An Introduction to Financial Sacrifice — Page 56
56 ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE TARDY IN PAYING CHANDAS On the occasion of Mush a wrat in 1941, 70 Hadrat Khalifatul Masih II ra said: "During the debate over the budget, someone suggested that the budget of the Jam a ‘ats should be made without including those who are tardy in paying Chandas …I ought to say something about this. The fact is that if we were to permit the Jam a ‘ats not to include the weak members in their budgets and to draw up their budgets excluding them, this would amount to suicide. If the Jam a ‘ats are permitted to exclude such people who seem tardy to their eyes, then the number of such persons would increase day by day. Today we have one, tomorrow there will be two, and then three and so on. And in this situation if the budget is 400 rupees today, next year it will be 350 rupees, the following year it will come down to 300, because each time they will say that this many people have become tardy and we have not included them in the budget. Moreover, what merit do they have if they send their Chandas by excluding the tardy members? This would lead to winning undue praise because those who are giving are giving by themselves and not because of your effort…Hence this is not only wrong but also very harmful for the Jam a ‘at. In this manner, not only will the Jam a ‘at be unworthy of any praise, but even the individuals, instead of making progress, will begin to show signs of regression. And when you remove the names of the tardy members from your lists, you will not be thinking of reforming them. And slowly their faith will be lost. ABOUT BUSINESSMEN In connection with a proposal for not taking oath from the businessmen about their income, but only 70 From the speeches of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih II ra.