Question

I have read Islamic books for sometime, and find many doctrines very acceptable. Like all religions, Islam has it’s fair share of human distortion to suit themselves. Some practitioners are overzealous and go overboard in their preaching. Practice of religions can be somewhat private. In this regard, I have a very sincere question:

Why have the practice of preaching or teaching the sermon done through loudspeakers and the PA system. I mean the PA System that are turned on loud enough for the community at large. I am sure during the Prophet’s (sws) days, there was no technology of this kind. Instead, men had little distraction those days, and thence the power of concentration was good enough to listen to low volume sermon talks.

Please believe that this is sincere and not cynical. I also believe that by using the PA system, some Islam practitioners and non- practitioners may not find this agreeable.

Answer

I do believe that the use of PA system in preaching of all kinds of doctrines should be restricted to what suits the audience and what does not cause disturbance for people. This is actually a basic moral responsibly of the preachers be they Muslims or non-Muslims, politicians or educationists. Therefore, I would agree with your views on the issue. It is only the zeal of the Muslim preachers to communicate their views to people and ignorance on their part of the fact that their very act is harmful not only to the their audience but is destructive to their very mission. To correct the preachers who we think are not caring about others, we can talk to the ones in our locality and convince them that the method they have adopted does not benefit them and the society. We should point out the harms of the practice on peoples’ minds. Hopefully most of them would listen to our reasoning and will not impose their lectures on those who do not want to listen to them.

Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi

Date: 2014-12-03