Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 170
170 acquiring additional religious education becomes very easy. The best way to educate our women to this level, is for every single educated woman to pledge that they wi ll return to their hometowns and educate at least one or two unlettered women. At this Jalsa, I estimate there are more or less eight to nine thousand women in attendance. I f from among these, we take five to six thousand women who have com e from outside and they complete this project , then by next year not only with in our Jama'at , but from around the country , the level of education will substantially increase. However , this also calls for men to cooperate with women in this regard. They should help women by buying them guides and notebooks, and they can help in many other ways as well. ” Try to I ncrease y our Income The third thing which I would propose for both men and women is that each and every one among us use s our manual skills to bring in additional income other than that wh ich we can earn from regular businesses, employments, or services. I n the case of a poor person , a portion of this additional income could be given to the Jam a ‘at and in the case of a well - off person , the full amount could be given to the Jam a ‘at. For example, our unlettered people usually face hardships in writing letter s. One of our well - educated pe ople could write such letters for a paisa or so and then donate that money to the Jama'at. In making this extra income in addition to your regular income, on the one hand our Jama'at and Islam benefits , and t he gap between the rich and the poor will also diminish. This will help eliminate resentment between the two classes. In the history of our renowned Muslim ancestors, we frequently read that they used to make money from their manual skills. I n fact , they did [these things] because of the same underlying wisdom. Women could act upon this suggestion by weaving cotton or making paranday [ a decorative headpiece] and azaarbands [ woven bands for the trousers ]. In short, I would like for each of us, whether they be men or women, to act upon this particular initiative and try to earn additional income by working with their hands an d then offer th is extra income as chanda. ” ( Al - Musleh , 5 January 1953, p p. 2 - 3)