Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 216
! ! 216 Some Important Points on the Education and Training of Ahmadi Women Delivered by Hazrat Mirza Bashir - ud - D in Mahmud Ahmad , Khalifat - ul - Masih II ra May 1926 Lajna Ima’illah arranged a reception for Haz rat Maul vi Muhammad Din, muballigh [missionary] to America. Haz rat Khalifa t - ul - Masih II ra d elivered the following speech on this occasion. Before this event, I had mentioned that a guest’s wife should be invited along with him, and the women who invite him s hould sit on the other side of the partition in keeping with Islam ic customs. I n our Punjabi receptions , it is customary for the host to sit with his hands folded w hile the guests eat. However, the Islam ic way is for the host to eat [with the guests]. European Culture i s Attacking Islam In the past several days, not after, but before my journey to Europe, I perceived that it is not the religion of the West which is attacking Islam but its culture. I wrote of this in an article at the time of m y going to Europe. Their culture has evolved so much , that some negative things appear good, and some good things appear bad. Although our religion communicates the best teachings, it is a matter of them simply being left within the books, with Muslims failing to act upon their religion. S ince Muslims do not implement it and [these teachings] are shut away in a book, we cannot claim to have inculcated them within us, nor are people prepared to believe us. W e will be like the Aryans , who declare that the Vedas mentioned every new invention long befor e [it was created]. If we claim to Europeans that our religion includes all good teachings, they will laugh at us unless we practice them. I have already explained we should reject those European cultur al customs, which are not in accordance with the Holy Qur ’ ān and Hadith. However, those which concur with the