Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 198
Khilafat Centenary Huzur'srta Address to the National Ami la -------------- Khalil Malik, Hibbat ul Wadood Malik and Adnan Malik Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IVr ta addressed the National Aamila of USAJama'at on June 30, 1996. This address provides pearls of wisdom on ho w to discharge duties w hen one is appointed to any office of the J ama 'at. It also has invaluable advice for the tarbiyyat (moral, educational training) of Jama' at mem bers. Therefore it is as relevant today as it was then. T he following are some of the excerpts from that add ress. 1. It is critical that each office hold er should listen to the instruction given by the Khalifa of the time pertaining to his office and carry out the instructions to the letter and in the spirit of complete sincerity and devotion. Almost in every area of jama'at's acti vi ty , I have spoken at le ngth durin g my se r mons, during my addresses to Khuddamul Ahmadiyya, Ansarullah, La j na, etc during jalsa Salana addresses, during this and that. And I think if you ever co ll ect that material which pertains to your departm ent and ever find time to listen to that, your wor kload will decrease; it will not increase because I ha ve not only point ed out at the areas to wh ich you should attend but I ha ve also helped you by suggesting means which make your task easier. Don 't be afraid of the lengthy di s courses whic h we tell you, you need to do this, you need to do that. But every time when I mention this, I he lp you by telling you, this can be achieved in a better, easier, co mfortable way if you follow th e se instructions. So be aware, wh en eve r you have appointed a secretary , you mu st kno w the inst ru c tio n of the Khalifaal the time. H ow he wa nts yo u to go about [the task], and i you submit with humility to the instructions and don't epen d on your own clev er training or superior education, etc and yo u think, yes we kno w these thin gs, we know ho w to go about it, then you'll find the blessings of Allah fall upon you like you could not have dreamed. I know of definite examples before me. Some Umara (plural of Amir: national jama 'a t pr esidents ), some murabbian (missionaries) some sadran (local jama 'at presidents) are self-confident. They know they are commonplace things , y ou kno w that, we know them, and they never sit with submission to listen to the instructions as I want the work to be carried out. And at th e en d of the year, their work is found to be exactly at the same point or mo v ing very slightly so. And only when you find it moving forward, it is because of the individual effor ts of the people, not because of h is organizational work. But there are some Amirs who are simple and some even so, not even, I don't want to say illiterate, but at the l eve l bordering literacy, because the standard of knowledge has nowadays risen so much that if they ha ve read up to 8 1 h class or even metric, it's like b eing illiterate in this wor ld today. They are not properly educated; th ey don't hav e any other qualiti es or sup er iority. But one thing they have, wh en they hear me advi se on something, they immediately get themselv es harn e ss ed to it and the results th ey produce are amazing. So you should be inquis itiv e at least about your own w ork. What I want y ou to du , fin d out in the area of you r ow n responsibility, and wh en you kno w wh at I want you to do and the way I want you to perfor m this, and you start doing it, then I assure you, Allah will not lea ve you alon e, and then your work will be blessed and you'll b eco me producti ve b ey ond y ou r wilde st fancy. 2. Answering a ques ti on a bout the memb ers complaining they d o not have time for Jam a '. . . _t functions and work, H adhrat Khalifatul M as ih IV r ta ob served. I have notic ed that to find time or not to find is just a relative term. Once you make people realize the importance of something, then suddenly they know that they ha ve to find time. So that in dicates the level of inter e st of Ahmadis in certain a reas of their pr of es sions. So when they say no time, it me ans we don't co nsi de r this important enough to sacrifice our in terests in this w e a. So g radually they improve. I've found people in Lon do n, as well, who had no time, but sometimes I spoke to t hem directly, and sudde nly they realized that th e y had to find time, and they did. And afterwards, th e time kept on tilting in the favor of the jama 'at. It's a matter of relativity. What is more important to you? So look at that problem from this angle, try to make them realize th e importance of the Jama ' at task, and that can only be d one if you try to raise their spiritual level where they know this is something which is so pl easant and wonder/ul to pursue 3. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IVn a identified passivity as a common weakness in differ ent office bearers. He encouraged a pro-active approach on the part of