Islamic Da 'Wa and Christian Mission: Towards a Comparative Analysis

Beginning of article

DAVID A. KERR [*]

1:0 Introduction

Christianity and Islam have in common the fact that -- like Buddhism -- they are missionary religions. While this is acknowledged by missiologists and comparative religionists, little scholarly attention has yet been given to the comparative study of Islamic da 'wa and Christian mission.

Nearly twenty-five years ago, in 1976, the International Review of Mission devoted an issue to "Christian Mission and Islamic Da 'wah". It contained papers by Muslim and Christian participants in a week-long dialogue conference held in Chamb[acute{e}]sy (June 1976), together with verbatim excerpts from the conference discussions, and a final conference statement agreed among the participants. [1] Although several Muslim and Christian groups subsequently republished some of the papers and the common statement, no significant attempts have been made to advance the discussion of substantive issues.

The present paper seeks to regenerate interest in this topic, the problems and opportunities of which have become more evident in the last two decades of Christian-Muslim encounter. The paper is written as part of an international research project of Christian theologians concerned with the future of Christian theological education in Muslim societies. [2] It contains material that was presented to an international seminar of Christian missiologists and missionaries in the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, in October 1999. [3] It also reflects issues discussed at a consultation on "Religious Freedom, Community Rights and Individual Rights: a Christian-Muslim Perspective", sponsored by the World Council of Churches at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, also in October 1999.

The paper is not intended to address issues of Christian mission to Islam or, in practical terms, Muslim da 'wa among Christians. It offers a summation of various studies of mission and da 'wa since 1976, and sets out a basis for certain comparisons between Christian and Islamic understandings of mission and da 'wa. In conclusion it proposes ten theses for renewed discussion about mission and da 'wa among Muslims and Christians.

1:1 The Meaning of Da'wa

The Arabic word da'wa [4] expresses the sense of "call" or "invitation". [5] It comes from the verb da'a, "to call", of which da'i is the active participle, "one who calls or invites".

The question immediately arises whether the words da'wa and da'i bear the English translation of "mission" and "missionary". In Arabic they imply a centripetal action of "calling into", whereas mission implies the centrifugal action of "sending". Whether this etymological distinction has any comparative significance is a question to be addressed in the last section of this paper. In order not to prejudge the issue, the words da'wa and da'i (plural du'ah) will be transliterated rather than translated, unless they are cited in quoted translation in which case the translated terms will be italicized. [6]

2:0 Da'wa in the Qur'an

The verb da'a occurs frequently in the Qur'an. Sometimes its subject is God: for example, "God calls to the Home of Peace (dar al-islam), and He guides whom He pleases to a straight path." [7] On other occasions the subject is the prophet: for example, "the Messenger invites you to believe in your Lord." [8] Frequently the subject is the people of faith who call upon God: for example, "They cry unto God, making sincere their religion unto Him." [9]

The noun da'wa also occurs several times in the Qur'an, in the reciprocal senses of God's call to humankind, and the believers' call or prayer to God.

In relation to the concerns of this paper, the locus classicus of the verb da'a is found in Sura Al Imran (The Family of Imran: Q3:104). I quote it in variant translations from two widely respected English versions of the Qur'an:

And there may spring from you a nation [umma] who invite [10] to goodness, and enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency. Such are they who are successful." (Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, p.78)

Let there arise out of you a band of people [umma] inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: they are the ones to attain felicity. (Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an, p.154)

The variant translations reflect different interpretations of the words preceding the phrase "inviting to all that is good." The first treats the whole community as the subject of "inviting", meaning that da'wa is a collective responsibility. The second interprets community in the restrictive sense of a "band of people" -- i.e. a sub-group -- that undertakes the responsibility of "inviting" on behalf of the rest of the community. The difference turns on the force of the preposition "from" or "out of" (min): it can either generalize "you" (as in "you all") to mean the whole community, or particularize "you" (as in "some of you") to mean a section within the community as a whole.

2:1 Da'wa in classical Qur'an commentary (tafsir)

The exegetical distinction introduced above has been discussed among Muslim commentators of the Qur'an through the centuries. An excellent account of this has been given by Roest Crollius, in an article entitled "Mission and Morality" in Studia Missionalia. [11] He reviews ways in which Muslim commentators have interpreted the phrase "inviting to goodness", in association with two other phrases with which it commonly occurs: "enjoining what is right" (amr bi'l-mar'uf) and "forbidding what is wrong" (nahy 'an al-munkar). The following paragraphs are based on Crollius's survey and conclusions.

First, it is important to clarify the meaning of the phrases "enjoining what is right" and "forbidding what is wrong", since these determine the content of da'wa. The two phrases frequently appear as counterparts in the Qur'an, denoting the norms of belief and ethics, which comprise the Islamic way of life: belief in the unity of the one God, and obedience to God's divinely revealed commands and prohibitions. They constitute the core of the qur'anic message of ethical monotheism, and indicate that "inviting to the good" involves the interrelated dimensions of right faith and right conduct. In Crollius's words, they "describe an attitude and a way of acting that are characteristic of Islam both as a religion and as a social reality." [12]

The Qur'an applies these same phrases to other religious communities, notably "the people of scripture" - i.e. Jews and Christians who received divine scriptures before the revelation of the Qur'an. For example: "Of the People of the Scripture there is a staunch community who recite the revelations of God in the night season, falling prostrate. They believe in God and the Last Day, and enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency (my italics), and vie with one another in good works. They are of the righteous." [13] Crollius suggests that this combination of ethical injunctions represents the Golden Rule in Islam, which he compares to the well-known ethical maxims of Judaism and Christianity, "Do not do unto others what you do not like to be done unto yourself" (Tobit 4:15), and "Do unto others as you would have them do to yourself." (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31)

Who, then, has the responsibility of "inviting to the good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong"? Crollius shows that classical commentators oscillate between two opinions: some interpret the responsibility as belonging to the entire Muslim community, while a greater number restrict the meaning to a group within the community. The first interpretation is corroborated by a later verse in the same chapter (Sura Al Imran): "You are the best community that has been raised up for humankind. You enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency, and you believe in God." [14] If this is a logical interpretation, it is idealist in its implications. Pragmatically it came to be balanced by a second line of interpretation which argued that the duty of da'wa could be delegated to an individual or group that would act on behalf of the community as a whole.

In the medieval Caliphate an officer known as the muhtasib was appointed by the Caliph "to see that the religious precepts of Islam are obeyed, to detect offences and punish offenders." [14] His duty was to act as censor of morality in the public domain, ensuring that times of public prayer (salat) were duly observed, or that the hours of fasting (siyam) were respected during the month of Ramadan. The modem equivalent of this is the role played by the "religious police" in Saudi Arabia.

This institutionalization of the responsibility of "inviting to the good" shows that the classical commentators generally interpreted the duty of da'wa as applying within the Muslim community. [16] Among the earliest commentators it is only al-Tabari [17] who specifically dealt with da'wa outwith the Muslim community, especially in relation to Jews and Christians. [18] We shall return to the significance of Tabari's opinion when we look at the modern Qur'an commentary.

Before leaving classical Islam, however, it should be noted that classical exegetes generally distinguished da'wa, in the sense we have discussed, from jihad that applies to the territorial expansion of the Caliphate. Jihad denotes "striving in the way of God", with the purpose of bringing God's cause to success through "opening" [19] non-Muslim territories for Islam. These were to be administered as "territory of Islam" (dar al-islam), theoretically by the Muslim ruler consulting Islamic religious authorities in matters of policy. A further distinction is drawn between extending this territorial and juridical concept of dar al-islam, and converting non-Muslims within its domains. The former is a religious duty, and "enjoining what is right and forbidding the wrong" applied among Muslims within the dar al-islam. As regards non-Muslims the qur'anic injunction that "there is no compulsion in religion" [20] should apply, the "people of scripture" administering themselves according to their own laws. As a result non-Muslim conversion to Islam has tended to be by a gradual process that has been termed "social conversion." [21]

2:2 Da'wa in modern Qur'an commentary

If the weight of classical Qur'an commentary favours an …