After receiving prophethood, Prophet Muhammad lived in Makkah for thirteen years. During this period, the Makkan opponents inflicted many injustices on him and his followers, but the prophet never lost his patience on such occasions. On the contrary, he always enjoined his companions to exercise restraint. Patience is an essential characteristic of a dayee (inviter). The dayee's chief objective is to make people aware of God's Creation Plan. To this end, the dayee ensures, in all possible ways, that there should be no such untoward occurrence between himself and the madu (his listener). As such, a dayee must carry out this task very carefully. For example, he must communicate his message in the language of the madu (14:4); he must speak to him with such sincerity that it addresses his mind (4:63); he purifies himself of all moral weaknesses (74:4); he becomes the Madu's well-wisher to the greatest possible extent (7:79), and he bears with patience all the hurt that the madu causes him (14:12).
Patience is integral to undertaking dawah, conveying God's message to all humanity. As such, dawah work can be adequately performed only by meeting this standard. The conduct of the early dayees exemplified this virtue:
'We will surely bear with patience all the harm you do us. So in God let those who trust put their trust.' (14:12)
According to this verse, the dayee adopts the attitude of patience unilaterally with the madu. He continues this process of dawah work peacefully despite provocation from the other party. It is a highly essential condition. If the dayee is provoked by the behaviour of the madu, the normal atmosphere between dayee and madu will be disturbed, and the whole process of dawah work will be ruined. Therefore, a peaceful and conducive atmosphere is necessary for successfully carrying out dawah work.
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The programme of Islamic mission includes mainly two points—dawah and patience. Dawah means to convey the divine message of the Quran to all the people and patience means to adopt the method of acceptance in the existing situation in all other matters. This is what is called accepting the status quo. Patience is essential for carrying out dawah work. It is the law of nature itself that here, in this present world, a man always faces unpleasant situations. If a dayee will argue the other people in every unfavourable situation he will find no time to do dawah work. On the other hand, the favourable atmosphere between the dayee and madu will come to cease which is essential for a dayee to do dawah work.
Therefore, a dayee should always keep positive psychology. This is one of the essential conditions of dawah work. Without this dawah work cannot be performed. Patience is, in fact, the price of dawah work. Only after paying this price of patience, that thing comes to emerge as is called dawah. Patience, in other words, is the same thing that is called customer-friendly behaviour in the terminology of commerce. A businessman adopts the method of unilateral forbearance. Similarly, a dayee also adopts the method of unilateral forbearance in preaching the message of God to the people. This madu friendly behaviour is what is called patience.
Source: Dawah Made Simple
Addressing the Prophet of Islam, the Quran states: “Endure with patience; truly, your patience is possible only with the help of God. Do not grieve for them, or feel distressed because of their plotting.” (16:127)
This is God’s guidance for a dayee. When a dayee faces opposition from the madu, he is enjoined to exercise patience for the sake of God. Being patient means refraining from taking any reactionary measure in the hopes that God will solve the problem in a far better way.
There are two kinds of people in the world; those who depend on men and those who place their trust in God. The former can never remain patient. It is only the latter who have the resilience to suffer all kinds of bitterness and complaints. What they will receive from God is of far greater value than what they will ever receive from their fellow creatures. The dayee has to suppress the urge to react, so that he may refrain from a retaliatory course of action. A dayee has to trust God in all circumstances. Addressing the Prophet, the Quran says: “O messenger, deliver whatever has been sent down to you from your Lord. If you do not do so, you will not have conveyed His message and God will protect you from the people.” (5:67)
That is to say, God will grant His special succour and the opponents will not be able to harm the dayee. God will take care of everything. He will solve all the problems faced by the dayee because he is engaged in God’s work.
Source: Calling People to God
Patience is indispensable in carrying out dawah work; it is simply not possible to perform dawah work without exercising patience. The more a dayee remains patient, the more successful will he be in performing his duties.
Dawah work is a delicate process through which effort is made to de-condition the minds of human beings. Man cannot be likened to a piece of stone. If you want to change the stone, it will not show any reaction; it will accept all such moves without demur.
But man is a living being. He has feelings, and emotions of all kinds and that is why changing a human being is possible only when he is willing to change himself. Without this, it is impossible to affect any transformation in him.
Even when the madu’s behaviour is provocative, the dayee should not become provoked. When the dayee remains patient, he helps the madu to engage in introspection. Patience renders dawah work truly effective.
Source: Dawah Made Simple
