A Contrastive Analysis of Yusuf Islam and Zakir Naik’s Styles of Religious Propagation (or Preaching)

Abstract

Like Christianity, Islam promotes religious propagation to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. As such, Islam and Da’wah (promulgation) are words inseparable in the Muslim world. Propagation done through acts of kindness and beautiful preaching are highly recommended in the Qur’an and Sunnah. As a peace-loving religion, Islam calls for a resourceful methodology in disseminating the lofty ideas and ideals enshrined in its holy scripture. Moreover, the Prophet of Islam himself demonstrated to his followers on the rightful manner in which the religion should be promulgated, not only to the Muslims but also to non-Muslims. Taking precedent from the Prophet and his followers, this paper examines the styles and methodologies used by two renowned contemporary Muslim preachers; Yusuf Islam (1948-till present)[1] and Zakir Naik (1965-till present). In the Muslim world, both of them are merited for their intellectual competency in engaging their audience in any form of religious discourse, particularly pertaining to Islam and Christianity. Their personalities and contributions have drawn the interest of the researchers to conduct a contrastive analysis on both of these celebrated Islamic preachers. More specifically, this study will objectively look into the similarities and differences exhibited in their methodology, body language and styles of public speaking, etc. The Textual-Analysis method will be employed to interpret the relevant data related to this study that can be retrieved from their public lectures and written documents.