Sunday, April 30, 2006

Selling Point...

Whilst at work, many a times, I have to deal with sales representatives who come at the office and try to sell us, the company, some of their products. At times, we can have like a few of these a week and it's always amazing to see the techniques and methods they use to sell their products.

Method One

Some sales representatives will sell you their product by continually praising it, and therefore, you will start considering the product and realising its true potential.

Method Two

Another method is to compare it to the product you are already using and making you realise why their product is far better than the one you are already using.

Method Three

Making the buyer realise how flexible and versatile their product is and how it is possible to complete more than one task with their product, thus replacing the need for more than one product, in other words, how complete their product is.

Method Four

This is one of their most essential selling techniques; they advertise their products by making sure they are using it themselves. If someone was to see a car salesman of Company A driving a car from Company B, he would automatically question, within his mind, that this person is selling me a product that he himself would not use. Therefore, to sell the item by making the buyer realise that the seller would not use anything but this product himself.

POINT

So how do we sell our religion? Well, as with any selling technique we first have to realise that we will always have competition, Shaytaan and our Nafs (Self Desire).

Shaytaan will try and sell his religion and we, in competition, have to sell our religion. The advantage is ours because our religion, without doubt, is better and complete, whereas Shaytaan has no religion and uses deception to sell what he does not have.

And the devil will say, after the judgment had been issued, "GOD has promised you the truthful promise, and I promised you, but I broke my promise. I had no power over you; I simply invited you, and you accepted my invitation. Therefore, do not blame me, and blame only yourselves. My complaining cannot help you, nor can your complaining help me..."

[Surah Ibrahim - 14:22]


Therefore, we have to think whether we are even using their basic selling points to make sure we are spreading our religion and not turning people away from it:

Method One...

Do we continually praise our religion and realise how valuable and perfect it is? Or do we complain when we want to do something and are told it is Haraam and forbidden in Islam?

Method Two...

Have we ever taken the effort to make people realise the differences between our religion and the people of other religion? Do we make an effort to make people realise which is the complete and true religion.

Method Three...

The misconception, many a times portrayed by us, is that religion is 'difficult' and very 'strict'. Do we think like this or have we made an effort to understand how flexible our religion is within its boundaries.

Method Four...

Are we promoting our religion whilst adopting methods which are far from it? Do we say we love Allah and His Prophet صلي الله عليه و سلم whilst doing actions that totally displease them?

These are just a few basic points that we should bring into consideration.

If we are turning people against the religion of Islam, intentionally or unintentionally, then we will be question regarding that as every sales person. But the reality is that our religion is far more precious than any sales persons' product.

May Allah give us all an true understanding of our religion and make us realise the responsibility we have been placed with of spreading this true word. And may He save us all from being those who turn people away from His path and those who portray His way incorrectly. Aameen.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Assalamu alaikum,

Jazakallah khair for an excellent post...it's so true Islam is perfect so shouldn't we as beleivers and followers of Islam be the sales people yaani carriers of the deen showing non muslims the beauty of Islam and clearing their misconceptions...

Ameen to the duas, please remember me in yours also,

Wassalam

Anonymous said...

Jazakallah for this excellent post maulana.
Too right we should be selling our religion but we also need to be mindful of being amongst those that adopt methods other than those prescribed by Islam.

Ameen to the du'as
Wasalam

Zain said...

As Salaamu Alaykum,

Unknown

Jazakallah for the comments. Indeed Islam is perfect, it is the people who follow it that set a bad example. May Allah give us all the inclination to adopt the true teachings of Islam and forsake that what is not in our Religion. Aameen.

Please Remember me in your Duas

Brother Ahmed

Always a pleasure to see you here and read your comments. Indeed the company one keeps is vital. I was going to post something on that, maybe some other day.

Remember me in your Duas and you haven't kept me posted on the situation. Hmmmm...

Wasalaam.

Anonymous said...

Salams
I think my last comment was accidentally worded to sound as though I was referring to the company one keeps. Instead it was supposed to say '...be mindful of being counted amongst those that adopt methods...' Oh well, least it reminded you to post on company one keeps in the future, alhumdulillah.

Inshallah will make dua, as for the situation...we talk about soon inshallah.

Wasalam

Anonymous said...

Assalamu Alaikum,

You know your posts are just too amazing. Subhanallah.
islam is indeed the One and Only way. the most perfect religion, complete and right.
Ameen to the dua. may Allah Ta'ala make it easier for us to 'seel our religion' and to defeat Shaytan the cursed One. Ameen.

Wassalam

p.s. sometimes i think 'i wonder when Zain bhai and Ahmed bhai and everyone will stop blogging.. well it's all in Allah's hands. hope it's not too sonn.

Dua me yaad please always.

Wassalam

Anonymous said...

Salams
Allah alone knows when we may stop blogging, inshallah for as long as we can. In the meantime please make dua that the material on the blog gets even better, is of benefit to the readers and that Allah swt accepts these small efforts of ours.

Wasalam

Zain said...

As Salaamu Alaykum,

Brother Ahmed

Ooops, well that was me who misunderstood your comment. As you said, at least some good came out of it.

Aameen to the Duas, may Allah accept our efforts in providing material for the readers on the blog. I do pray that your blog continues for a very long time.

Please remember me in your Duas.

Sister x-muslimah-x

Jazakallah for the comements. Islam is definately the only religion and the most complete way of life.

Just a few points to remember that I forgot to summarise:

1. If you're selling it, make sure you're using it.

2. Actions speak louder than words, but words are still essential.

3. If you're selling it make sure you know about it. Complete knowledge is essential.

Please remember me in your Duas.

ps. as far as blogging is concerned, I have no idea how long I will be continuing for, I have thought of closing my blogs just a month or so back. But for know I'm continuing. Please make Dua that Allah accepts the efforts.

Wasalaam

Card_Maker said...

Salam

A really good story..about the idea of using the product...it's about practising what we preach.

Sometimes we also think that we are not capable of 'selling' our deen, but even if we do one small thing that is right, then it is our job to encourage others to do that. It's important to encourage people to do good.

With regards to understanding the differences between religions, I am thinking to myself that this is more important with us being in the West, especially if you are in place that has a lot of practising Christians.

wassalam