Table Of ContentTranslation of the Friday Sermon of 28th January 1983
Delivered by Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad – Khalifatul
Masih IV
Who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah doing good and saying ‘Truly I am
truly of those who submit’?
The Holy Quran. Ha Mim al-Sajdah [Ha Mim: The Bowing]: 34.
Among all those who call towards a particular goal, the voice of those who call towards their
Lord is the most beloved and most praiseworthy in the sight of Allah. But Allah has set up
some conditions with this also.
The first condition is that the caller really calls towards Allah and should have no ulterior
motive in his invitation.
The second condition is that appropriately correct actions of the caller should testify to his
sincerity and these actions be a means of beautifying the words of his call. The beauty of the
words is nullified if the accompanying deeds are repugnant.
The third condition is that the person should testify that he is among the Muslims.
Thus, if anyone wishes that when he invites people towards Allah, he should be able to attract
Allah's love and attention so his words become beautiful and attractive to others, he must,
according to The Holy Quran, satisfy these three conditions.
He should be calling purely towards Allah. For instance, Jamaat Ahmadiyya is calling people
towards Allah. If our motive is that our number should increase and we see worldly
successes, then this is not calling purely towards Allah. So we should convey purely our
invitation towards Allah without any secondary aim. Then our appropriately good actions
should testify to the fact that we are calling purely towards Allah.
What are the (appropriately good actions)? This is summed up in the following
verse:
Surely Allah has purchased of the faithful their persons and their property in return for the
Paradise they shall have; for they fight in the cause of Allah and they slay and are slain - A
promise incumbent on Himself in the Torah and the Gospel and the Quran. So who is more
faithful to his promise than Allah? Rejoice then in the bargain you have made with Him; it is
the supreme triumph.1
Those who have become Mine and call others to Me, I have made a bargain with them. I
have bought their souls and their wealth in exchange for giving them paradise.
For those who claim to do appropriately good actions, they have to give their wealth as well
as their souls. If both these are not presented to God, their act of invitation to others is
incomplete.
1 The Holy Quran. Al Tawbah [The Repentance]: 111.
As far as monetary sacrifices are concerned, by the Grace of Allah, the Ahmadiyya Jamaat
excels all other groups in the world, religious as well as political. As for presenting our souls
to Allah, we are ahead of any other group in the world. But our goals of sacrifice are very
lofty and have no comparison with the norms for others.
Allah has made this bargain with each and every believer. He is not content with a few souls
from the group. His definition of a Muslim is that each Muslim must of necessity call
towards Allah. We cannot hide our Islam. Our appropriately good deeds require that we
present our wealth as well as our souls in the service of Allah.
The question arises that when an average person is busy in worldly affairs for his survival,
how can he give all his soul to Allah. The Quran mentions groups in believers. Some are
Sābiqūn al-awwalūn, who are always first and always in the forefront.2 Some are in-between
and some fall behind. Each of these groups has to participate according to their abilities.
There are some who give all their time in service of the Jamaat and leave nothing behind.
They say that all they have belongs to Allah; each instant of their lives is a sacrifice for
religion. Use us in any way, they say, our all is devoted in Allah's way. Most of them are
true to this profession of theirs and their actions testify to their intentions.
There are some who can give some time as they have to get involved in worldly affairs. But
even this involvement is for the sake of Allah. So what they work hard to earn, they give in
the way of Allah.
If an Ahmadi, however, gives only his wealth and no time, he is like a person with only one
leg. The capabilities of a one legged person are not half the capabilities of a person with two
legs. In fact, a one legged person may have as little as 1% of the capabilities of a whole man.
It is very important, therefore, that the Jamaat come forward with the sacrifice of time also.
In the time of the Promised Messiah, although our number was small, but everyone, no matter
what he did in this world, was a missionary in his own way. Now that we are all over the
world and our contact points are vastly increased, our missionary effort has in fact decreased.
In the time of the Promised Messiah, everyone was first a missionary, whether he was tilling
the soil, or was involved in commerce, or was a physician or had any other profession. His
worldly work always took a second place. This is why the rate of conversions was in the
thousands every month at that time.
Allah's Grace increases the rewards many times more than the effort, but our efforts have to
have some bearing on the rewards. We shall have to increase our efforts to attract more from
the Grace of Allah.
The number of Christian missionaries around the world today is nearly 275000. This does
not include Church Ministers but those only who actually spend their time in missionary
activities. The amount of money spent in this missionary effort each year can hardly be
2 The vanguard who were the first of the Emigrants and the Helpers and those who followed them excellently,
Allah is well-pleased with them and they well-pleased with Him; He has prepared for them Gardens flowing
with streams. They will abide therein for ever. That is the supreme Felicity.
Quran. Ibid: 100.
imagined. If you add nearly 50000 Mormans who give their time to missionary activities,
this number will be nearly 325000.
We are very poor with a meagre budget and even if we spend all that money on missionaries,
we cannot have more than a few thousand missionaries.
How can 200 or 300 missionaries of ours compare to 325000 Christian missionaries. But
Allah has solved this problem by requiring that each Muslim gives of his wealth and his time
in this call towards Allah. If each Ahmadi considers himself a missionary first and foremost
and gives top priority to the invitation to Allah, we will have more missionaries than the
Christians have all over the world. In fact, in some countries you will have more
missionaries than all the Christian missionaries in the world.
It is a folly to assume that you have to be educated in the Jamia Ahmadiyya in order to
become a missionary. It is a result of not understanding our real worth.
It is a fact that the biggest armament for anyone wishing to enter this Jihad is prayer. When
one calls towards Allah, he has also to seek help from Allah. We say that in every prayer
daily: O Allah! I will worship only Thee, but I have to ask help also from Thee.3
The task of bring the entire world into Islam is very huge. The biggest need is for Jihad
against present day Christianity. It is a fact that even learned Christian scholars shy away
from Ahmadi youths. The writings of the Promised Messiah have given us a wealth of
knowledge.
The fact is that there is a revolution waiting for you. It is waiting for your resolve, your high
aims and your single-mindedness. If you go after this revolution without these things, it will
run away from you. Today, if every Ahmadi resolves to give his soul in the way of this effort
of inviting the world to Allah, you will see this revolution run towards you. Every Ahmadi
must resolve that he lives for Allah; he will keep on living for Allah and keep on inviting the
world towards Allah. If you do so, you will see this grand revolution rush towards you,
rather than recede away from you as it seems to be at the moment.
© The Tahir Archive, 2022.
3 Quran. Al Fatiha [The Opening]: 5.
