Souvenir on 50th Jalsa Salana USA — Page 22
26th JALSA SALANA -1973- LAKE FORREST, ILLINOIS The Inaugural Address Delivered by Sahibzada Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad Grandson of the Promised Messiah (AS) It is indeed a great privilege and honor Lo be asked to inau- gurate this Convention. All of us have looked forward to it for months. A great many of us have made special efforts, if not abo some sacrifice, to get here and many of us have worked hard to prepare for it and make it a success. It will be a great pity , therefore, if we do not derive full advan ta ge of this great opportunity which comes to us only once a year and which c l aims so much of our effort and Lime. Now to derive full advantage from this convention we have to bear in mind: a) The supreme divine purpose for which the movement was established. b) Within this broader purpose and framework the objectives which such conventions are designed to achieve. Taking the first objective, namely the divine design and pur - pose for the establishment of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam , this is a vast subject which one can elaborate for many hours, But briefly, very briefly, it involves revival of Islam in its true spiritual glory, a great religion which over the past many centuries has been masked under some tarnishing false notions and lost its purity and its spir- it so that only the dry bones remain but not the flesh, on ly the form and not the spir it. Ahmadiyyat demands that we so refashion our lives that they are shaped in the right and true spir- it of I slamic Values in a ll their purity, a reflection of God's great attributes, a n absorption in our li ves of all that is best , a rejection of all that is bad. The Promised Messiah had himself staled that his primary purpose a nd mission in li fe is to show the people the path of virtue and bring man in direct communion w ith God. He said with great poignancy that if on one hand the people at large describe us as infidels as outside the pail of I slam and on the other hand we fail to refashion our lives in a manner that God acknowledges us as true Muslim'> (Believers) then sure ly we are losers on both sides and it will truly be a bad bargain, an unfortunate outcome. IL is, therefore , important lo keep remembering this main purpose and mission of our Ii vcs. Within this broad main purpose let us look at the primary objectives of this Annual Convention or s imil ar other conventions which Ahmadiyya Community holds the world over. Here let me take you back Lo the first Convention which was held some 70 years back and to which not many more than th e number present today attended (as against I 00,000 who attended the last year's convention at the Headqu arters of the Movement). In introducing this series of convent i ons the Promised Messiah stated that it was to be a purely religious gathering; unlike what is common or frivolous. On such occassions the convention's sole purpose would be to purify ourselves, to know and to learn from each other, to dedicate our live s in the service of God and Islam and to become willing and effec- Li\e instruments of God's will and design. Let us, therefore. along with the main purpose of the Movement , also remember the specific pur- pose of these conventions. Remembering both these objectives and keeping them constantly before us we should conduct these conventions (which is a replica of the convention at Headquarters of the Movement) and utili1e our time here so that both purposes are advanced and ultimately realiLed. There are in this convention four specific thoughts which I would wish to share with you. First. we should all resolve that during the course of the year and before we meet at the next con- vention each one of us should endeavor to remove one of the failings which may attach Lo his per- son as is the lot of human beings. There is a saying of the Holy Prophet that this is a minimum, which one should attempt to achieve during the month of Ramadhan, which is at hand, and provides an excellent opportunity and occasion to attain such a resolve. If over our lifetime we act on it every