Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 114
114 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad preciation. In short, this is Satan’s part as it relates to a preacher or speaker. The share of Satan, as it relates to the audience that listens to an address, is for them to appreciate and praise a speaker for their eloquence, articulate speech, mastery of the language, powerful expression, and for their apt use of poetic verses and stories and jokes that spur laughter, only so that they may be deemed as ones who have an understanding of poetry and prose. In other words, their purpose is far distanced from God, while the speaker has his own motives. The speaker speaks, but not for the sake of God; the audience listens, but does not give these words a place in their hearts because they do not listen for the sake of God. Why does this happen? Only so that they can feel pleasure. Remember! Human beings experience two forms of pleasure: a pleasure of the soul and a pleasure of the baser self. Spiritual pleasure is a fine and profound secret. If someone were to learn about it or if a person was to experience this pleasure and delight even once in their life, this would be enough to intoxicate them and they would lose their senses. Carnal pleasures are always short-lived and temporary. Carnal pleasures refer to the pleasure, for example, with which a harlot dances in the streets, and from whom people also derive a pleasure. For example, when a Muslim cleric sings as he admonishes an audience, this pleases the people who sit before him. In the same manner, people are pleased when they hear a harlot sing. This clearly dem- onstrates that a person’s baser self attains the same pleasure from the address of a preacher, as it does from the singing of a prostitute. Despite knowing full well that the woman before them is a prostitute, whose morals and way of life are ex- tremely despicable, if a person feels a pleasure in her words and songs, and is not averse, or does not perceive a foul smell, then know for certain that this is a carnal pleasure. Otherwise, the soul would never be pleased with such a disgusting and foetid thing. In the example I have just mentioned, the pitiful preacher does not know that he is bereft of purity, just as these members of the audience, who wrong their souls, do not realise that they experience nothing but a baser pleasure that has nothing to do with God. Hence, I seek refuge with God Almighty and pray that may He keep our speeches and speakers, and those who listen to them, free from this foul and im- pure spirit, and may He fill them with a nature that is wholly devoted to God. Whatever we say, may we say for the sake of God and to attain His pleasure; and whatever we hear, may we hear as the words of God and so that we may act upon