Anecdote of Dakwah and Tabligh Effort: The Masjid Chairman and the Village Thug

Once I had been given a task of meeting a chairman of a surau (locality masjid) during a short 3 days khuruuj in the path of Allah. It is always the tartib of any jamaat that whenever we reached any masjid or surau, one of the first things to be done by the amir or leader of the jamaat is to send a couple of brothers to gave a courtesy visit to any leader of the locality, any ustadz or aalim that lives in the vicinnity of the masjid, and the chairman and committee members responsible in the affairs of the administration of the masjid. In case of the chairman and the committee members, one the purposes of the visit is to inform the arrival of our jamaat at their masjid as oppose to seeking permission. A local brother who is a revert from hindu to Islam, acted as a dalil or guide, accompanying me to the chairman's house. When we reached the house, our dalil gave the salam from outside the house. There came out emerging from inside the house a man in late 50's. Before I could even say a word, he immediately blasted us with furious antagonizing remarks, "You people do not have to come here. All the people in this locality perform the solah. You people should go to UMNO's surau! They're the one who do not perform the solah!" (Note: UMNO is a political party).

I was taken aback by surprise. I looked at our dalil and he looked visibly upset. He was a very nice man who has a little disability in his left arm after suffering from a stroke. The chairman continued his lambasting remarks louder, "What's the point of you coming here!? It's better for you people to go to Afghanistan...lift your arms in jihaad! Then it's worthy." Before he could continue, I found myself answering back in the fit of the moment, "How many times have you yourself gone to Afghanistan for jihaad!? Have you ever been to Afghanistan? I just came back from Afghanistan for jihaad! My grandfather and my father were from Afghanistan. Tell me how many times have you gone to Afghanistan? You were talking nonsense when you yourself had never set a foot in Afghanistan. I just come here to inform you of our jamaat's arrival at the masjid for three days. I do not come here to seek your permission." I then gestured to our dalil to leave his place while my retortation somehow managed to silent the chairman.

When we got in the vehicle to return to the masjid, our dalil innocently asked me, "Is it true you just return from Afghanistan from jihaad?" I could not stop smiling at him and replied, "No, I made up the story to teach people like him. But it's true that my grandfather was from Afghanistan."

Alhamdulillah, although there were exchanges of words between me and the chairman, I am glad the matter did not escalate to the worse. However, during that particular khuruuj, the other committee members of the masjid somehow seemed to be united in giving us cold treatment. The whole jamaat, young and old, were forced to sleep on the floor of an adjoining children's dirty classroom since we were not allowed to make i'tikaaf in the masjid. The incident happened in the month of Ramadhan 2002.

Another incident happened during one of my khuruuj in the path of Allah for 40 days. We arrived on Thursday morning at a village's masjid. Among our many dalils was the head of Industrial Training Institute (ILP). He was a soft spoken man. He led us for an umumi ghusht after Asar to visit every Muslims in the village from house to house and from alley to alley. I was being tasked as mutakallim (the one that give a short reminding speech) at that particular time. The first person who our dalil introduced me to was a man in his 30's. I started my task saying,"Alhamdulillah, we came here because we are brothers. And we are brothers since we both recite the kalimah 'La Illaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah'." Suddenly, the man retorted in rage, "Do you want to teach me the kalimah!? You bothered me to teach me the kalimah!? Why don't you go to the kuffar and teach them the kalimah instead!?" I was about to give a reply when our dalil pulled my arm leading me away from the man, perhaps sensing it would lead to arguments and heated exchanges." He then led us to other houses as we left the man behind us to his own rage. At least that was what all of us thought...

After Maghrib, the dalil and I were about to leave for ILP to give a talk meant to enjoin and encourage his students to make effort in strengthening imaan and aamal, when suddenly a group of men emerged from the dark led by the man that we had met earlier on. He began to shout in rage, "Where is the man who tried to teach me the kalimah!?" He then came straight to me shouting, "Are you the one who tried to teach me the kalimah!?" I could merely stood there motionless and replied, "I am the man." He raised both fists and aim one fist with a lit cigarette protruding from the grip directly inches from my face while he kept on repeating asking me, "You tell me did Nabi order you to teach the kalimah (to me)?" I just stood still staring at the lit cigarette that threatened to burn my eyeball. All I could think of at that moment of time was at which fragile part of his body should I deliver a single blow that would paralyse him. The noises and commotion caused all the people inside the masjid to rush out. The man eventually backed off as the commotion ensued between the man and a few local brothers that accompanied our jamaat. Our dalil then quickly ushered me to his vehicle and drove off to ILP. But still the incident did not end there...

The next morning on Friday the man returned to the masjid at the time of ta'leem when everyone was listening to ahadith being read. He held an iron rod in his hand which he dragged on the tarmac outside the masjid making scratching noises while he hurled abuses and repeatedly shouted, "Come out, the man who tried to teach me the kalimah!" Some brothers immediately rushed out to reason with the man while the amir of our jamaat ordered me to stay put in the masjid. Further commotion ensued.

Up to that point of time, everyone of us in the jamaat could still tolerate the event and suggested to our amir that we should stay on to continue the dakwah and tabligh effort at the village. We felt that it was an isolated incident under control. At the end of Friday Jumu'ah solah, our amir himself humbly tried to foster a relationship with the Imam of the masjid introducing us as a jamaat from Kuala Lumpur. However, the Imam threw a thunderbolt against us, snubbing our amir in a sharp sarcastic tone, "Huh! There are many claimants of many kinds of jamaat nowadays. Who knows, it might be jamaat of shaytaan!" Indeed it was too much of abuse for us to swallow, and our amir then decided to leave the place and move on to our next route.

About a year after the unfortunate event, I received a great news that the local villagers had started doing ghusht from the masjid and sat in fadha'il ta'leem listening to the blessed ahadith of Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam. I hope the said man is among them. And I hope he is making the effort of dakwah and tabligh better than us.