Oh King, We Were a People of Ignorance

There's a hadith narrated by Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her); it narrates the speech that Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib gave in front of al-Najāshī, and the exact words of Jaʿfar are given here, because there's a lot to learn from this presentation. Jaʿfar said — and Jaʿfar is the cousin of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he's the brother of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib — he said:

"Oh king, we were a people of polytheism. We worshipped idols, ate the meat of animals that had died, offended rules of hospitality, and permitted things forbidden, as in the shedding of one another's blood, and so on. We completely ignored matters of right and wrong. And so God sent to us a prophet."

The opening of the speech deals with their background. The way Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib arranged it is worth following closely. He is talking to somebody who has no background whatsoever about Islam, who doesn't know anything about it — he's speaking to someone who is Christian, and he's speaking to a king. So he gave him background information of who they used to be. This was their situation: they were people of shirk, who used to worship idols. They used to eat the meat of dead animals. They offended rules of hospitality and permitted things forbidden. They used to shed each other's blood. They completely ignored matters of right and wrong. So they gave him an impression that they used to live in a chaotic state.

And then he said, "And so God sent to us a prophet from among ourselves, whose honesty and trustworthiness we knew well." With this statement, he has established credibility for the Prophet. So now al-Najāshī knows that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is from among the people — his people know him very well, they know his trustworthiness, and they know his truth.

"He summoned us to pray to God alone and without associate, told us to respect rites of kinship, to honour rites of hospitality, to pray to God the Almighty and Glorious, to fast for Him, and to worship none other than Him." Here he gave him issues of tawḥīd, the oneness of Allah, and also the morals that Islam teaches — he gave him a little bit of both. "And so he called us to God, to affirm His oneness, to worship Him, and to tear down all the other stones and idols we and our forefathers had worshipped apart from Him. He ordered us to be truthful in our speech, to keep to our trust, to respect kinship ties and hospitality rights, and to abandon things forbidden and the shedding of blood. He forbade us to do anything immoral, to tell lies, to misuse the funds of orphans, or to make false accusations against women of virtue. He ordered us to worship God and to associate no other god with Him, he told us to pray, to give alms, and to fast." And then he enumerated for him all aspects of Islam.

Can anyone have any disagreement with anything that Jaʿfar said? Truth, trustworthiness. So it is important, when speaking to somebody who doesn't know anything about Islam, to illuminate for them the aspects of Islam, the good teachings of Islam. Sometimes in our daʿwah we assume that people know that Islam teaches good — many don't. And Jaʿfar took that into consideration, and he went through the morals and the character-building that Islam promotes — in addition to talking about the ʿibādāt, he spoke about ṣalāh, zakāh and ṣadaqah. And he also spoke about tawḥīd, which is very important to present: the worship of Allah alone, and tearing down the stones and idols.

It can also be noticed that it was very brief and to the point. He didn't go on and on in details, and he didn't turn it into an argument or a debate, since he was dealing with a king — such a person cannot be argued with if the aim is to bring them closer to Islam. So he made it a very short and brief presentation, but it's complete, it's comprehensive — there's nothing missing.