The Way of Seekers

24 FRIDAY SERMON THE WAY OF SEEKERS (Hazrat Mirza Bahiruddin Mahmood Ahmad.) Thus what do we gain by believing in a prophet if we remain the same old bunglers? We are a community who have seen a prophet and who have lived with him. We ought to change and change to a–marked degree. We ought to feel we really have surrendered our hand of allegiance to a living model of spirituality; nay, to God HimselClf Ahmadis do not achieve this quality of spiritual achievement, then what have they achieved? The Promised Messiah has warned us; he has told us what he expects of us. Reflect how serious and important is the goal set for us. On the need to purify ourselves, the Promised Messiah is reported to have said in the clearest possible words: (I quote from , Badr the leading journal of those days): Only he has purified himself, who has set right his relationship with both God and man, his Creator and his fellow-creatures. We must discharge our obligations to both. God requires that we must live in practice every word we utter in affirmation of God. God is One, without associate. What we affirm with our tongues we must illustrate by our deeds, not ever reducing God to the status of man. We owe to our fellow-creatures that we harbour no malice, hatred, prejudice, rancour, desire to harm, or intent against them to injure. It is not easy to attain these virtues. You are still very distant from this spiritual station. Have you set right your personal relations with your brethren? 1 am afraid not. You have not given up complaints and counter complaints nor backbiting. You trample over other people’s rights. God wants you to live like brothers and to function as parts of one organic whole. Thus alone can you attain spiritual bliss. If human beings cannot deal honestly with their own brothers, how can they with God? True, God’s claim on our obedience is very great. But the measure of how pure your account is with God is how pure it is with His creatures. One who is not straight and sincere with men cannot be straight and sincere with God. To be straight and sincere is no small matter. It is something big and difficult. Sincere love is one thing, insincere and hypocritical love, quite another. When a believer falls ill, another believer goes and visits him to express his concern. If a believer dies, fellow-believers join his funeral. No questions should be raised over small matters. It is best if such things are ignored. God does not approve of your living at a distance from one another. Without true love, there is no Jamaat-it is the end of the Jamaat. Badr(1908) I ask forgiveness of Allah, my Lord, for all sins and 1 turn wholly to Him. This is the quality of Taqwa (Fear of God) the Promised Messiah inculcates in his counsels to the Jamaat. So it behoves us to cultivate Taqwa (fear of God in its true spirit). Only then shall ~e be able to fulfill the purpose of our lives, the purpose which underlines the coming of the Holy Prophet, the coming of the Promised Messiah, on both be peace.