Note: The Alislam Team assumes full responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies in this translation of the Friday Sermon.
January 5, 1923
Topics: Annual Review, Self-Reflection, Unity and Harmony, Personal vs Islamic Interests, Nearness to God, Geometric Principle of Unity, Abu Jahl, Compassion for Humanity
After recitation of Tashahhud, Ta'awwuz, and Surah Al-Fatihah, Huzoor addressed the community:
I am suffering from a cough and fever, and therefore cannot speak at high volume. However, I believe that today is an important day given the current arrangements toward which the world is directing its efforts. Therefore, I shall speak as best as I am able.
Every nation working in the world prepares a program for the future and works according to it. When a year passes, that nation examines the extent to which it has fulfilled the program it had set for that year. If there have been shortcomings in implementing it, they ask: what were the causes? Were they due to our own faults, or to unforeseen circumstances? If due to our own faults, what are the consequences—both from a religious perspective and a natural one? Then they work to remedy the mistakes they have identified. This process continues year after year.
Our past year has also passed—whether for those of advanced age or for the young, whether for women or for children. Everyone, in one way or another, has lived through it. Examine your past year carefully and consider: if it had not passed as it did, but had instead passed differently, it would still have passed. However, while personal desires, aspirations, and hopes were before you, you considered only these as the purpose of your life. But once they passed away, they became insignificant.
Imagine if your past year had not unfolded as you wished, but rather as Islam wished—as humanity's welfare demanded, as the purposes of the Jama'at and the Ahmadiyya community required, as noble character demanded, and as the bonds of family and kinship required. Would there be any real difference in your life? Certainly not.
Now that time has passed when you regarded personal and selfish interests as life's great purpose, and you feared that life would become bitter without them, you will see these things as insignificant. If you reflect upon your past year in this manner, you will gain great benefit for the future and will be able to make your lives far more productive.
Many Ahmadis create quarrels over trivial personal benefits and believe that if things do not go their way, all will be lost. At that moment, they make such matters the foundation of their and their friends' lives. However, I assure you that if they were to cease doing so, they could not only survive but would live with far greater excellence. Regrettably, this understanding is not grasped at the time—only later does it become evident.
Therefore, first reflect upon the past year: those Islamic benefits you sacrificed for personal and selfish gains—if you had not made such sacrifices, would you be living better in this world today, or living as you are now? If you reflect carefully upon this, you will gain strength and assistance for the coming year, and you will be able to sacrifice personal and selfish interests for Islamic interests with ease. Certainly, reflecting once or twice may not yield benefit, but continuous reflection will surely bear fruit.
Now, regarding the future program. This is the distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim: the non-Muslim must contemplate what to do in the future, but for the Muslim, the program is already determined—only its details remain to be arranged.
That program is stated in the Quran 51:57: "And I have not created the jinn and mankind except that they may worship Me." Allah the Almighty declares that He created jinn and humans for the purpose of becoming His servants. Since the Muslim's program is therefore to become a servant of Allah, make this your future program: to prove yourself to be a servant of God.
The servant of God has many duties and responsibilities. The details of these obligations could clarify this matter, but as I have mentioned, I do not have the strength to speak fully today, and time has grown short. However, I must emphasize one important point.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah (as) used to say that during Ramadan, a person should make a covenant: "I shall certainly abandon this particular fault," and in this way, one should progressively eliminate faults. This year, our Jama'at should keep in mind that we must create unity and harmony within the community. Each Ahmadi should provide the means through which unity is produced and should strive to act upon them.
Quarrels and disputes arise merely from trivial personal interests. If these interests are not obtained, there is no real harm, yet people believe great damage has occurred. However, truly very few things cause genuine harm, and we pay no attention to those. Rather, we create disputes over things that cause no harm. For example: there is real loss in not having a relationship with Allah, yet we pay no heed to this. But if money is not gained, we consider it a loss, when in fact much wealth comes with such responsibilities that failing to fulfill them causes us to lose the very relationship with Allah that we should have. Thus many trials arise from misunderstanding the true importance of something, and most quarrels arise from magnifying insignificant matters into something great. Over trivial matters, people create division and strife, or they fight so intensely over minor financial gains that they corrupt their character, cease speaking with their brothers—when in reality, the essence of life, without which true servitude cannot endure, is unity and harmony.
The reason is this: Allah is one being. Just as all things that move toward a single point will draw closer to one another, conversely, all things moving away from that point will grow further apart. Consider a single point: the more the lines approach it, the closer they come to each other; the more they move away from it, the more distant they become from each other.
Similarly, the closer one comes to Allah the Almighty, the closer one becomes to all humanity. Allah the Almighty is that single point and center toward which all things converge. All creation springs from the being of Allah. Therefore, that central point from which all lines radiate—whoever comes nearer to it will come nearer to all others, and whoever moves away from people will also move away from Allah.
If you find that you are in conflict with people, understand this as well: you are also distant from Allah. It cannot be that you are near to Allah and yet distant from His servants. It is possible that one who is distant from Allah may be distant from you, but you cannot be near to Allah and yet distant from His servants.
Abu Jahl was certainly distant from the Prophet Muhammad (saw) because he was distant from Allah. However, the Prophet Muhammad (saw) was not distant from Abu Jahl, for Abu Jahl was also Allah's servant, however steeped in wickedness he was.
When the Quran states, Quran 26:4: "Perhaps, you will destroy yourself with grief that they do not become believers," was the Prophet Muhammad (saw) grieving over Muslims who would not believe? Rather, this was his (saw) state concerning Abu Jahl, 'Uqbah, and Shaybah. Thus, understand well: the sign or means of attaining nearness to Allah the Almighty is compassion for humanity. Compassion especially for those of one's own faith is a part of faith itself.
Keep this in mind and align your actions, movements, statements, and deeds accordingly. Then observe what magnificent blessings from Allah descend upon you. May Allah the Almighty grant you the ability to do so.
Published in Al-Fazl, January 15, 1923
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