Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 199
Khilafat Centenary attitude of the office bearers. They seek Allah's help and then they wait for the work to come to them. When the work doesn't come to you, you have to create work. This is th~ particular attitude that I have in mind in which most office bearers are lacking. 4. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih rvr ta emphasized 3 essential steps in successful discharge of the responsibility; assessing the problem with all its caveats; devising a strategy to deal with the problem in small practical and measureable steps and developing a team to assist in the work and securing the progress; and implementation with a focused and fanatic dedication to the task. Define the problem: Have you fixed a zero point from where you have to take over and make a start on to wherever you plan to establish improvements in your work, in the area of your interest or do you take it just haphazardly? When you are made responsible for tarbiyyat of the jama'at, how can you propose any meaningful plan and later on execute that plan yourself unless you know the areas of weakness and flaws, unless you scan the entire jama'at of America-- But in principle, remember this - that, first of all, you must chalk out a complete plan; chalk out a complete plan of action after collecting the data on the existing facts. Without collecting the data on the existing facts, without testing people of different ages to have a sample before you;without doing this, you can't collect the data I am talking about. So this the exercise of tarbiyyat, Secretary Tarbiyyat, to at least know what is there in United States, what state exists, what is the situation of Ahmadis at every level; it 's not just a question of youth, children, or old people. Devise a detailed plan : He should attempt to divide his own work into smaller easy steps. First of all he should realize where problems lie, how much is the size of the problems. Then he should plan how to attack the problems and then he should plan how to attack the problems and then he should divide his own time into easy steps whereby he would ultimately be able to improve the situation relating to tarbiyyat. He can have a small target fixed before him for the first say 15 days or 1 month, but the target should be precise and the target should be such that, once achieved, it should have the capability off urther expanding itself. So every secretary, in his area of work, should produce "live work" where those Ahmadis who were inactive previously, when they become active, they enroll others and take up the issue in their own hands. They should be charged with the spirit of becoming "slaves of Allah," that is, the worshippers and [they should] call others to the path of Allah, which they have followed. So whenever, out of your persuasions, whatever measures you take to persuade people, you excite them to a level of obedience, willing obedience to you, then you must do something to fix them on to a state where they are involved in the work permanently. And always keep in view that those whom you retrieve must become your workers. So it is the task load which is the best instuctor during my experience of work everywhere, in every field. Immediately entrust them with tasks and load them with responsibilities and duties. Dedicated implementat i on : Now this can only happen if some secretary works tirelessly and the secretaries can only work tirelessly when they obsess with their task, not otherwise. When it becomes madness with them. They take it up and do it and continue doing it. It's only attitude. So you must fall in love with your work, you must make it your own. Every work other than that should be secondary. Then your task will become easy and pleasant. It's not laborious anymore. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masihru discussed the work of tarbiyyat to demonstrate why the data collection at the outset is essential and how to devise a practical strategy. 5. In his discourse Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih rv rta singled out 'Namaaz' and 'truthfulness' as the most important areas of Tarbiyyat and discussed their significance. So these are two wings of tarbiyyat which must be taken up simultaneously because if truth is not established, prayer will be meaningless. If prayer is not established, truth will not really be gained because after a while, it is the prayer which reminds you of truth, constantly, daily, five times, and more than that. And then both mutually help each other but our effort with the material we have here must begin at both levels simultaneously. 6. Regarding Namaaz, Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih rvrta I 199