October 16, 2004
Conferences and Speakers: A Partial Primer
Section: WRITINGS | 108 reads
c) Mobilization and Organization
It is not enough to get the people excited and then to leave them alone. What is important is to give them a specific course of action to follow. That is, to give them a clear direction. Clearly, this is harder to accomplish than the first two goals. But with careful program planning and speaker selection, you can have excellent results in this area as well.
In some ways, organization is one step beyond mobilization. Here you are actually recruiting the participants to membership in specific groups and organizations, both formal and informal. You are also, at the same time, giving them direction and leadership and teaching them the skills needed to make the organization effective. That is why in some ways, this could be harder than all other goals.
You need specialized training on how to put together programs that would accomplish this goal. In fact, we need training for all the other goals as well. Obviously, putting together a really good conference or convention requires a great deal of hard work and specialized knowledge, training and skills.
Now do you see? What type of convention you organize, whom you invite as speakers, what type of programs you put together, and what kind of participants you will attract, will all depend on what your goals are.
Should I tell you another interesting thing? Your goals themselves will ultimately depend on who you really are as a person? That means your own background and commitments will determine the type of goals you come up with for your conventions and conferences.
And all this stuff is packed in that little Hadith in Bukhari: Actions are the products of intentions. What the Hadith seems to be saying is what you sow is what you will reap. That means what you want – and work for – is what you are likely to get. Nothing more, nothing less, which by the way is also the Qur’an:
Laisa Lil Insaani Illa Ma Sa’a.
If some of our conferences and conventions are not accomplishing what they are supposed to that is because no one worked out the answers to some of these questions. Or, maybe, just did not care enough for them. Or, maybe, what these conferences ended up producing is what their organizers intended them to produce all along.
Nothing but the best
All this boils down to one simple thing: Islam is the best; offers nothing but the best; and deserves nothing but the best. That is because Allah is the best; he loves the best; and accepts nothing but the best. So select, as much as you can, the best speakers you possibly can.
Elsewhere I will have an opportunity, should that be Allah’s will, to elaborate on this point. But suffice it to say here that you must select knowledgeable people who are also effective speakers, and who, depending on the goals of your conference or convention, can do the following:
a) Be able to have a good rapport with the audience.
b) Be effective and interesting as speakers.
c) Provide solid knowledge and information.
d) Provide understanding and clarity.
e) Provide motivation and enthusiasm.
f) Create a positive impact on the audience.
g) Provide clear direction and guidance.
h) Be overall supportive of the nature, goals and purposes of the occasion.
With regard to each one of these categories, it is your job to make sure you find the best people you can. There aren’t too many of them around. So, go looking for them carefully and diligently.
But once you have found these people, what do you do with them? Here is some of what you should be concerned with about how to deal with your star speakers – and in my view with everyone else, Muslim or non-Muslim, guest speaker or just plain participant.
Respect
It is obvious that people like this are not plentiful in any community. They may be even harder to find among Muslims. So, approach those few we have in the Muslim community with great regard and respect. They are some of our best treasure. Make them feel that they are special and provide for them the support structure that would enable them to give you – and the Muslims and the world – their best.
Tell them you want them to come because you really care for what they have to say – not because you could not find anyone else to fill the slot. Tell them you value their contribution. It is both a very human and a very Islamic thing to do.
That means, Islam is simply the upper limit of humanity or “humanness” – the quality of being the best human being one can be. That means, if you fall short from a human point of view, it is not likely you will come out ahead from an Islamic point of view.
This is a very important point and we need to pay close attention to it. This is in fact a simple and self-evident matter in Islam. Yet, so many Muslims fail to understand it. Many of us seem to think that Islam, somehow, is a substitute for being a better human being. It is a poor excuse for our lack of manners, style, class and character – in a word Islam. Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was the best and finest human being ever.
Do understand that your speakers are, in a very human sense, doing you a favour. Many of them are leaving their homes, families and work to come and help you out with your program. Often, they undertake the hardships of long travels to do that.
Non-Muslim speakers get paid, often substantial amounts, for their speeches. Muslim speakers generally don’t. And those that do, get paid only a paltry sum, which is more often than not an insult to their talent, training and contribution. Yet, most of them do what they do because, just like you, they love Allah, and because they want to help you and help the Muslims. So, show them the respect that is clearly their due.
By the way, the Tabligh brothers, Allah bless them, seem to have gotten it right. Showing respect to Muslims – Ikraam Muslim – is an important part of their culture and teachings. What is wrong with other Muslim groups, organizations and others taking a leaf out of the Tabligh teachings and making Ikraam Muslim – showing respect to fellow-Muslims – a cardinal principle of our organizational philosophy, culture and activities? So, I must commend this very noble Islamic principle first of all to myself – and then to you.
And there is nothing wrong in our borrowing things from others. There will be blessings and Barkah in it, if we give those from whom we borrow things credit for their ideas and efforts and thank them for the good work they do. In some cases, we may have to take their permission – not in this case, however, because Ikraam Muslim is a fundamental Islamic requirement with direct roots in the Hadith.
When we appropriate or co-opt things from others without credit or permission, and without offering thanks or giving Dua, then in plain English it is called theft – stealing from others. If you want a more fancy expression for the same thing, try plagiarism. If we are not familiar with the expression intellectual property rights, let us learn it now.
Moral and intellectual dishonesty is a cause for loss of Barakat! It explains part of the trouble some of us modern-day Muslims are in today, doesn’t it? Sometimes, we seem to observe and read so much and learn so little. Not to say all those speeches we ingest. A little poem by Imam Shafi’e (May Allah shower him with his mercy) comes to mind.
Says Imam Shaafi’I – my paraphrase:
I once complained,
To my teacher Waki’,
About the sad state of my memory.
“Guard against sins!”
Said he to me.
“For, a boon from God is memory.
And sinners get no share of God’s bounty.”
Tears fill my eyes as I think and write about this little poem. May Allah bless those scholars of ours who helped and guided us throughout our past! They were some of the most capable, qualified, kind, compassionate, generous, hardworking and honest individuals this world has seen.
And May God Almighty help, guide and protect those of our scholars, thinkers, speakers, leaders and others who are truly and honestly helping us in our own troubled and challenging times and struggling to make Allah’s world a better place for all.
Next Article: SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 – THE Muslim Story and A strategy for Coping – Part One
Previous Article: REACH OUT, MUSLIMS! How to change the world, One thing at a time
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