Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 537
! ! 537 Friday Sermon Delivered by Hazrat Mirza Bashir - ud - D in Mahmud Ahmad , Khalifat - ul - Masih II ra July 27, 1923 “Some time ago, in this very m osque, I had indicated my wish to build a m osque in Berlin. I also mentioned that our Jama'at is already weak [financially] and is supporting many other expenses. Th erefore , to have a m osque buil t by the weaker section of th is weak Jama'at , or i n other words, a m osque is to be built by the weakest part of the weakest Jama'at in the world (meaning women, who are weak, because they have neither individual income nor are they as educated as men ). They should work on this project, so it c an prevail as an outstanding sign. When I initially made this proposition to women, some people from the Jama'at also thought that it would be impossible to collect that much money. In the beginning, my estimate was thirty thousand rupees , but at the time of the actual initiation [fundraising], I increase d the sum to fifty thousand rupees. Our Jama'at also thought it to be a very large amount of money. When the amount received totaled twenty thousand rupees, newspapers from outside of the Jama'at mentioned with amazement the fact that Ahmadi ladies had contributed such a generous sum of money. Then , before the deadline, the total sum amounted to sixty thousand rupees, surpassing the pledges. After this, I again announced the need for more money, and including the pledges this time, it totaled to seventy thousand rupees. This is the accomplishment of the weaker part of the weakest Jama'at of the world. In terms of number s , our Jama ‘ at is n o thing in comparison to other Muslim groups. However, had it been announced i n the mainstream Muslim world, that their women should collect this amount within three months, none of them would have been able to do so , even though they have billionaires and millionaires as well as princes and k ings among them. . . ” ( Al - Fazl , August 3, 1923, V. 8)