My Tablighi Brother

Despite the early skirmish of events that I faced in relation to the effort of dakwah and tabligh, it had taken me ages to get to know the effort in a little bit deeper. Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah, I seemed to be reminded again and again that the ultimate responsibility of a Muslim is to firmly uphold the work of dakwah and tabligh. At the fragile time when I started to question my own purpose of life, Allah Ta'ala had sent me "full-blown reminders" from a single individual. The said individual is my own elder brother whom I briefly mentioned earlier.

He is the fifth from seven elder brothers that I have. Between them all, he is the wildest, the boldest and the loudest. He was rough, tough and unruly. Only my father (may Allah fill his grave with noor) could tame him. 

When he talks people listen to him. And there is a good chance that he will dominate any gathering whenever he talks. In those early days, the young ones in our family including me, liked to listen to him. At times he cracked jokes that made us laughed, at times he just loved to scare and terrify us and at other times he reminded us of the events in the past. Most of the time, we listened to him until the wee hour of the night. One blessed day, he joined his childhood friends in a jamaat of 3 days in the path of Allah.

Our beloved Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam told us to migrate (in the path of Allah) and hold firmly to Islam; for so long as Jihad (striving hard in the path of Allah) exists, migration also would not end. Just as Jihad will continue till the Last Day, so will migration; which includes, leaving one's home for the sake of spreading, learning, or protecting Islam. Rasulullah sallalaahu alayhi wassalam also told us that migration is of two types. First, migration is to give up evils. Second, migration is to go towards Allah (His Cause) and His Messenger (by leaving your home). Migration will continue till repentance will be acceptable; and repentance will be acceptable until the time that the sun does not rise rise from the West. When the sun will rise from the West, the state of the heart (Imaan or Kufr) will be sealed; and the (prior) deeds of people will suffice (either for eternal success or failure).

He returned from the 3 days khuruuj in the path of Allah a changed man. The first person to notice the change was my mother and how glad and happy she was. Thereafter, began a total transformation of his life. 

Nevertheless habits once formed become second nature, which does not change. The Persian saying that, "The mountain can move, but not the habit." This saying is also gathered from another hadith, "You may believe if you hear that a mountain has moved from its place, but do not believe if you are told that the habits of somebody have changed." Habits do not change, but the relationship of habits changes. In a similar manner, my brother's nature is such that he is inclined to anger, bold and loud in his conversations, but whereas formerly his anger, boldness and loudness led him to vain or idle talks and insulting or mocking others, it is directed against violation of Allah Ta'ala's commandments and urging and pushing others towards rectification of imaan and aamal by the effort of dakwah and tabligh.

Needless to say, he started to continuously bombard everyone in our family, close or distant relatives, young and old, in the boldest and loudest of tashkeel that I had ever witnessed. It is said that a gem-grade diamonds exists through a process, from mining to cutting and polish. If diamonds are located in the diamond-rich density fraction with the help of X-ray flourescence, my brother centred and focused his immediate effort within the family members. And he is like a miner who uses TNT to blast layers of stones to get to the diamond ore block.

He used to say to me, "During one of my longer khuruuj in the path of Allah, I specifically mentioned all the names of our family members one by one, for hidayah from Allah Ta'ala. And somehow, your name was being mentioned first." Alhamdulillah, today all of our family members and most of our relatives are in close proximity with the effort of dakwah and tabligh.

May Allah Ta'ala grant us all istiqama (straightforwardness) in the noble effort of dakwah and tabligh and may Allah Ta'ala covers us all with mercy and bounty.