Adapting the Pattern of Individual-educational (Cultural) Invitation to the Invitation of the Prophet (Ṣ) in Mecca

Among the important patterns of invitation are the individual-cultural pattern and social-structural pattern. According to the former, the invitation is more individual and the goal is to convey the message to each audience. In this psychological pattern, the audience is very influential in the effectiveness of the invitation, however, the type of social class and social structures are not considered. In this study, the invitation of the Prophet of Islam (Ṣ) in the era of Mecca is analyzed by the qualitative method of pattern matching. The research results show that it is not correct to be content with the individual aspects of the audience and ignore the social characteristics and patterns for a complete analysis. The invitation of the Prophet (Ṣ) in Mecca, although it was mostly individual, sometimes used the characteristics of a social pattern, for example in warning relatives and sending letter to Najjāshī. On the basis of this hypothesis, a two-dimensional pattern can be proposed for the Holy Prophet's (Ṣ) invitation in Mecca. In this paper, using the pattern matching method, we try to identify the criteria and characteristics of the invitation pattern, and then adapt them to the Prophet's invitation method during Mecca and also after his advent there in order to see based on what kind of invitation pattern (i.e. individual, cultural or social-structural), his invitation in Mecca can be explained and analyzed.