Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 65
65 The hope of deriving a financial advantage was equally non-existent, as this hope could be entertained only in the case of an old established movement. In the case of the , on the contrary, a great deal of financial sacrifice is involved, as every member of the community who lives at a place where a regular association has been established, contri- butes from one-tenth to one-third of his income towards the funds of the Movement. The seventh means of the propagation of a religion is licence, that is to say, to give its followers full freedom of action and to insist merely upon belief in a particular doctrine or allegiance to the founder of the religion. This means is employed only by false teachers and claimants. The Promised Messiah (on whom be peace), like all righteous men, required from every member of the community a true sacrifice, whether of wishes, property or social customs and habits. He subjected all aspects of the lives of his followers to the dominion of religion, and was not content with an oral subscribing to belief in certain doctrines. The eighth means, which is sometimes employed for the prop- agation of a religion, is the stimulation of the fancy, that is to say, the capturing of people’s interest by the employment of false and improper means; for instance the construction of a palace of delights and its presentation to the followers of that religion as paradise, or stimulation of their fancies by the use of powerful drugs, or the encouragement of a belief in the possession by the founder or the head of the community of great spiritual powers by means of the use of mesmeric or other similar influences. The Promised Messiah severely condemned all such practices and regarded them as derogatory to spiritual advancement, and de- scribed them as mere tricks which clever rogues practiced on credulous people. The publication of the revelation recited above, in the face of all these difficulties, show that the prophecies contained therein