How can one bring Islam closer to people in the West?

By first taking a genuine interest in people and their lives. Whoever cares about others awakens their interest in him and in his message.

Imagine a stranger stops you in the street and tells you outright that you should become a Buddhist or follow some other teaching. Most people would barely listen. The stranger seems too insignificant to change their life. It is quite different when someone knows you, values you, cares about your children and helps you from time to time. If one day you ask such a person about their faith, you listen closely.

That is the key. People are interested first of all in themselves. Whoever takes a genuine interest in them, their worries and their lives finds common ground, and then their interest in him grows too. Plain, direct preaching without this human closeness achieves little.

There is a second support as well. Short, well written pieces that stir people and make them think should be spread in very large numbers, so that they reach as many homes as possible. They should take up questions that are already on people's minds. Such writings, and conferences too, prepare the ground, much like support in the background.

Yet personal contact remains decisive. Only when individuals go out into society and build relationships does information turn into trust. Whoever goes about it with humanity and good sense reaches far more people than someone who only hands out messages. This is true even of letters, in which one should first show interest in the other person.

The verses above describe this path. One invites with wisdom and kind words, does good oneself and meets even rejection with what is best. In this way a stranger, and sometimes even an opponent, can become a friend.