The Age of Presentations and Communication and the Role of Da'ees November 18, 2013 at 7:18pm Since today,

is the age of communication and information and a lot of peo ple are communicating their useless thoughts, corrupted-ideas, cheap-fashions an d weird-life styles to the world through their mesmerising, marketing, advertisi ng and presentations. Mesmerizing speeches have always been used by many demagog ues to win the favour of the masses , many of which have resulted in bloody rev olutions. That is what the Qur an draws our attention towards : wa minnanaasi mayy u jiboka qaulaho fil hayatadduniya.. And among the men one who mesmerizes you wit h his speech ( Surah al Baqarah ch 2 verse ). In the 112th verse of Surah al A n am Allah terms Zukhraful qauli gooror: Decorated, deceptive narrations . Even our beloved Prophet (pbuh) said : Some speeches are magic ( Sahih Hadith ) .

Inorder to beat the anti Islamic mesmerizing speeches we have to work out Ihsa an speeches Ihasan means excellent and Allah commands us to do Ihsan. In Surah an Nahl verse no, 99, He commands equality and excellence. The term used here is Ih san . In Surah al Isra, ch 17 verse 53, Allah addresses the good Muslims : Tell m y worshippers that they should speak that which is excellent. The same reminder is also there in Surah al Baqarah : waquloo linnasi Husna, And talk to the people in a beautiful manner . This holds true to debates too. Surah Nahl verse 125 make s it very clear : wa jadil hum bil lati hiya ahsan.. And argue with them in an excellent manner.. What is a beautiful conversation? How do you beautify your speech? Let us tak e help of the Qur an again. It is in the form of a question that arises if you rea d the verse of Surah Yusuf where Allah says: And We narrate unto you beautiful s tories..

What is the beauty in the stories of people who have been killed in large nu mbers? Entire cities are swallowed in earth quakes or drowned ! Some one loosing his son and then loosing his eyes after mourning for years for his lost son ! S omeone is commanded to desert his own son in the empty valley with no shades or water and then later to slaughter the very same son! An entire army is caused t o drown! What is the beauty in this? There are no Cindrellas and Snow White lik e characters to tickle you. There are no Draculas to give you excitements.

The answer is simple : There are morals and values in these stories. These stories strengthen our values and give qualities like patience and courage durin g our crises. They transform your personality. These stories make us intelligen t says the second verse of Surah Yusuf : We have revealed the Qur an in Arabic so that you become intelligent.

That leads us to conclude that in order to produce an impactful speech, th e speaker must stuff morals and lessons in it. What am I getting from giving you a couple of hours to you? questions the subconscious mind of your audience. Ever y one sitting in your audience is looking for a benefit from your speech. Each o ne wants a solution to his problem. That is why an Islamic public speech is actu ally a Mass counselling. You are talking to a whole audience but every one is id entifying himself with the things that are being spoken about as if it is being addressed to him personally.

That leads us to the important conclusion : It is essential to study the Qu r an. Study of the Qur an includes the study of seerah too, i.e. the Biography of th e Prophet (pbuh) in order to improve your speech and communications skills..( In shallah to be continued..From my upcoming book THE DIARY OF A DA'EE )

Author Nisaar Nadiadwala can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com A motivational note for the upcoming Da'ees November 20, 2013 at 7:34am Those who know me closely in the field of Da wah , know well that I speak averag e English. My accent has a flavour of Gujarati language, my mother tongue. When I speak in Urdu I speak smoothly with a Gujarati flavour, but my English needs a speed in drafting of sentences while I speak. In my earlier days of public spea king for Islam, they said, I used to make one grammatical error in each sentence . Every speaker has some or other flaw in his speaking style, but if the error is evident and mars your communication with your audience then you must try to r epair it, otherwise if you reach a stage, people don t mind your oratory flaws. Th ey are looking for the benefits from your content and not a literary genius in y ou. In 2003, it was decided that I was to deliver my first major public speech ho sted by IRF in a huge auditorium. The topic was: Why is Islam the fastest growi ng Religion in the World. I was instructed to give a trial three days before the program. It was the norm of IRF, that every in-house speaker, including Dr. Zak ir Naik, must give a trial to the close group of IRF before he goes for the fina l show. When the trial was done, there was a murmur in the circle and I could feel a nd see from the stage that the boys were not happy with my content and presentat ion. Dr Naik and Dr. Shuaib too were there. We discussed that the content was n ot structured properly. The arguments too were not strong, said some senior spea kers. A young Da ee, who was a fresh recruit , but spoke excellent English, came i n the corner where I stood receiving the feed back and nodded his head like a do ctor who read your cardio report and finds some grave defects. Nadiadwala ! , he s aid with a heavy heart. I don t think that this talk should go on the stage. His he art grew heavier it will be bring down the reputation of IRF s standard . This statem ent gave me more painful concern than the discovery of my not well prepared status . The Fresh Da ee further suggested, Go and tell Dr Naik, to appoint some one else or cancel the program. This young da ee was honest and true but his method of solving the crises was w eak. He shared his views with others too. We all knew that Dr Naik would not tol erate a give up attitude. For him, a da ee should not run away but fix up the things and get going. There was a panic in my heart. IRF was spending thousands of Rup ees to hold a talk of a little known or an unkown speaker. I said to myself Sho uld I back out ? It is a different thing to deliver a speech in Sunday audience of IRF as compared to the huge auditorium . I stood there dumb and little embarra ssed. Dr Shuaib came there and assured, Nisaar bhai ! Let me help you out. Tomorr ow is Friday and I will come to your place and let us re draft the whole thing It was a holiday and Dr. Shuaib came , sacrificing his holiday , and we sat there and restructured the whole talk. It was Friday evening, and there was only one d ay in between. I tried to learn what Dr Shuaib had suggested and gave a couple o f trials to my wife. I realised that in the field of Islamic public speaking yo u really need seniors to help you in the content and presentations. I was now l ittle more confident. I have never forgotten Dr. Shuaib s co operation. He has a s tyle to make a difficult thing appear easier.

On Sunday morning I reached the venue and saw that the hall was almost packed . People sat in the AC hall and I was perspiring in my rich new Raymond coat, st itched for the occasion. Two minutes before the show began, Dr Zakir Naik hurrie d up on the stage and whispered in my ear, If you are nervous, cut short the tal k and stretch the question and answer session and he went away. This was a comfor table suggestion and I stuck to it. If you see the talk on you tube : Why is Isl am the Fastest growing Religion in the World ?, you will notice that the questi on and answer session was handled in a better way that the talk. Today I realise that if I had backed out, it would have been almost an abrupt end of my Islamic public speaking career on the National and the International stage, but Alhamdo lillah, I have specialised in answering questions hurled at Islam and Muslims. An important lesson I learnt in Da wah, specially when you are facing an audi ence, never give up hope even if you are weak, if you are doing a good cause and never give up to negative or harmful advice. Many a times certain advices cause more harm than our own weakness . After all when you are standing up for Allah, H is help is a promise and it comes exactly when you need it most. The sea did not part for Musa the moment he reached there , it parted when the Bani Israel gave up the hope of being saved and Musa a.s. replied , Indeed my Lord is with me . The fire did not turn into a garden the moment Ibrahim a.s. was thrown into it but when he refused to accept help even from the angles while he was on the way down towards the fire. It was the help of Allah that made my session lively. After that, I have del ivered no less than 2 talks per week on an average, that puts a total of arou nd one thousand talks on my chart with no less than 200 topics, ALHAMDOLILLAH. T his include, Jumuah khutbas as well as the speeches at international venues and Universities. Even today my English is not that AWESOME as the new breed of Isla mic speakers have, so many organisers do not value me much yet I give the audien ce their value for time and the akhera oriented motivation. For me, my talks hav e the same spirit, whether in slums or an International auditorium. Islamic Da'w ah does have its ups and down but it is to strenghten out hopes in Allah, not to weaken it..