There Is No Age Limit Or Educational Qualification For Da’wah

Some people think that to do da’wah they have to have some social standing or be of a certain age. Some others think they need to have a certain level of education and money before they do da’wah. When I embraced Islam and before I started doing da’wah I discussed with Muslims about da’wah. I heard these following responses from them.

1) One brother told me, “brother, you can’t do Da’wah now. There are several stages of Islam. You have to passed them and achieve a level of spirituality like an Aulia (holy person). Only such Muslims can give da’wah.” I asked him, “if all the sahaba during Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) time were Aulias.” He said yes.

2) I met another person. He told me, “brother, to do da’wah you have to be a scholar first. When you are a scholar you will know Arabic well. Then you can do da’wah.” I asked him, “Show me one scholar who has studied like this and doing da’wah in Sinhala language now?” He told there was no one like that.

3) Another person I met said, “brother if you want to do da’wah you have to first join our Jama’ath. Then you have to progress within it as a member. Within the Jamath everyone can’t do da’wah among non-Muslims. Only those who are approved by the Ameers (leaders) can do da’wah.”

4) I also met a group. They said “brother, to do da’wah you are not a Aalim no?” When I looked at that group I saw that they were all Aalims, and I was the only person who was a nobody. I got up and started asking them questions. I told them, “I will bring an Atheist here. Is there anyone here who can debate and prove logically and scientifically to him that God exist?” They remained silent to my question. I asked next, “I will bring to you a person who worships many Gods like a Christian or a Hindu. Can one of you show him that there is no many gods but one God, not only from the Qu’ran but also the Bible, the Vedas and through historical proof. Again they didn’t reply. Because we are in Sri Lanka I asked them one more question. “Can someone compare Buddhism and Islam and show me which is the more practical one?” That time too they didn’t reply to me. I told them, “Alhamdulillah, even though I’m not an Aalim (within their criteria), I can manage all the above 3 questions.”

Now I’m going to tell you about an experience I had.  My wife does da’wah to everyone. So she also did da’wah to our neighbor lady and that lady accepted Islam Alhamdulillah. But when her husband heard this, he chased her out of their house. So my wife and I took her and her three children into our house as an immediate solution. Her 2 smallest children adapted Islam but her eldest 12 year old daughter didn’t adapt Islam. But she stayed with her mother at our house and continued to go to the Church. As a da’ee I tried all the methods of da’wah I knew, but without success and also continued to see her going to church every Sunday. At this time Christmas was approaching. I told my wife, “even though we don’t have Christmas this girl has Christmas no? So we will get her a Christmas tree, a cake and a dress. And on Christmas day we will make her a good lunch to make her happy.”

The Christmas day dawned. I went for Fajr Salath and when I came home I saw that this girl had woken up. As soon as I saw her I wished her “merry Christmas”. Then she shocked me by answering “I don’t have Christmas!” I asked her “aren’t you a Christian?” She replied “No, I’m coming to Islam.” I asked her why she took this decision. She told me, “Shafeek, explained to me about everything. So I decided to embrace Islam.” Shafeek is my eldest son. He was then only 8 years old. I asked her, “what did Shafeek tell you?” and she said, “He asked me why you are not coming to our religion? And I told Shafeek I don’t understand anything your father tells me. Then Shafeek told me he’ll explain everything and he explained everything about Islam to me.” So on the Christmas day through the da’wah efforts of a 8 year old child, Allah gave this girl hidaya. And she became a Muslim.

Normally, when children accept Islam, I enroll them into a Madrasah. Until they go to Madrasah for a few days they stay at my home. At these times my son teaches them all the basics of Islam like how to take ablution and pray etc. I advice these children to go to the mosque to pray. Normally by the time they take ablution and go to the mosque the Imam Jamath will be over. Then what happens is my son acts as the Imam and leads the other children in Jama’th prayers. One day when I was going by I saw my son leading two other kids in Salath and I saw one adult man soon perform ablution and go and join this small kids Imam jamath.

One day my son came and asked me, “Father, can you give me some of the books you have written?” I asked him why, and he said, “a teacher in my school told me, your parents have gone to Islam because they don’t know Christianity.” So my son took and gave some of my books to her and since then that teacher didn’t tell anything. Since I and my family accepted Islam my son has gone to three schools. In all three schools he did da’wah to non-Muslim teachers.

Today, my son (11 years old) Ahmed Shafeek Manatunga is studying in a

Shafeek Manatunga

Madrasah to become an Aalim. He has now completed one year and I wonder what his opinion will be when he becomes a scholar about my da’wah work!

May ALLAH bless you,

Anver Manatunga.

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