Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 20
I tell you truly that this is not the task of a corporate secretary, nor can any secretary claim that he prays fervently. . . anyone who claims that the corporation can carry out these tasks is a liar. ' I swear in the name of God that no secretary can accomplish these tasks and there is no corporation that can carry out the work of a Prophet. If corporations could accomplish these tasks God would never have sent prophets into the world but would instead have established such corporations. But can you tell me of even one such corporation that claims to have been established by God? Further expounding on these four duties, Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II'" goes on to say: I interpret this verse further in another way, and thus pondering more on this verse, I learnt that there are further meanings hidden in this verse such that these four duties double and become in reality eight tasks. Book's teachings. Teach them wisdom. To achieve this, there would be suggestions and plans because under this duty it is necessary to make people aware of the underlying secrets and reasons and philosophy. Purify them. When I pondered on this, the first thing was what I have already said that try to purify them through prayers. Then Hadhrat lbn-e- Abbas '" has translated 'yuzakkeehim', 'he will purify them ,'to mean to develop in the person the obedience to Allah, the Exalted and to develop sincerity. So one meaning is to safeguard the people from committing sins so it becomes incumbent on the Khalifa to strive to save thejama'at members from committing sins and to make sure they do not fall into sin. And the second meaning is that not only should he save them from not becoming sinful but that he should also try to develop in them righteous conduct. In 'He shall recite to them Thy Signs,' I interpret to mean other words, the Khalifa must on the one hand set. --. . ~~--=-~~~~~~~~~~"--~~. . . . that he makes disbelievers into in motion such plans and believers, meaning that he efforts as safeguard the carries out the preaching of members from falling into sin God's message. But second, and second he makes them he recites to the believers the beautiful, that is to say he signs of God and in this way takes them on to higher and becomes responsible for the higher stages and develops in growth of their faith and for their deeds obedience to God the correction of their beliefs. and sincerity. There is also So this becomes a two-fold a third meaning of purifying duty. and that is that he causes them to grow, to flourish. 'He shall teach them the Book'. The Holy Qur'an is there in the form of a written Book. So in the duty of teaching them the Book shall encompass the duty of having such schools where people are taught the Book, then there should be such schools where people are made to understand the Book and people learn the translation of the Holy Qur'an and are taught those fields of knowledge that serve them to achieve a higher understanding of the Book. So this involves the work of establishing such institutions and facilities where all these religious works are carried out. The second meaning of these words is to have the people act upon these teachings. Because teaching is of two types. One is the simple act of making someone read and understand a Book, but a second task is to make the person act upon the So it becomes the duty of the Khalifa to cause them to progress both in their worldly and their spiritual station and this growth and advancement needs to be of every type. If they are behind others in their knowledge of the world then he must act to take them forward. If they are few in number then he must cause their numbers to increase. If they are weak financially then he must work to improve their financial state of affairs. Needless to say that in whatever thing they are wanting he must work to improve their condition. So in this meaning the Prophet and then the Khalifa are responsible for the progress of every type of those under their care. So if cleansing the people of all dirt and arranging for their progress is the Khalifa's duty then he becomes responsible for the welfare of the poor because the poor for lack of resources are almost always covered