Souvenir on 50th Jalsa Salana USA — Page 18
- 0 0 A Message to the Ahmadiyya Mu slims on the Second Annual Convention of the American Mi ssions, September 17-18, 1949 My dear friends and spiritual children of the United States of America. A \. llllamo 1/aiJ. . 11111 11·a Ra'1111a111/lahe 11·a Baraka10'111. I have been asked hy our Missionary-In-Charge in the United States of America, Mr. Khalil Ahmad a. . . ir. to wnte a message for you to be read in your Second Comention. It 1 s a great plea- sure for me to do so. Twenty-nine years ago. I sent Mufti Mohammad Sadiq, an old companion of the Prom1~ed Messiah (AS). to introduce the Ahmadiyya Movement in your country. He after reach- ing the United States of America, ch ose Chicago as the centre of hi" mission. I !is was a lonely voice raised in support o l the truth abo ut a quarter of a century bad. ; and probably the people laughed wh en th ey heard him preach blam and call them to Ahmadiyyat the true and divinely inspired interpretation of b lam. Probably they thought every prophet and his disciples were mad. But those \\ho thought so were mad themselves. The sh eep that docs not recogni1e the shepherd is mad and dcstine~for destruction. for it becomes the prey of that old wolf -Satan: and loses a ll hope for sa l- \·ation. ~ My dear friends and children! No country and no peop le arc absolutel} without any seekers after truth. The \0 1 cc which was taJ. . . en as the babble of a mad man began to attract some of those who were destmed to be the pioneers and torch-bearers of truth in the United Scates of America. Ma} be <,ome of them are still ali\e. may be none are. Even if all of them have left this wor ld. their spirits might be hovering mer your heads JUSt no\v seeing in you the seed which is being broadcast by God in the wilderness. as well as in <,ome well pre- pared soil. to grow 111 time and become a heavy crop to give a new life to millions and millions of people of your coun- try. My friend-, and children! Ahmadiyyat is the message of God Almighty and not a sch eme conceived by any mortal being. So you should look upon it as such and try to follow it li tera ll y and with grea t care. No good citi1en break-, the law of his country and so is the case of a true believer. He knows that the l aw of God is based upon infa ll ible philoso- phy and is for his good and betterment. So always try and strive to know more and more about Isl am and Ahmadiyyat so that your actions may be in com plet e accord with the law chose n for you by yo ur C reator. God Almighty says in the llol y Qur'an: 'Today I have brought to perfection the spi ritual code according L O w hi ch yo u have to live and thus I have filled for you the cup of my blessings to its very brim. " Thi s ver<. e show<, that every order and injunction given by the Ho ly Quran is for the spiritual uplift of man and not as an arbitrary order to make the human beings feel their serfdom to God. God ha<. nothing to gain if we follow 'The L aw'. IL i<. we who benefit from it and so the person who is luke- 1. 1-arm in hi<. obedience to the law, in letter and in spirit, is him<. elf the loser. Woe to him who finds the door of heaven opened for him but turns his face and goes astray. So. I advise you with all the love I bear for you. to avail yourselves of lh1s great opportunity of being pioneers of the truth in your country and \et a grand example of true obedience to God and H is religion for your contemporar i es and for the com ing generations, \O much \O that you become in the eye<. of God. the deliverer. . of your count') and your peop l e: and become like the fiN disciples of the prophets of old. Tho<. e di <. eiplc<. had no special c l aims on God; their on ly claim was that th ey were the first L o believe. first to make sacrifices and fir<. t to li ve a life which was not in conformity with the lives of their countrymen. They bore and bore well all rebuJ. . . e: they took with a light heart all ridicule and stu ck to the way which God chose for th em and thus they became the chosen people of God. Old orders and govern ments die out gi' ing place to new ones but these disciples good name ha s been kept alive all along. Mighty nat ions have perished; strong governments h ave succ umb ed but these people ne ver died and are <, till li ving in the memories of millions of people who l ove them m ore than th eir own kith and kin. Dear friends and my <. p iritual chi ldr en! Fortunately you have got the same oppo rtunity. being the firs t bearers of truth in the Unit ed Stales of Ame rica, being disciples of the disciples of the Promi sed Messiah (A SJ-beloved of God, Hi <. only begotton son. in the same sense as the Christ was. God has no son but those w ho ga in I lis presence and win I lis p l ea- sure through \teadfast love and never wavering faith. become like sons to Him. Nay even more than that. A father may for<. aJ. . . e hi<. <. on in certain circumstances but God never forsakes His beloved ones. You h ave a further bl eS<. ing that you found the time of the Promised Son and so you arc not mere disciples of the disciples of the Promised Mes<. iah (AS) but are also like the first disciples themselves. So rise to the grand occasion and act acco rding to your exalted position. Do not forget that everybody is directly responsible to his God. Therefore. do not copy anybody's weaknesses but follo\v the word of God and His Prophets and try to live a life even more piou" and c l eaner than the lives of those who have come to teach you. I also hope that my representatives there will set a good example for you and 1. 1-i ll not act in a \\ay detrimental to the cause of Islam and misleading the seekers after truth. Woe to him who gets the opportunity of bring- ing people to the fold of God but delivers them to H is eternal enemy-Satan. May God help) ou, your preachers and your country. so that all of you gain the blessings of God and your country. through your untiring efforts and the grace of God, becomes one of the first strongho l ds of God and His true and living religion Islam, whi ch is truly repre;ented in our time by Ahmadiyyat. AMf~EN. Yours very sincerely, KHALIFATUL MASlll II York I l ouse, Lytton Road, Quella, Pakistan 2nd Sep t ember, 1949