There was an able shaykh who trained student for
da’wah – six month in theory and three months in the field for practice. A
confident student graduating from the theoretical part felt that he could do
the practical part by him self. The syhakh warned him against this view, but
the student did not listen. He went off
to a remote village to practice da’wah. On the first Friday, a phoney
imam delivered a khutbah full of lies about Allah and the prophet. The student
stood up and shouted : “the imam is a lier. Neither Allah and the Prophet (SAW)
made any of these statement.” The imam responded : “this young man is a kafir
and deserves to be punished.” The audience in the masjid beat the student
badly. The student went back to his shyakh with bandages and broken bones! The
shyakh said to him : “let me show you a good example of pratical da’wah.” Next
Friday he went to the same masjid when the same imam deliverd a similiar
khutbah. Having listened to the khutbah, the shyakh stood up and declared :
“your imam is a man of jannah. Anyone who takes even a single hair from his
beard will earn jannah.” At once, the people attacked the imam’s beard and
pulled one hair after another until he was left beardless and bleeding on the
floor. Then the shyakh whispered in the ear of the imam : “ are you going to
stop lying about Allah and the Prophet (SAW) and behave yourself, or do you
want more punishment ?” the imam admitted his mischief and repented. The
student realized his mistake and pleaded to the shyakh to give him his three
months of pratical da’wah field training! There is a world of difference between
theory and application.
The story taken at the book af “Training guide of the Islamic Worker”
Written by : Hisyam Altalib.