What is da'wah?

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What is da'wah?

Wikipedia says this about Da’wah:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawah

Da'wah usually denotes preaching of Islam. Da'wah means literally "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation", being the active participle of a verb meaning variously "to summon, to invite". A Muslim who practices da'wah, either as a religious worker or in a volunteer community effort, is called a dā'ī, plural du'āt. A dā'ī is thus a person who invites people to understand Islam through a dialogical process, and may be categorized in some cases as the Islamic equivalent of a missionary, as one who invites people to the faith, to the prayer, or to Islamic life.

In Early Islam

In the Qur'ān, the term dawah has other senses. In Sura 30 of the Qur'ān, it denotes the call to the dead to rise from the tomb on the Day of Judgment. When used in the Qur'ān it generally refers to God's invitation to live according to his will. Thus, when used in the first centuries of Islam, it increasingly referred to the content of that message and was sometimes used interchangeably with sharī'a and dīn.
Da'wah is also described as the duty to "actively encourage fellow Muslims in the pursuance of greater piety in all aspects of their lives," a definition which has become central to contemporary Islamic thought.

Purposes of Da'wah

In Islamic theology, the purpose of Da'wah is to invite people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, to understand the worship of Allah as expressed in the Qur'ān and the sunnah of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), as well as to inform them about Muhammad. Da'wah produces converts to Islam, which in turn grows the strength of the Muslim ummah.

We also found a write up about some of the basic guidelines for a musluim wanting to practice Dawah at:

http://www.teachislam.com/dmdocuments/9 ... 0Dawah.pdf