Papa Don't Preach

Many times i've seen people trying to preach their ideas/beliefs to others, only to be rejected flatly. Considering the validity of their ideas/beliefs, one of the reasons for the rejection would be the delivery of the idea.

Firstly for someone else to even consider your idea, they would first have to be receptive to you as a person. If you came in jumping without first priming your target's receptiveness, they would shut you out at best and at worst, fight back.

In the context of preaching religion, to spread your beliefs/ideals, first you have to be a practising person, for eg. a practising Muslim. You are the advertisement of your religion. Walking the talk, so as to say.

Now I have observed, when someone is a practising Muslim, a devout follower, a learned scolar, they become arrogant, thinking 'Hah, I'm so religious. What do the rest know?' So this is the case which happens with a lot of older people, and a few younger people also, no doubt. And then to them, it becomes their mission to promote Islam, to whoever, wherever, whenever, (Although it is the responsibility of every Muslim to promote Islam) without first considering the situation/scenario they're in.

It is the way they go about it that has people shutting them out. Suddenly, everything these people say has an agenda towards Islam. No you can't do this, you can't do that. That is wrong. It is sinful. Oh i can't join you, there is a sermon i want to attend. Oh you should attend too. (instead of 'would you like to join me?')
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The following is a scenario i have personally witnessed.

At a family gathering, X asks Y, 'Did you receive my email, we're working on our family tree on this website..'
And instantly Y replies, 'Ahh, to me our family tree doesn't matter, what matters is the Prophet's family tree!' and then going on citing the descendants of so and so and so on and so forth.

Of course you can see from this interaction that Y is a very pious person, concerned about passing on his/her knowledge to the current generation. It is good intentions. But what about X? For X to bring the topic of the family tree suggests that it is important to him/her. By brushing off X, Y is showing a disregard for X's feeling, and to be fair, why should X be receptive to Y? If I was X then, i would have given Y a piece of my mind.

Simple, if you want people to listen to you, then start by listening to them. First respect them, respect their beliefs. Then slowly gain their respect. And when you command the respect of others, it is natural that they will listen to you, then slowly you can promote your beliefs.

Even our Prophet didn't spread Islam within a night. What makes you think you can?

Consider the transmitter and receiver. The goal is simple. One is used to broadcast a message. The other receives it. You can broadcast a message over and over again, 24 hours a day. But, if the receiver isn't tuned in to your frequency, your message just ends up being garbled signals in space. Now, you can't force the receiver to be tuned to your frequency. So what you do is you tune your transmitter to the frequency of the receiver.

So to all the learned, I know you mean the best, I do not doubt your intentions. But please, practise humility and patience. Human interaction is a very complicated matter and it is to be treaded delicately. Learn first to listen, respect and understand others. Then maybe you'll earn yours in time. And when you've earned and command that respect, you will command their attention. And then the stage will be set for you, Insyallah.

Although my post was in the context of preaching religion as an example, im sure this applies in many other aspects of our lives. Social, work, basically any kind of human interaction.