October 16, 2004
Conferences and Speakers: A Partial Primer
Section: WRITINGS | 108 reads
How to Treat the Audience
The participants! How are you going to treat them? These people have come at our invitation. They have responded to our advertisement. They are here because they have been told certain things. What now?
The most important thing we owe the audience is to give them the best program possible. Make sure they get a copy of the program, a pen or pencil and enough paper to take notes. If you can, divide them into small groups and put them under group leaders.
Call for audience participation and feedback at every opportunity. This will teach them to think and ask questions in a meaningful and proper manner. Learn to control those individuals who sometimes try to dominate and monopolize the conversation. But do so with respectful firmness and a great deal of tact.
There are always some who tend to do that – drag the program or the speech or the discussion in an entirely different direction. Such people need to be carefully managed. Encourage informal discussions among audience members. Encourage them to discuss and talk about the points raised in the speeches and other parts of the program.
Other than all this, we must be continually solicitous of the welfare and comfort of our participants in every way. We must do everything in our power to make sure, all the time, that they receive the fullest benefit of the program. Program participants, every single one of them, are our most respected guests. They must leave our programs as our trusted friends and enthusiastic supporters.
If we are believers, then showing respect to them and their needs and comfort is our basic Islamic duty. Our being Muslim depends on it, right? Because that is the Hadith.
How to Treat Non-Muslims
How do we treat the non-Muslims who may choose to attend our conventions and conferences? Also, at a broader level, how do we treat and deal with non-Muslims in general in the societies that we live in?
There is a great deal of confusion on this issue among many Muslims living in the West. Young Muslims are being misled on this issue by those who seem to have little understanding of Islam and of life in general.
The long and short of the story on this question is this: We must treat non-Muslims the way we treat Muslims – with the greatest respect, kindness and solicitation. Muslims and non-Muslims are members of a common human family. And as Muslims – as Khair Ummah – we are responsible in this world for the welfare of the non-Muslims as much as for the welfare of Muslims.
Muslims must know that as Allah’s Khalifahs or managers on earth, it is their job to be kind, compassionate, respectful and caring about all the creation of Allah including their fellow Muslims, non-Muslims and all the other living and non-living things that lie within their jurisdiction.
Here is a direct measure of how our dealings should be with non-Muslims: When we invite them and they are our guests, or when they invite us and we are their guests, or as we run into one another socially or at work or play, and when we part and leave each other’s company, they should say about us what wonderful people we were – as guests, as hosts, as colleagues, as friends, as acquaintances, and as just plain chance encounters and fellow-inhabitants of this planet.
They should be able to say how clean and organized we were. How kind, respectful, caring and considerate we were. How competent and accomplished we were. And how nice and wonderful it was for them to be our guests, to be our hosts, to be our colleagues, to be our friends and acquaintances, or just to spend a few casual moments in a chance encounter with us.
That is Islam in a nutshell. That is also Islamic behaviour at its best. That is how our beloved Rasul (Sallalahu Alaihi was Sallam) was. Both friends and foes were struck by what a wonderful man he was. And by how wonderfully he treated them – always!
So, my dear Muslims, let us go ahead and make those plans for the next conference or convention. But let us do things right. And let us do the right things. And let us make sure we do them for the right reasons. At all times and in all circumstances, let us do them the best way possible – the only way that there is in Islam to do things.
For, that is what Islam is all about. It is the way the Qur’an came into this world to teach. And it is the way the Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, came into this world to show and to model.
Whatever Happened to Cleanliness?
I thought as Muslims Taharah was our thing. At least that is what we claim. But are we the cleanest people in the world? In some ways maybe we are. But are we in every way that we need to and ought to be?
Taharah may be a specific technical term in Islam and cleanliness may be a much broader human concept. Yet, the spirit of Taharahin the broadest sense must infuse every level and aspect of Muslim life and activity. Yet, some of the things associated with our life are quite dirty and smelly. How could we tolerate that?
Therefore, make sure conference premises are spotlessly clean at all times. Not the least the following areas:
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The dining area.
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Men’s bathrooms.
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Women’s bathrooms.
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Wudu area for men.
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Wudu area for women.
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The Salah area.
Make sure there is enough soap. Make sure there is enough toilet paper. Make sure there are water jugs of some kind. Make sure there is an abundant supply of paper towels. How sad it often is! The state of cleanliness in Muslim gatherings!
Tahara is our Iman. And yet cleanliness is not something over which we can pride ourselves in our lives. Not yet. But why not? What, other than our own lazy and rigid mindset and decadent cultural habits could be said to stand in the way?
And there is something else: Women Are People Too! Subhanallah, followers of a Deen that took women from the bondage and lowly state in which humanity had trapped them and put them on a pedestal of great respect and partnership, somehow seem to find a way to make women an appendage – an afterthought to our main activities and focus. We need to ask ourselves continually if the women’s wing, whether in the prayer area or in the bathrooms, is as spacious, clean and conducive as we can possibly make it.
Wallahu A’alam!
Wa Lillahil Hamd!
END
February 2001 Revised, October 2004
Still a Draft Copy Needs to be Revised
© 2004 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
Next Article: SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 – THE Muslim Story and A strategy for Coping – Part One
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