to intellectual bankruptcy and overdue concern for the Hereafter this organization has failed to make a dent in the elite, intellectual and academic circles of Muslims as well as Non-Muslims, though the author well endorses this fact when he writes about the Islamic Movements that ”they are not now producing scholars of genius. They are facing intellectual crisis. The Ummah needs such intellectual personalities who would be helpful in bringing its revival and renaissance”( P-102 )
The Third chapter deals with Art and Technique of Dawah, the language of Dai, his qualities and his understanding level of the Addressee(MADU),psychology and background in order for better communication. One aspect which the author emphasis is that the Daee must be a mirror reflection of what he preaches. It happens with the preachers of all ideologies, opinions and religions that they seldom practice what they preach to people, but Islam debars preachers from this hypocrisy and makes them fear from the Divine Punishment they are going to face because of this stance. In order to opt for a shortcut many Daee’s choose the wrong notion by stating that they must not look at the character of Daee’s as Islam is not reflected in them but only understand Islam from Quran and Sunnah which are the real sources of Islam. There maybe a bit of fact in this claim also but if it is adopted as a legal stance in Islam then we have to Divorce Islam from Practice, thus making it Utopian whereas the greatest attraction of Islam is its implementation, application and practice.
Synonymously the author too acknowledges the fact that in most cases Islam spread through noble character of Muslims and in Sub-Continent too the spread of Islam reached its Zenith because of the Sufis who practiced and Implemented Islam more than preaching certain dry rituals only.
Chapter four deals with contemporary Global Society, which with its wake brought numerous miseries for Mankind in the form of Materialism, Spiritual Vaccum, Man-Made systems devoid of God and Terrorism. The author addresses these challenges in this chapter and decries the need for eliminating the misunderstanding created by Media in the world against Muslims. Though the author witnesses a “Conspiracy Theory” as its cause but is not blind of the fact of Internal Crisis among Muslims which is also a contributing factor for this Stereo Static Image of Islam. So he envisages that the Door of “Ijtihad” must be once again opened to answer these onslaughts beforehand as well as Muslim Media and Literature must be made available on world scale to dispel the unfounded but propagandist myths about Islam.
Zargar is also for Women Empowerment as he predicts that no movement can be successful without incorporating the women in it and under-estimating their role will lead to a failure as in the previous attempts.
The last chapter redeeming conclusion ends in a hurry where the need for Inter-Faith Dialogue is ably acknowledged but with certain precautions. Though the debates between different religious scholars have been acknowledged but not encouraged as they generate more heat than light. The author has verdicted that every man made modern system has failed and it is high time that Dawah must once again be restored as the world is waiting to accept the Truth Of Islam. The author may seem right in his claim, but fails to deliberate on the appeal and issues which made Islam attain a Civilizational Status but now what forces, obstacles and hindrances hold it back from breaking the Status Quo?
Overall the book is worth read in order to understand how to undertake this bounding duty of Dawah in 21st century. This book speaks of intellectual genius and seamless energy of Islam and the author of the book whose endeavors have been well acknowledged by various scholars as is clear from the appreciations for the book.