The Call of Dawah in the Modern Age March-April

An advertisement, published in The Times (London), in 1900, appeared in ordinary print in a small box, quite unaccompanied by any pictures of female figures or anything else to lend it visual appeal. It ran as follows: ‘Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.’ … Sir Ernest Shackleton. This advertisement was for a grueling expedition to the Antarctic. So many people responded to it that the sponsors had to make a selection from them. It was such courageous people who brought the scientific revolution to the West, thus paving the way for its global leadership. The above example was a worldly one, but the same holds true for those brave people who forged the history of Islam. On the occasion of the second oath of Aqbah, the representatives of the Madinan Muslims came to meet the Prophet. The following conversation which they had with him is a fine example of the courage and sense of self-sacrifice which brought ultimate success to Islam. Here we reproduce a part of this conversation as recorded by Ibn Hisham: Ka’b says that we (the Madinan neo-Muslims) went to perform pilgrimage, and we fixed in advance a meeting with the Prophet at AI-Aqbah during the night on the second day following the pilgrimage. When we had performed the pilgrimage and the night came when the meeting with the Prophet was fixed, so we left with our companions; when one third of the night had passed, we set off on our mounts quietly leaving under the cover of night. We had kept this appointment secret and had not informed the unbelievers among our own tribe. When we reached al-Aqbah, men and women ascended the