New Literature for a New Era

More on Guest Speakers

Remember what I said earlier about the speaker being your guest and about the place of guests in Muslim culture? Let us revisit that subject for a bit more. Let us not forget that this person has come to you at your invitation, practically dropping everything he was doing. Now how you treat him becomes a measure of your Iman. At least that is what the Hadith says: You cannot be a believer unless you respect and honour your guest.

So here are some questions you need to worry about on this issue:

1. What arrangements are we making for the guest to stay? To wash? To make Wudu? To shower? To eat and drink?

2. Who would get him a glass of cold drink or a cup of hot tea or coffee when he needs it in a hurry?

3. Who will assist him to move about? To go from place to place? To pick him up and escort him to and from the speech venue?

4. What arrangements are being made for him to rest? To be able to prepare for his session? To have privacy when he needs it?

5. Having travelled hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of miles, your guest may be tired, hungry, thirsty, sleepy. Or he may have a headache – or leg cramps. Be in touch with him. Ask him if he is ok or if he needs any thing. Show solicitation and do so at the highest level. That means at the level of the top management of the organization.

6. Tell him how nice it is to have him. Thank him for his troubles. Oh yes, it is all right to thank people in Islam. The Islamic formula in fact is: If you don’t know how to thank people, you can forget about thanking Allah.

Islam is a beautiful system, Muslims! It is beautiful to behold, beautiful to believe, beautiful to talk and write about, and beautiful to put into practice.

It is just that some of us have strayed so far from it we can barely recognize it. This brings us a full circle, as it were, in our new state of Post-Islam (the new Jahiliyyah) to return to our former state of Pre-Islam (the old Jahiliyyah).

So, let us turn it around: one little thing at a time. And let us join hands with all those who are making the effort in this direction in an open, lawful, peaceful and democratic way – Billatee Hiya Ahsanand Kalimat Sawaa’.

All this is routine stuff. Good Muslims always knew it. Modern corporate culture thrives on some of it. It is some of us new breed of Muslims in the West who somehow seem to have forgotten it. Many of us seem to be neither here nor there. We seem to have forgotten the better parts of our old Muslim culture and failed to learn some of the better things of the new Western culture in which we now find ourselves.

However, good planning requires that you go beyond the routine, and think about the likely as well as the not so likely. But that is higher level planning. And I am talking here about the simple things.

Subhanallah! I am beginning to sound like a surrogate for corporate America. But in some ways that is what Islam is: the best that there could be. And corporate America right now seems to have some of the best of what it takes for success in this world.

There is however a larger issue. If corporate America has borrowed it from Islam – it would be nice if corporate America owns up to it – it is because the world at the highest level cannot work without some of these things. As a matter of fact, there are those at the highest level in corporate America that are not oblivious to this fact.

In any case, if Allah gave some of this stuff to us human beings in the form of Islam, it is because he loves us and wants us to have nothing but the best. As the Qur’an says: Innaddeena ‘Indallahil Islam. That means Islam works – and nothing else can or will. Whose fault is it if corporate America has been driven by sheer necessity to embrace some of it to get ahead in life in this world?

And whose fault is it if we Muslims sit around and do nothing and just wonder if it is Islam or part of the “Kaafir culture” as some of our ill-informed and misguided younger brothers and sisters seem to put it so glibly? The questions, in any case, are endless. And they are very exciting.

And guess what? They are all very, very Islamic. This is how Islam works in practice – in daily life. Also these are some of the things many of us have lost touch with. We need to relearn many of them. And that is what we are trying to do in this book: retrain, re-educate and rededicate ourselves to some of our lost ideals and to some of the higher principles and practices that run this world even today. May Allah help and guide us!

So, returning to the theme of the likely and the not so likely, what if your guest, Allah forbid, is taken ill? What arrangements have you made? Or did you even think about it? Do you have a doctor on call? Do you have a first-aid kit ready and handy? Do you have a bottle of aspirin within reach? What if there is an accident? Who will you call in his behalf? Who will you talk to? Do you know what to say and how to say it? Do you know what to do?

Islam gets better and better as you understand it more clearly. It gets more exciting all the time. It is you and I who have made it such a dull and sorry affair. If you want to change our condition, if you want to turn things around, if you want us to get out of the mess we are in today, and if you want us Muslims to claim our share of success in this world, just take this one simple thing from me: If you are Muslim, you have got to be the best. If you are not the best right now, you at least ought to be trying all the time.

Speaker’s Work-related Needs

Your guest may need such things as:

1. Paper, pencil, pen, etc.

2. A copy of the Qur’an with translation – Yusuf Ali, for example – if he needs it.

3. I myself like Ibn Katheer, the Arabic Tafsir, if possible.

4. I also like a copy of the Arabic Al Mu’jam Al Mufahras handy. It is a most marvellous index to the Aayaat of the Qur’an. They are Aayaat, which means signs, marvels and miracles – not verses. Please do not call them verses. Also, it is Qur’an, not “Holy” Qur’an.

   I wish I were a Haafiz, but I am not. So my best means of locating an Aayah (not verse, mind you, Aayah) of the Qur’an in a hurry often is the Mu’jam, may Allah bless its compiler. I also think it is a good idea for Muslims in general to start connecting to the Mu’jam.

   Muslims need to move away from dependence on asking people for their opinions about Islam and things Islamic. They need to start recreating and relearning a new culture of reading, research and reflection.

   As Muslims, we are required to seek, pursue and acquire knowledge and not blindly follow other knowledge and opinion holders like a flock of sheep. According to the Hadith, we are shepherds – not sheep – every one of us.

   What a glorious place did Islam carve out for us! It made our place at A’ala ‘Illiyyeen – at the highest of the high, as the best of the best! And how we chose to put ourselves at the lowest of the low – at Asfalus Saafileen. Islam made us all shepherds. We turned ourselves into a flock of sheep. What a world of difference separates the two!

   And yet we complain how things went wrong with us! Muslims must know that Islam does not depend on the opinion of individuals. And that people’s opinions are binding on no one but themselves. So, let us put an end to this sorry state of affairs. Let us all begin following the first commandment of the Qur’an: Read! Iqra’!

5. A computer and printer if your guest can use those gadgets.

6. Help with someone who can type and use the computer, if your guest cannot.

7. And a host of other things of that nature.

Other Assistance and a Serious Taboo

Then there needs to be someone in charge of reminding the speaker about the program and about the next session. In other words, we need to have someone act as a temporary secretary for the speaker. My programs often run the whole day. And, Mashallah, I give several speeches in one day.

Given the hustle and bustle of Muslim conferences and conventions, tiredness of travel, pressures from people speaking to the guest speaker and seeking attention continually, it may be difficult to stay on top of everything. So it is important to remind and help the guest in moving from one part of the program to the other.

If there are any changes in the program, it is important that you inform the speaker promptly and properly, and apologize to him for the inconvenience. If you want him to do something extra, such as give a public lecture for example, talk to him in advance, and do so properly and make all the necessary arrangements to the best of your abilities and resources – and to the satisfaction of your guest.

There is one very clear taboo in all this: Never tell the speaker what to say in his speech, or how to approach or treat a certain topic. It is rude. It is unprofessional, as some would call it. It is terrible. It is uncivilized. It is arrogant. It is the height of ignorance and foolishness.

He is the expert, not you. Besides, if you already know what he should be saying, why did you ask him to come over in the first place? And why don’t you do it yourself? Get up there, give your own speeches and don’t invite anyone to come and give a speech from your platform.

Part of this problem is the selection of themes and topics for conferences and lectures. It is often done by people who lack the expertise and the proper perspective and insights. The manager-type people often pick the topics – often without much understanding – and then go on a hunt for likely speakers. That is partly the reason why we have the type of conferences we do – not too many of them have anything to do with the real issues that face Muslims either here in the West or in the old Muslim world.

Next Article: SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 – THE Muslim Story and A strategy for Coping – Part One

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