Should enjoining good and forbidding evil be done with gentleness and leniency, or with severity, and what is the interpretation of the hadiths that some consider indicative of severity in this regard?

The fundamental principle of enjoining good and forbidding evil is to do so with gentleness and leniency, for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "O Aisha, Allah is gentle and loves gentleness, and He gives for gentleness what He does not give for harshness." The verses and hadiths affirm this meaning, such as His, the Almighty's, saying: "Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction." Some degree of strictness may be used in denouncing evil out of necessity, and this is assessed based on the resulting benefit, as in His, the Almighty's, saying: "And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in the best manner possible, except for those who wrong among them." Forbidding evil has stages: the first is that it ceases and its opposite replaces it; the second is that it diminishes, and these two are permissible; the third is that it is replaced by something similar, which is a matter of ijtihad (definition) (independent reasoning); and the fourth is that it is replaced by something worse, which is forbidden.