Advice for Missionaries — Page 24
Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad 24 listen. When someone says that people do not listen to them, they are actually admitting to their own short- comings. EVALUATE YOUR WORK Always evaluate your work and assess your accomplish - ments. Record everything you do in a journal. Take notes of the places you have been to, what topics you spoke on, the types of people you came across, the reasons for any opposition you might have faced, the things people appreciated, and so on. This will enhance your knowledge in the future and enable you to understand the core reasons for any hostility directed towards you. You will gain insight into key issues and be able to deliberate over them. And if you are transferred from [the place of your posting], your notes will greatly benefit the missionary who comes after you. Unfortunately, because Muslims do not work along these lines, they lag behind others in this age. For example, a professor who has taught philosophy their entire life but has not recorded their experiences— i. e. the kind of questions that were raised by students about certain topics, what answers were given, how those questions could be refuted or alternative methods of explaining the subject matter—will not benefit their