View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Egdunas Racius THE MULTIPLE NATURE OF THE ISLAMIC DA‘WA ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XII, Unioninkatu 34, on the 23rd of October, 2004 at 10 o'clock ISBN 952-10-0489-4 (printed) ISBN 952-10-0490-8 (pdf) ISSN 1458-5359 Valopaino Oy Helsinki 2004 CONTENTS Introduction ....................................................................................................... 5 Previous research on da‘wa .......................................................................... 12 The location of the present study .................................................................. 18 Part I Islamic da‘wa: the term and its sources ............................................................ 29 1. The da‘wa in the Quran and Sunna .................................................................. 31 Scope of da‘wa meanings ............................................................................. 34 Da‘wa as invitation to Islam ......................................................................... 37 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 47 2. Da‘wa versus jihad ........................................................................................... 49 Jihad in the Quran and Hadith collections .................................................... 49 Jihad in historical-theoretical perspective ..................................................... 54 “No coercion in religion” .............................................................................. 63 Conclusion .....................................................................................................70 Part II Islamic da‘wa: the theological and practical considerations .......................... 73 3. Contents and methodologies of da‘wa ............................................................. 75 Underlying the need for da‘wa ..................................................................... 75 Qualities and character of da‘is .....................................................................81 Da‘wa manuals ..............................................................................................88 “Natural religion” .......................................................................................... 95 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 96 4. Institutionalization of da‘wa ............................................................................. 99 Formalization of da‘wa education .............................................................. 104 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 107 3 Part III Extra-ummaic da‘wa .......................................................................................... 109 5. Da‘wa toward non-Muslims .......................................................................... 111 Historical assessment .................................................................................. 111 Muslims and the “West” and in the “West” ................................................115 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 131 6. Christian missions and da‘wa ......................................................................... 133 Christianity and Christians in the eyes of Muslim propagandists ............... 133 Christian missions and da‘wa ..................................................................... 136 Da‘wa as dialogue ....................................................................................... 140 Conclusion ...................................................................................................145 Part IV Intra-ummaic da‘wa ............................................................................................ 147 7. Da‘wa within the Umma: a historical perspective ..........................................149 Specificities of early intra-ummaic da‘wa ...................................................150 The Isma‘ili da‘wa ...................................................................................... 151 Recent developments .................................................................................. 155 Developments on the Indian subcontinent from the turn of the 20th century ................................................................ 157 A note on the Ahmadiyya Movement: da‘wa or anti-da‘wa? ..................... 158 Tablighi Jama‘at ......................................................................................... 160 Conclusion ...................................................................................................164 8. Blending of politics and da‘wa ....................................................................... 167 State policies of reislamization ................................................................... 167 Non-governmental political intra-ummaic da‘wa ....................................... 171 Hasan al-Banna and Jama‘at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin ................................ 174 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 183 Concluding remarks ................................................................................... 185 Appendices ..................................................................................................... 191 Bibliography .................................................................................................. 197 4 INTRODUCTION is basic to a study of Islam. The word commonly (دﻋﻮة The word “da‘wa” (Arabic appears in the Quran, its commentaries, classical Muslim texts, and contemporary theological or ideological texts, written and spoken. Through mass media and other channels of communication, even non-academic non-Muslims are increasingly familiar with the term and its diverse connotations. Muslims have known and used the word “da‘wa” throughout the history of Islam. The multiple perceptions, as it will be shown in this study, of what da‘wa means have been elaborated upon since the early centuries of Islam. Muslims have applied the term to various specific activities of theirs. The broadly known explanation in Europe and North America for da‘wa is that it constitutes activities which, in the Christian context, fall under the terms ‘missions’ or ‘missionary activities’. Virtually all students of Islam, as well as Muslims themselves, acknowledge that Islam is a missionary religion. Indeed, Islam fits the definition of a missionary religion provided by Max Müller in 1873. According to Müller, a missionary religion is one “in which the spreading of the truth and the conversion of unbelievers are raised to the rank of a sacred duty by the founder or his immediate successors” (Arnold: 1). This is the case of Islam, for Muhammad’s very life constituted this sacred duty Müller speaks of. The question, though, remains whether this sacred duty extends, and in what capacity, to Muhammad’s followers. Peter Heine argues that, from a historical perspective, “the Islamic mission” was composed of two consecutive phases. The first was the spreading of Muslim supremacy through conquest, which Heine identifies with jihad. The second, to supplant the first once conquests ceased, was missionary activities, which themselves were born of a reaction to Christian missionary activities in Muslim lands, with only marginal Muslim quasi-missionary activities carried out by traders taking place between the two phases (Heine, 2: 527). Though Heine correctly points to the relation between jihad and missionary activities of Muslims, his presentation of da‘wa development is oversimplified. First of all, Heine underestimates Quranic pronouncements regarding missionary activities. Secondly, his portrayal of da‘wa 5 ignores the fact that Muslims employed da‘wa as much toward fellow Muslims as to non-Muslims. Thirdly, peaceful “non-jihadic” da‘wa was practiced by Muslims as early as the 9th and 10th centuries. Recently, moreover, there has been much discussion whether da‘wa at all can be rendered as “missionary activity,” for it is argued by some Muslims as well as non- Muslim scholars that da‘wa distinctly differs from what, in the Christian tradition, missions have encompassed. (Christian Mission, 1982) Among other things, it is pointed out that da‘wa has, at least until quite recently, lacked authoritative centralized institutions such as Christian missions had. Frequently, Christian missions are seen by Muslims (and not only them) as a tool of imperialism and colonialism, something the Islamic da‘wa arguably has never been. Therefore, it has been argued that since the relation between the two is a highly dense issue, though the ultimate aim of both the Islamic da‘wa and Christian missions has been spreading of the message of their respective faith and subsequent conversion of people to that faith, it is only with caution that terms like “missionary activity,” “missionaries” and similar can be applied to denote the Islamic da‘wa and those engaged in it. Kate Zebiri approaches da‘wa from a completely opposite perspective as Heine does. She holds that “while in the past da‘wah has most often been directed