Request for the Shaykh to offer advice on the aforementioned topic to the imams of the mosques.

The questioner : All right, Shaykh, in the same field, what is the advice for me first, and for our brothers, whether they are imams or our absent brothers, so that we can convey it to them if there is something in the matter?

The Shaykh : The advice has been presented. May Allah reward you.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : That you act according to the Sunnah and call to it in the best manner. This has all been mentioned previously, and this is the summary. As for you, if you want to give the adhan, you should give the adhan as people want. This is not permissible. If you want to pray in a manner contrary to the Sunnah that you have learned, to please people, and you do not call to the Sunnah, you are merely following them in action and silence. No. If you were calling to the Sunnah and following them in other matters, there is no harm, do you see? There is a difference. We asked our companion, "Until when will you continue with this following?"

The questioner : Until Allah wills.

The Shaykh : You call, teach, remind, and continue in the da'wah, but following them once in this way and once in that way is not a problem. However, as I once read in the magazine al-Manar by Sayyid Rashid Rida (may Allah have mercy on him), he had opened a school in Cairo. I think he named it Dar al-Irshad. Students graduated from it. It is supposed that these students who graduated were Salafis, because Sayyid Rashid Rida (may Allah have mercy on him) was a scholar with Salafi creed and Salafi methodology in fiqh, even though he had some errors from which no person is exempt. The important thing is that some students graduated, and after they graduated, just as Saudi Arabia does now by distributing students under the name of da'wah workers to various Islamic countries—Saudi Arabia, may Allah reward it, has a lot of money and is willing to distribute thousands of students—this school of Sayyid Rashid Rida was funded by a group of good, righteous people with limited da'wah. So he sent some of the graduated students to Sudan for da'wah. Then, after a few months, this student returnedThe student : to visit the school and its director, Sayyid Rashid Rida (may Allah have mercy on him). And he found him in a state different from when he had left him in terms of dress, wearing a green robe and a large turban, and his attire was very strange. So he asked him, "What is this?" He had, of course, left the school wearing ordinary clothes. He said to him, "O Shaykh, we went to a country where the people do not accept that the da'wah worker there and the teacherThe Shaykh : must dress in the attire of the scholars there." He said to him, "We sent you on a matter: are you to become like them, or are they to become like you?" This is the meaning of what I read, may Allah have mercy on him. So the point is, we know for certain that da'wah cannot be done in one sudden burst; there must be gradualism in it. But this is in practical application, because practical matters affect people more than words. Because words, unfortunately—and this is what should not be the case—do not leave an impression on most people; they enter from one ear and come out the other, as they say. But the practical matter is always before them, so they remember the one who brought this action and they oppose him and fight him. From here comes the wise policy mentioned by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) when he conquered Makkah and eliminated shirk and disbelief in it, and smashed the idols that were on its roof, and entered and prayed two rak'ahs inside the Ka'bah. When the Lady A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) saw this, she wanted to do the same and enter the Ka'bah and pray two rak'ahs. So he (peace be upon him) said: meaning, did he include the Black Stone But he (peace and blessings be upon him) feared that if he demolished the Ka'bah, they would say, "He left us nothing, not even the Ka'bah that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) built; he demolished it." But you see that at the time when he did not cause repulsion, it is clear that the Shari'ah ruling is that the Black Stone is part of the Ka'bah, and the Ka'bah should be rebuilt on the foundation of Ibrahim (peace be upon him). But he feared that fitnah would arise, so he left the Ka'bah as it was. From this hadith and similar ones, we see that the true da'wah worker follows people in action for a period of time, sometimes, but he must remain a caller to the truth, as we have mentioned more than once, with wisdom and good exhortation. And Allah is the Helper.