The Importance of Gentleness and Softness in Attracting the Hearts of Those Who Deviate from the Sunnah

The student : Shaykh, is it permissible for me to mention some of his good inclinations? The Minister of the Interior, his equal, died more than a year before he became president. So we went to his village, which is about two hundred kilometers from Lahore. When the time for the midday prayer came, we entered a mosque and I said, "Let us pray behind them." He said, "I do not know— the president, he was not a president at that time— I do not know if they are people of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) or not. I do not pray behind the superstitious."

The Shaykh : Are they people of...
The student : ...tawhid (the oneness of Allah) or not? I do not pray behind the superstitious. He did not pray behind the superstitious.

The Shaykh : I do not see this. My belief is that, as you say, the superstitious, or the tomb-worshippers, or those who prefer the madhhab (school of jurisprudence) over the Sunnah, I do not see that we should oppose them with an opposition that severs the connection between us and them completely. Because I believe that due to their misguidance, they are spiritually, morally, and intellectually ill, and they need treatment in the best manner. I say to our brothers: Our call is the call of truth, and praise be to Allah, and the nature of truth is that it is heavy on souls. So presenting the call of truth is heavy for them. It is not permissible for us to add to the weight that is necessary a weight from ourselves by our harshness in our call. We should treat these spiritually ill people as we treat physically ill people. You find doctors, as you know, how they are kind to the patient and smile at his face, and perhaps he is on the brink of the pit of death. From this comes the well-known hadith in "Sahih al-Bukhari": "When the Jew entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, 'As-samu 'alayk (death be upon you), O Muhammad,' he said, 'And upon you.' Lady Aisha was behind the curtain and said, 'And upon you be death and the curse, anger, brothers of the monkeys and the pigs.' Then when the Jew left, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned to Aisha and said to her: . She said, 'O Messenger of Allah, did you not hear what he said?' He said: . A Jew disbelieving in Allah, he did not go beyond saying 'And upon you.' Here is the point: We, our brothers of the Sunnah, are two groups: the people of the Sunnah truly, among them are the strict and among them are the lenient. While we are pleased with the first group, we want them to have some softness and gentleness so that we take that as a way to attract the hearts of those who differ, or in your expression, the superstitious.