The System of Mushawarat in Jama'at-e-Ahmadiyya — Page 144
T he S ystem of M ushawarat in J am A‘ at - e - ahmadiyya representative. In short, our consultations are o f the ut most importance. ” [Report Majlis-e-Shura 1926, p. 3] In the same context, Hadrat Musleh-e-Mau‘udra said dur ing Majlis-e-Shura 1941: “I have observed that whereas there are sincere Jama'ats that do their best to send capable representatives, there are others who send representatives merely because they feel obliged to do so. They do not have any reverence for Majlis-e-Shura. They just ask their members if any o f them plans to visit Qadian, and if someone says yes he is planning to go to Qadian because he wants to build a house there or for some other reason, they nominate him as their representative. Or if someone is going to Lahore or Amritsar on his own business, they ask him to be kind enough to go to Qadian as w ell and represent them in the Shura. Their behaviour is like the proverbial Bannia, who could not bathe in winter and considered another person’s bath as his own. Some o f these Jama'ats even nominate people from Qadian to represent them, rather than send their own representatives. It seems that these people have no inkling o f the immense importance o f Mushawarat, and have no idea o f the fact that all future development depends on it. In the beginning members o f the Jama'at were com pletely ignorant o f its importance, and for many years it was thought that there was no use o f offering advice or suggestions when the Khalifa him self was going to make the final decision, and it did not matter whether people said anything or not. Though this impression is still to be found among some people, it has for the most part been 144