Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
In its literal sense, dakwah means ‘to call’. Dakwah is the act of spreading Allah’s message to people, either by directly speaking out the verses of the quran, or by showing good examples.
Throughout history, artists have been a great tool in conveying a message. By artists, I mean writers, novelists, filmmakers, musicians. For instance, Jose Rizal’s Noli me Tanggere inspired the Philippines to fight against the colonial Spaniards. Syed Sheikh al-Hadi’s Hikayat Faridah Hanom is not only about the love story of two people, but also brings out the message of intellectual and technological reformation, as the Malays were very regressive in knowledge and technology during the era of the British colonization. There are also Eurpean philosophers like Voltaire, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, and Kierkegaard have all written novels and the like that help to better demonstrate their philosophy. The same thing can be applied to a dakwah mission.
Ahmad Tafsir 