Ahmadiyyat Bound to Triumph

60 The Review of Religions – April 2006 The following is a summarized English version of a sermon given January 29, 1937 by Hadhrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad(ra) in Qadian. This summary is reprinted from the February 13, 1937 issue of The Sunrise, Lahore. If a nation is destined to advance God grants it high ambitions and lofty ideas, but if it is destined to decline its aspirations are lowered. A study of the rise and fall of nations reveals the fact that a nation’s decline begins with the decline in its ideas, and its ad- vancement with the advancement of its ideals. Small and low- thinking nations remain content with petty things but advancing nations are inspired by high aspirations. A Persian couplet says: ‘one’s thoughts are coextensive with one’s capacities’. A Tiny Cloud Almighty God has ordained greatness and glory for the Ahmadiyya Jama’at (Ahmadiyya Community). Greatness it must and shall attain, whenever it attains it. The beginning would be small – and according to divine custom it must be so – but that small beginning shall be the forerunner of future greatness just as a seed sown is the means of producing so many grains. Some of the great powers today have armies numbering eight, nine or even ten million men. Compared to them, what were a handful of men (313 in all) it was AHMADIYYAT Bound to Triumph The Community’s Humble Beginnings only in Keeping with Divine Law. High Aspirations, and Conduct in Conformity with Promised Messiah’s Prophecies will Lead to the Desired End. 61 AHMADIYYAT BOUND TO TRIUMPH The Review of Religions – April 2006 who faced the hosts of unbelievers at the Battle of Badr! After straining all their resources the Muslims had been able to bring only this number of men to the battlefield. The Battle of Badr is regarded by us as the greatest battle that was ever fought. All the same, the number of men taking part in it was less than in skirmishes on our frontier. A modern general would have regarded the Battle of Badr as mere child’s play. But the discerning know that the battle fought by those three hundred odd men was a battle in which the future destiny of the world was to be decided. Those three hundred men added more to their number and became one hundred thousand, the latter growing up to be millions and spreading all over the world. Their enemies were like the clouds overspreading the skies but without a drop to send down to earth. Yut that small band of Muslim fighters was like the tiny cloud appearing after a drought and a spell of severe hot weather at dawn. To outward appearance such a cloudlet is only a speck in the skies but in a few minutes it spreads itself in the heavens and sends down water in torrents flooding the whole countryside. The first cloud spanning the vault of heaven but waterless, is blown about by winds; the other, a speck of a cloud, arising from a corner of the horizon covers the whole earth and turns it into a huge sea. Believers’ Sacrifice Does Not Go to Waste Such is our own case. Fools may laugh at us, laughing at the smallness of our resources, and saying: ‘What a people, these Ahmadis!’ Some foolish people of the community too, wonder and say, ‘What have we to do with worldly glory,’ whereas, if there was a grain of faith left in us, we should have known that greatness is meant for us alone to whom the same has been promised. If we have nothing to do with worldly glory, who else has? How strong must our effort and how high must our aspirations be when we have been told by God: ‘When there comes the help of 62 AHMADIYYAT BOUND TO TRIUMPH The Review of Religions – April 2006 Allah and the victory, and thou seest men entering the religion of Allah in large numbers;’ when we have the Divine promise: ‘Kings shall seek blessings from thy garments’ and when we have the assurance that we shall spread over the world, and, compared us, the other nations would be of little or no importance? How great must be our sacrifices in that case; how great our self- denial? The sacrifice of the soldiers of other nations may go to waste. They know that it goes to waste. But the sacrifice of a man belonging to a nation for whom triumph has been destined by God never goes to waste. The sacrifice of the victors is like the brick which forms part of the building; but that of the losers is like the brick which is thrown into the sea where it crumbles, and is not used in building up the world’s structure. The other brick forms part of the wall and raises it still higher. Not Defeat But Victory The sacrifice of a believer, there- fore, is never wasted. The undiscerning may regard it as a defeat. But those who probe deeper regard it as a great victory, for God rears a new tree as the result of every fresh sacrifice of a believer. Just as the sower of seeds appears to a child to be throwing away the grain, whereas in reality everyone knows that it is not being thrown away, but it would grow and produce many more grains like itself. Make Your Conduct Consistent With Future Greatness I should like to advise the Jama’at, therefore, to make their conduct conform to the pro- phecies contained in the Promised Messiah’s(as) revelations. I have been pointing out for the last two or three years that friends should study these revelations, so that they might know how glorious is their future. Many a man is slothful and indolent just because they do not know how bright their future is. Study these revelations so that you might get a glimpse of your great future and then bring your conduct up to the mark to which God wishes you to bring it up. Is there a man more 63 AHMADIYYAT BOUND TO TRIUMPH The Review of Religions – April 2006 unlucky than him who stands under the light and still finds himself shrouded in darkness? The unlucky man has spread before him delicacies of all kinds but who has not the power to eat them? This, indeed, is the state of that unlucky man who has before his eyes the prophecies and revelations of the Promised Messiah(as) proclaimed fifty years ago when there was no sign of the Jama’at; who has seen many of them fulfilled with his own eyes, but who stops at them and ignores the others which are more glori- ous. He forgets them and contents himself. He is like the frog in the well, with the little he has seen, saying, that all that he could have, he has had. He is unlucky indeed! Would that he had not been born so that he had not denied the Word of God! Advertise your business in The Review of Religions and see sales scale to new heights. Existing adverts can be placed and sponsorship on regular features is available in this longest running worldwide Muslim monthly magazine in the English language. Rates available on request from the Manager at: The Review of Religions 16 Gressenhall Road, London SW18 5QL We hope you have enjoyed reading this edition of the magazine. 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