The Detroit Address — Page 9
9 while others presented refundable trust money. A study of the Ahmadiyya Movement would reveal that for years, finan- cial constraints were of such great magnitude that the func- tionaries were paid their meager allowances out of loaned and borrowed funds. Allowances given to the present day life devotees bear no comparison with allowances paid at that time. The allowances paid in those early days were hardly enough for survival, and as I have said, the Jam a ‘at barely managed to give them after several months. Under these strained and desperate circumstances, a dervish1 devotee was sent by the Ahmadiyya Jam a ‘at to the United States with the message of Islam. This indeed was the point that Hadrat N uh as was trying to explain to his people. He was least interested in their wealth. He and his follow- ers were making sacrifices even before giving any advice or guidance to others. Why then didn’t N uh ’s as people under- stand that greatness was not in being wealthy? Real greatness lays in mans’ nobility and his relationship with God. N uh ’s as nation wanted him to notice and honor the affluent. How could N uh as honor the rich and turn away from the poor who were ready to offer everything for the sake of God and who came to him to serve God’s true religion? Should he as throw them away because they were penni- less, or because they had no worldly status, or discard them because of the color of their skin was black? Or because they 1. A dervish is a person who leaves all the pleasures and comforts of this world and devotes his life to God. [Publisher]