Islam Rediscovered
8. The Man Islam Builds
~ 112 ~
A commentator of the Qur’an has interpreted this as
follows: Muslims are intermediary between the
Prophet and the nations of the world
(Al-Tabari)
. In
conformance with this,
da‘wah
work is obligatory
for the Muslim
Ummah
. It is their essential duty to
receive the divine message of the Prophet and
convey it to the rest of humanity. It is not simply an
act of annunciation. It is the most important
struggle. Because of this the Qur’an says: Do with
them the great
jihad
by the help of the Qur’an
(25:52).
The Qur’an is a book, not a weapon. “Great
jihad
with the Qur’an” means a great religious
endeavour;
da’wah
work is thus a great ideological
struggle. It is a supreme intellectual effort which
stretches to the utmost the mental capacity of the
human being.
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Da‘wah
is a strictly non-political mission. But it is an
extremely difficult task to perform, because it
invites challenges from virtually all sections of
society. The
da‘i
says: “Here is the truth with a
capital T, and success in this world as well as in the
