i had the opportunity to visit this D'talk camp which Nady (An-Nahdhah youth) organized with two muslim bodies from NYP and TP. so i came uninvited, well, not exactly...took some pictures of the talk. i came in while they were having break and were on the midst of an energizer activity.
you know this game where you have one balloon tied to your feet and among you and your teammates, you had to step and burst the balloons. so of course, the last person to still have the balloon tied to her/his feet would usually came out as winner. and everyone would be shouting and running away from one another, while trying to burst your friends' balloons.
now the facilitator said there's a lesson to be learnt from the game, which i found myself thinking...what the heck are you supposed to be learning from the game??!
so a few of the sisters gave one or two pointers. i don't really remember what they said but one of them said that the balloon is a metaphor of an amanah. so it's like it's everybody's amanah to do da'wah. i agree with that. but why would we be stepping or bursting the amanah?
now another one said, some factors like the size of balloon and the material of the balloon should be considered so the objective of the game would be realised. but how would we relate that to da'wah?
let me try to put things into perspectives.
let say the balloon is the da'wah effort which needs to be carried out. now we have person A tied with a balloon. it's either A would be willing to receive the message, or he would be dodging away, running from us, not letting us to burst the balloon, here, would be not letting us to do da'wah.
there will always be people who would turn away, unreceptive of the da'wah which we are doing, unwilling to listen, but does not hinder our spirit and does not impede our da'watic effort. why would we be so willing and tried our best to step on another's and burst their balloon? because that was the instruction given by the games master.
take this willingness and put in da'watic spirit. we will try our best and willing to do it...whether there's going to be so many obstacles, attitudes given to our face, but we will do it. to realise a part of the role given to us as vicegerents.
and yes, the material and size of the balloon is important. the keyword for da'wah is simple- hikmah and wisdom. that's the material needed in da'wah. the size? well, it depends on the person receiving the da'wah...how much do they need to know? how can we tell them about Islam? with such a quantity that will let them understand what they need to know about Islam.
and da'wah is definitely amanah. and my salutations to those attending the D'talk and the unspoken commitment to be on the sidelines, on the edge of the fortress, and spread the message of Islam.
wallahu a'lam.
(this truly reminds of a lesson in Teens aL.I.V.E. Year 2 "Me and My Folks" which talks exactly what the speakers explained...putting ourselves in our parents' shoes and understand their thoughts and feelings if something happened to their teenagers)