Fireside Chat: Dakwah, a duty within individual role

KUALA LUMPUR – Dakwah (preaching) should be carried out within individual roles.

Founder of Interactive Dakwah and Tarbiyah Association (IDT) Lim Jooi Soon said in dakwah, Muslims must understand the definition of it according to one’s situation.

This, he said was because the term dakwah was often misinterpreted.

“When you talk about doing or giving dakwah, first you need to understand the definition, meaning that you do dakwah according to your situation. Do what you can and do your best.

“If you are a housewife, you do dakwah as a housewife. If you sell fruits or food on the roadside, you do dakwah that way. If you are a teacher, you do dakwah as a teacher,” he said in an exclusive interview with Sinar Daily on its Fireside Chat programme.

Lim said he believed that people were able to set a very good example as Muslims when they practice the religion and people could Islam through them.

He said dakwah could be done in various ways, which were dakwah bil haal (with action), bil maal (with wealth), bil kitaab (with writing) and bil lisaan (with words).

He also came up with a technique of dakwah towards non-Muslims which he said was the most contemporary method and probably has not been seen anywhere else as he presented it at a recent event called The Straight Path Convention 2022.

In the annual event which took place on Nov 26 and 27, he gave a lecture on “Unleashing the Ummah’s Abilities”.

“Believe me, this is something that is very unique. Why? Because most of the time, when you want to give dakwah, you want to make sure that the non-Muslims accept what you say, you want to tell them to believe in God, believe in the Creator, there's only one God, things like that,” he said.

Lim said in the method that he used, he preferred the words to come out from the dakwah target group instead of from his own.

“It's so easy to make them understand what is ‘La ilaaha illa Allah’.

“Theory is easy, but to make them understand after that short discussion, believe me, we already conveyed the message, how to know who is God, who is not, who is Divine, who is not, who is the Creator, who are the creations. You will be able to differentiate, very clear,” he said.

He hoped that the convention would amplify Muslims’ awareness on the ummah’s responsibility to convey the message of Islam within their individual roles.