After the moral education of a child, the question arises: How can it be safeguarded against sin?
Before turning to the main theme, I would like to impress upon you the importance of Zikr-i-ILahi — Remembrance of God. Remember, you are not here to witness a show or attend a carnival. You are here to listen to and meditate on things divine. Therefore, do not forget to observe the proprieties. I am afraid some of us fail to maintain the sanctity of the occasion. They keep coming and going or indulge in small talk. I know all those who are attending this session are not Ahmadis. At a guess, some eight hundred to one thousand non-Ahmadis are also present. They are not accustomed to listening to long speeches with sustained attention; nor for that matter, can they exercise as much self-control as the members of the Movement can. Little wonder, therefore, if they are restless and keep moving. But they are not the only ones who move. In all innocence, Ahmadis too do so possibly to convey on their own, the message of Ahmadiyyat to their non-Ahmadi brethren. But remember, your primary duty is to your ownselves. Hazrat Abu Bakr has related that the Holy Prophet — on him be peace and blessings — said: When you are struggling for salvation and light, you are not supposed to give up your struggle and perish under the mistaken notion of saving others. How willingly should you sacrifice life and property for the faith! A believer would not think of bartering faith with wealth, were it the wealth of the entire world. Therefore, if you have to leave the session on account of some urgent need, do so by all means but come back as soon as you are able to. You never can tell when that fateful moment might arrive for which one waits a lifetime. A word on such an occasion could turn disbelievers into believers, the satanic into the sublime. Look at Hazrat Omar’s episode. His opposition to the Holy Prophet was extreme. But he was transformed by a single statement he happened to hear. He had set out to assassinate the Holy Prophet when he found to his chagrin that his own sister had embraced Islam. He went straight to her house in a huff and found his sister and his brother-in-law listening to the recitation of the Holy Quran. Enraged, he rushed in and started beating his brother-in-law whom his wife tried to protect. In the process, she received some injuries. When Omar perceived this, he was penitent. The sister exclaimed: Omar, are you furious at us because we have come to believe in one God? Omar was shaken and asked his sister to let him hear what was being recited. The sister replied: Not as you are. First clean yourself. After he had washed, the Holy Quran was recited to him. The recitation moved him to such an extent that he burst into tears. He went straight to the Holy Prophet — on him be peace and blessings — and announcing himself knocked at the door. Some of those who were inside felt that Omar being a hard man might be bent on creating trouble. The door, they thought, should not be opened. But Hazrat Hamza declared that if Omar had come with ill intent, they too had swords. The Holy Prophet — on him be peace –, however, permitted Omar to enter. When the Holy Prophet saw him, he asked: Omar, how long will you continue to oppose me? Omar replied: My master, I have come to submit and offer allegiance. Ponder, therefore, how Hazrat Omar was guided to the truth. If he had not visited his sister at that particular moment, he might well have remained unguided and without faith throughout his life. You have a full year at your disposal to relax. Try, therefore, to listen to the word of God for a few days at least and allow not a moment to go waste. One thing more. As I told you yesterday, I have started translating the Holy Quran. Through Allah’s grace, the translation of Baqarah, the Second Chapter, was finished on December 20, 1925. It is hoped that the first volume comprising the first seven chapters and a half will be published during the coming year. It is my wish and prayer and I request you also to pray for me that if nothing untoward happens, I may be able to discharge this sacred duty and prepare the translation and exposition of the Holy Quran as soon as possible.
There is another matter I would like to mention. Yesterday I reminded you of the financial difficulties the Jamaat is facing. I want to add that we should not be perturbed by difficulties for this too is a sign of our truth. Incidentally, it reminds me of a French writer who says: I have read scores of books which describe Muhammad, on whom be peace, as false. But all such books leave me unmoved in the face of a strange sight. I find Muhammad among his companions poor, ragged and illiterate. They are sitting in a small room which is known as the Mosque. The roof is a rough thatch of date leaves. When it rains, the water percolates to the floor. When they pray, they have literally to prostrate themselves in inches of water. Not one is fully clad. Yet behold, the Prophet is seeking their advice about how to conquer the world! And he does in fact conquer the world! When seen against the background of this strange spectacle, millions of derogatory pages pale into sheer insignificance.
It was exactly like this when the Promised Messiah — on him be peace — declared that he had been commissioned a prophet. Had he been immediately accepted by chiefs and kings we would have been hard put to it to prove that the success which he eventually attained was an act of God. It would rather have appeared to be the act of Chiefs and Kings. All his kith and kin turned against him when he made his claim. Maulvi Muhammad Husain of Batala, his greatest erstwhile friend and admirer, declared that his brain had become unhinged. He announced that it was he who had projected and promoted him and that now he alone would degrade him. The religious doctors of the entire Muslim world rose in opposition to him. Muslim divines of the Arab and non-Arab countries issued edicts against him. He faced this global opposition, alone. He conceded that he was single-handed, that he had no supporter and the world at large was opposed to him. But he posed this simple question: What shall I do with this word of God which I distinctly hear: A warner was sent unto this world; the world accepted him not; but Allah will accept him and establish his truth with mighty signs. How can I disregard this divine voice, he asked?
At the time, the Government too was hostile to him. So were the people. But what was the end result? He was alone on one side and the rest of the world was on the other. You do not have to go far. Look at this large gathering! Those present here are his devoted followers; and there are millions more who are not present here.
Last year during my visit to Syria, a renowned writer of Damascus who is an acknowledged master and stylist of Arabic literature, derisively said to me: Do not try to publish in these parts the books written by Mirza Sahib — the Promised Messiah — for they contain a number of errors. When they come across these errors, people here will form not a very complimentary opinion about him. I said: All right, I am here before you; I shall not leave until I prove the hollowness of your charge. I invite you to raise as many objections against his writings as you possibly can and I shall rebut every one of them. He said: I am a well-wisher; I do not want to join issue with you. I said: You must, if you possibly can. He said: No, you will lose face. I said: If we are pretenders, it is your duty to expose us. If we are based on truth, your criticism will not harm us. In fact, it will be helpful. But he failed to set forth any objection. However, he added apropos of nothing in particular, that Arabs would never accept a non-Arab as the Promised Messiah. I said: I am going to establish an Ahmadiyya Mission here. We will also organise a community here. You are welcome to do all you can to stop us from doing so. My visit to Syria was to last only for five days, But God be praised, a surprising thing happened. On the eve of my departure from Damascus, a scholar and master of Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages, sent me a letter at 10 p.m. He wrote that he had been waiting to see me since morning and was not sure if he would be able to see me at all. Hence the letter. He affirmed his faith in the Promised Messiah. He also offered to be posted as a missionary wherever I liked. Now we have a full-fledged mission and a community in Damascus. Even the gentleman who had predicted no Arab would accept Ahmadiyyat has sent word that his bona fides should not be doubted and that he would never oppose the Movement.
Therefore, do not be perturbed that you are poor and weak. Any one who believes that poverty and weakness are a bar to success, is guilty of setting up associates with God; for he mistakenly thinks that it is because of his person who considers himself useless is equally guilty of ascribing to the All-Knowing God the error of choosing a useless tool — his ownself — to bring about a spiritual revolution in the world. If a soldier armed with a damaged gun or a broken sword sets out to face the enemy, could he be called a good soldier? If not, then how can he be useless whom God selects to serve his cause? Indeed, he it is who has a function to perform. He whom God chooses is not to be despised. Indeed he alone is honourable.
Did not a chief of Medina announce some thirteen hundred years ago that the most honoured resident of Medina would expel the least honoured resident — by which he meant the Holy Prophet? Referring to him, God says: He says honour belongs to him alone. The truth is that honour consists in accepting the Messenger of God. The result of his boast was that his own son waited on the Holy Prophet — on whom be peace — and made the following submission:
Messenger of Allah, I have heard of what my father has said. For this he deserved capital punishment. I request that I may be appointed to carry out his execution for I fear that if anyone else is allowed to do it, may be Satan may cause me to think ill of him.
These words uttered by his own son must have brought home to his father the hollowness of his boast.
Therefore, do not harp on the inadequacy of your means, knowledge or status. The means which built the community to its present size were much too inadequate compared to our present means. If hundreds have been able to attract millions to the fold, why cannot millions attract billions.
The other day I saw a vision. I found myself delivering the Friday sermon and saying that we must take good care of the health of our children for the burden we carry will increase a thousand-fold when their turn comes to carry it.
Our future generations will witness how the major powers of the world will have to accept the fact that Ahmadiyyat can no longer be destroyed or ignored. But God will not rest content with this much alone. He will continue to enlarge the community until the world acknowledges that Ahmadiyyat, the true Islam, is the one and only faith in the world. The Promised Messiah — on him be peace — when he was all alone, announced that Allah had told him that his community would attain such heights of eminence as to make other communities look like gypsies. Some will believe today, some tomorrow and others the day after. Thus will the community continue to increase in numbers and in strength. The rich and the poor, the commoners and the aristocracy, the rulers and the ruled will all accept the Promised Messiah as the true prophet of God until the community representing true Islam will stand out prominently alone and other disciplines will pale before its lustre just as the stars pale into insignificance before the sun.
These are the words of God. They are bound to be fulfilled sooner or later. No obstacle can shake our faith, nor can any opposition cause us to despair. He who has seen the community grow from one to millions, cannot lose hope of its future progress. We are not so wanting in faith. We have witnessed hundreds of thousands of heavenly signs and the fulfillment of so many divine promises. How can we ever doubt our future? True, we are weak. We do not have the strength or the necessary wherewithal. But it is not we who will conquer the world but God who has all the strength and the power. Therefore, let us not be discouraged by difficulties and obstacles. Let us have unswerving faith in the fulfillment of the promises that God has made.
Now I turn to the main subject. After the moral training of a child how can it be safeguarded against sin?
The answer is that human nature is diverse; therefore, you cannot afford to generalise. The same recipe cannot be helpful in all cases. Even a physical ailment does not admit of the same treatment for every patient. Take the case of the common cold. To some, a cup of tea can provide instant relief. In the case of another, sweetened curd or whey is helpful. There are still others who require a prolonged medical treatment. There are those whom medicine can help while there are others who simply baffle medical experts. Why? The answer is simple. Different people suffer not from one but from different diseases. Therefore, they also require different kinds of treatment. The same is true about other areas of human life. Human beings differ. This difference, therefore, has to be kept in mind in prescribing treatment. Following the same principle, I will now discuss how sin may be avoided.
First of all, let us consider the human type which is pure and undefiled, can make use of reason and act in the light of its verdict.