Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 298
! ! 298 Duty of Ahmadi Women at this Time Delivered by Hazrat Mirza Bashir - ud - D in Mahmud Ahmad, Khalifat - ul - Masih II ra Fifty years ago, if a Muslim woman from any respectable family in India was a sked to go to the station wearing her burq a , she would have refused. She would have travelled in a doli and then enter ed the train with the curtains pulled down around her. The windows of the train would all be closed, and up on reaching the destination, she would exit in the same manner. At that time, could anyone have imagined that conditions would change in such a way ? Nonetheless, look around you. An epidemic h as spread from thousands of miles away. Under its influence , Indian women casually walk down the streets with men, even holding hands. T he se are the same women , whose grandmothers arrived in their homes [as brides] in dolis and later left from there in their caskets [upon their death]. At th at time, Indian Muslims believe themselves to be absolutely safe , for they had no intention of abandoning their values and traditions. And y et, i s it possible for one human being to remain unaffected by another? Just as clouds and locusts travel from thousands of miles away and destroy crops, ideas from thousands of miles away can d estroy our own values, and we cannot remain safe un less an impenetrable circle is formed around us. There are two types of circles. O ne is spiritual and the other worldly. The spiritual circle is [attained] w he n a person places one’s h and in the hand of the Apostle of that time, or that one places one’s hand at the hands of those who followed him, or one places one’s hand in the hands of the successive generations of followers. This is the spiritual circle which the future Jama'ats follow, and despite the excess of mischief and evil, they will remain largely protected from it and will receive the Help of God Almighty. Thus , observe how at the present time when the whole world is in turmoil, the Ahmadiyya Jama'at is safe by the Grace of God Almighty. The Ahmadiyya Jama'at is under Divine protection solely due to its pledge to the Promised Messiah as.