So Said The Promised Messiah (as) — Page 178
AT DIFFERENT STAGES The fact is that, internally speaking, all the membe-s of the Jamaat are not having the same standard (of faith). Do you think that all the seeds of the wheat germinate to be equally good? Many of them are wasted, some of them are picked by the sparrows, some of them do not produce any- thing. In short, only those which are promising, cannot be made useless by anybody. The Jamaat that is prepared for God is like a vegetation (a farm). That is why its growth takes the same course. Thus, the practice of all of you should be that the weak brothers should be helped and strengthened. If there are two brothers, one of whom knows swimming while the other does not, is it not the duty of the one who knows swim- ming to save the other from drowning? Should he let him drown? It is his duty to save his brother from drowning. It is very unfair not to do so. That is why the Holy Quran says: Ta-aawanoo alal bi"i You should bear the burden of your weak brothers. You should know their deficiencies in faith and lack of means and share them by removing these things. You should treat their physical ailments, too. No Jamaat is worth its name unless the strong support the weak and the only way of doing it is that the short-comings should be covered. The Companions of the Holy Prophet, sallallaho alaihi wa sallam, were taught not to frown on the weaknesses of the new entrants into the fold of Islam; they were told that they too were like them in the beginning. Likewise it is necessary that the elders should serve the younger (in age or in position) and treat them kindly and with affection. Remember that that Jamaat cannot be called a Jamaat where members try to devour one another; whenever four of them sit together, they complain of a 178