The Call of the Quran
5. The call of da‘wah in the modern age
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elevated places. (7:46). This is the greatest honour
which may be conferred on the callers of truth in
the life of the Hereafter.
However, calling people to surrender to God is no
easy task. It amounts to a re-enactment of the
history of the Prophet and his companions, who
were unremitting in their efforts to bring to
ordinary men and women a clear perception of the
great hidden realities of the Almighty. It is to
achieve on the human level what had formerly been
achieved on the prophetic level.
But first the da’wah worker must himself
understand the true nature of the message he
brings to mankind, otherwise his activities will be
irrelevant to God’s cause and may even prove
counter-productive. Then, in bringing others
within the fold of Islam, he must also appreciate
in what sense and in how many ways there has
been a change in conditions as far as the
propagation of religious ideas is concerned. For
our predecessors, the invitation to the truth meant
putting an end to idolatry — replacing polytheism
with monotheism. Nowadays, the invitation to
