A Guide Named Dhiyab - Part 1

On 8th November 2011, I ventured into a 40 days tour of dakwah and tabligh. We were initially instructed to make effort for 10 days in Paya Jaras and Sungai Buloh area, just outside Klang Valley, together with 7 other local brothers, 2 Palestinians, and a Yemeni young man named Dhiyab. I first saw him at Masjid Jame' Sri Petaling, the markaz of dakwah and tabligh in Malaysia.

Dhiyab was raised in USA, having migrated there with his parents at the age of 4. When he was 19 years old, he returned to Yemen to find his roots and learned Arabic and Quran. He was then an Arab youth who was an ummi, illeterate and knew nothing of Arabic - he could not speak his own language, let alone read and write. At the time when we were together in the jamaat, he eventually could read and understand the Quran but when you listen to him reciting the Quran, it sounds weird and incomprehensible.

According to him, by the time he was 19, he had an urge to return to Yemen to learn Arabic and Islam since he was deprived of the opportunity all the time when he was living in USA. He was like many of American Muslim youths who pass their lives void of any teaching of Islam in the godless environment, except of course, knowing that he is a Muslim.

Upon his return to Yemen, he begin to learn and speak a local Arabic dialect but having difficulties in the learning of Islam due to his encounters with Ahmadiyah Shi'ahs and Salafis that clouded and messed up his mind even towards the upright madzhabs (the righteous different school of jurisprudence) of Ahlul Sunnah Wal Jamaah. Consequently, his fervour and devotion for knowledge slowly faded away.

Meanwhile, as he is able to speak English very well, he began to see an opportunity for him to make money in Yemen in tourism industry. All those foreign, European and American tourists that flooded the ancient civilisation-riched Yemen had turned him craving for worldly wealth. In a short span of time, he mastered the tourism trade and eventually got married to a local lady.

After 5 years of stay in Yemen, immersed in the lucrative tourism trade, Dhiyab then realised that he had lost his way by abandoning the very purpose that he returned to Yemen in the first place, that is to learn and practice Islam. He then tried to make an umrah trip to Makkah and Madinah for he developed a sensation to visit the grave of Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam in Madinah. However, he had to abandon the plan when he faced hurdles and hardship in obtaining travelling visa to Saudi Arabia. Generally it is very difficult, for a Yemeni below the age of 40, to get a hajj or umrah visa. The strict requirement of having a Saudi sponsor and clashes and fights close to the Saudi-Yemen border made it almost impossible for him to perform umrah. He lived the remaining time in Yemen feeling anxious and disturbed.

One day, he was astonished when he saw a promotional tourism pamphlet that spotted a photo of a scenery that resembled the place he saw in his dream recently. It was a Visit Malaysia pamphlet published by the Malaysia Tourism Board. Somehow he perceived it as a way out from his anguish. It did not take him a long time to embark onto a journey to Malaysia.

When he reached Kuala Lumpur, he has no clue where to go or who to meet. Eventually at a masjid in the city centre, the figure of a man making earnest du'a had caught his attention. He was captivated by the sight. He approached the man, asking him where he could get Islamic education or lessons in Malaysia. The man told him that there are two ways that he might be able to fulfill his needs; one way is to get himself enrolled in an Islamic university or madrasa, another way is to go to the Jame' Masjid at Sri Petaling (the markaz of dakwah and tabligh) just at the outskirt of the city. He chose the latter simpler and faster way.

It was at the Markaz that he met the two Palestinian brothers who were in the midst of spending their time in a 4 months journey of dakwah and tabligh (2 months in Malaysia and 2 months in Bangladesh). Since the Palestinian brothers have ten more days of their time in Malaysia before heading for Bangladesh, they made tasykil for Dhiyab to join them for the ten days short tour of dakwah and tabligh. At first Dhiyab was adamant, refusing the invitation and insisting that he was trying to find a sheikh to teach him Deen - unshakable on his view that Deen may only be acquired through lesson from a sheikh or an ustaad and learning from kitaabs. After much persuasion, he agreed to give only one hour of his time to be in the company of the Palestinian brothers. Then one hour became two, three and one whole day and he then set to spend his time for ten days in dakwah and tabligh jamaat...and that was the time when I first met him.