God does it through the Prophet (S) and the fundamental...

God does it through the Prophet (S) and the fundamental raison d’être of the mission of the prophets ( ‘a ) has been this affair, and religion and the aggregate of its precepts are nothing but this thing. That is, if man wants to attain spiritual and religious perfection and growth, and recognize the useful and harmful elements along the way, he must turn to religion and the prophets ( ‘a ).

The Overall policy of Islam in the Affair of Propagating Religion Now, this question is posed: What should be done to attract people to religion? Merely the fact that the prophets ( ‘a ) possess the prescription for the spiritual and religious perfection of man and that they know its correct path is not enough. Rather, in addition to it, you have to think of a way people can take and act upon. It is here that the issue of attraction and repulsion is again raised.

But it is attraction and repulsion in this sense: To which method should the prophets ( ‘a ) resort in inviting people toward religion and convincing them to accept it? Do they use attractive methods and through kindness and gentleness, should they try to attract individuals? Or, should they ask people to act upon their teachings through force and violation? Or, should they employ both methods? In sum, is there any specific law and rule in this context or not?

This is one of the three questions we have previously promised to deal with in this session. Of course, comprehensive and complete discussion of this issue or close examination of it requires many sessions, which are presently not possible in our program. Therefore, we shall try to state the gist of that which is related to this discussion. 1. Using Evidence and Preaching The first stage of the mission of the prophets ( ‘a ) is to invite people to the religion.

At the outset, they had to see that people would like to listen to their speeches and see what the prophets say to them. Thereafter, it is the time for bidding and forbidding things. In this stage (i.e.