Blessings of Khilafat — Page 140
140 address is meant for him; and should there be a person with the most base and impure morals, I am speaking to him as well. Those who think that an address is not meant for them, rather is meant for others, deprive only themselves. It is narrated that, in order to test his courtiers’ loyalty, a king ordered everyone of them to pour a receptacle of water into a specific pond. When they left for their homes, all of them wondered why they should burden themselves with carrying a receptacle of water and pouring it into the pond. How could those ministers and elite for whom it was difficult to even lift a fallen handkerchief carry a receptacle of water! Every one of them thought that the pouring of merely one receptacle of water by him was not going to fill the pond anyway. Thousands will pour their receptacles. The king would never come to know whether someone poured his due or not, and so every one of them, having thought the same thing, failed to pour the water. Therefore the pond remained dry. When the king arrived to inspect it, he found the pond to be completely dry. He reproached all the courtiers telling them to have shame and asking them if this was the way to execute an order. But instead of being ashamed and regretful, everyone started reproaching the others: ‘Why didn’t you pour your receptacle? I thought everyone would pour his, so it should cause no harm if I failed to pour mine. Your slackness has resulted in my disgrace. ’ Thus, every one of them tried to lay the blame for his own laziness and inefficiency upon the others. Therefore, if all the listeners of lectures think that the address is not meant for them and someone else is being addressed, the consequence will be that all will remain ignorant as ever. But if everyone should think that whatever has been said is meant for