10 Ways of Giving Dawah

How does the path appear to be when you’re walking it alone? Naturally, as humans, we need to have companions to tread along with us on the path that leads to Allah. Allah says in the Qur’an:
 “Invite to the path of your Lord with wisdom and good advice!” (An-Nahl 16:125)
Hence there are multiple ways of convening people on that path, especially in such a connected world like ours. Let’s explore a few online and offline ways of calling companions to the path of Islam wisely.

Online Dawah:

When the entire world got crippled by COVID-19, offline Dawah was almost out of question. So, people started becoming more inventive and innovative with content creation on the Internet in doing Dawah. There can be many ways of doing so, such as:

1) Writing Blogs:

Writing has always been an impactful medium of calling people to Islam. Writing blogs on social media on important topics that are thoroughly researched and properly executed is undeniably a great way of calling people to Islam to know more about it.

If writing is your forte, then let it be utilized in bringing people closer to Allah..

2) Recording YouTube Videos:

YouTube is a great medium of expression.  Recording YouTube videos to share one’s knowledge about Islam is one of the wisest ways of online Dawah. Well-spoken videos with well-thought-out and comprehensive content are likely to reach more people online.

3) TikTok Dawah:

TikTok dawah is one of the coolest ways of giving Dawah since TikTok has recently been the talk of the town. As a daee, one needs to keep up with the latest trends to let his call reach as many people as Allah allows.

According to TikTok Statistics, 80% of its users are between the ages of 16-34. Therefore, it is important to spread short Islamic reminders for young people so that they are benefited.

Offline Dawah:

Contrary to the common perception and practice, Dawah is not exclusively online because one-to-one dawah is the most effective. According to effective communication psychology, the in-person conversation you have with someone with mindfulness and attentiveness of all your senses has a better likelihood of etching a long-lasting mark on his and your memory. Also, from the seerah of Prophet SAW, we can take note of effective communication. He (the Prophet SAW) would always face the person he’s speaking to, with all his body turned towards him which contributes to make the one-to-one conversation more effective. So online dawah is important but speaking to your neighbours about Allah is equally important. Let’s explore a few ways of offline dawah.

 4) Street Dawah:

Setting a dawah table or dawah booth and putting well-thought-out, colourful fliers on it is all you need to start off with your first street dawah experience. The difficult part is approaching people but the difficulty can be easily overcome by remembering the bigger picture and purpose of making this teeny tiny effort i.e. pleasing Allah SWT and Him alone.

Street Dawah is also a great way of bringing people closer to the Qur’an by making free copies of the Qur’an available for them and setting up audio booths, for them to listen to Quranic recitation since street dawah is not only about conversing, convincing and debating. Sometimes it is only about helping people to uncover their fitrah by listening ‘wahi’ and experiencing the miracle of the Word of God.

5) Lounge Dawah:

Sometimes it is not feasible to book community centres, lecture theatres or seminar halls for dawah events. However you might have a dawah venue available at your home that can accommodate a few people, for eg, your lounge, living room or drawing room. The venue can become useful in organizing one-on-one halaqahs or Qur’an circles to call people to Allah and learn more about him.

6) Cafe Dawah:

Café Dawah is one of the fun ways of giving dawah by either inviting your friends over for coffee and slowly but smartly steering the conversation towards Islam and Allah, or trying to give dawah to other people at the cafe by approaching them and conversing with them over their purpose and pursuit of life. Both ways demand smart execution by keeping an eye on the right opportunity to bring about the discussion and if properly done, can be truly confidence boosting and fruitful.

7) Campus Dawah:

Campus dawah is calling the people at your campus to Islam. These people can be your dear friends with whom you spend a good chunk of time or strangers you find walking in hallways and sitting in cafeterias. You can distribute Islamic materials among them or try to engage them in one-on-one discussions about God, life and death.

8) Henna Booth:

For sisters, setting up a henna booth also serves a good opportunity of calling people to Allah and Islam, as you have people gathered and seated around one another for hours. At the henna booth, sisters not only share laughter but also get into heart to heart conversations with one another. So it’s always better to engage in fruitful discussions about Allah and Islam, like life and its purpose and contemporary challenges for Muslimahs rather than getting into meaningless gossip.

9) Doing Services within Your Community:

Your services within your community such as showing concern and care for others by doing sadaqah, assisting the elderly, disabled and sick are also the stepping stones to calling people to Islam. So, get yourself involved in your community with the intention of generating good influence on people for the sake of Allah SWT.

10) Working on Yourself:

Working on yourself especially on your spirituality with the objective of inspiring people to lean closer to Islam is also a stepping stone to the actual call itself. It’s also an important prerequisite to dawah that you keep on trying to implement, what you’re calling other people towards. Seeking beneficial knowledge about your inner and outer realities and then trying to put it into practice, is one real way of working to improve yourself, that a daee must be involved in.

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