The System of Mushawarat in Jama'at-e-Ahmadiyya — Page 364
T he S ystem of M ushawarat in J am A‘ at - e - ahmadiyya some o f their daughters into our family, it would be use ful. But I desisted from doing so when I noticed that Ahmadls had the tendency o f marrying their sons to non- Ahmadl girls. I thought that if I set such an example, oth ers w ill follow suit, and while such a step might produce good results for one family from the Ahmadiyya point o f view , it might do harm to thousands o f others. . . So if we are allowed to marry non-Ahmadl girls, it is also a test o f our prudence and wisdom, and we have to decide whether accepting non-Ahmadl girls w ill be useful in a particular case or not. I believe that in the prevailing cir cumstances it is necessary to keep the restrictions in place. The fact is that permissions given by Shariah can only prove useful when exercised prudently. There are times when people are inclined to avail themselves o f the permissions, and it becomes necessary to impose restric tions. And there are times when the permissions are disregarded altogether and it becomes necessary to revive them. When a new nation emerges, people have the ten dency to revert to the people they have come from, and it becomes necessary to place restrictions. But as time passes, the gap between them widens, and at such a time it becomes necessary to make use o f the permission that allows them to come closer. . . The situation prevailing now is that for every single Ahmadi there are ten non-Ahmad!s in a family. If, in these circumstances, w e were to allow everyone to avail o f this permission, there is every danger that the relatives who are in majority w ill together pull back a solitary Ahmadi. Members o f the Jama'at have written to me about many cases where non-Ahmadi girls, when married into Ahmadi fam ilies, converted to Ahmadiyyat. But the 3 6 4