I remember the first time I was prevented from preaching...I went to the same mosque where I used to give the sermon, w…

I remember the first time I was prevented from preaching...I went to the same mosque where I used to give the sermon, where a replacement preacher was sent...

He began the sermon with something he claimed was a prophetic hadith but wasn't, and kept repeating phrases with awkward affectation and swaying on the pulpit...I saw the boys who had their backs against the wall in front of me laughing in mockery...

I was pained when I compared the state of these boys to the day I used to preach when a father would bring his son: "Greet Dr. Iyad, tomorrow I want you to become like him," and the boy would greet with respect and love in his eyes.

We left the "torturous" sermon and one of the brothers said to me afterward: "I always used to ask my son 'Walid' after leaving your sermon: What did the doctor talk about? And he would answer having recalled many elements of the sermon...Today as soon as we left, my son said to me: Dad, don't ask me what the preacher said. I didn't understand anything!"

Preventing influential preachers and replacing them with amusing and boring ones is destroying the next generation! Alienating them from the Friday ritual and trivializing the entire religion in their eyes. Many children no longer hear religious discourse at all except in the Friday sermon.

So don't be surprised when you constantly hear about cases of explicit apostasy, loss of identity, imitation of every fallen thing, attachment to debauched bands, profound ignorance of religion among children, and then about cases of loss, suicide, and crime.... And we say to those responsible for all this: Remember the words of Allah the Almighty: (That they may bear their own burdens in full on the Day of Resurrection and some of the burdens of those whom they misguide without knowledge. Unquestionably, evil is that which they bear).