Advice for Missionaries — Page 22
Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad 22 positions do less of the actual groundwork and delegate more of it; yet they earn lucrative salaries, while hard- working labourers earn a meagre wage. Therefore, being able to effectively get work out of others is a greater talent than being able to do strenuous labour. Thus the more effective a person is in getting others to work for them, the higher the position they occupy. How did Muhammad sa , the Messenger of Allah, attain the highest of ranks? In terms of their endeavour and toil, those people who had lived in the caves of Arabia for thousands of years, were more adept than him. But the Holy Prophet sa had better expertise in getting others to work for him. This is also a talent which Allah the Exalted has endowed human beings with. There are secretaries who are industrious, but do not know how to delegate work to others. They complain that people do not listen to them. On the other hand, there are secretaries who do very little work themselves, and yet they get others to work for them so effectively that everything they are tasked with runs in an efficient way. Therefore, in the context of your own responsibilities, develop the ability to work yourselves and to effectively delegate to others. However, the latter ought to be done in a manner that is not considered to be burdensome. Many people are