Life Supreme — Page 122
LIFE SUPREME 125 but he believes that the physical and spiritual benefits gained from discarding that obnoxious habit have been immense. . Prior to his acceptance of Ahmadiyyat, Orchard contributed nothing in the way of God towards charity. Islam taught him the philosophy of giving in the way of Allah. He commenced by paying one-sixteenth of his income and later increased it to one-tenth. . Finally, in 1967, he commenced paying one-third and has been doing so ever since. In addition to this he also regularly gives Tehriki-Jadid and Ansar contributions plus payments towards various other appeals. . Ahmadiyyat introduced Orchard to the regular observance of prayers. This proved a source of great blessing and comfort to him, testifying to the truth of the Qur'anic verse: "It is only in the remembrance of Allah that hearts can find comfort. . One of the ways that God communicates with His creation is through dreams. Many times dreams are very vivid and one remembers them distinctly. Orchard also had a few such dreams. In one of them, he saw the Supreme Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement who told him: "In order to live a successful life, you must not let sorrows affect you. And there's no doubt about it. ". When the war ended in 1945, Orchard returned to England and was immediately demobilized. He visited his mother for a couple of days and then traveled to London in search of the London Mosque where he introduced himself to the Imam-Maulana J. D. Shams. . He expressed his desire to work with the mission and also to dedicate his life completely to the service of Islam. This event has been described by Maulana Shams:. After his release from the army, when he arrived in. England he stayed for two days only at Bristol with his relatives and so on the third day he was at the mosque in. London. During his conversation with me he expressed his willingness to live at the mosque and become a Muslim missionary. I explained to him the responsibilities of a missionary and the required qualifications for missionary work. Eventually I promised him to see to his case sympathetically and would write to him on this matter. He was a little bit upset from my reluctance in accepting his offer