How to Give Da'wah - 1 - Introducing the GORAP and Initiation - Abdurraheem Green

welcome to miss.com online da training course with myself Harin Kashi and ABD Rim green who Mah converted to Islam in 1989 which is when I was born and masah has over 20 years of Da experience so ABD Rim the first question I have for you today is in your experience what do you feel What In your experience what is the best da structure or methodology that you feel is the most effective well as you know we've developed a system called which we call GP which is basically taking a non-muslim through a conversation about the existence

of God of Allah the Oneness of Allah the need for Revelation and prophethood which all leads to a evidence-based conclusion that the Quran is from God that Muhammad is the prophet that there is only one God which is of course the essential components of Islam um so this is a very very it's not the only way of giving down but it's a very highly effective methodology Mah okay Mah so he's saying go w stands for God's existence God's existence Oneness God's Oneness Revelation reation prophethood prophethood okay excellent and and how was this kind of format

how was this kind of created how was the go rep created for many years I went down to Speakers Corner and there's still some of my videos available on YouTube of the talks I gave down there and uh I tried many different ways of giving down to people and alhamdulillah they were had various degrees of success the the least successful Method Of Da in terms of actually inviting non-muslims to Islam was the approach of using the Bible and using their scriptures and trying to argue with them from that point of view right um but the

most successful method was actually a method that was taught to me uh at least in the basic details of it by a sheh from Egypt Muhammad IB isma who came to visit us here in the UK and he came to see me and spent an afternoon down in Speaker's Corner and M he was one of the few shs who um I mean most shs obviously could talk about the F of daah and tell you how important da is but he was really involved in da to non-muslims himself on a personal level so he it's actually

something he did and you generally I respect a person who is not just someone who has the information but actually is involved in the activity I'm going to much more be inclined to listen to a person who you know walks the walk and doesn't just talk the talk sure so um I took what he said very seriously and he observed me uh and and basically what he found is that a lot of what I was doing is people were coming and challenging me with various questions right and I would try and respond to their questions

and use type of logical rational approach right um to answer their questions and give them reasons why Muslims do this and why we don't do that and he really questioned this methodology and he said that it was it was a flawed method and the reason he said was because um with many people first of all they're not always sincere about the reasons they're asking the question sometimes they're just asking you because it's just their way of showing what I've got is better than what you you've got look at all the problems you've got with your

religion but I think the other point that he was making is that and those people obviously even when you answer one question they just come up with another one and another one and another one and even if they're sincere it's the same problem you know there's so many questions surrounding Islam and and it's not only the many questions surrounding Islam um being a Muslim involves looking at the world in a very different way and so the one who looks at the World Through The Eyes of a believer in Allah in the last day that this

universe is a creation of Allah that life is a test is going to be very different from a person who has a materialistic uh secular approach who thinks that life is just about happiness and enjoyment for example what whatever other things people may think but they're Different World Views so there is a real problem in trying to explain to a person with a different world view the logic of why you do something because actually your logic is very different m your premise the basis upon which you do things and don't do things is very different

so the sheh was making the point why don't you first explain the premise why don't you show that look there is a God and why don't you show that God is one and why don't you explain to them that the Quran is from God and that Muhammad is the prophet because if they accept those foundations then they'll accept everything that comes with it sure sure if they don't accept those foundations what what's the benefit of persuading them that Pig is bad for you and alcohol is damaging and that interest based economy is not the best

way to go sure sure because even if they accept not to eat pig and they accept not to drink alcohol and they accept not to have an interest based economy or whatever it may be and they don't accept the Oneness of Allah the prophethood of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi at the end of the day when they meet Allah all of that stuff is not going to benefit them the only thing that is going to benefit them is their believing and accepting and declaring that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is his

messenger so that's what led me to develop what what is called the a verion of the goap approach right um I basically realized through my years and years of Da experiences that there is a finite number of questions and a finite number of issues that people had with this M and so I began to realize that if you could have a conversation with most people that dealt with those issues and those problems and some of them the person themselves may not have it but you'd be surprised how many people are familiar with it right so

for example not everybody may have a problem with the idea uh of the existence of God but they may be very familiar with some of the the arguments against the existence of God so if in your conversation you can dispel or contradict some of those counterarguments then it it's psychologically very powerful to the person you're having that conversation with and that's why we've tried to build into the go rat which may it may seem to some people a little bit complicated but it's based upon years of experience and and and the understanding that there is

narrative out there amongst the public an atheist narrative um that has to be CED yeah uh and and the go rap makes an attempt to counter some of that narrative as well um so this these are part of the reasons why Mah the goat method is is an effective way of giving down alhamd so basically you're saying that you cuz you know I've seen it myself that a lot of um du they sit down and and for hours they start getting into discussions trying to answer these uncomfortable questions um and you're basically saying because of

the the kind of non-muslims way of thinking or the way they see Islam is very different to the way a Muslim would see it so they won't be able to kind of meet in the middle so for example it's kind you could kind of say it's like the non-muslim has glasses on which are just black and white where the Muslim has colored glasses on so they see blue green yellow so you're arguing with somebody saying that this is green this is blue so the Gat method is kind of like taking their glasses off and putting

yours on them AB is that how it is yeah that's a very good way of describing it sure so in regards to this aspect of if somebody does come to you abim and says I ask an uncomfortable question like for example well why do women You Know cover up why do they need to win a cup isn't that oppressive how would you link that kind of question to the go rap there's two ways of doing it one way is to give them a brief answer mhm to give them some sort of rationalization and then to

say to them but that's not what's the really important issue the really important issue is is there a God is God one you know and go through the essential components of goat another way to deal with it is by totally avoiding it's not avoiding the question it's just by dealing with it directly in a more profound way sure and it's by saying look that's a really good question and you know I'm glad you asked me the question and it's great we're having a conversation you know what's your name by the way yeah exactly so the

point is is that you know you you make that you know connection with people you smile almost automatically the person will smile back they'll feel you know you know this is about State change it's about putting the person in a more comfortable zone so they're going to be these are basic skills that anyone who's worked in a shop should have right for example you know when you're talking to a person about Islam Islam has more right that you should make a person feel as comfortable as possible that's within what is halal for us to do

um and so relax the person because you know you want them to be able to accept what you're saying um so yeah and and you can say to them well that's a really good question you know but in order to in order to answer that question we need to understand the fundamentals the basics of Islam sure um and then you could say for example to them do you have a few minutes sure now the reason why you say you have a few minutes as well first of all they might genuinely busy it's just polite to

say that um the second thing is is that if they say Yes um first of all that you know you've got a confirmation they're going to spend a bit of time with you that's nice and the second thing is it's good to get affirmation you want to hear them say yes a lot you want them to be agreed with you so um just getting that yes from them is a good way you know to build up um that that relationship that positive dynamic between you and the person you're talking to you know a lot of

Da is just about good people skills sure I mean we can talk about go rap we can say you know you should say this you should say that but you know a person who smiles and is loving and talking about the moon is made of cheese is my actually probably more likely to persuade a person than someone who gives a sort of cold logical sort of you know talking like this and this and that so you know don't you know no one should make go WP a sort of monologue right that sounds like some out

of a philosophy book because it's a lot of it is about people's skills 70 I think up to 70% of communication is non-verbal right how your face looks how you express yourself how you move the tone of your voice they're not actually the actual words that you're saying is a small percentage so smiling being friendly being nice being empathetic listening to the person have giving the giving the person the time to express themsel is very important but the nice thing about go rap is that you you have a plan for your conversation yeah definitely you

have a plan you say I know I want to go here and then I want to go there okay it may take me an hour it may take me it may take me a week it may take me 20 years to go through this conversation with a person but I know I need to take them step by step through this but it doesn't mean you don't give them the time to express themselves sure um and even better sometimes you can actually get them to articulate the go RP right because maybe they believe the stuff themselves

you just need to give them the opportunity to express it so what I'm trying to say is that go rap is a great sort of structure right but the people skills are very important they should be genuine and it comes from a genuine empathy and a genuine caring for that person so that handshake that smile that you know body right body language is very very important you know yeah um and so the point is is that you you acknowledge that's a good question I do want to deal with your your question but what you're really

saying to them is I want to deal with your question but in order to deal with this question you need to understand something about the way I look at the world yeah the way Islam tells us to look the world because if you don't understand that everything's irrelevant sometimes I say to people look I say what do I care what some guy in the desert 1,400 years ago you know he said I don't care some guy in the desert who cares right who cares I care because I believe this man s Muhammad was a prophet

of God he was receiving Revelation from the creator of the heavens and earth that's the only reason I care yeah otherwise why would I pray why would I fast why would I give up all the things I not all the things but I mean you know give up the things I used to think I used to enjoy in my life you know sure um the point being is that why do all of this stuff I do it because I believe something right very profound and very very important so if you don't understand why I believe

that yeah it's what's the point in us having it's it's not really worthwhile us having the conversation that's what's behind thisy approach and you need to lead the person you need to lead the person or the people you're giving now to in that direction right okay so for example if somebody doesn't come to you with an uncomfortable question what are some of the ways that you can actually start a conversation from nothing even just say you just met somebody you didn't know how can you actually lead a conversation into a DA conversation if I was

going to break this down into stages I'd say number one you have to have the desire you need to constantly remind yourself of the of the importance of Da so creating that desire that passion and that enthusiasm within yourself and maintaining it is very important like anything else if you want to be a good football player hang around with good football players if you want to be a good di hang around with people who give da if you want to make da a part of your life be with the people who make it a part

of their life and everyone every Muslim needs to be a DI on some level it's part of of our Dean it's part of our means of Salvation so number one you need to have that enthusiasm you need to have that mentality I want to give da to give you an example I mean I still feel bad if I sit next to someone for 10 minutes and I didn't find a way to give them some da I still I I make I say Allah you know forgive me I feel really bad um and everyone I think

everyone should I think that shouldn't be unique to me I think every Muslim should feel bad that they've been with someone they could have conveyed to them the message of Islam and they didn't you know we let ourselves down we let Allah's Dean down we in a sense betrayed the mission of the Prophet sallallah wasam because the prophet was ready to be stoned and beaten and killed and all those things for passing for the sake of passing the message on and yet we live in a safe environment and what is it you know we just

we just don't have the guts to just start up a conversation so I think we have to have that feeling right that's the first thing you know um the second the the second thing right is make Dua MH if you have that feeling ask Allah Allah please find a way for me you don't need me to invite people to Islam you can guide this person to Islam like that in an instant there are people who became Muslim and no muslim ever talked to them they read a book they did this they became Muslim Allah you

need need to make Dua Allah please help me to give da to this person to invite this person to Islam in the best way find find me away in this conversation so this is the next thing make Dua to Allah that Allah opens your heart to Islam your breast to Islam makes your words inviting to the people but that's the next thing you need to sure then how do you begin the conversation this depends upon the person you can of course just have a conversation about anything it could be the weather it could be about

football it could be about a movie it could be about whatever right and then lead that conversation in the direction of giving da sure or you could be straight up and blunt it depends upon you your Circumstance the situation this is really a time when you you know this is where the people skills come in as well because it's important to know how to say the right thing in the right way at the right place in the right time M so there is a skill in that it may you may say the right thing but

you may say it in the wrong way or you may say you may say the right thing in the right way but you know what the time was not right for that or you may say the right thing in the right place and the time is right but the place is not right you know um so there's many different factors that might come into play and will dictate exactly what you going to say so this is why I'm saying go rap is a great method yeah it's a great structure but you know what if you've

got 3 minutes or 2 minutes or you've just literally got a second to say something you know maybe that's not going to be you want to say something and you could say something profound that would make the person think but you've only got a few seconds you're not going to go rap you know you're going to have to think of something else to say right but you know when you got that time you got that ability to start that conversation you know you think I think this is the appropriate time then you know like I

said you can lead it in through various conversations you know you could talk about the weather and from the weather you could talk about systems you know and then once you start talking about systems if you know the G WAP approach then you could it's easy to start linking that into uh the need for a Creator could this all be some random event yeah um so there's many different ways the weather's something the British always talk about um maybe you need to make for yourself you know three or four conversation scripts almost yeah like the

one I said yeah have a you know you know that's a really good question you know in order to answer it there's a nice script you know and I Marshall I saw my son just did it the other day exactly just boom like that he was talking to someone the guy said why do you pray what what are you saying in your that's a really good question but in order to be able to and he just straight you know yeah um so you maybe you need to construct for yourself a few scripts that you can

just slip into M um I mean if you've got the guts and you've got the sort of you got that sort of personality you can carry it through you could just go I mean there straight up go up to a person randomly in the street and you know what I've got a really important message to give you or as I've tried it I mean they literally say what would you do if a man with nothing but red Underpants came knocking at your door at 3:00 in the morning saying I come to read the guest meter

and just like straight like and I've done that you know and people are just like it's like what what you know and they you really get their attention yeah it's like you know so I it it a lot of it is to do with you your personality what's appropriate and and I think everyone needs to develop for themselves um some things they feel comfortable with sure and and it's not just feeling comfortable push yourself push your limits push your abilities you know Dow is a skill like anything else you want to be good at something

you need purposeful practice not just practice anyone can learn to ride a bike and once you've ridden a bike just go along a toe path yeah but if you want want to be heading down a hill at 40 mph with rocks and bumps and roots and trees and you need to build up your skill set yeah right so you only get to that stage by purposeful practice by keep on pushing your limits yeah not practicing but practicing with a A View to improving yourself constantly sure sure okay excellent so can you just give the viewers

um a summary a last summary of The Go RP method G RP is a conversation that starts with talking about the exist of God MH moving on to the Oneness and the uniqueness of Allah which is of course the whole issue of which is not Islam of course is not just about Allah's existence it's about the uniqueness and Oneness of Allah and then moving on to the need for Revelation why do we need Revelation why do we need God to send guidance to us and how come we know the Quran is from Allah and how

can we know the prophet Muhammad sallallah alai wasam is who he claimed to be the messenger of Allah that's go rap and from that you from that it should really be go wraps because at the end of it what you're looking for is shahada you're looking for them and don't forget you know people should not forget to make that invitation make that invitation to actually invite them to Islam because you can bring them right to this point they say that's fantastic that's really interesting that's it they go with that they have no idea that they

can even become Muslim maybe one guy was asked why didn't you become Muslim he said no one invited me no one asked me I didn't even know if someone had asked me I would have become Muslim 20 years ago you know so I mean this is the thing you know don't be afraid to make the the sale at the end right you know which is to invite them to testify to the Oneness of Allah and to the the prophethood of Muhammad s okay everybody as you know we are going to be using the Gat method

and in each Series in each video we're going to be going through one aspect of the gorra and going more in detail so as always for watching