Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 209
10 March 1908 209 400,000 or more. If only 10,000 of them, even if they are poor farmers, make it obligatory upon themselves to pay just eight annas [coins used at that time] and pay every month regularly, we could receive adequate aid of 5,000 rupees every month to attend to the needs of religion. And this task can be accom- plished by ardent, hardworking, and honest preachers who would keep people apprised of religious needs. The Promised Messiah as said: By assessing the volume of mail, one can see how many people write letters of Bai’at [Pledge of Allegiance] to me on a daily basis. Besides, hardly any week passes by when ten to twenty people do not do the Bai’at. The number of people in these registers of Bai’at is thus growing every day but this register (of those who pay the contribution on regular basis) is still the same and does not show much progress. The real reason is indeed that people do the Bai’at through letters or by coming here and leaving, and there is no satisfactory system in place to inform them of the needs of the Movement. In my opinion, Maulawi Fateh Din is a suitable person for this task. He is sincere and honest, and his speech is also quite effective. His poetry in Punjabi—which is the mother tongue of this land and is understood well by the people—is also quite effective. In my estimation, he would not only be able to preach and propagate [the Faith], but also a proper arrangement for collection of funds will be made possible thereby.