Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 273
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 273 to work honorarily, or in return for a meagre stipend, for the Movement. He invited pensioners and people who had retired from service to volunteer for work for the Move- ment. He. urged everyone to occupy themselves most of the time with earnest supplications to God seeking His help and guidance and the bounty of steadfastness in His cause. He explained the purpose of each of these demands. He predicted: Even if you should all abandon me God will provide me with resources from a hidden source. But it cannot be that what God Almighty told the Promised Messiah, the scheme for which he has disclosed to me, should not happen. It is bound to happen even if I am abandoned by everyone. In such a contingency God will descend from heaven and will complete the construction of this manSIon. On another occasion he said: We shall not coerce anyone, nor shall we embark on a campaign of civil disobedience, we shall "respect the law, and despite all this we shall discharge all those responsibilities with which we have been charged by Ahmadiyyat. We shall carry out all the obligations which God and the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, have imposed on us, and yet the purpose of our scheme will be achieved. The Captain of the Ark of Ahmadiyyat will steer this holy Ark between fearful rocks and will bring it safe to port. This is my faith and I am firmly established in it. The reason of those to whom the leadership of divine movements is committed is placed under Divine guidance; they are bestowed light by God Almighty, and his angels guard them. They are supported by the gracious attri- butes of God. When they pass on from the world and present themselves before their Maker, the projects they embark upon continue to make progress and God Almighty makes them suc- cessful and prosperous. The Community made an eager response to everyone of the demands made by the Khalifatul Masih and from the very start the Tahrik Jadeed began to produce very encouraging results. In the beginning the Khalifatul Masih had made participation in Tahrik Jadeed voluntary, but before the