The word Dawah in Arabic simply means to invite to something. When it is used in conjunction with Islam it means; inviting to the way of submission and surrender to Allah.
In Islamic theology, the purpose of dawah is to invite people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, to understand the worship of Allah as expressed in the Qur’an and the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Dawah as the “Call towards Allah” is the means by which Muhammad began spreading the message of the Qur’an to mankind. After Muhammad, his followers and Ummah (Muslim community) assumed the responsibility. They convey the message of the Qur’an by providing information on why and how the Qur’an preaches monotheism.
The importance of Dawah is emphasised in many verses of the Holy Quran. Qur’an 41:33 “Who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah, does righteous deeds and says indeed I am among the Muslims.” Also Qur’an 3: 110; “You are the best nation raised up for humankind. You enjoin righteousness, forbid corruption and you believe in Allah.” Qur’an 3:104; “Let there arise among you a group inviting to all that is good, enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil. Those are the successful ones.” Qur’an 16:125; “Call to the way of YOUR Lord with wisdom and good preaching.”
Also some Hadith also emphasized the importance and virtues of Dawah: “Whoever directs someone to do good will gain the same reward as the one who does good.” “Whoever calls to guidance will receive the same reward as the ONE who follows him without any decrease in the reward of his follower.”
Therefore, to engage oneself in the work of “Da’wah” the modern gadgets and tools or any other resources available should be used in the best possible manner to spread the message far and wide. The use of any gadget or tool is not forbidden in Islam but the ways and manner that it is used that make it ‘Haraam’ or ‘Halaal.’ Below are modern gadget and their relevance in Dawah; Islamic propagation.
Television:
Electronic media is the best support for Dawah in the modern era. It will communicate the message of the propagator far and wide. Just few years back, the virtual tools for Dawah were books and cassettes. At present, Peace TV, Islam Channel, Hidayat TV and many other channels are broadcasting the message of Dawah through satellite. People are now entirely dependent on the modern gadgets for the communication and social media and even religious radicals have turned towards modern gadgets for the sake of Dawah and accepted the dominance of modern gadgets and technology. By turning the television into a Dawah tool we can propagate the message of Islam conveniently.
Computer:
Computer has become an efficient and influential gadget of communication and social interaction with the advent of internet. The TV channels can now be seen on computer as well. The modern and open-minded scholars have emphasized on using this gadget as a tool of Dawah. Sites like haqislam.org, islamic-literatures.com, islamicity.com, esinislam.com and many other sites are for the sole purpose of Dawah. These websites and their forums actually proved to be very successful in gathering people on one platform for philosophical, scholarly and inter-religious discussions. With the arrival of social media and social networking websites, it is now easier to turn this modern gadget into Dawah tools.
Till date there are almost three billion users of internet throughout the world. So internet can be converted into Dawah tool and Islamic websites can turn out to be a handy and convenient way of Dawah. Fortunately, majority of internet users are literate and it is quite easy to propagate our message onto them. Islam does not need to be reformed but our conventional and complicated methods of propagation ‘Dawah’ certainly needs to be improved. On the other hand, for this tool not to be poison to Islam, necessary steps must be taken by the operator of these sites.
Mobile Phones:
The introduction of mobile as Dawah tool can take the process of propagation several steps ahead. The process of communication has taken a big leap with arrival of Android mobile phones. Now everyone can have access to the computer in hand using this modern gadget. All the tasks that can carry out on the computer can be perform on the cheap mobile phone as well. We can have access to the internet using these mobiles phones and all the websites that are introduced with the purpose of Dawah can be accessed through mobile too. Plus, channels that are broadcasted on TV can also be watched through these mobile phones. To acquire full employment of this technology, a lot of Islamic satellite televisions have introduced Mobile TV for the exclusive purpose of Dawah.
Users can have access to over 50 Islamic application including Quran and all compilations of Hadith and lectures of prominent Islamic scholars. Numerous Islamic Dawah applications were launched by Islamic institutions, organizations and individuals such as Translations of Quran in many languages, Prayer timings, Tafseer e Quran etc. The purpose of all these applications was to turn mobile phone into Dawah tool.
