In addition to local charity efforts, Dawat-e-Islami offers online courses in Islamic studies and runs a television station, Madani Channel.

Dawat-e-Islami was officially founded in Karachi in September 1981 by leading scholars who selected Ilyas as its main leader.

[3][4] Arshadul Qaudri and Islamic scholar Shah Ahmad Noorani, since 1973 head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), along with other Pakistani Sunni scholars, selected Ilyas Qadri, who was the then Punjab president of Anjuman Talaba-e-Islam, JUP's youth wing, aged 23, as the head of Dawat-e-Islami at Dār-ul ´ulūm Amjadia.

[8] Dawat-e-Islami has spread into an excess of 194 nations of the globe through 26000+ workers, various volunteers and evangelists who are engendering the message of Islam in their area.

[9] The two most significant activities of Dawat-e-Islami are Madani Qafila (missionary travel) and Naik Amal (self assessment questionnaires).

[10] In addition to mosques, Dawat-e-Islami has also started Dar-ul-Madinah, an Islamic school system that aims to improve conventional academic studies in conformity with Sharia.

[citation needed] As of December 2019, it now has at least 38 properties in the United Kingdom which are used as a network of Masajid, Islamic centers, schools and/or Jamias in order to create future scholars for society.

Madni Channel is free of commercial advertisements and it runs on charity and broadcasts programs to spread the true teachings of Islam and to reform the society through spiritual and moral guidance.