THE ADVICE AND INSPIRATION STALL

The advice & inspiration stall (Dawah stall)

Alhumdulilah, around 4/5 brothers set up a Dawah table of sorts at the Eid Festival held at Cherry lane, Langley Green, Crawley, England.
We were there for around 4/5 hours.
This stall was an attempt and a very light intro into engaging with the Muslim youth and families who are completely away from Islam as well as of Non-Muslims. Most of this team was completely new to this form of Dawah and so I waned to ‘ease’ them into it. Very subtle and laid back stall etc.

I had around 5/6 different unique conversions, and I want to share these experiences so that other duaat and Dawah teams can gain some ideas.

The first was a brother who was a doctor. He lived in a nearby town called Dorking. An extremely Small town nearby.

He shared with me that he wasn’t that knowledgable and just about manages his prayers. He also informed that he feels the tension and the watchful eyes of the local Non Muslim community lately & has experienced light physical abuse in the form of being barged & verbal abuse.

He says this never use to happen before but recently this has come up.

So I advised him 2 things. First to get into the habit of the morning & evening adhkaar. This protects you and your family from all harm. Secondly, learn and then engage in Dawah. Start talking about Islam with your locals. Invite them round for meals and interesting conversations.

I went on to say that perhaps this recent spike of Islamaphobic attacks have taken place because Allah swt wants us to turn back to him! We are ‘forced’ to learn our religion and convey the call! Because otherwise we are lazy and too confused in the dunya!

This led me to think about the Muslim community as a whole in the West.
We came here, settled here, some of us doing exceedingly well, owning 40-50 houses and other assets, doing very well for ourselves, but then we are surprised and shocked when we are randomly attached when we have made no serious efforts to present Islam to the host county!
If someone doesn’t know anything about Islam and is in complete ignorance of it, then they will attack it.
The brother agreed and will make more effort to study Islam and get closer to his creator.
The next conversation was very unique.
Last year we held a similar small stall and a couple came at the table. The girl was Non-Muslim and her partner was a Muslim. She was on the verge of embracing Islam except she had some theological related questions and I answered as best as I could.
I hadn’t heard about them until when they approached the stall today! And Alhumdulilah the sister did eventually embrace Islam!
The issue now was though, she admitted that she had to remove her hijab for various reasons including the judgemental attitude of some brothers. Apparently, a random brother came up to the couple in London & informed her after enquiry about her religion, that she isn’t wearing the hijab correctly!
That pained her deeply because the little she began to cover was after many months of mind battling and over coming her Non- Muslim family’s opposition to her faith! And now after she began wearing a loose hijab, this ‘brave warrior’ has to make a sweeping statement. She admitted she is now feeling lost as a revert and has some serious ‘questions’ about life!
I had to reassure her and explain that never have faith in the creation, in the form of humans and Muslims, only rely and have a connection with God. Ask him for guidance. Ask him where to seek and whom to seek knowledge from!

But after they left I felt so frustrated that here is a revert who left behind her whole life and it takes a big heart to change yourself and our pathetic Muslim community have to have this ‘holier than thou’ attitude. This needs to change, this harsh judgmental attitude towards Muslims, reverts and Non-Muslims!

Anyway, we also interacted with the local police and councillors. Short, mutual exchanges. I explained that one of the many purposes of this stall was to advise and inspire the local Muslim youth who had this obsession with drugs and gangs. They appreciated our efforts.

The aim of this table was to engage with those Muslims with whom we never ever get a chance to talk about Allah, his Deen and giving general advice. Our Muslim
Community is lost and pretty dead. So these tables was a small effort towards inspiring some positive changes. The brothers are new, i hope and pray we gain more opportunities to have stalls. At community events/ festivals and in the town centre. We can gain more experience as we go and become effective communicators. Sisters should
Also get involved too Insha’Allah!