The Muslim world would regain its lost glory by following the Quran and hadith, Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik said on Thursday as the Western world excels in research and technology.

“We have left the Quran and Hadith that’s why we are here. Insha’ Allah if we get near to them, including the whole Ummah, we will reach that peak,” he said in an interview with News Insight with Amir Zia which was aired on Aaj News.

He was responding to a question about the Islamic world lagging far behind other countries in several important fields including education, science and technology.

The Islamic preacher, who is in Pakistan on a month-long visit, said that Muslims were at their peak from the 8th century to the 13th century. He highlighted that the West, which was in the “dark ages”, used to read books in Arabic for study and research.

Dr Zakir Naik arrived in Pakistan on September 30 that will include lectures in major cities such as Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore.

This marks Naik’s first visit to Pakistan in thirty years; his last trip was in 1992 when he met with renowned scholar Dr Israr Ahmed in Lahore before returning to India.

Originally from India, Naik currently resides in Malaysia due to legal issues in his home country, which has sought his extradition in several cases.

When asked about what more could be done, Dr Naik said what the quality of being a religious person was. He explained that only offering namaz was not religious and questioned whether the practice was regularly followed as prescribed by the religion.

The Islamic preacher called for staying away from 70 major sins – gunah-e-kabira. According to him, riba, interest-based banking, was a sin and many Muslims were in debt because of that.

In response to a query about India, he said that Hindustan before Britishers was not divided and Hindus and Muslims worked together without any prejudice.

He accused the British of “divide and rule” to extend their rule and incite religious riots. Dr Naik added that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed the same policy before coming into power.

When asked when it will reverse, he said: “Good days are coming for Muslims in India as Modi was losing the majority which was evident in the national elections.”

He added that Allah’s help, endeavour, and belief in God were the three important factors in having a strong memory.

“Just because I am a medical doctor and you have to read and memorise many books. At that time, I used to sleep for 5 to 5:30 hours. After influencing by Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, I entered in Dawah world. I wanted to be a doctor as medicine is the best profession to help humanity,” the Islamic preacher said.

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“I became a doctor of soul from doctor of body. I had my normal routine. I used to think in my dream that I could be the world’s best doctor, but never that I would give a speech to 2.5 million. Once my friend went to the stage and got cold feet, but I went delivered the speech,” he said and added that he used to stammer.

Dr Naik stated that his family supported him in joining Dawah.

He shared that Dr Israr Ahmed also inspired him to join the field. The Pakistani scholar had advised him to choose one field in his career.