In accordance with the above announcement, the Promised Messiah(as) took the pledge of allegiance on March 23, 1889 at the house of Hazrat Sufi Ahmad Jan Sahib located in Mahalla Jadid. As narrated by Hazrat Munshi ‘Abdullah(ra) of Sanour, a register was prepared to record this historical event. It was called bai‘at for repentance, seeking righteousness and purification.
In those days, the Promised Messiah(as) used to invite people one by one to take bai‘at in a room and then he took bai‘at from each person individually. The first person whose bai‘at was accepted was Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din(ra). Admonishing those who took this bai‘at, the Promised Messiah(as) said:
By joining this Jama‘at, you should bring about a complete transformation in your former life so that you have true faith in Allah, and He becomes your Helper in all calamities. You should not take His ordinances lightly, but should rather honour every one of His commandments and prove such honour in your actions.
To turn towards worldly means for various reasons and to place your trust in them instead of trusting Allah amount to making partners with Allah, as if you were denying the existence of God. You should consider worldly means only to the extent that they do not amount to associating partners with Allah. My way is that I do not forbid you from using the worldly means, but I do forbid you from placing your trust in them. Your hand should be engaged in work, but your heart should be attached to the True Beloved.
He also said:
All of you who have taken bai‘at and have made a commitment, listen! To utter these words is easy, but to do justice to them is hard because Satan is always busy trying to make man careless about his faith. Satan shows the world and its benefits to be within reach, and faith to be distant. In this way, the heart is hardened and each subsequent condition is worse than the previous one. If you want to please Allah, put your entire strength and effort to abide faithfully to this commitment of freeing yourself from sins.
He also said:
Utter no words of mischief, spread no evil, bear the rebukes with patience, do not confront anyone, even if someone confronts you, and deal with him with kindness and goodness. Demonstrate a good example of sweetness of conversation. Abide by all commandments with a true heart so that Allah be pleased with you and even the enemy may recognise the change in you after bai‘at. Give true evidence in court cases. All those who join this Movement should establish themselves on truthfulness with full heart, full endeavour, and the entirety of life. (Dhikr-e-Habib, pp. 436–438)
In March 1903, on the day of ‘Eid, some Companions(ra) were sitting together and the Promised Messiah(as) said:
Listen all of you who have taken bai‘at today1 and those who have taken bai‘at before, I would like to say a few words by way of advice. Listen to them carefully. Bai‘at that you have taken today is bai‘at of repentance. Repentance is of two types. One from the previous sins. That is, to reform oneself from the mistakes committed before and to make recompense as far as possible to set right the damage done by them. The second is to safeguard oneself from sins thereafter and to save oneself from the fire.
Almighty Allah has promised that with repentance all prior sins are forgiven provided that the repentance is made with a true heart and pure intent and does not contain any secret mischief in any corner of the heart. Allah knows the hidden secrets of the hearts; He cannot be misled by anyone. Do not try to mislead Him. Make repentance in His presence with truthfulness, not hypocrisy. The repentance is not something extra or useless for man. Its impact is not limited to the Day of Judgement; rather, it straightens both worldly affairs and the faith. The repentant achieves peace and prosperity, both in this life and in the life to come. (Malfuzat, vol. 5. pp. 187–188)
1 It seems that at that time people had gathered together to take bai‘at.