In a world teeming with religious slogans and repetitive calls to embrace this creed or that, a simple yet profound question comes to mind:
Why does a person who believes in a religion need to promote it? And why do we find this behavior more prominent in certain religions and societies than others?
Is it about loving goodness for others? Or is there internal anxiety behind this promotion that needs external reassurance? Does strong faith require a billboard? Or is faith, when sincere, like fresh water: it needs no advertisement to quench thirst?
A belief that requires promotion is an unsettled belief. You see this when people distribute scriptures in the streets, or when someone holds a hijab and persistently urges women in public to try it on, or someone who constantly repeats to you that they are "among the people of piety."
Ask yourself: why?
Is it because this person is truly at peace with what they believe? Or do they need others to be like them to feel secure?
In many cases, the motive is not "love for people" as claimed, but a hidden psychological need: I need you to be like me because I am not entirely confident in what I am. I need repetition and expansion to feel reassured, or I refuse difference because I believe I possess the absolute truth "after inheriting it."
True faith does not scream.
A confident belief does not beg.
Mature conviction needs no audience to prove its existence.
Why don't we see this in all religions, creeds, and beliefs?
It is interesting to note that many followers of other beliefs, such as Buddhism, do not engage in "proselytizing" campaigns or impose specific appearances on others. Not because they do not believe in them, but because they consider faith an internal matter, and that it is unbecoming for the soul to be packaged and marketed as a consumer product.
In contrast, in some Islamic environments—"especially traditional ones"—there is an intense inclination toward proselytizing and moral posturing:
- She is not wearing a hijab? → She is astray
- He doesn't pray like me? → He has less faith
- Doesn't "spread" the religion? → Incomplete faith
Thus begins the cycle of competing in piety, which in reality is a type of masked anxiety seeking legitimacy in the eyes of others. Take the hijab as an example: between conviction and social imposition.
When some women promote the hijab to others who are not veiled and pursue them with words of "advice," it does not always express love. Rather, it might be an unconscious desire to legitimize their own convictions to themselves by imposing them on others.
Meanwhile, an individual confident in their choice is not disturbed by the differences of others. In fact, they remain calm when they see others differently, because they do not need them as a mirror to validate their own self.
Sincere calling stems from a love of goodness, without pressure, without posturing, and without imposition.
As for promotion, it is often a desperate attempt to make others support a faith that has not yet matured internally.
The difference is clear:
First: Calm, sincere, balanced.
Second: Loud, obsessed with persuasion, restless until everyone is convinced, and often failing.
We are not required to be ashamed of what we believe, but we must distinguish between: sharing a belief out of tranquility, and spreading it out of anxiety. The louder the screams of faith, the less its sincerity.
Whenever someone needs an "army of look-alikes" to feel secure in their religion, let them know that their faith is fragile, no matter how strong their appearance may seem.