Islamic Dawah, Cricket and winning hearts

Andrew Carnegie has said, “Dealing with people is a lot like digging for GOLD: When you go digging for an ounce of gold, you have to move tons of dirt. But when you go digging, you don’t go looking for the dirt, you go looking for the gold.” The same logic applies in Dawah work as well. If one expects to sow a seed in one moment and pluck fruit in another, he could not prove to be a good Da’ee. It is here that the analogy of Da’ee with a bowler is best illustrated. Even best of the bowlers in the world bowl extensively, throws wide and no-balls, shed runs, hit for fours and sixes, and it is only on a couple of those lucky balls which earns him wicket in which his credibility as a bowler lies. This patience and perseverance of a bowler is extremely essential for a Da’ee.

To be a bowler, you don’t need to attend hi-fi coaching. To bowl, you just need a ball and will to bowl. With a ball in the hand and will to bowl in the heart, when you first reach the ground to face the batsman, your first ball will crawl over the pitch barely able to reach the crease. It will be followed by dozens of wide and no balls; some balls will go over the batsman in the gloves of wicketkeeper, others over him as well, across the boundary line. Then the umpire may whisper in your ear that your action is not appropriate. After all this, when your first ‘legal’ ball will reach the batsman, he may send it flying for six for several times. It is only after going through this ‘humiliating’ process that you could aspire to be a Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne.

In the same manner, you have to hit the grounds for Dawah work. You must train yourself, polish your arguments, read extensively but your actual training centre will only be your Dawah field. You may commit mistakes but these mistakes will teach you lessons that thousands of books and lectures could not. Every question that your addressee asks and whose answer you don’t know will prompt you to increase your knowledge, every taunt of your addressee on your personality will help you improve your personality.

Believe me, if you get busy in Dawah work sincerely, the day is not far when you will notice that whatever you are preaching, you are automatically practising yourself. Dawah work will improve your personality, skills, character and most important of all, it will be an asset for the afterlife.

Khan Yasir in Radiance Views Weekly, New Delhi. Here