Conditions of Bai'at and Responsibilities of an Ahmadi — Page 233
The Spiritual Revolution 233 Lottery is Not Permissible Hadrat Munsh i Barkat ‘Al i Kh a n ra , a Companion of the Promised Messiah as , was employed at Simla. Before becoming an Ahmad i , he had bought a lottery ticket which later won him a sum of rup ee s seven and a half thousand. When he asked H u du r about it H u du r deemed it gambling and said: ‘Do not spend a penny of it on yourself. ’ Munsh i Sahib gave away all the money to the needy and the disadvantaged. (Summarized from A sha b-e-Ahmad, vol. 3, p. 33, published in 1957) These days it is customary in Europe and the West to play the lottery. The prize money for those who play and win is certainly not permissible, in fact it is h ar a m in the same sense as the money from gambling is h ar a m. In the first place it should not be played, and if by mistake it is done, then the prize money should never be spent on oneself. An incident relates to your own country England regarding Bash i r Orchard who accepted Ahmadiyyat and brought on many changes in himself and later devoted his life. He accepted Ahmadiyyat in 1944 and took some religious educa- tion in Qadian for a while and as I said, devoted his life. After that a most magnificent revolution came in his life. His worship and prayer got extremely fervent. His first visit to Qadian bore the first fruit for him in quitting alcohol. Though he was a heavy drinker, he promptly gave up drinking. He repented from alcohol and from gambling and gave them up forever. (Summarized from Al-Fa d l, January 10, 1978, ‘A zi m Zindag i , p. 3)