The West African Approach to Understanding Dawah

—Unbelief is a result of ignorance (jahl) rather than wickedness.

—It is God’s will that some remain in jāhiliyya longer than others.

—There is no obligation in religion, and true conversion occurs in God’s time.

—Jihad is not an acceptable means for converting non-Muslims.

—Jihad is legitimate only in self-defense to protect Muslims’ survival.

—Muslims may support non-Muslim rule as long as they are allowed to practice Islam.

—Muslims must present an example to be emulated so non-Muslims will come to Islam.

—Scholarship must be the center of Muslim life to keep Islam from being corrupted.

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 (T)hese “dicta do not at any point conflict with Maliki orthodoxy”; instead, they represent a radical adaptation of earlier Mālikī doctrines that allowed Muslims to live peacefully with non-Muslim neighbors.

 “Armed” with this kind of tolerant approach, Juula and Jakhanke, Muslim merchants and clerics, respectively, enjoyed great freedom of movement to and through the non-Muslim lands to the south of the empire. Muslim intellectuals
 spread far and wide throughout West Africa, opening Qurʾan schools, teaching the sciences, and slowly drawing much of the western Sudan into the scholarly traditions of Islam.

Ware III, Rudolph T. (2014-06-16). The Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa (Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks) (pp. 88-89). The University of North Carolina Press.