Muslims and the Wider Society

position of a Mad‘u. This relationship requires that the Da‘i always maintain a balanced relationship with the Mad‘u. It is said that a trader should always be customer-friendly. In the same way, the formula for a Da‘i should be that he is always Mad‘u-friendly. Within the Da‘i, there should be goodwill and wellwishing for the Mad‘u. If these feelings exist in the Da‘i, he will never use words that create hatred in the heart of the Mad‘u against him. If he is a true Da‘i, he will not even think such things in his heart. The spirit of dawah is the killer of hatred. The heart of a Da‘i is a compassionate heart. In such a heart, nothing other than love and goodwill can grow. In ancient times, when the Aryan people came to India, they called the local people mlechchha. Similarly, Christian scholars referred to Muslims in their books as infidels. Both mlechchha and infidel are derogatory terms. The person who uses these terms may feel pleased to say them, but the one about whom they are used strongly dislikes them. In this matter, the correct approach is to use words that carry no derogatory sense, but simply convey a factual description. Unfortunately, Muslim scholars failed to exercise caution in this matter. In their books and in translations of the Quran, they began to use the word infidel casually for kafir. For example, Maulana