The Victory of Islam — Page 71
HADRAT MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD 71 ordinances. On the contrary, the real reason is that the state of most of our country's mosques during this age is becoming most miserable and pitiable. Should one enter any of these mosques with the intention of leading the Prayer, then those who hold of the office of imam become deeply offended and infuriated. Yet should one follow them [in Prayer], I doubt whether the obliga- tion of Prayer is properly discharged because it is openly known to the public that they have adopted imāmat [leading Prayers] as a vocation. They do not go and offer Prayer five times; rather, it is a shop that they open at those times, and their livelihood and that of their families depends on this very shop. Accordingly, dis- putes concerning appointment to, or dismissal from, this vocation end up in litigation. The maulawīs run around filing appeal upon appeal to get the verdict of imāmat in their favour. Thus, this is not imāmat; rather, it is a despicable way of earning an unlawful living. Are you not similarly trapped in such a selfish quagmire? So why, then, would any man knowingly squander his faith? The mosques being occupied by congregations of hypocrites-which has been mentioned among the Signs of the Latter Days in the ahādīth of the Prophet-is a prophecy pertaining to these very mullahs who, standing up in the mihrab, recite the Holy Quran with their tongues while counting loaves of bread in their hearts. I do not know when it became prohibited to combine Zuhr and Aşr or Maghrib and Ishā' during the circumstances of a journey; and who issued the fatwa prohibiting a delay [within the permissible Prayer time]? It is an astonishing fact that it is halal in your opinion to eat the flesh of your dead brother [i. e.