The message must not only be delivered, it must also be conveyed in the best possible manner.
Allah, the all-Wise Lord expects no less:
"Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way. Lo! thy Lord is best aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who go aright."
Quran: 16.125
Now, how am I supposed to carry out this duty at a time when so many people are simply made to shun Muslims and Islam? But then again, if I do not deliver this beautiful message, and let so many nice people who are created by Allah remain in total darkness when the Light of Allah is right here with me, ready and packaged for delivery, how then will I face my Lord when I'm finally confronted with the simple questions of:
1. What have you done with the life I gave you?
2. What have you done with the wealth I gave you?
3. What have you done with the health I gave you?
4. What have you done with the time I gave you?
5. What have you done with the knowledge I gave you?
How then will I answer these simple questions if I do not make an effort here and now and try to make a difference, however tiny? After all, the fellow human who is waiting for my call has just as much a right to his Creator's Light as I am. We are all created by Allah and the only difference between him and I is that I heard the message before he did. So what's preventing me from doing my job? The message is ready for delivery. Why am I sitting on the Light? For fear of being laughed at? The Prophet of Islam was laughed at, mocked, banned, and almost killed. He was called a liar, a sorcerer, a madman and a poet, all rolled into one, by the very people who had hitherto given him the title of Al-Amin, the Trustworthy, and among whom he had lived for forty years. Yet this did not stop him from conveying the message. His followers were likewise mocked, banned and expelled from their homes, even killed, and tortured and subjected to the most heinous cruelties imaginable. Yet this did not deter them from passing on the message. And now the message is with me, so why am I sitting on it when I know for sure Islam is a trust and it's my duty to share this Light with those who are waiting for my call?
I pray to Allah the most High to give this servant the strength and sincerity of heart that is necessary to carry out this duty in a way that is most pleasing, O Lord.
P.S.
I do not pretend to be a scholar nor am I a trained missionary. I am a simple house wife who is blessed with life, time, health and deep love and concern for her fellowhuman. I do not claim to own any of these things. They are a trust from God. My intention is not to down-grade anyone's beliefs nor am I dying to lose any friends. It's just that I'm pained on account of my fellow humans. In this day and age when man prides himself on having traversed the universe, it is so painful to see that modern man has yet to learn how to treat his Lord. The only Lord he has got. If this world had more than one Lord we would all be free to worship in any way we pleased. But that is simply not the case. There is only one Lord and there is only One path to this Lord. Now the good question is, if there is only one Lord why are there so many religions in the world today?
I will share what Islam has to say about this in a forthcoming article, Godwilling.
The biggest obstacle in the way of informing people in non-Muslims countries about God's Last Testament is Muslims themselves. Only 2 Muslims out of 100 care anything for Islam. There are over 3,000 Arab-owned liquor stores in Chicago and hundreds in Cleveland. And there is an unidentifiable cultural legacy from Roman times that is shared with Roman Catholics that impairs inviting strangers to the religion, so that non-Arab Muslims do most of the "dawah" work such as building the mosques, schools, etc. It is really troubling to see what Shaykh Fawaz Damrah billed in 1993 as "the answer to America's race and social problems" underminded by Muslims themselves.
Your book speaks of Somalia, a Muslim society where Muslims killed Muslims. "Muslim" is an Arabic word that means "mu" = "of" and "Islam" = "submission to God". How can "one of submission to God" kill "one of submission to God"? Is that any different from the so-called Christians who killed each other during the World Wars?
One of your reviewers wrote a book about Janizaries - a non-Muslim army employed by a so-called Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire that went around killing Muslims or others who rebelled. How is that submission to God?
The real queston is - how do you tell Muslims about Islam? You would be astounded to know that over ninety percent of Muslims have no clue what the "Al Fatiha" means. (For non-Muslims, the Al Fathiha is the equivalent of the Lord's Prayer. If a Muslim prays 5 times a day like he and sometimes she are supposed to, then that prayer is recited a minimum of 17 times daily.) And yet they have no idea what they're saying. It might just as well be "hocus pocus, donna mocus, mokey mokus, rotten tomatoes, tin cans, poof!" - "I'm gonna have good luck today because I said the magic words". Most don't know that they said "All praise is to God, Lord of the Worlds, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment. To you we give our worship and to you we give our requests for help. Show us the Straight Path, the path of those upon whom you have bestowed your Grace and not those who have earned your wrath or who have gone astray, ameen."
In my experiences in America and Britain, more so-called Christian children could tell me the Lord's prayer in their vernacular language than could a so-called Muslim child. This disconnect reminded me of Europe's Dark Ages when the Bible was kept in Latin and nobody could understand it, so they relied on priests to tell them. This sad state for Muslims today is their Dark Age. Most Muslims practice culture rather than Islam.
You see, I taught Somali students at a school in Fridley, Minnesota. This review of your book is a very painful reminder of the horrors of war.
May Jesus return sooner than later, ameen.
Peace.
Thanks for sharing this one!
~Nikki~
Love in Christ~~ Bonnie Q
One of my favourite proverbs, translated from Arabic probably with some poetic licence by Rudyard Kipling goes "Beneath Allah's throne on seat is blessed for he who saves a soul with jest." There are of course many ways in which you can pass on your message.
Best regards
Ian Thorpe