Propagation of Islam

Propagation of Islam

1991 12 December 1991 Propagation of Islam (341) In the ‘Personal’ column of the Times of India (13 Oct. 1990), the following declaration appeared:

I, Ashok Madan, aged 30, son of Shri A.L. Madan, resident of G-12/2, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, have embraced Islam of my own free will, and will henceforth be known as Akhtar Madan. (C-59254)

This is neither a chance happening nor an isolated case. Occurrences of this nature are witnessed daily in this country and indeed allover the world. Hardly a day passes without someone or the other turning away from his or her inherited religion to enter the fold of Islam.

Can this phenomenon be attributed to the preaching of Muslims? It certainly can not. True daw’ah activity (taking the message of Islam to the people), a much-needed programme, is conspicuous by its absence. Scores of movements and programmes are being undertaken in the name of Islam, but they are not, in essence, daw’ah. There is hardly an individual or an organization which is prepared to undertake the noble task of carrying the message of Islam to the masses, and this, in spite of the Muslim population of the world being estimated to be one hundred million. Why then, in the face of such negligence, is Islam continuing to spread? The answer is that it does so on its own strength.

The consciousness of God and religion is inherent in human nature. Because of this inner urge, people go in quest of the religion of God. Since all other religions have been distorted by additions and alterations, these seekers can never be spiritually satisfied by them. As such when they study Islam, they feel from the bottom of their hearts, that this is what they have instinctively been seeking all along. This feature of Islam, that is, its having remained undistorted and free from all human interpolations, and its being an established religion from the historical point of view, is what has invested it with the power-to spread on its own, even when no organized effort is made to assist in its communication .