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November 05, 2001

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 – THE Muslim Story and A strategy for Coping – Part Two

Section: WRITINGS | 168 reads

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PLANNING

Planning is the key to Islam.

The hadith says: Organize your worldly affairs as if you will live for ever; but plan for your departure for the next life as if you will die tomorrow.

Setting clear objectives and identifying resource potentials of all kinds are central to effective planning.

First of all, do the Open House, if it were possible and advisable, once every week.

Or do it once in two or three weeks, if that were more convenient and more advisable.

But do it, without fail, at least once a month.

Here are some ideas on how to do this:

1. Once your Open House committee is in place, hold the first meeting. This would be your planning session.

2. In this meeting, thrash out every thing pertaining to the Open House. Don’t leave things to chance. Allah does not leave things to chance. Allah says everything in this world moves based on a meticulous calculus of divine planning.

3. Assign roles and responsibilities to people in a clear manner.

4. Decide to hold the Open House on the mosque premises. The idea here is to connect both Muslims and non-Muslims to the mosque. For, mosques are the centres of Muslim life.

5. Decide on a day, date and time.

6. Allocate funds for refreshments.

7. Assign specific responsibilities such as cleaning, preparation of the hall and arranging the chairs and tables to clearly designated individuals.

8. Obtain adequate quantities of quality Islamic literature for free distribution as well as for sale.

9. Widely publicize the project.

PUBLICITY

Publicity is part of the basic teachings of Islam. Effective publicity is also a vital requirement of program success.

There are several ways in which you can attract people’s attention and entice them to attend the Open House:

(1) Mass media such as radio, newspaper, etc.

(2) Word of mouth.

(3) Signs in prominent places including malls, schools and grocery stores.

While each is effective in its own way, the word-of-mouth method is often the most productive in terms of influencing people to try something new.

Here is how to do it with the mass media.

1. Place an ad in the local daily newspaper.

In this ad, invite non-Muslims to attend the Open House at the mosque and get to know Islam and Muslims – their neighbours.

2. Alert the local radio and television stations about the Open House.

3. Place ads in campus media, if a college campus is nearby.

4. Send out a press release to all these media about the Open House.

5. Invite the media to do some kind of a “feature story” on Islam and Muslims.

There is virtually no end to the topics and angles which the local media could use to generate a story on Islam and local Muslims.

Do not hesitate to suggest to the media any topics that you may have in mind. The media are always open to ideas provided they are offered courteously.

Here is how you can use the word-of-mouth method:

1. Ask the Muslims in the community to encourage their non-Muslim friends and acquaintances to attend the Open House.

2. Ask the Muslims in the community to bring a non-Muslim friend or acquaintance with them to the Open House, if they can.

3. Use the Jumu‘ah Khutbah to educate the Muslim community on what you are planning to do and what role you expect the members of the community to play in it.

THE Jumu’ah KHUTBAH: ITS NATURE AND USES

Speech is a powerful instrument of social change in a community.

In Islam, speech is an integral part of the Deen.

Jumu‘ah prayers offer Muslims a unique and powerful vehicle for social contact and communication.

The expression Khutbah is simply Arabic for a public speech.

Jumu‘ah Khutbah is a gift God gave the Muslims to use every week for purposes of education, motivation, mobilization, social reform and community building.

It is a social, political, organizational, communication and educational instrument of extraordinary power and flexibility.

It was for this purpose that the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, used it.

It was also for this purpose, that his successors – Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman and Ali – used it after him.

At the same time, the Jumu‘ah Khutbah is also an act of worship – an Ibadah – which explains why it is such a powerful instrument of social change and community building in the hands of the Muslims.

Therefore, while preparing for the Open Houses for mosques, Muslims need to use the Jumu’ah Khutbah:

(1) To educate their communities in all aspects of what these Open Houses entail and how to go about organizing them in the most effective manner.

(2) To motivate their communities to reach out to the non-Muslims in their area as neighbours and as fellow human beings.

(3) To impress upon Muslims the importance of introducing non-Muslims to Islam and Muslims.

(4) To explain to Muslims and to train them about how to conduct themselves with non-Muslims during the Open House and in general.

The Qur’an teaches the Muslims, that in their conversations, even in their arguments and disputes with non-Muslims, Muslims must be non-combative, non-confrontational, non-argumentative and low-key. They must be conciliatory and inclusive and always try to take the high road.

(5) To educate and train Muslims about how to conduct themselves with new Muslims.

New Muslims are new to the game. And they are pure and clean like a new-born baby. Almighty Allah forgave them all their sins the moment they embraced Islam.

As a result, we need to treat them with full understanding and acceptance, with a great deal of tact and respect, and with endless patience at many of the things that they may not know about the Islamic way of doing things.

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