The System of Mushawarat in Jama'at-e-Ahmadiyya — Page 70
the S ystem of M ushawarat in J ama ‘ at - e -A hmadiyya he be able to render any service? Prayers must be sup ported by deeds. I, therefore, advise you to set aside all personal considerations, today, tomorrow or whenever consultations are held. Some people come with precon ceived ideas which they want others to accept. But this is not what consultation is about, the aim is to sit with an open mind and say what is correct. Some people come here having decided that they are going to get a certain point o f view accepted, and they try their best to this end, but this should not be the way o f our Jama'at, we should only say and stress what is correct. (3) When sitting down for consultation, we should be prepared to accept any good suggestion, not just our own. (4) Another point which must be remembered now and whenever such consultations are held in future, is that one should not offer any opinion for the sake o f someone else. There are people who express an opinion and after wards say that it was not their own, they had only expressed it only because a friend had asked them to. This behaviour is more dangerous even than misappro priation, but this is taken very lightly, so much so that even senior statesmen are found guilty o f it. A member o f the Indian Council once said that the opinion he had given was not his, and he had only offered it on behalf o f a friend. It is surprising that he did not see any wrong in this. This is a most dishonest conduct. Members o f our Jama'at should shun such practices. They should not give any opinion for the sake o f anyone else, and should say only what they themselves understand to be correct. (5) The only motive should be to offer useful advice rele vant to the issue under consideration. Let me explain this with an example. When discussing whether some new 70