The Way of the Anbiyāʾ of Allah

We'll start with the story of Sayyidunā Lūṭ (peace be upon him). Sayyidunā Lūṭ (peace be upon him) was sent to the people of Sadūm, or Sodom in English. He didn't belong to those people. He was a nephew of Ibrāhīm, but he was sent on a mission to make daʿwah to those people, and he made daʿwah to them.

Obviously, always we find that the first thing the anbiyāʾ call to is Allah (swt), tawḥīd: lā ilāha illā Allāh, there is no god but Allah. But we need to realise that lā ilāha illā Allāh is not a word that is spoken only; it is a way of life. And when we say lā ilāha illā Allāh, we are saying that there is no god that should be worshipped except Allah (swt), and no god should be followed except Allah (swt), because there is no other god than Allah. That would mean that the commandments, and the orders, and the instructions should be taken from Allah (swt).

We notice that the anbiyāʾ of Allah, when they are dealing with their people, they confront the problems of the society. And they do not confront hypothetical situations, problems that are irrelevant, or problems of the past. They confront the diseases of the society. They put their hand on the disease, and they understand the symptoms of it, and then they attack it. And that is a very difficult thing to do.

It is very easy to make daʿwah to people by giving them the things they want to hear, and neglecting the things they don't want to hear. For example, the people are suffering from a certain problem. For example, we're dealing with a government that is ruling with a dictatorship: we are not going to speak about the government; leave that alone. The people in front of me are smoking: I am not going to talk about smoking; I am going to talk about something else. The people that I am dealing with are suffering from a problem of hijab; the women are not wearing hijab: no, I am going to talk about ṣalāh; I am not going to talk about hijab; that is controversial; leave it alone. The people would love you as a dāʿī when you do that. They would love you, because you're letting them hear the things they want to hear.

But that's not the way of the anbiyāʾ of Allah. The anbiyāʾ of Allah would attack the particular problem the society is suffering from, and that is what put the anbiyāʾ of Allah in trouble. That is why all of the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt) suffered from the oppression of their people: because the people don't want to hear about their mistakes. People do not want you to tell them about their problems. They don't want you to tell them that they're wrong. People want you to make them feel that they're comfortable. And they attack, and they pinpoint the particular problem, and they attack it. All of the anbiyāʾ of Allah, this is their way.

But in the daʿwah that we give today, very rarely do we follow this method, because we are weak. But we need to follow the way of the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt) in their daʿwah. It's very important, because the religion of Allah comes to confront the particular problems that the people are facing. It did not come to deal with hypothetical problems, and hypothetical issues, and issues of the past. The Ummah is suffering from problems today; we need to face those problems, and not talk about things that are already dead or gone, or things that didn't happen.