Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 148
! ! 148 Jama'at s and their women, for there are still many chapters which have not sent in their donations. The blessings and joy you receive by straightaway p erforming a task cannot be attained later. The status of the pioneers is much higher than those who came afterward , f or we all know the name of one companion, that of [ Haz rat ] Abu Bakr ra , but do we know the name of that companion who accepted Islam afterwards? What could be the reason for this? Only that Haz rat Abu Bakr ra accepted Islam as soon as its call sounded in his ear, whereas the other accepted it later. Thus, procrastination can cause a decrea se in the blessings we receive. I call on the ladies here, as well as elsewhere, who have not donat ed or made a pledge, that a dollar given at the appropriate time is far more beneficial than thousands of rupees given upon delay. Th us, th ose women who have made their pledges , should make their payments as soon as possible and our brothers sho uld cont inue to remind them. A lthough men cannot partake in this project , they can receive blessings by encouraging their women. Some men write to me worried , t hat their women are not Ahmadis and what should they do? I tell them that this is th e result of their laziness, for they did not encourage th em to convert to Ahmadiyyat. Where you have shown s uch indolence , the time has now come for you to feel the pain and realize the extent of your error s. It is also a sign of their faith that many people are writing to me , asking me to pray that their wives show no weakness in donat ing. There is an anecdote concerning a maulvi , who once called upon women to donate. His wife was also sitting in the gathering, and she donated an earring. When he came home and discovered his wife had donated her earring , he asked her why she had done so. The call for donati on was for others, not for his household. However, the state of our Jama'at ’s members is such that they request me to pray that the ir women show no hesitation in contributing. Then there are some , who request that they may be granted permission to donate on behalf of their deceased wives. This phenomenon is unparalleled and has only been previously witnessed among the companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa and i t is clear that if we were required to sacrifice our