Truth Prevails — Page 130
( 130 ) that, as such, it needed to be carefully kept under control; and this is a point where even Maulvi Mohammad Ali agrees with him. After a long experience as head of the Lahore Section, in 1937 he advised his followers: “Allah… in the absence of a man, forbade that anything should be said against him, even what was true. ” ( Paigham-i-Sulha , April 27, 1937) Again he says: “Get rid of the disease of finding faults in other people. Seek the shelter of God against it. Pull yourself back from things which tend to weaken the Jama’at. There just is not a thing that is faultless. If you remain intent on this, you will not be able to accomplish anything. ” Again: “If you decide that your aim is to find faults in others, your real work will come to an end. Therefore, avoid criticising others, and learn to repudiate everything harmful for the community. ” But curiously enough, just the things which our friends of the Lahore Section have been condemning in us as blind worship of pirs , at other times become identically just the kind of things which we find Maulvi Mohammad Ali trying to cultivate in his own people. For instance: “The basis of organisation is just one thing: Listen, and obey. Unless this spirit is cultivated; unless all train themselves that they respond unitedly, and immediately, when the gesture comes unless all rise to the same level and quality of obedience, progress is almost impossible. ” (Khutba, Paigham-i-Sulha , Feb. 27, 1937). And then the Paigham-i-Sulha itself says: “Unless the reins are held by a leader to whom the people are pledged to make financial, intellectual, and all other kinds of sacrifices, permanent and lasting progress is not possible. This will come only when the control of the entire affairs of the Community is vested in one man whom all are pledged to obey. All individual members should jump into action when he gives the signal. All eyes should remain rivetted on his lips. The moment they move to give a command, all should hasten to carry it out. ” ( Paigham-i-Sulha , February 7, 1937). If Hazrat Khalifatul Masih gave this training to his followers, our friends of the Lahore Section took it as the worship of a pir , as blind hero worship. But, after an experience of 33 years, they learnt that this was essential for progress in every field; and they tried to vest the qualities of this kind of