The Prophet SAW has passed away, but the message will never die. The message is preserved in the Qur’an, which is protected until the end of time. However, the Qur’an does not invite itself. This is the invitation to Islam, when we invite others to the Qur’an and Allah. Today, when we invite others to Islam, we tend to give them the whole book first. This does not work. First you have to invite with your manners, behaviour, intention, character and devotion.
You are an inviter to Allah and this is a full time job. Even when you are sleeping you should be yearning about what you can do to spread the message. This falls upon the shoulders of every Muslim, but only the successful ones will be chosen to carry on the message. No one is exempted.
We are in a state of sins unless our intention is purely for the invitation to Allah. The seeking of provision should not be our main intention, but only a means to support us in our mission and purpose in life to take mankind from darkness to light. How do we do it?
The only way to understand is to be convinced of what we are doing. People who love soccer believe in it and spend day and night following it. People who are passionate about baseball discuss baseball all the time. Whatever resides most within your heart will reflect how you engage your time. This is why, we cannot invite towards Allah unless we believe in Allah. That is the first step. The more you believe in Allah, the more you will invite towards Allah. You cannot invite unless you live it out.
It is a struggle to reach Allah – we have to believe in the whole landscape of dunia, akhirah and the unseen. If we don’t believe in it, our invitation will be useless. This is why today, with what is going on in our localities, the message not spreading.
We are in a state of sins, heedlessness, running after the material life, and so occupied with it that we forget the purpose of our existence and the honour of the noble job that Allah has granted to us as the ultimate gift to any ummah, which has never been given to any nation before, except the ummah of Muhammad SAW. The seeking of provision should not be our main intention, but rather how to take mankind from darkness to light.
Any God-fearing scholar will confirm that a Muslim has no right to stay in a non-Muslim country unless he is inviting towards Allah, or seeking useful knowledge, or he fears for his safety and seeks tranquillity in another land, in order to develop his own faith, or staying temporarily for business and then leaving.
For example, if you live in a non-Muslim country, sharing the resources of the non-Muslims, achieving success with the help of those who fulfilled your rights, do you ever ask yourself if, in return, you have given them what they need, in the way that Allah wants, and not in the way that you want? Every person that you deal with will ask you on the Day of Judgment on what you have done in terms of showing them Islam. How much of the right manner and character of a Muslim do you carry and how much do you take care of your neighbours and colleagues? Today, we are eager to give abundant gifts of flowers, chocolates and even wine to make our non-Muslim acquaintances happy, but do we give them the most important thing they need in this life and the hereafter, which is the mercy of Allah and the pleasure of Paradise?
O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment. Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant. (Al Ahzab 70-72)
That means that we already carry the trust whether we like it or not, to carry the message to ourselves, our neighbours, locality and to mankind.
[It was] so that Allah may punish the hypocrite men and hypocrite women and the men and women who associate others with Him and that Allah may accept repentance from the believing men and believing women. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful. (Al Ahzab 73)
Hence we are to believe, say the right word, and to carry out the trust, which means leave the message and invite others to it. If we do not fulfil this command, we might be the hypocrites.
Say, “This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah; and I am not of those who associate others with Him.” (Yusuf 108)
Can we do that when we are pointing fingers to the non-Muslims, looking down on them, name calling, accusing and not inviting anyone? Can the message be spread without us being merciful, kind or generous?
