The caller to Islam — the da’ee — carries one of the most honoured roles a human being can hold: extending the invitation toward guidance, truth, and the mercy of Allah to those around them. But this sacred responsibility cannot rest on words alone. In this session of the Ultimate Dawah Course, Sheikh Murtaza Khan draws on the Quran, authentic hadith, and the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to map out the essential characteristics every sincere caller must embody. The Quran declares in Surah Fussilat that the best of people in speech is he who calls to Allah, does righteous deeds, and says: “Verily, I am of the Muslims” — a verse that sets an uncompromising standard, demanding that the caller’s inner condition align completely with the message they carry. Character, the sheikh reminds us, is not optional for the daee; it is the dawah itself.
Truthfulness and Sincerity: The Non-Negotiable Foundations of Every Call
The first and most foundational characteristic of the daee is truthfulness — sidq — and it operates on three interconnected levels: truthfulness in belief, truthfulness in speech, and truthfulness in action. On the level of belief, the caller must possess grounded, verified knowledge of Islam before presenting it to others; quoting weak or unauthentic hadith, or attributing to the Quran verses that do not exist within it, is not a minor slip but a spiritual catastrophe. On the level of action, truthfulness transforms into sincerity — ikhlas — meaning every conversation, every lecture, every effort of dawah must be dedicated purely to Allah, seeking His face alone, free from the desire for recognition or personal gain. Two great classical scholars of Islam, examining the Quranic verse “He who created life and death to see which of you is best in action,” independently identified the same two conditions for any deed to be accepted: it must be sincere for Allah alone, and it must conform to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). A daee whose outward message contradicts their private conduct — one who screams about justice while indulging in injustice, or who preaches the deen while failing to live it — is engaged in a form of spiritual crisis that the scholars of Islam warned against in dedicated works on the rectification of character.
- Every hadith quoted during dawah must be verified and authenticated by the scholars — fabricated or weak narrations used in dawah are a form of attributing falsehood to the Prophet (peace be upon him)
- The Prophet (peace be upon him) was known even by his enemies as Al-Amin — the Trustworthy — before prophethood; truthfulness is the daee’s most powerful and lasting credential
- All dawah activity must meet two conditions simultaneously: sincerity for Allah alone, and conformity with the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him)
- The daee’s condition must match their statements — Islam calls to rectifying one’s own character first, before calling others to rectify theirs
- Allah’s names and attributes should be reflected in the caller’s conduct: He is Al-Rahman, the Most Merciful — and so the daee must show mercy and compassion to those they call
“A Muslim can never be attributed as a liar — so how then can a caller to Allah be known as one who lies? The greatest lie of all is to speak about Allah that which you do not know, or that which has not been authorized. Every hadith one quotes must carry a strong narration, authenticated by the scholars of Islam. Where there is doubt, a person should leave that hadith — or openly say: ‘I am not certain of this narration.'” — Sheikh Murtaza Khan
Patience and Humility: The Prophetic Character That Sustains the Call
No quality is tested more severely in the life of the daee than sabr — patience — and no example is more sobering than that of Prophet Nuh (peace be upon him), who called his people to Allah for 950 years: openly and privately, by day and by night, through the signs of creation and direct supplication — and met with relentless rejection. Against this prophetic standard, Sheikh Khan holds up a mirror to our own patience, measured in days or weeks before frustration sets in or we judge a person as beyond guidance. The caller who caves under social pressure — softening their stance on what is clearly forbidden, wavering on the removal of hijab, on riba, on co-education under the weight of popular opinion — has confused adaptation with abandonment. What was haram yesterday is haram today, and the methodology of the Prophets was never to waver at the first sign of trial but to continue with beautiful patience, trusting that the fruits of sincere dawah may appear in this world or be preserved entirely for the Hereafter. Alongside patience, genuine humility — tawadu — is equally essential. Real knowledge of Allah’s names, attributes, and commands should produce ever-deepening awe of Him and ever-greater compassion toward His creation: the scholar who observed that “the more I increase in knowledge, the more I become aware of my own ignorance” captured a profound spiritual law. When a daee encounters someone lost in sin, the correct response, taught by Abdullah ibn Mubarak and endorsed by the classical scholars, is first to thank Allah for His protection over you, and then to reflect that this same person — in the shame and regret of their transgression — may be drawing closer to Allah than those who have never sinned and never repented. The daee who despises the very people they are calling has replicated the first act of arrogance known to creation — the refusal of Iblis to recognise the worth of another being made by the hands of Allah.
- Prophet Nuh called for 950 years without abandoning his mission — the daee who loses heart after weeks or months has not yet grasped the prophetic model of sabr
- Patience must be maintained against social pressure to normalise what is forbidden; the principles of the deen do not shift with trends or popular consensus
- True Islamic knowledge should produce taqwa — fear and consciousness of Allah — which in turn produces humility; knowledge that breeds arrogance is mere academic accumulation, devoid of its spiritual purpose
- Arrogance is defined in the Sunnah not as dressing well or eating well, but as despising others and rejecting the truth — both are fatal to the work of dawah
- The daee must also choose the correct times and environments for their message; wisdom in where and how to present Islam is itself a prophetic characteristic
“Whenever you leave your home, and your eyes fall upon anyone — do not think that you are better than them.” — The counsel of Abdullah ibn Mubarak, recorded by the classical scholars of Islam as advice every caller to Allah should carry in their heart before every interaction
What emerges from Sheikh Murtaza Khan’s session is not a checklist of external behaviours but a portrait of an inner life transformed by Islam — a life in which truthfulness, sincerity, patience, and humility are not performed for audiences but cultivated in private, in the moments when only Allah is watching. The daee does not carry this trust because they are superior to those they call; they carry it because they accepted the amanah — the trust — that even the mountains declined to bear. That acceptance demands a continuous, lifelong effort to align one’s condition with one’s speech, to verify before one proclaims, to persist when others mock, and to lower the gaze of the ego whenever it begins to rise above those being invited to faith. The message of Islam has always spread most powerfully not through argument alone but through the character of those who lived it fully — and for every generation, the invitation remains the same: become, first, the proof of what you preach.
