When an effort is made in the cause of the community, it is not necessary that a person’s sacrifice may bear fruit in his lifetime. It is possible that many make sacrifices without seeing any results, and some others may make sacrifices and see the results. The results of national striving should not be seen at an individual level. The nations, who learn this lesson, continue seeing celebration after celebration. But the nations who forget this lesson can never succeed in their objectives.
During the early days of the war between Germany and England, I read in a newspaper that the only son of an eighty years old lady died in the war. The lady was of a good stature so the government thought of consoling her. She received a letter from the war minister inviting her to see him.
It was decided that the war minister himself would honor her and convey the news of the death of her son. The lady came, and the war minister thanked her on behalf of the king, and said, “You have presented the highest sacrifice for your country. Alas, your son has been killed in the war.”
As the lady emerged after listening to the news, her body was shaking with sorrow. It was difficult for her to stand. Her back was bowing. But to show that the death of her son was not a big deal to her, she laughed a fake hysterical laugh, saying, “If my son died, so what! He gave his life for the nation and the country.”
Despite that the observer of this incident was a German enemy, he writes that seeing that scene, his eyes swelled. Imagine that internally her sorrow to her was so great that it was difficult for her to keep standing but to show the observers she made a hard effort to get support from her stick, and said laughing, “It is not a big deal that my son has died. He died for his country.”
These are the people who are not promised a reward in the hereafter. They do not believe in life after death. Their lives pass telling others that there is no life after death. They make a sacrifice and they are not blessed with a celebration. But yet they do not avoid offering sacrifice. They do not ask, “Tell us, will we get a reward for this sacrifice or not?” They know that the life of the nation is their life.
Do not look at your sacrifices wondering whether they will benefit the person making the sacrifice. We should not look at the sacrifices with the point of view of how they will benefit us during our lives. Rather we should look at them with the viewpoint of a member of Ahmadiyyat: If I do not see the day of celebration, but my nation sees that day of celebration one day, it is like I saw that celebration.