السمات الأخلاقية والخصائص السلوكية للداعية في ضوء تفسير المنار: دراسة تحليلية لمنهجية الشيخ محمد رشيد رضا

Ethical Traits and Behavioral Characteristics of the Islamic Preacher in Light of Tafsīr al-Manār: An Analytical Study of the Methodology of Shaykh Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā

Abstract

This article examines the ethical traits and behavioral characteristics required of the Islamic preacher (dāʿiya) as derived by Shaykh Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā in Tafsīr al-Manār. Drawing exclusively on the relevant discussions of the tafsīr, the study surveys the twenty traits that Riḍā deduced from the Qurʼanic verses, beginning with righteous exemplarity (qudwa) as the comprehensive principle from which all other traits branch, and covering sincerity and truthfulness, strength of will and high aspiration, knowledge and insight, God-consciousness and its fruit of discernment (furqān), practicing what one preaches, steadfastness, gentleness and mercy, patience and forbearance, pardon and courtesy, consultation and reliance upon God, eloquence, trustworthiness, justice, iḥsān, altruism, eagerness for people’s guidance, and the following of the Prophet’s example while seeking reward from God alone. The article analyzes Riḍā’s method of deriving these traits from the verses, his linking of inner qualities to their practical fruits, and his connecting of the preacher’s conduct to the spread and acceptance of the Islamic call. It concludes that, for Riḍā, the preacher’s character is itself an instrument of daʿwah: the call succeeds through the caller’s embodiment of the Qurʼanic ethic before his articulation of it.