Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 274
274 AHMADIYY AT expiry of its initial period of three years he made it compul- sory upon the whole Community and made it permanent. Large numbers of volunteers were trained to work in various capacities in the different branches of the Tahrik. Literature needed for the exposition of the purposes, teachings and beliefs of the Movement was prepared and printed. In short everything in the Movement was charged with new life and a new spirit under the impact of the Tahrik. The most striking activity of the Tahrik was the network of foreign missions that was progressively spread into many countries of the world, so that there is scarcely a region in which missions have not been established by now, or at least into which the literature of the Movement has not pene- trated. Some idea of the progress made so far in the achieve- ment'of the purposes of the Tahrik may be formed from the fact that the budget of the Tahrik has risen from the original Rs 27,500 to a million and a half rupees today. This does not take into account extraordinary expenditure that is incurred in respect of special projects in different parts of the world. As time has passed the Tahrik has added to its original objectives diverse types ofbeneflcent projects; schools, dispensaries and hospitals have been opened in widely separated regions of the earth. Mosques have been built in all the continents. For all these projects finance has had to be provided through special funds running into thousands, and on occasions into hundreds of thousands, of pounds sterling. There are flour- ishing branches of the Movement in more than forty coun- tries, while individual members and small groups are scat- tered all round the globe. All this activity is instrumental in the effort of achieving the ultimate purpose of the Movement, 'namely, the cultiva- tion of the highest moral and spiritual qualities, seeking all the time to establish communion with God for the purpose of winning His pleasure and rendering beneficent service to His creatures without any discrimination. In 1935 a controversy arose in which the Movement was not directly involved but in which its sympathies were with