THE TASK OF GLOBAL DAWAH

reinforce this religion through the secular folk (fajir)”. (Sahih al-Bukhari) Fajir here means a secular person. This Hadith means that when the Muslim community fails to discover and use the means and methods to discharge their duty of dawah, then God would raise secular people to perform this task. Where a religious incentive is ineffective, God would raise another group with a worldly incentive who would perform this task. These secular people will recognize the potential hidden in nature through research and investigation and develop the means and methods that can be used in dawah. This would be a supporting role played by the secular people towards the Muslim ummah. In present times―particularly in the 19th and the 20th centuries, the discoveries made by the West in the field of science and technology are of this nature. Through these discoveries God has arranged for ‘external support’ to perform this divine dawah mission. The Failure of Muslim Leadership There was nothing religious about the support of the western nations towards the divine mission. This was done purely under their material and national interest. It was only natural that without any personal or worldly incentive, they could not have made these discoveries that could be used to further the divine mission. Furthermore, it was natural that these great discoveries of science would lead them on to a position of global dominance. Together with a major role in the development of civilization, comes power. Both are inseparable. Not only did these western nations gain material benefits from these discoveries but also directly or indirectly they gained political power. This was a reward for their supporting role. Without this reward they could not have performed their supporting role to the divine mission. Unfortunately, the Muslim leadership of the present times failed to understand this concept. They were unable to differentiate between one thing and another. They were not wise enough to embrace the relevant and discard the irrelevant. When these western nations, equipped with modern scientific resources, entered Asia and Africa, they soon acquired political Western nations brought with them the immense blessing of modern communication that was awaited by history itself for the past thousand years, and which would be most beneficial to the religion of Islam.