IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL
DAWAH IN PRISONS
[Shamim A Siddiqi,
Alhamdulillah, with the growth of time, the campaign towards Dawah Ilallah, inviting the people, the humans, to the fold of Allah, is getting momentum in the Muslim community everywhere. The more the adversaries of Islam are attacking the Deen of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Muslim Ummah, the more Muslims are getting conscious of the need of Dawah as an effective means to counteract the nefarious designs of the enemies of Islam, to dilute their round the cock propaganda against the fundamental teachings of Islam and the life pattern of Muslim’s way of life. In the western hemisphere, prisons are the concentrative points of non-Muslims inmates and, therefore, have become the focus points and easy targets of Dawah Ilallah [DI].
Everyone who has
the urge for DI, he arranges some Dawah flyers and books/booklets, applies to
the prison authorities to visit jails that are called “correctional facilities”
in the
It needs a lot of funds. Islamic organizations like ICNA, ISNA, and CAIR meet these expenses as their Dawah project. Islamic Circle of North America alone expends about fifty thousand dollars each year on its project: “Dawah in Jail”. The book “Towards Understanding Islam” by Late S. A. A. Maudoodi is in great demand for Dawah both in prison and outside. ICNA has published varieties of Dawah flyers and booklets to this effect and supplies thousands of copies of the Qur’an to jail inmates every year. Other organizations too are involved in Dawah in prison and meet its requirements in their respective way.
State Government appoints Jews, Christians and Muslim Chaplin in jail for imparting the religious needs of the inmates. Muslim Chaplins do additional Dawah work in jail on their own accord. In NY alone, a friend of mine who is a Chaplin in jail has, Alhamdulillah, brought more then three thousand inmates into the fold of Islam so far during the last five years. He expends all of his emoluments that he gets for his services to cater the needs of the new Muslims in jail and something more from outside help. The Muslim Chaplin leads the prayers, deliver Friday sermons, teach them Islam in detail and meet their other religious needs. The picture apparently looks rosy but in depth it has a lot of problems that need our attention.
1. Dawah in prison is the most disorganized
phenomenon. Everyone carries out his
Dawah efforts in his own way restricting himself to deliver the message and
some flyers and thinks that the objective of DI is accomplished. These flyers
represent different sects and cults in Islam and go along way to poison the
minds of many inmates. A contactee of mine sent me a flyer that was written in
2 If the inmate, fortunately, becomes Muslim,
no proper arrangement is available for his education and training on Islamic
lines afterward except through government appointed Chaplins. Very often he is
lost in the doldrums of “Kufr and Shirk” from where he was picked up and
brought into the fold of Islam. The Muslim Chaplins should constitute
themselves into an institution on national basis, develop a course of training
of jail inmates, evolve a mechanism of evaluation to judge their progress and
implementation of their program, examine their issues and meet on regular basis
to get their problems resolved. The Muslim leadership of the
In fact, each
new Muslim in prison, if given proper education and training in jail, he can be
transformed into the most effective Da’ee much more better than those who make
“air raid attack” on jail, drop some sporadic literature here and there and “feel”
contented that Dawah work is completed.
A brother who embraced Islam in jail, happened to read my book,
“Methodology of Dawah in American Perspective”, got my address and wrote to me
in detail about his background and understanding about Islam I corresponded
with him in a continuous process and advised him to behave and act on the
tradition of Prophet Yusuf (AS} and be a Da’ee by himself. I provided him all
the basic literature about Islam got him admitted in the
3. There is no arrangement to look after the new
Muslims who come out of jail after completing
their terms of imprisonment. Hardly, there is any “half-way house” to take care
of these ex-convicts. They need relocation, sustenance at least for about six
months enabling them to stand on their legs, job opportunities to maintain
themselves and their “neglected” families, vocational training to earn honest livelihood
by their own hands and a shelter to live in its shade for six months to one
year or till he is properly relocated and established as an useful citizen of
the state. It is very expensive job. To cater these essential needs for the new
Muslims, the Muslim community of
May Allah give us vision to understand the fundamental needs and issues of Dawah in Prison and Tawfeeq to pool our resources to make it an effective means of Dawah Ilallah!
Shamim A Siddiqi
January 15, 2004