Sunday, August 23, 2015

TELLY DAWAH TRACT: THE BUS PREACHER




بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

TELLY DA’WAH EMBASSY
   Telly Da’wah Embassy, Zone ‘E’ GRA, Iba Estate, Ojo, Lagos State. P. O. Box 10211, LASU Post Office, HO 102  101, Ojo, Lagos State. Tel. 234-818-211-9714.
Email: tellydawah@yahoo.com

DA’WAH TRACTS VOL. 1 NO. 2


THE BUS
PREACHER








THE BUS PREACHER

Reports reaching Telly Da’wah office indicate that there is growing tension over the bus preacher phenomenon. What does this mean? Commuters sit quietly in a passenger vehicle. Out of the blues comes someone clutching a Bible and screaming at the top of his voice.

A Muslim brother recently reported his experience. He had boarded a passenger bus from Oshodi on his way from his office. Suddenly a man stood up in the bus and screamed at the top of his voice,“Good morning to you all in this bus in Jesus name. Before we go far I want us to pray … let us all close our eyes”.

The bus conductor quickly warned his master, “Oga don’t close your eyes o”. The preacher reacted by reassuring the driver, “Close your eyes, driver. Nothing will happen. Jesus will drive this bus.”

Then he prayed. But he did not stop there. He moved onto preaching to the passengers. “In the beginning there was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God …unless you accept the blood of Jesus, unless you accept Jesus as your Lord and saviour… (turning in the direction of a Muslim woman in hijab, i.e. wearing Muslim scarf) you cannot be saved. Your Makkah that you went cannot save you”.

One of the male passengers at the rear of the vehicle sprang to his feet. “Abomination!”, he screamed. Turning the tajia (Muslim cap) on his head slightly to the right, he warned, “Stop desecrating the name of our holy city”.

The preacher raised his voice higher, “I bind you in Jesus name! I reject your interruption. I must preach the word of God.”

“Preach whatever you like,” retorted the Muslim passenger, “but leave our Makkah out of it”.     

This has become a regular scenario in several parts of this country. Christian missionaries go inside buses to preach and disturb others. Nobody will try this kind of thing in civilized countries. But in Nigeria? Anything goes.

There is another disturbing dimension to this phenomenon. Although they know that there are Muslims inside the same bus, Christians in the bus even join the preacher to sing Christian songs and clap their hands. This is unhealthy rivalry. It is very dangerous.

Apart from disturbing innocent citizens; those who are planning the day’s work; those who are sick; those who are reading; etc, preaching in the bus is provocative. Passengers board the bus for a ride. They did not bargain for any preaching.

Those who want to listen to preaching will go to the church or mosque. But people now take preaching to commercial vehicles where commuters are like trapped people who are compelled to listen and they cannot alight from the bus until they reach their destination.

Such preaching can cause religious crisis inside the bus. It is easy for such fighting to spread to the neighbourhood; to the whole city; to the whole state and from there to adjoining states. Preaching inside the bus therefore constitutes a threat to national security.

Telly Da’wah brings a message of peace to the Christians of Nigeria: in the interest of peace, we call on our Christian neighbours to stop preaching inside commercial vehicles. The bus is not a church. Such preaching causes inconvenience to your fellow Nigerians. The definition of a Christian is one who acts ‘Christly’ (somebody who behaves like Christ).

Are you behaving like Jesus when you cause pain? Would Jesus have done anything to inconvenience people? Was it not Jesus who said, “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets” (Mathew 7: 12). He also taught that you should love your neighbour according to yourself (Luke 10: 27).  

Telly Da’wah brings a message of peace to the authorities: the Government. Do not wait until there is conflagration. Nip it in the bud now! Government must make a public declaration on this issue. People must be reminded that preaching inside the bus is illegal, barbaric and bohemian. A stitch in time saves nine.

It is an open secret that the law does not allow hawking or preaching inside commercial vehicles. The law frowns upon disturbing the driver. In fact, the greatest danger in the bus preacher syndrome is the fear that the driver’s attention may be diverted. This may put the lives of passengers in danger.

We must ask ourselves why religion should be allowed to constitute threat to life. We must ask ourselves why winning souls for Jesus must become such a priority that preachers must disturb passengers in public buses.

Can anybody try this in Britain, Western Germany or the United States? It is one of the manifestations of the breakdown of law and order in Nigeria. Governments at all levels, Federal and State must legislate against this dangerous phenomenon, enforce the law where it already exists or invigorate it where the existing law is deficient. Nigeria needs peace to experience development. We must therefore do everything in our power to discourage threat to peace.

For the avoidance of doubt, we are for freedom of religion. We are not saying Christians should not preach. No, they are free to do so but there must be decorum.

Nobody should hide under the canopy of preaching to cause religious crisis. Neither should anyone adopt a method capable of disturbing others or creating health hazard or constituting impediments in the path of economic growth. All we are saying is that nobody should abuse the concept of freedom of religion. We all agree that there should be freedom of religion. Yes, but that freedom must not be abused.

One man’s freedom stops where the other man’s freedom begins. We are all free to preach our religions but the method we employ must not disturb the peace of others, neither should it be impertinent. There is need to respect the freedom and rights of others. Respect begets respect. We therefore advise our Christian brothers and sisters to use methods which cannot disturb others.

Examples of good and acceptable methods are preaching on television, preaching on radio, recording evangelical messages in cassettes and CDs, using the internet to preach, sending text messages, etc.

There is also a way our Christian neighbours can reach out to commuters inside commercial vehicles. They can print tracts and distribute them inside buses without preaching there.

Whoever likes will collect the tracts from them. The rest are free to reject it. It is a free world. The distribution of tracts is simpler. It is different from preaching when commuters are compelled to listen to messages for which they did not bargain.

Preaching inside commercial vehicles is definitely not acceptable. It is intrusion, a rude invasion into someone’s privacy, a crude method of communication and a breach of fundamental human right.

Whoever wants to preach should follow well-known norms of proselytisation. Preaching inside a commercial bus fails all tests of civilized behavior. It stands in contradistinction to international best practices in evangelization. It is a threat to peaceful coexistence. It disturbs public peace, law and order.  

Telly Da’wah brings a message of peace to Nigerian Muslims: we call on Muslims to remain peaceful and law-abiding. We advise Muslims not to start preaching Islam inside the bus in order to retaliate. The bus is not a mosque.

Moreover, two wrongs cannot make a right. But do not keep quiet either. If Government fails to stop evil, that does not mean that we must condone it. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has commanded that we should not ignore evil; rather we should change it: with our hands if possible, or with our tongues or with our hearts by praying against it.

Muslims are advised to use their tongues to check the bus preacher syndrome. You must not use your hand for that may induce violence. A Muslim must not be violent. We must shun all violent tendencies. The Prophet said, “Beware of violence: you must be gentle”.

If you are in the bus and somebody starts preaching. Do not abuse him. Do not fight. Quietly tell the preacher that he is disturbing others. If he ignores your advice, you can bless Muhammad (SAW) by saying aloud, “Soluu ala nabiyil-Kareem”.

You will be surprised that many people will respond with: “Salallahu alayhi wa salaam”. Follow this up with adh-dhikr: La ilaha ilallah, La ilaha ilalah, La ilaha ilalah  Punctuate it with:

everybody,
La ilaha ilalah,
 in your houses,
La ilaha ilalah,
 in your office,
La ilaha ilalah
whatever you do,
La ilaha ilalah,
 whoever you are,
La ilaha ilalah ,
Wonderful Allah,
La ilaha ilalah
Merciful Allah,
La ilaha ilalah
Beautiful Allah,
La ilaha ilalah
 Powerful Allah,
La ilaha ilalah 

This is a tactical way of relieving oneself of the emotional trauma occasioned by the bus preacher’s intransigence. Violence will be avoided if this method can be adopted. Preaching will stop or become inaudible.

But Muslims must not overdo it. They must stop the adh-dhikr as soon as the bus preacher stops preaching. Our members have tried this dhikr option and it has worked like magic. It is a non-violent method. In most cases, the bus preachers suddenly called the bus conductor, “Drop me at the next bus stop. I have reached my destination!”

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This tract was prepared by Telly Da’wah Embassy. For further enquiries, please call 234-818-211-9714.

Telly Da’wah Embassy was founded in 1995 by Professor Ishaq Akintola for spreading the peaceful message of Islam and to find lasting solution to religious violence in Nigeria.

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