Jan 5, 2010

Christian vs Muslim Missionaries


I was reading John Grisham's The Testament when I had this paradigm shift about how different Muslim missionaries & Christian missionaries are... It's a story about a dying old man who named a Christian missionary who is now on a religious mission at the Brazilian border as the beneficiary of his eleven-billion-dollar fortune instead of his own children and 3 ex-wives..

According to John Grisham, World Tribes Missions is an organization who has four thousand missionaries spread around the world working exclusively with native people. Its sole purpose and goal is to spread the Christian Gospel to every remote tribe in the world.

Most of the missionaries are those who'd backpacked into the tribe's village with a vocabulary limited to 'Hello' and 'Thank you'. Their missionary work is not as simple as it might seem. Five years passed before the tribe began to trust them. They were well into their sixth year before they told their first Bible story. They are trained to be patient, to built relationships, learn language and culture, and slowly, slowly, begin to teach the bible.

One of the missionaries once wrote that the tribe did not accept him until they realized he wasn't leaving. He had chosen to live with them, forever. He loved them and wanted to be one of them. What kind of person could possess enough faith and commitment to forsake modern society and enter such a prehistoric word? But they do..

It made me thinking that no wonder they succeed in spreading the words of the Bible throughout the world and we don't.. We muslims lack the qualities of a true missionary.. We are not well trained, not patient, not willing to sacrifice our time and wealth, not ready to put our religion before ourselves and put aside all worldly passions..

Muslim missionaries only know how to talk, talk, talk, and talk.. They were trained very well on how to talk about religion & how to invite people to do what they are doing.. It's not like I'm against it or something, but spreading Islamic Dakwah is not about talking all the time..

People around the world nowadays need more that that.. They need food, health care, shelter, money, someone who takes care of them and many more.. But all we could offer them is talking.. We don't mingle, build relationships, get involved and build trust in them.. We want them to magically listen to the words we're saying and expect them to accept Islam without first setting examples and showing what Islam is all about..

Just tell me which one of us is professionally trained to do dakwah and dedicate his/her life (and I mean his/her whole life, not just 10 days or 40 days or 4 month) to the field of dakwah to any tribes in Malaysia (our own country, not in Africa or Europe like those Christian missionaries)? None.

Allah doesn't need me or you or any of us to keep His promise i.e. to make Islam overcome the religions, all of them, though the polytheists may be averse. But Allah is offering us the best trade one could possibly offer, with the payment of Jannah (paradise).

But sadly, muslims prefer to be in the safe and confortable zone.. And suddenly get mad & feel extremely offended when Islam is defamed by other people..

3 comments:

Lili said...

mashaAllah.... i didnt know there are such missionaries that are so persistent in spreading their religion. thanks for sharing this!

the missionaries is another way of da'wah. there might be people that really go into secluded area to spread Islam, u never know. there is a friend of my firend's who did that, if im not wrong. but i didnt update with them about their progress.

da'wah can be in any form. spreading through words is one alternatives out of thousands. i pressume what u said about muslims missionaries only know how to talk is referring to people in general. if this works, by all means, go ahead.

did u get the name World Tribes Missions from Grisham's book? just to mention, its no longer known as World Tribes Mission. instead, its called New Tribes Missions.

anyway, thanks for this entry. jzkk

wayfarer said...

salam wrt,

salam ziarah..

rasa tertampar... huu...

"Nama kita akan tetap berdaftar di dalam catatan orang-orang yang lalai lagi alpa, selama mana kita masih memberikan sisa-sisa waktu kepada dakwah, selama mana kita tidak mencintainya dengan penuh kesungguhan, dan tidak pula menjadikannya sebagai profesi kita”

we don't love dakwah enough, perhaps.

Anonymous said...

yes, we're having lack of true missionaries. let's become one of them, insyaAllah.

thanks bro effy... :)