Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 276
276 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in accordance with their own benighted sense. Hence, where such people will be met with hell in the hereafter, they shall not be free and safe from the hell of this world either. For the hell of this world only serves as an argument and proof in favour of the hell that is to come. 1 The Duty of Preaching The unworthy and vile do not have it within them to lend an ear to a word of truth, rectitude and wisdom. Whenever divine insight or a point of wisdom is put before them, they do not pay attention; in fact they ignore it with no concern. There is no doubt that those who speak the truth are also few and far between. Those who preach the truth purely for the sake of Allah Almighty are very few in number—as though there was no one at all. Generally, there are preachers who exhort others, but their actual purpose and objective is nothing but to receive from others and earn the world. When this motive is mixed with their counsel, the truth and divine nature of their words is overshadowed by the darkness of their vested interest, and the fragrance of that pleasure and insight which reaches the heart and mind on hearing the Word of God, and which perfumes the soul, is suppressed by the stench of selfishness and materialism. Even in the very same gathering, people will say: ‘Sir! All these words are for nothing more than to earn you bread and butter. ’ There is no doubt that many people have turned the enjoining of good and the forbidding of evil into a means of livelihood, but everyone is not of this nature. There are pure-hearted individuals as well who convey the words of God and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to the people only because they are commissioned to enjoin goodness and forbid evil, and they consider this task to be an obligation, and through this they desire to seek the pleasure of Allah Almighty. The duty of preaching is a position of lofty stature, and as it were, possesses within it the nature and grandeur of prophethood, provided that one does not neglect the fear of God. A person who exhorts others receives an opportunity to particularly reform their own selves as well, because in the least, it is necessary for a person to show others that they practice what they preach. In any case, if an individual enjoins good, even if it comes from a vested interest or motive, a person should not turn away from it, just because the individual who exhorts them does so for some 1 Al-Hakam , vol. 4, no. 33, dated 16 September 1900, pp. 6-7