JAKARTA — As an order to prepare for the Dai Ambassador program in the month of Ramadan 2023, the Dompet Dhuafa Da’wah Service held the International Da’wah Outlook 2022 event, at the Grand Whiz Poins Simatupang, Jakarta, on Thursday-Friday (29-30/12/2022). The event was attended by 50 Dai Ambassadors who had been assigned to 16 countries. In addition, there were also present: Juperta Panji Utama as the GM of Dompet Dhuafa Da’wah and Community Services Program; Prof.Dr.Phil. H. Kamaruddin Amin, M.A as Director General of BIMAS Islam of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia; and Achsanul Habib as Director of Human Rights and Humanity.
Dai Ambassador becomes Dompet Dhuafa‘s international da’wah program with a scheme of assigning reliable dais (Islamic religious lecturers) to various countries, both on the momentum of Ramadan and beyond that. This program from Corp Dai Dompet Dhuafa (Cordofa) is entrusted to not only deliver da’wah (Islamic religious lecture), but also convey religious diplomacy and messages of kindness and peace to all levels of society in the world. That way, the courage of togetherness to create a Collaborative space can be built more widely.
Dompet Dhuafa International Da’wah Officer, Totok Hadi Fitoyo said, through this Dai Ambassador program, Dompet Dhuafa wanted to spread Islam more broadly to all corners of the world. The International Da’wah Outlook 2022 event is one of the courage of collaboration in growing partners in the da’wah and empowerment activities.
The International Da’wah Outlook takes place hybridly with several focuses of discussion including in the form of a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on the proposed Dai Ambassador Program in the future and a Cordofa Talk on global Islamic issues. In addition, this event is also a launching event for the Dai Traveller Dompet Dhuafa Book.
This activity is intended to be able to arrange proposals for the Dai Ambassador program in the future, strengthen the synergy of the Dai Ambassador program, a gathering event, as well as display the Show Case of the Dompet Dhuafa Da’wah Service program.
“During the pandemic, many Dai Ambassador’s activities have been postponed. So that many of these programs cannot be implemented. In addition to gathering the dais, today there was also a discussion in the form of an FGD related to various proposals for Dompet Dhuafa’s international da’wah program,” said Totok.
At the end of the event, a presidium of Dai Ambassador Cordofa would also be selected.
On his occasion, Juperta Panji explained, there were not many Indonesians abroad who took care of these kinds of things. Indonesia was the country with the largest number of Muslims in the world. However, it would be very unfortunate if Indonesia did not have a da’wah contribution at the world level. Therefore, Dompet Dhuafa was trying to spread its dais abroad.
“Da’wah Dompet Dhuafa has a mission by adjusting the culture of the country we send, and representing Muslim-majority Indonesia. The dais who have qualified capacities are recruited through a strict selection. They must also undergo quarantine for orientation and training. The orientation and training are held to prepare them to give the Islamic religious lectures in various parts of the country and even abroad,” explained Juperta.
He emphasized that the dai recruitment pattern in Dompet Dhuafa has a precise and different selection according to the country where they will be assigned. In addition to carrying out the mission of da’wah, Dai Ambassador also acts as a form of contribution to represent Indonesia.
Kamaruddin Amin also added that what Dompet Dhuafa had done (in international da’wah activities) was quite good. But there were still solutive steps needed, which were targeting not only to Muslims, but also to any religious society around the world.
“Our da’wah objects are not only our Indonesian brothers abroad but also the world society. Islam contributes to the civilization of development in the world. One of our challenges is the language of the country. I really appreciate what Dompet Dhuafa has done. Because da’wah is our duty as Khalifah (leaders) in the world,” he said.
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Virtually, Achsanul Habib said that this courage of care and humanity was a shared responsibility, both government and society. He assessed that the role of various society organizations such as Dompet Dhuafa was very significant in national and international humanitarian aspects.
On this occasion, he said that dai ambassadors had an important role as humanitarian ambassadors for Indonesia towards world peace. In the country, Indonesia, the existence of dais has an important role. Not only as an actor of religion, but also as an actor or ambassador of humanity.
“Through da’wah, a dai calls for the values of kindness and humanity. Their activities also have social activities such as humanitarian assistance,” he said. (Dompet Dhuafa / Muthohar)