"And speak gently to him (Pharaoh)..."

In chapter 20 of the Quran (surah Taha), Allah narrates to us the story of Musa a.s.. Upon receiving messengership, Allah commands Musa a.s. to go to Pharaoh:

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"Go you and your brother(Aaron) with My Signs, and do not, you both, slacken and become weak in My remembrance. Go both of you to Fir`awn, verily, he has transgressed. And speak to him mildly, perhaps he may accept admonition or fear (Allah)." Quran 20: 42-44

The Pharaoh ruling over Egypt at the time (his name is not mentioned in the Quran like many other characters, for what is important is not who these people were but what we can learn from them) was a tyrant who enslaved the children of Israel. Not only did he mistreat them severely, he also killed their sons and let their daughters live (the reason for this I will not discuss here for it is not the topic of this post).

To cut a long story short, Moses was chosen by Allah to be the Messenger to deliver the Children of Israel from the tyranny of the Pharaoh. Despite all the evils committed by the tyrant, Allah commanded Moses to go to him and speak mildly first, for perhaps he might be admonished and change his ways. Of course Allah in His infinite knowledge and wisdom knew that the pharaoh wasn't going to change one bit, but He wanted to teach Musa a.s. and by extension all of us that we should never write people off straight away however bad they may appear to us. This is key when doing da'wah. We should always approach people with an open mind and do not let their evils cause us to be judgmental from the word go.

If Allah had commanded Musa a.s to speak gently to the pharaoh, one of the most evil and arrogant of people to ever walk upon this earth, just in case he may benefit from the advise despite Allah knowing full well those gentle words were not going to change a thing, what then is our excuse for not being gentle when approaching people far less in evilness, not knowing at all whether our advise may benefit them or not?? Judging people to be hopeless especially before even trying to advise them is arrogant. Judgment belongs to Allah and Allah alone and it may be that Allah will forgive that person whom we deemed hopeless, and instead throw us into the Fire for our arrogance. So let us advise/remind others gently and never consider anyone to be beyond hope because we don't know that and acting like we do will only earn us Allah's wrath, the inevitable consequence of which is entry into the Fire of Jahannam. Wal'iyazubillah.