The Lighter Side of Da'wah

There was an able shaykh who trained students for da'wah - six months in theory and three months in the field for practice. A confident student graduating from the theoretical part felt that he could do the practical part by himself. The shaykh warned him against this view, but the student did not listen. He went off to a remote village to practice dawah. On the first Friday, a phoney imam delivered a khutbah full of lies about Allah and the Prophet. The student stood up and shouted: "The imam is a liar. Neither Allah nor the Prophet (SAW) made any of these statements." The imam responded: "This young man is a kafir and deserves to be punished." The audience in the mosque beat the student badly. The student went back to his shaykh with bandages and broken bones! The shaykh said to him: "Let me show you a good example of practical da'wah." Next Friday, they went to the same mosque where the same imam delivered a similar khutbah. Having listened to the khutbah, the shaykh stood up and declared: "Your imam is a man of jannah. Anyone who takes even a single hair from his beard will earn jannah." At once, the people attacked the imam's beard and pulled one hair after another until he was left beardless and bleeding on the floor. Then the shaykh whispered in the ear of the imam: "Are you going to stop lying about Allah and the Prophet (SAW) and behave yourself, or do you want more punishment?" The imam admitted his mischief and repented. The student realized his mistake and pleaded to the shaykh to give him his three months of practical da'wah field training! There is a world of difference between theory and application.

[Excerpt from Training Guide for Islamic Workers - IIIT]