Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Islamic Public Speaking: Standing up and speaking on the behalf of Islam

The Islamic Public Speaking: Standing up and speaking on the behalf of Islam

by Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 3:58pm

 In the Islamic History there are instances where a man of knowledge elquently turned away the tide in the favour of Muslims.  Ibn Jauzi, in his book Talbees e Iblis, has noted an interesting incident about Abdullah bin Abbas (r.a.) holding a public dialgoue with the khwarij. His biogarphy  informs us that he was a well mannered and eloquent youth. It was really dangerous to go amidst a hostile crowd and speak to them on public  level and convince them. Ibn Abbas was successful in bringing one third of the khawarij back t the main stream Islam. Guidance was from Allah but Allah chose Ibn Abbas's oratory skill as a source to convince thousands of deviated at a time.

My early expereince of public speaking reminds me a very good advice given by my trainer. He said " Keep two things in mind:  Throw your voice but dont scream. Lower your voice but strenghten your arguments. 

Khutbah or addressing people  to give them sincere advice is a tradition of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). It is used in inviting people to the Islamic way of life on a mass level. In the corporate term it is well known as public speaking.  Today is the age of communication, one has to express himself to convince people whether he be a sales man or proffessor teaching any subject, we  are into convincing people. Yet Islamic public speaking is not convincing people but to  establish the proof of Allah. After all guidance is in the hands of Allah. Some mischievous people have been convicing the world that Islam and Muslims are the main cause of disturbance of peace.....

    When you address an audience you are teaching them something. It is like a huge classsroom . In my  decade  of public spekaing and training people to  speak I have come across many potential speakers with excellent  command over their langauge, but they could go across the minds of their listeners. They dress up well and carry degrees in their bio data but public speaking is a skill which needs to be mastered.  I have seen executives, managers, Managing Directors, sales managers, doctors and other cream of the society taking lessons to speak in public because they feel a necessity to master the art for future prospect.

   As far as the Islamic public speaking goes, it should not be done for being popular or else there is a threat that one may be among those unfortunate who will be among the firsts to be thrown in the hell fire. 

Author :  Nisaar Nadiadwala motivates  to think , analyse and speak on the behalfof Islam. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com

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