Some religious officials make bad preachers. They try to force others to do things against their will and threaten and belittle them.

Sadly, some Muslims would not seek knowledge to verify facts because it is far easier to be told what to do.

A recent article written by Perak Deputy Mufti Zamri Hashim and published in Berita Harian has got a lot of people bristling. Essentially, he said men who “lose control” of their wives and daughters – like allowing them to go out of the house exposing their aurat – are “dayus,” which can be translated as “cuckolds.”

An Islamic scholar who read the article dismissed it as “rubbish, a pack of lies.”

One Muslim woman said Zamri was being irresponsible, encouraging men to use force on the women in their lives. “This is a blanket order for men to control their wives and daughters,” she said.

Another woman said, “It’s clear whom his message is for. He is scolding Malay women for taking part in beauty contests. And he’s telling them off for doing male dominated jobs. He’s scared to tell the women, so he does it in a roundabout way and targets husbands and fathers.

“Zamri tells the man that if he does not control his wife or daughter, then he is weak and unmanly, but worse still, he will be excluded from paradise.

“The sad thing is that some people who do not know their religion well enough will believe him. This is wrong. It is deceiving. It is not Islamic.”

What would be Zamri’s response to the girl who disobeys her father and fights him off when he tries to take sexual advantage of her? Who is the sinner here? Will she be excluded from heaven?

Zamri claimed that God ordained that men are to be the protectors of women. So, what about single mothers, widows, divorcees and women who prefer to remain single? Will they be sent to purgatory?

Zamri gave several interpretations of “dayus.” A “dayus,” he says, is a man who refuses to exercise control over his women, who allows his wife and daughter to go out without covering their aurat, who does not care if his children cannot read the Quran and who allows his children to mix freely with members of the opposite sex.

Zamri also claims that people who are alcoholics will be banned from paradise. So, what about men who are addicted to drugs? And why hasn’t he mentioned murderers and people who commit other evil acts?

He is right to ask men to provide for their families, but he should exercise caution when he defines who can and cannot go to heaven. It is easy to mislead ignorant Muslims by saying it is God’s word, or the Prophet’s word. That is irresponsible. He should stop himself from forcing men to subjugate their women.

Bigots should also realise that one does not need to be a professor of Islamic studies to exercise common sense. Islamic scholars who are truly learned don’t concoct “sayings of the Prophet” to serve their own ends.

Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.