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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ash-sharafi al-anbiya wal-mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihati ma’mum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Tasliman kathiran kathira. Huma waduh.
My brothers and sisters, da’wah is agriculture. To think about this, to present Islam, is like agriculture. First, you prepare the land. You see what a farmer does. If you give the farmer the best seed possible, no farmer who knows farming will simply take the seed and plant it. First and foremost, he will prepare the land. Right? He will plow the land, and he will do whatever he needs to do in the land. He will winnow the soil. He will detox it. He will get the soil ready. He will make sure that the pH value is correct. All of this ensures that the seed will germinate well. The farmer will do all of that. Only when the farmer has done all that, then he will plant the seed. Not before that.
And then, when he has planted the seed, the farmer makes arrangements for protection of the plants when they germinate; protection of the crop. So he will fence the area, and then he will irrigate the land, and he will do all of that. Now, this is the same principle used in Dawa. So the first principle, the first thing you do, is you prepare the land. And the land in this case is your heart. Your heart is your mind, habits, knowledge, training, and communication. So first and foremost, prepare all this. Make sure that the heart is pure and clean. Make sure that the niyyah is only to please Allah ﷻ. Ikhlas al-niyyah. Make sure that in every way, we follow the sunnah of Allah ﷻ in our Dawa. Do all that. And only then plant the seed. In this case, planting the seed means to talk to people. Present Islam actually. Talk about Islam.
And then, to irrigate the plant—irrigate the seed. And that is tears in the night before Allah ﷻ. And after that, continued care for the crop. It’s not enough simply to plant and walk away. You need to continue caring until the harvest. So reverts need care, teaching, and support. Which most of the time we don’t give. Right? So this is something to think about. It’s not just enough, like a lot of people do, to go and present Islam across people in the street, distribute pamphlets, or engage in debate. And then if somebody comes to Islam, you say, “Oh, mashallah.” You hug the person. Maybe give them some money or something. And after that, that’s it. Finished. There is no support system for that person. One of the most difficult times for these people is times of festivals because they have been discarded from their own families and their own communities. And so they don’t know what is happening during the festival, or what is not happening. And the Muslims also do nothing for them. Because, you know, the person is a revert; he has gone somewhere, and you have your own family to celebrate with. These people are left high and dry.
Second thing which happens also is that they learn nothing. So once they take the kalimah, usually in some masjid before a big crowd, so it’s all very festive. And maybe they come for Jummah or something. And after that, there is some lunch and what not. So you feed them and then they go home. And that’s it. So they learn nothing. And I’ve seen people who have been Muslim, taking Shahada eight years ago, ten years ago, and they don’t even know Surah Al-Fatihah. They don’t know how to pray. And nobody has taught them. And they don’t know where to go, who to ask. So this is all very bad. We need to change this. When you present Islam, do it with ikhlas. Do it to please Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Only and only. And then create a support system for the people who come to Islam. Where they are taken care of, where somebody is looking after them, somebody is concerned about them. There must be a systematic way where they can learn about Islam. And, you know, they have questions and so on. Somebody is there to answer those questions. All of this must be done and must be done regularly. Right? Systematically.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent the Rasul alayhi salatu wasalam, and He called the sending of the Rasul a blessing on the believers. Allah said: لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ عَيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, “Verily and truly, Allah has blessed the believers by sending among them His Rasul, raising from among them His Rasul, who is one of them.” Right? Who is one of them. And He gave him these four things.
1. **To recite to them the Ayat:** To recite to them the kalam of Allah which is revealed to Him, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
2. **To purify them (Yuzakkihim):** Purify them.
3. **To teach them the Book and Wisdom (Yu’allimuhum al-Kitab wal-Hikmah):** Teach them the book, that is the kalam of Allah, the Quran, and hikmah. Teach them wisdom.
4. **To guide them away from error.**
So, so Allah Ta’ala sent Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with these four things that he was supposed to do. And Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did these four things to a level of excellence.
**Reciting the Quran:** For example, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, “Establish the salah for my zikr.” So, the Prophet decided this. When the Sahaba were ready to pray, the Prophet taught them all the usool of Tahara.
**Purifying them (Yuzakkihim):** So, purify them. Allah said, and he purified them. Internal purity, which is *Taskeetun Nafsi* (calming the soul), and external purity, which is *Tarbiyatul Akhlaq* (cultivating character). Starting with, of course, the issues of Tahara: ghusl, wudu. And then, of course, going on to the Tahara of the qalb and Tahara of their lives.
**Teaching the Book and Wisdom:** Then he taught them the Kitab, the meaning of the Quran—not just the dictionary meaning of the words, but the deeper meaning, the understanding, the reason why Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said what He said, and the benefits of that. All of this, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught the Sahaba, ar-Raban, wal-Hikmah.
**Teaching Prayer:** And then he taught them how to pray. He taught them the wisdom behind it. Right?
And that is how, when they came to Islam, they learnt Islam; Islam became part of their lives, and they practiced the Quran. Think about this: there is no Sahabi who memorized the Quran in order to lead Talawi. There is no Sahabi who memorized the Quran just to lead Talawi. They read the Quran, they memorized the Quran for one reason only, which is to practice it, so that it is there with them in their hearts 24-7. They don’t even need to go and pick up the book, because the book is inside them, inside their hearts, and they memorize it for that reason. Not to recite it beautifully, not to take part in recitation competitions, not to lead Talawi. Not that any of these things are wrong—they are right, Alhamdulillah—but this is not the reason for memorizing. Right? If you have memorized, and if you are a Qari, and you can recite beautifully, by all means, do it. But, always, always check the niyyah. Check the intention. Why am I doing what I am doing?
We ask Allah ﷻ to give us ikhlas in our niyyah. So we ask Allahﷻ to help us to present Islam in the best possible way, and we ask Allah to accept that, to make it easy for us, to give us the hikmah, to give us the words, to give us the methodology, to give us the way of speaking, so that, first and foremost, it reaches our own hearts, and then it reaches the hearts of those we speak to.
Wasallam ala nabeel karim wa ala aliha wa sahbihati ma’mum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Al Fatiha.