Question: According
to Dr Hoffman, the approach to convey the message of Islam to other civilizations
is to determine those values of other civilizations that are also present
in Islam, and then an attempt should be made to unite them together. What
is your comment on this viewpoint?
Answer: I
wholly agree with this point. To me this is the same principle of sagacity
in exhortation which the holy Qur’an has presented -- in its immortal
style-- in case of the People of the Book: ‘O People of the Book, come
to that which is similar between you and us …’ (3:113). Exhortation should
always be carried from agreement to disagreement, and accepted to controversial.
Those points which the addressee acknowledges, which are not strange to
him, starting from their confession and affirmation, movement should be
gradual to those matters which are an inevitable corollary of these facts
so that the addressee, while moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar,
leans, imperceptibly, towards those facts which any advocate of the truth
wants to get acknowledged.
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