Do Not Be Afraid

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The world we live in is all consuming. Night melts into day, days slip in and out of weeks, weeks blur as the months go by and, before we know it, another year has passed, and we are wondering where the time has gone.

Everything around us jostles and fights for our undivided attention. Families, friends, work, studies – the demands on our time are seemingly endless. Often, we are so immersed in the mundanity of the everyday, in the demands of our personal lives, that we become inward facing. We begin to feel distant from world events, cut off from the larger battles that are being fought all around us – religiously, socially and politically.

And we forget that we, too, have a part to play in the events that are affecting the Ummah and shaping the societies we live in.

We forget that we are meant to be one body, feeling each others pain, sacrificing for one another, ransoming ourselves and our wealth for the sake of Allah.

We forget that we are supposed to be the best of nations, calling to good, warning against evil, worshipping Allah with every fibre of our being, with every action, public and private.

We forget that we were tasked to be the bearers of glad tidings, that we have been given the honour of carrying this message to the four corners of the earth.

We know how important this work is; we know what is at stake, and we know the prize that awaits us.

But so many of us are afraid.

We hesitate to tell the truth, in case the people turn away from us. We bite our tongues , worrying that we will offend, fretting that our words will wound instead of heal.

Many times, we shy away from the confrontations, from the battles, from the clashes of civilisation and civility that can sometimes accompany this call, this da’wah.

Indeed, many of us feel we don’t have enough knowledge to give da’wah, thinking that this call should be reserved for the experts. It is then that we need to remember that da’wah is not only in giving talks or taking part in debates – it is in the little things we do, too. The da’wah we give with our actions, our manners and attitudes.

For every one of us is a caller. Whether it is with a surah or hadith that is learned and taught, a lesson that is attended, a cause that is supported, a good deed, a kind word, we are all callers. And our call should be a sincere call to the truth; to our families and loved ones, members of our community, to Muslims and non-Muslims.

We should not be afraid.

I invite you to reaffirm your commitment to spreading the message of Islam. Recommit to sharing the beauty of the deen, with everything at your disposal, the resources, gifts and talents that you have been with blessed with.

“If Allah guides a person through you, it is better for you than all that is on the earth” (Bukhari and Muslim)

May Allah make it easy for us to make sincere da’wah part of our regular ibadah and bless us by guiding others through us – ameen.

 (By Naima B. Robert)