Malfuzat – Volume I — Page 122
122 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad far as possible, a person must not neglect the importance of doctrine, morals and deeds. You can understand with your own observation that until a person makes use of their faculties, they cannot progress. Or if a person is turned from away their actual purpose and objective, and are made to work in a way for which they have not been created, in this case as well, they will not progress. If the eye were to be kept shut for forty days, it would lose its capacity to see. It is necessary to first engage one's faculties in the work for which they have been created, after which further progress may be achieved. It is my own personal experience that when I make the utmost use of my own practical capacities, Allah the Exalted blesses them even further. The essence is that first a person must correct their own doctrines, morals and deeds and then pray (Guide us in the right path). It is then that this supplication will truly manifest its effects. اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ A Community Blessed with God's Mercy It becomes particularly evident that this blessed community has been born in an era of newly emerging calamities. Mankind is advancing towards sin and vice at the rate of a falling rock. The reason this ummah has been described as a com- munity blessed with divine mercy (ummat-e-marhumah) is due to the rampant proliferation of sin. In this context, Allah the Exalted states: ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ Corruption has appeared on land and sea. In another instance, He states: يُحْى الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا He gives life to the earth after its death. A study of these verses makes it evident that in both instances Allah the Exalted has provided two illustrations. In the first verse, God describes the era in which our Noble Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was born. At that time, since the state of the world had become immensely pitiable and cried for mercy, and all traces of morality, good deeds and sound doctrine had vanished, this community was referred to as a community blessed with divine mercy. ' For 1 ar-Rum, 30:42 ar-Rum, 30:20