(During a walk)
The Promised Messiah (as) said:
Even the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, encountered the need for financial contributions to attend to religious needs. At present, our Jama’at numbers 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 accomplished 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.
In reply to some inquiry by Maulawi Fateh Din, the Promised Messiah (as) said:
When God is pleased with His servant, He Himself grants him grandeur and an awe-inspiring presence because truth is accompanied by grandeur and awe.
Look, Abu Jahl and his ilk strutted about as if they were the great men in Makkah at that time, but in reality all their arrogance and grandiosity were fictitious. Their greatness was mortal. Thus, see the result for yourself: where did their glory and pomp go?
The fact of the matter is that true awe and real grandeur are granted to those people who first bring about a death upon their own selves for the sake of God, who exchange their own greatness and glory for humility, meekness, and submissiveness. Only then does God Himself elevate them as they had spent everything they had for Him and He blesses them through a manifestation of His power.
Consider the case of Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) and Umar (ra). Had they permitted only their former family honour and greatness to linger in their hearts, and had not surrendered everything for the sake of God, the most they could have achieved was to be some a big shot in Makkah. But no, God Almighty found the inner condition of their hearts to be replete with sincerity. In the path of God, they cared naught for their personal greatness, grandeur, and majesty. They sacrificed everything and became humble, meek, and submissive for the sake of God. How then did Allah the Exalted bless them! What grandeur and dominion was bestowed upon them!
At that time, could any Arab have even imagined all that was bestowed upon them by God? Certainly not. This was true grandeur and true awe and not that of Abu Jahl and his ilk. These true honours are given only to those who first bring about a kind of death upon their own selves for the sake of God.
The Promised Messiah (as) said:
The key is to be patient. Progress is being made and people are beginning to accept in their hearts. The Movement has almost reached the corners of the world. Sometimes I even receive letters from people—some being heads of states—who have not yet done Bai’at, requesting me to pray for them in different matters. The truth is that the hearts of people have become convinced [of my truth]. I have persistently made my claim for twenty-six or twenty-seven years and God Almighty has helped it [my Movement] grow day by day.
Ever since the beginning of the world, there is no precedent that some liar against Allah was granted this long a respite and was granted such acceptance and progress, and heavenly and earthly Signs were shown to testify for him. These things ultimately have an impact upon hearts. One should not get frustrated. One should pray and be patient and persevere.
While returning from the walk, a peasant named Mangoo, resident of Bhini, offered greetings and shook the hand of the Promised Messiah (as). He requested the Promised Messiah (as) to stop for a little while as he wanted to present some sugar canes as a gift to him.
The Promised Messiah (as) said, ‘There is no need for it. You have received your reward from Allah. Do not inconvenience yourself now.’ But he insisted.
The Promised Messiah (as) said, ‘Alright! You may give them to Miyan Shadi Khan and he will bring them for me.’
However, this person rather humbly requested him to make a stop and that all the companions of the Promised Messiah (as) should accept the treat of sugar canes. He held on to the Promised Messiah (as) and took him by his hand to his field. The Promised Messiah (as) smiled and walked around in his field for a few minutes. In the meantime he brought a pile of sugar canes. The companions of the Promised Messiah (as) all took the sugar canes.
Before leaving, the Promised Messiah (as) called him up with much kindness and inquired about his name etc. He then departed with a smile on his face due to this display of sincerity and love of the man. The kindness and graciousness of the Promised Messiah (as) had a special impact on his companions. This was but one example of his great morals.
The Promised Messiah (as) said:
Even after the passage of thousands of years, some influence or expression of the original teachings of a religion does survive among its followers by way of a seed. Were there any aspect of monotheistic teaching in the Vedas, its impact would have been evident in its followers at least to some extent. We see tens of millions of forms of idolatry being practiced among them. There are hundreds of thousands of temples that house all kinds of idols. In fact, most of them have vulgar and naked figures providing the world a glimpse into the true nature of their culture and of the Vedic teachings. From the intellectual point of view, the true nature of their teachings is exposed in the books that were written by them in disputation with Islam before the time of Dayanand.
Thus, those people would constantly present their arguments in favour of idolatry against the Muslim Unitarians from the holy books of theirs; i.e., the Vedas. All their striving served to vindicate the worship of different idols. Except for the few men produced by Dayanand, all their earlier great scholars and learned people believed in the worship of idols. Now, how can we consider these many hundreds of thousands of pundits and earlier elders of the Hindu faith to be wrong as opposed to these few followers of the Dayanand thinking? وَالْفَضْلُ لِلْمُتَقَدِّمِ [Ancestors have preference.]
There can only be two possible explanations. Either this precept of Tauhid [the Oneness of God] is an innovation of Pundit Dayanand conceived by him after observing the current thinking and enlightenment of this age, but has no basis in the Vedas which propound the old and fundamental doctrine of idol worship that has been established by the millions upon millions of rishis [sages] and pundits of the Hindus with their practical example over an enormous span of time. Or, if we accept Pundit Dayanand to be true in his claim and we concede that all the predecessors who were the original inheritors and devotees of those scriptures were wrong, then we would have to believe that the Vedas are mute and totally incapable of enunciating their purport.
There is a world of difference between Tauhid and idol worship and yet both these concepts are alleged to have originated from the same holy scriptures; i.e., the Vedas. On the one hand, earlier Hindus prove idol worship on the basis of the same Vedas and debate with the believers in the Oneness of God, while on the other hand, people of the current generation who subscribe to Dayanand’s thinking—who are the generation far behind the former, both in terms of time and [knowledge of its] language—cull Tauhid from the very same books and are averse to idol worship. Regardless, one has to admit that either the esteemed leaders of the past were right or the Vedas are mute, and are incapable and incompetent in articulating their intent.
Has anyone ever seen or heard of a Muslim subscribing to the worship of idols and praying to statues? The Holy Quran has expounded the doctrine of Tauhid in such a lucid manner with clear and convincing arguments that the notion or prospect of idol worship has never crossed the mind of any Muslim.
The Promised Messiah (as) said:
I have settled all the objections of these people in a comprehensive manner once and for all in my book, Chashma-e-Ma‘rifat. I am confident that if any seeker after truth, setting aside prejudice and obstinacy, reads this book of mine from beginning to end for the purpose of finding the truth, would—at the very least—never speak or write against Islam. The prerequisite is that one should read it with full attention from end to end with a fair mind.1
1 Al-Hakam, vol. 12, no. 19, p. 3–4, dated 14 March 1908