Story of the Growling Stomach

Posted by Imran Qureshi in Dawah | 3 comments

Aug 10, 11

[A Ramadan special on effective dawah]

He walked into my class burping. And with a tiny tad bit of sinisterly humor, a crooked smile and a fake English accent, he says, “I’m feeling a little English today.” The moment was ripe for picking. And I immediately asked him, “Did you hear the story of the growling stomach?”

The story of the growling stomach is hilarious; and I would never intentionally expose myself to my audience as a weak writer by attempting to depict something like that on paper. However, in expressing my story to my non-Muslim audience, I left him with one question – why was the stomach growling?

I can’t help but compare the leaders of the past to the leaders of today. It wasn’t just what Islam gave to them, but it was how they commanded the blessings of Allah to move and change the foundations of the world. One could go to his tribe and say, “It is forbidden for the men and women among you to speak to me until you believe in Allah and His Messenger,” and no one would enter night fall except as a Muslim.

Even in the description of their action, it was as if they were lions. The mad fighting of Hamza as a cornered lion, Zubair pouncing on his victims, the lion in his den – Saad ibn Abi Waqaas, all are stories that come to mind [May Allah be pleased with them]. Comparing leaders of today to leaders of the past is like comparing a pussy’s purr to a lion’s growl.

Their growl was the intense passionate desire to serve Islam to earn the pleasure of Allah with every opportunity in good. The physical growl of the stomach may only cause you to go in search of a prey to satisfy your hunger, but the hunger of our leaders of the past wasn’t going to be satisfied until they met their lord in the path of taking Islam to the rest of the world and it didn’t matter how daunting the challenge was.

The growl is a necessary tool of dawah. If you are light of ear, you might as well give up now. Without the growl you will be dominated by fear that will pull you in an endless cycle of doubt; and verily doubt will lead you to paralysis. In that state of intense physical growl, you do everything that you can possibly do to survive; perhaps in that state when your stomach is growling, you do everything possible to hold to your fast; the same goes for when you step forward as a caller to Islam, you must do everything possible to fight from going into paralysis.

It is how Rib’ee ibn Amr is being asked, “Why are you here?” in an environment that was set up to awe him. In that, his response is eloquently simple, “to free the people from worship of the created to the worship of the Creator.” It wasn’t Rib’ee who was dumbfounded but the Persian leaders. How amazing is this freedom, that when you are truly freed from the slavery of the created, you want that freedom for everyone else as well and there is nothing that would deter you – especially not the glitter and glamour of this world. Why would you not want to share it with everyone else?

The growl is so powerful, that you can put the sun in one hand and the moon in the other, but the caller will not stop calling people to freedom.

How amazing is the advice of Rasoolullah to Alee – and Alee is the one who said, “my mother is the one who named me Haydhar (lion)” – when Rasoolullah said to this lion at the time he was being appointed as the commander of the battalion, “For Allah to guide one man through you is better for you than all that the sun has shined over in this world.”

Leadership isn’t about becoming a shepherd so that you can lead sheep. Leadership is about doing whatever it takes to feed the hungry growling stomachs of your family, even if it is by becoming a shepherd. Why did Rasoolullah become a shepherd? Because he was in the custody of Abu Talib; and although Abu Talib loved him a lot, he also had a lot of children and he wasn’t a very well to do man. Rasoolullah took responsibility (at the age of 8).

If your family is hungry and starving, you can either become desperate and immobilize yourself by fear and criticism, or in that desperation you can become resourceful and take initiative. Maybe it’s not physical starvation, perhaps it’s just starvation for guidance. But is right for me to say that it is “just” starvation for guidance?

Dawah is not just talking about Islam, but it is an intense burning passionate desire to bring guidance to others in order to bring them closer to Allah. Because you are outside the cage while others are still confined in their cages.

What do you say about the ship in which people from lower deck require water and people in the upper deck refuse, so the people of the lower deck decide to make a hole on the floor of the ship to get water from the sea?

We all have experienced the growl of our stomachs when we are fasting. Sometimes that growl will come at the end of the day, sometimes it will be in the middle of the day. When our stomachs growl, do we give up? Do we break our fast before Maghrib? These are dips in our days, and if we survive these dips we will survive the rest of the day, and if you don’t survive these dips then may Allah have mercy upon us.

Obstacles, and Hurdles, and Big Huge Walls, Oh My! You may have a doubt or maybe doubts, What if you don’t get any results? What if you don’t have enough knowledge? What if… These are not dips. These are poor excuses to escape from your responsibility because you don’t have a burning passionate desire.

Beyond excuses, there are legitimate dips. After talking to your colleague the 8th time, you might hesitate to talk to her again. But if you are truly concerned for other’s guidance, you must talk to her the 9th, the 10th and the 11th time. Don’t expect others to be Abu Bakr, that they hear your message and that they accept it immediately. However, here is a nuance of the dip, at times, it may not be wise to talk to her the 9th, 10th or the 11th time until you have give it some time; maybe you need to give them some space rather than annoying them.

A dip can come, when you don’t know how to tackle a specific situation or circumstance, or when you are talking to someone about Islam and you are just stuck in a rut – not going anywhere. In this type of dip, you can either persist to be mediocre, or you can up the ante a little. If it is an issue of motivation, inspire yourself; if it’s an issue of lacking knowledge, educate yourself by doing a little research; if an issue of your audience not understanding you, change your tactics.

If you read my ideas and don’t believe me or don’t understand me, that’s not your fault, it’s mine. Blaming is not what the attitude of a leader demands. You must speak in a way so that your audience hears you and understand you, and take actions upon it. You must be able to inspire, motivate and inform, and if you are not able to do, don’t quit the dip; go back to the drawing board to redesign your approach.

Struggling your way through the dip is your way to greatness and proficiency. Often times a person gives up too fast. Some people aren’t even able to grab someone’s attention and they quit because it’s “too hard.” This was a dip, and you needed to persevere through the dip. But persevering through the dip doesn’t mean that you keep doing the same thing, you keep trying with a different and better approach.

Although your job is to guide them, guidance is with Allah, consequences are governed by natural laws set by Allah, success is on the opposite side of failure, and what matters the most is how we respond to these circumstances.

Have you heard of the hadeeth in which a caller is about to give up while the answer to his du’a is very close? Rasoolullah said, “Verily our Lord laughs at the despair that His servants feel, even though His Help is so close!” So Laqit bin Saburah said “O Messenger of Allah – may my mother and father be given as your ransom – and does our Lord laugh?” The prophet replied, “Yes!” Laqit said, “In that case, we will never give up hope of receiving good from a Lord that laughs!” [Ibn Majah]

A Growl is an attention grabber

Imagine if you started talking to someone and they aren’t even paying attention to you. Luqman grabs attention by saying, “O my dear son.” Rasoolullah grabbed the attention of his people by saying, “Waa Sabaha.” He grabbed the attention of a young boy by assigning him a kunya, “Ya aba Umayr.” He grabbed attention of a young man by saying, “Young man, I shall teach you some words.” He grabbed attention of his ambassador by saying, “Ya Muadh, I love you for the sake of Allah.” He grabbed attention of Wabisa when Wabisa was the one who came to ask him a question, “You have come to ask about righteousness?” [Peace and blessings be upon].

The secret to grabbing someone’s attention is your ability to do or say the right thing in the right moment when your audience have their senses attuned to it. This more than your audiences having their ears open to what you have to say, but they also have to be feeling “it”, they have to be in the groove. I think hadeeth of Wabisa is an excellent example; he was coming to ask Rasoolullah about righteousness, and Rasoolullah caught his attention by exactly asking him what he was going to ask about, “You have come to ask about righteousness?”

How do you mimic that is when someone is a humorous mood, you grab their attention with humor; when someone is in a serious mood, you grab it with seriousness. You may not be able to sense what they are about talk about but you definitely hold the senses to make a judgment of what they’re mood is.

A growl is a strong message

Attention grabbing is not a one time; the entire message has to be an attention grabber. You can’t growl to grab attention and then whimper after that. Your message must be strong and to the point. It is how Rasoolullah said, “Isn’t it about time that you accept Islam, ya Umar” and then brought Umar down to his level with a pull. The message you are intending to send must have power in it and that power must be coherent throughout the conversation.

A Growl means you’re in control.

When Rasoolullah advises Ibn Abbass, “fear Allah where ever you may be,” there is a single core subject in that entire hadeeth. When Aisha (radhee Allahu anha) is asked about the character of Rasoolullah and she responds, “His character was the Quran,” there is a single meaning that she is conveying. Or here is an extreme example, when Khalid bin Waleed says, “We are blood thirsty, and we are heard the Roman blood tastes good,” there was a single objective to that message.

Do not send mixed messages, do not have multiple topics. Focus on the growl! Your audience will try to take you away from the growl by questioning other things, or changing the subject on you about non-relevant but seemingly Islamic issues, or they will say “yes, but …” and go off on the tangent. Focus on the growl – a single message, a single objective, a single approach (until it doesn’t work).

Your dawa is not a purr, it’s not a whimper, It’s not “he he ha ha type fun and games. Your dawah is a growl. The growl means you’re in control. I’m not saying be rough in your mannerism and tough in your message. I am not saying don’t be gentle and don’t tell jokes. What I am saying is that you need to be in control of the conversation. So when anyone tries to detract away from the topic, gently nudge them back into the topic.

If you are talking about how your fasting allows you to empathize with the poor, do not let them go off on how they donate to the Church. Your point needs to be clear and you need to control the conversation by explaining yourself properly, how there is a sense of unity when a rich is able to empathize with the poor. The needs of the poor are more than just money; it’s to feel part of the community.

Just like Ramadan is an experience. Just like fasting allows you to experience what our brothers and sisters are experience. When the thunder growls does your spine reverberate with it?

Master dai’i is a psychologist, always examining those who he deals with, understanding what ticks them and strategizing avenues of influence over them. We need to know precisely who we are talking to: who they are and what they want so that you can achieve the objective of your conversation.

Take your audience on an experience so they don’t just know it but they feel it. Tell them a story of the growling stomach. Or the story of a ship that took supplies from place to place without any captain and without any crew like Imam Abu Haneefah did. Or tell them a story like the one sahaba used to tell a story …

“We were ignorant people: we worshiped idols, we would eat from the flesh of dead animals, we would perpetrate lewd act, we would cut off family ties, and we would bad neighbors; the strong among us would eat from the weak. We remained upon that state until Allah sent to us a Messenger, whose lineage, truthfulness, trustworthiness and chastity we already knew. He invited us unto Allah – to believe in His Oneness and to worship Him; to abandon all that we and our fathers worshiped besides Allah.

“He commanded us to speak truthfully, to fulfill the trust, to join ties of family relations, to be good to our neighbors, and to refrain from forbidden deed and from shedding blood. And he forbade us from lewd acts, from uttering falsehood, from eating the wealth of an orphan, from falsely accusing chaste women of wrongdoing. And he orders us to worship Allah alone and to not associate any partners with Him in worship; and he commanded us to pray, to give zakaat, and to fast.

“And we believe him and have faith in him. We follow him in what he came with. And so we worship Allah alone, without associating any partner with Him in worship. We deem forbidden that which he made forbidden for us, and we deem lawful that which made permissible for us.

“Our people then transgressed against us and tortured us. They tried to force us to abandon our religion and to return from the worship of Allah to the worship of the idols; they tried to make us deem lawful those abominable acts that we used to deem lawful during the days of ignorance. Then when they subjugated us, wronged us, and treated us in an oppressive manner, standing between us and our religion …”

Or can you tell a story, like recitation of surah Maryam, until they cry and weep alongside with you?

A growl is awing.

It should generate an overwhelming feeling of reverence and admiration. Don’t talk about stupid inconsequential stuff. Talk about stuff that matters and more important is relevant to your audience. It’s easy to do with the verse of Quran that reminds you of the blessings of Allah …

“Then let man look at his food, That We pour forth water in abundance, And We split the earth in clefts, And We cause therein the grain to grow, And grapes and clover plants (i.e. green fodder for the cattle), And olives and date-palms, And gardens, dense with many trees, And fruits and Abba (herbage, etc.), A provision and benefit for you and your cattle.

“Then, when there comes As-Sakhkhah (the Day of Resurrection’s second blowing of Trumpet), That Day shall a man flee from his brother, And from his mother and his father, And from his wife and his children. Everyman, that Day, will have enough to make him careless of others.

“Some faces that Day, will be bright (true believers of Islamic Monotheism). Laughing, rejoicing at good news (of Paradise).

“And other faces, that Day, will be dust-stained; Darkness will cover them, Such will be the Ungrateful and the Wicked.” [Surah Abasa (80): 24-42]

If you have a good recitation, recite Quran to them (and of course define them as you do).

A growl isn’t necessarily a message, but rather a medium – a way of expression.

Perhaps a lion will growl when another animal will try to approach its prey. The growl isn’t the message. The growl is the medium to express, “hey, that’s my prey.”

Your story doesn’t have to be the message; it can be the medium for them to ask you questions about things that really matter. Why were the kids’ stomach growling? That allows me to tell them about Ramadan, and how even kids of age 7 can fast an 18 hour day.

A message can be sent in many different ways, a letter, a flower, a talk, an IM. Why was the growl chosen as the medium? Could the message be sent in something other than a growl? It definitely needs to be a strong message in the sense that you need to have an extraordinary approach and an extraordinary message – that is your internal growl. But, you don’t have to actually growl, you can also use sweetness.

When the “gentleman” walked into my class burping with a silly comment, what if I had said to him, “you’re disgusting!” He was adding humor to an accident that he had, so perhaps the best way of catching his attention was return of something humorous – the story of the growling stomach seemed suitable.

Just like the Ramadan experience allows you to feel what some of our brothers and sisters feel, and truly empathize with them in a humane way, in that exact same way, telling stories and making experiences happen is like creating a conversation that allows your audience to empathize with you as a human rather than what the media portrays you as.

And the advantages that it should bring forwards should be obvious to you as a communicator. You’re not just telling a story of how Yusha and Ramla went up the hill to fetch a pail of water without it having any direct effect on your message of Islam. It should create and advantage for you such that Islam is easy to talk about, easy to demonstrate, and those points about Islam are just begging to be brought up every opportunity in the experience.

The experience doesn’t have to be just words and conversation, but in the way you interact and settings that you can create to allow them to interact with you. What news did the Roman spies bring to the generals after spending the night in the Muslim camps?

“They were monks during the night and knights during the day.”