There are several traps for those involved in working in a community organisation or in the field of propagation of a religion. A common one, perhaps the most common, is an ego boost where we reflect on the great work we are doing and how well known we are becoming and the praise being lauded upon us.
To combat this trap, we would do well to incorporate love into our activities. By “love” I mean Dr Scott Peck’s definition in The Road Less Travelled. He defines love as “the will to extend oneself for one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” In teaching children Arabic at an Islamic centre, for example, we can see the teaching of those children as a product of our love for them. We don’t love them because they are Muslim but because they are human others, and human others deserve our love. In propagating Islam through a street stall, to take another example, we can view non-Muslims with the lens of love instead of with a lens of converting others to our way of viewing reality. We invite others to Islam because they deserve to be invited, they deserve to be loved.
Why do people deserve love? Because God loves them. How do we know God loves them? Because He created them.
In applying love to our community work and da’wah we will grow in the process and become more loving, or lovely, individuals. May God grant us the ability to love others through extending ourselves. May He grant us sincerity in our activism. Aameen.
