Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 48
48 The Need for and Significance of Tabligh in Women Excerpts from Sermon Delivered b y Hazrat Mirza Bashir - u d - D in Mahmud Ahmad, Khalifat - ul - Masih II ra October 14, 1949 Special N eed for Tabligh to W omen …. A lthough Islam has give n women freedo m , however the freedoms of the western societies keep them from accepting Ahmadiyyat. Once th is freedom keep s a woman from accepting Ahmadiyyat , the mother then prevent s her children from accepting it. Furthermore, she will keep her husband from accepting Ahmadiyyat , for if he accepts it, her freedoms will undergo a change. As a result, some women have become a hindrance to our t abligh [propagation of the faith]. As time passes , this circle of interference will only grow wider because once this message spreads into the big ger cities , it will travel from larg e towns to small villages. Women are more of a hindrance to our tabligh of Ahmadiyyat than men. I once gave a lecture to the military officers in Quet t a. When these officers went back to their homes, the ir women rebuked them. They asked their husbands, “Why did you go to the meeting of Ahmadi s?” Some of these men were very close to accepting Ahmadiyyat , but they turned away solely due to the opposition of their wives. One wife told her husband, who was an army officer, “Ahmadis teach the practice of purdah , they instruct the teaching of marrying more than one wife. If you go to their meetings, then our staying together will prove difficult. ” Ahmadiyyat incorporates the permission of polygamy , the teaching of purdah , and other matters related specifically to women , which today’s women wish to erase. This is the reason why these women are standing in the way of tabligh and they are continuing to grow as obstacles. These obstacles continue to increase day by day. These women think that because of purdah , they will be kept inside the home without any reason, and they will be forbidden from meeting other men. The y feel