Muslim clerics often represent Islam with a harsh manner. Instead of preaching the message of Islam in a polite way, they resort to reprimanding others, which repels people from the religion instead of bringing them towards it.
Muslim scholar Syed Badiuddin Soharwardy made these apt remarks on a podcast on Off The School YouTube channel where he conversed with host Najam Soharwardi on the challenges in the present world in bringing the younger generation towards religion.
The scholar said that when we dealt with the non-Muslim world, we claimed we were united, however, when we dealt among each other, we stuck to our sectarian identities to the extent that we called others Kafir (infidel). He called for the Muslims to reflect on this attitude.
Badiuddin sb said that earlier, religious scholars wanted to purify someone who committed a mistake, but now clerics only wanted to slander that person. He said Holy Prophet Muhammad (S) never slandered anyone.
He recalled a conversation he had with a Muslim cleric who would call people of different sects infidels. Badiuddin sb said he asked the cleric what was the fastest-growing religion in the world, to which the cleric replied that it was Islam. However, Badiuddin sb then asked him how Islam could be the fastest-growing religion in the world when he considered adherents of every other sect as infidels.
The scholar said such style of preaching was neither ordered by Allah nor was it endorsed by the Prophet (S). He added that it was rather a devilish method.
The discussion that turned towards Tasawwuf and the respect for Sufi saints. Najam sb said that our younger generations had begun questioning our respect for Sufi saints as we did not allow any disagreement with them.
To this question, Badiuddin sb said we should always follow Imam Malik in this regard who said that among all the people on earth, there was only one whose authority could not be challenged, and that was the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).
On the system of Bait in Tasawwuf, the scholar said that earlier spiritual leaders would take Bait from their disciples in order to connect them with Allah and his Prophet (S), but these days, spiritual guides employ their disciples for their personal errands or household tasks without connecting them with Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him).
He asserted that our final sources for Hidayat should be the Quran and Sunnah, but we had given that status to our Pir sahab, clerics, and muftis.
Concluding the talk, the scholar called for improving the mode of preaching Islam. He lamented that the way Islam was being preached these days, it was actually resulting in the spread of atheism.
“We Muslims [should] hate the sin, not the sinner. We [should] abhor shirk, not the one who commits it. We [should] oppose disbelief, not the disbeliever,” Badiuddin sb said as he called for spreading the message of Islam with politeness and wisdom.