The closing address delivered by Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IV (ra) at the 43rd Jalsa Salana, USA
Every human being, no matter how sinful he may appear, has a very complex personality. People claim to understand other people, but none understands human beings better than God Himself. Every person has been provided with a faculty from God to understand himself if he so desires; He can understand all the good trends and all the evil trends in himself. However, most unfortunately, man remains hidden from himself. He seldom attempts to understand himself, while he always tries to understand others. Perhaps he is too close to himself and, therefore, unable to view himself. However, as I have already pointed out, the Holy Quran is very clear on this subject, and repeatedly reminds us of the importance of understanding ourselves.
I have been trying to trace back all of my views and thoughts to my childhood impressions, and I find it a very interesting and rewarding occupation. One's relationship with nature begins in his early childhood. His attachment to some things and his repulsion to others, all lead to making him something out of an empty shell. He begins to fill that shell with a soul, which develops along with the passage of his experiences.
I want to share with you my relationship with the moon. Although you may consider it to be a very small thing, yet as I tell you how I developed my relationship with the moon, how I began to understand the moon better and better than ever before, I believe, in the end you will think it was time well spent with me.
When I was a small child, I was fascinated by the moon as are all children. I remember my elder sisters playing with me and singing me lullabies relating to the moon. I particularly remember one elder sister of mine, who also resided here for a while and whose two daughters are here. Her name is Amtul Rashid. She was very fond of rocking me on her knees and then singing the song which is so often sung by various Pakistani ladies, or Indian ladies, when they play with their children in order to lull them to sleep or just play and make them happy. I remember very clearly that while riding her knees, I could hear that beautiful voice saying:
“Uncle Moon is far, far away. He eats cookies prepared of sawdust. He prefers to eat in a plate – the moon looks like a plate – and feeds us in cups.”
It is a very simple message. It doesn't mean anything, of course, but to children's ears, it sounded like music and one felt closer and closer to the moon, however far it was.
However, there were yet many stages for me to cover to get still closer to the moon and to understand it better. As a child, I remember that I was very impressed by one of my father's (Khalifatul Masih II) poems relating to the moon. One of the verses that I'll share with you now, said:
“When riding the boat of love I try to get close to you, do not run away from me like the reflection of the moon does upon waters.”
You try to chase it and it moves ahead faster, or perhaps at an equal pace, further and further away from you. You cannot get closer to the image of the moon which you are pursuing.
There was yet a better understanding of the moon to dawn upon me. I came to realize, while studying about Hadhrat Masih Maudas (the Promised Messiah), that he, himself, was a moon: a moon that reflected the most beautiful face of Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafa saw. That was his relationship to his only Master, who has been mentioned in the Holy Quran as a "Sun of light and truth." Hadhrat Masih Maudas reflected his image and I found that moon so much more beautiful than the material moon which I fell in love with in my early days.
It fascinated me and as I loved Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw, so also I loved the reflecting mirror which preserved for me all the beauty of his master. He saw him from an angle, from so close an angle that I could never have dreamed of the Holy Prophet’s beauty and charms if I had not seen him through his reflective mirror, Hadhrat Masih Maudas. There is a verse in Urdu which reads:
“A looking glass, a mirror does not know or fully realize what you are. See yourself through my eyes and then you will know how beautiful and charming you are.”
Seeing the Holy Prophet through the eyes of Hadhrat Masih Maudas, is a singular experience in one's life. The image of the Holy Prophet dawns upon you with all his charm and it overwhelms you. This is how I began to progress in understanding the concept of the moon. Yet as I grew older, there was another lesson for me to learn. That was when I read a poem of Hadhrat Masih Maudas which speaks of the moon and his experience with regard to the moon. He says:
“Last night when I observed the moon, it made me so restless. Why? Because I saw traces of the charm and beauty of my Beloved reflected in the moon. Through this I realized that the moon worked to reflect another face as well, that was the face of the beloved of Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw, the face of the Lord, our God.”
Things lead from one to the other and that is how you complete your journey into something you ultimately become. I believe that all of us should try to trace our psychological development to childhood experiences. That would afford us a great opportunity to understand ourselves and would also save us the waste of time in trying to understand people in a negative way and go on criticizing them.
This is a very brilliant and beautiful experience I have shared with you. I have been making this journey backwards regarding my faults and failures, as well as many sins I have committed which God forbids me to share the knowledge of with you. This is how I know why I went wrong, where I made a misstep and how that could have been avoided. If I failed to avoid it in the past, perhaps by the study of the past, I am better able to avoid such possibilities in the future. It is a journey, an occupation of a lifetime. It never ends and it is always rewarding.
Therefore, when you think of God, when you think of Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw, when you think of the moon which shone with his brilliance in our age, Hadhrat Masih Maudas, remember that this is the message that we have to convey to the world. Expressed in simplest terms, a thing of beauty to be shared by others is the meaning of preaching. There is a lot of meaning to it.
I remember two weeks ago when I was in Guatemala, the President and the Vice-President were very kind to grant me an audience. I sat for a long time with the Vice-President. He had a very pleasant personality. Before we proceeded in our dialogue and conversation, he asked me a very simple question. He said: Why have you come to Guatemala? What is the purpose and why is the mission here? I knew the background. There had been a very vicious campaign carried out by a sect of the Christian church, repeatedly appealing to the government to stop our mission in Guatemala. The face of Ahmadiyyat was maligned so much that we were expecting a very negative response from the government. However, it did not come because the President, the Vice-President, and other ministers of government were very sensible, kind people, who were understanding. They would not form an opinion one-sidedly.
However, the background was there, of course. So I said: Before I speak further, let me remind you that man draws lessons from the animal kingdom. Even from such things that are comparatively smaller than human beings, one can draw wonderful lessons. So I told him that this is also my occupation, to watch birds and animals of all sorts and find out what lessons they have for us. I said I was deeply interested by the trend in crows. When they see a piece of bread or anything edible they know full well that perhaps it is not sufficient for their own stomach, yet they will go on raising the cry inviting all their fellow brothers and sisters to come and get it. Then they all flock together to get the small piece of bread. Then they have small fights, but playfully. Sometimes that bread is broken into small pieces, which allows each one to get their share openly and freely.
I said: I hope you do not consider me less than a crow. I have found that it is much, much more precious to reveal to the entire world that I have found God. I want to share that experience with you and your people. You are Catholics. I understand. Yet the goal is the same. Catholics claim they lead to God. I know from personal experience that I lead to God. I belong to Him, and the entire Ahmadiyya Community leads to God and belongs to Him. Would you stop us from doing that? The response was so beautiful, so overwhelming. In a matter of moments we became deeply bonded friends, forever, I hope. He said to me: I will remain in touch with you whenever I come to England. I would love to call on you. And then we understood each other when we talked of this and that, and things went very well by the grace of Allah.
That is what you are, every Ahmadi. That is what every man should be. What is religion if it does not lead to God? What is religion if everybody is trying only to follow their particular brand of religion? If that is the object it is not worth the thorns of the effort you take. You must be deeply convinced, and you must clearly see your inside, and know the background of your intentions and where they are rooted.
Purify yourself before you begin to preach. That is the message I wanted to deliver to you this morning. Without this, all your efforts may remain fruitless and may go in vain. You will never understand what is happening to you. You are well armed with strong, potent arguments. You spend time, apparently for the sake of others to be led to the truth, but there is something lacking within you; that ultimate truth which creates the power of sincerity. That is what needs to be provided to every creature, and that can only come with the realization that the ultimate goal of every religion has to be God. The message should be simple. It should begin with God, not by wasting time on ideological arguments.
Tell them you are from God, you have come to invite someone to Him with all sincerity. Now when you do that you have to have some documents. Like all the ambassadors have documents to prove their identity, in order to assure the government to which they are posted that here is a genuine representative of a certain government. Where are those documents? Those documents are only ‘Attributes of Allah’ and signs of His love. I have spoken on this subject before, but I also want to enlarge on the same subject from another angle. Of course there are signs in every human being revealing where he belongs, and nobody can mistake those signs. If your pursuit is that of worldly things, if what makes you happy is material gain, then you may be from God, you may love Him, but not enough.
It is not enough to produce a documentary evidence from your character. A stamp of God, which is indelible and which is unmistakable; one can immediately recognize that. That recognition comes not through arguments, but through personal contact. So when you walk about the streets of Detroit or Milwaukee or New York or Washington, or any town or village in America, you should walk with this consciousness that you are an ambassador. Not an ambassador of Ahmadiyyat, that can come later, an ambassador of God. You should become a reflecting moon to God.
Then the journey will start from God downward. When you love God, Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw will appear to you in a completely new manifestation. You will begin to love him not just because you belong to Islam or because he is your leader. There will be no narrow-mindedness in your deep attachment to Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw. You will only love him because he is Godly, because you see God in him. That creates a completely new personality in man, a universal personality, not a narrow-minded, small approach to problems and people, but an approach that can encompass the entire world, the whole universe. As such you will also be documented ambassadors of Islam. Loving the Prophet Muhammadsaw as he should be loved, will be properly understood by you, and you will change your personality accordingly. That change does not come from affectations or conscious efforts. The conscious effort required is to rectify your deep-seated love, orient it toward God. Begin to understand Him better and begin to love everything which reflects God.
The journey starts from God through Prophet Muhammadsaw. You begin a downward journey into the creation. Then comes Hadhrat Masih Maudas. Only then will you realize how much he has done for you in bringing Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw so close to you, to make him appear so charming, so beautiful, so much in excess of those who, out of jealousy, want to blemish his image. Because, I assure you, the only image of Prophet Muhammadsaw which is beyond the reaches of people, small people, to blemish him, is the image seen through the eyes of Hadhrat Masih Maudas.
I don’t have time to develop this subject further, perhaps many Ahmadis know what I mean. The image of Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw has been tarnished in the world with the help of some unfortunate Muslim leaders who do not understand him. They claim to love him, but in the same breath claim he had some blemishes: "He was dictatorial. He wanted to force all of mankind to his faith by compulsion, with the help of the sword. He came to mankind and said: I love all of you, and I am for all of you, but I love you with the sword. If you accept my word then good, otherwise the sword will be upon you."
This is not the true image of Hadhrat Muhammadsaw. This is not an image with which you fall in love automatically. Initially, yes, because in your childhood you have been trained in that way, but you can only love such a man by shutting an eye or looking at him with an obscurity. If not shutting the eye completely, then at least dulling your vision and ignoring things that you, otherwise, would not love. When I say that, I say that on the authority of human nature. If anyone comes to you with a message, whether it is Islam or any other religion, and says: Do this or be beaten, what will be your reaction? Even if you want such a thing, this attitude will repulse you. You may say: All right! Do what you may to me, I am not going to accept your offer.
I have seen hungry people being fed. I have seen those people who are not hungry at all being fed. Sometimes a hungry person is approached by someone in a manner that is repulsive. Sometimes some people, taking advantage of their friendship with people, say
"All right, eat it or go to Hell," and the person who is approached like this would rather go to Hell than eat that poison. But sometimes I am full to the brim with the hand of love so many times I can't refuse, and then someone comes and says: "We have prepared this dish for you, my wife did this, my daughter did this, my sisters also participated, won't you please us by sharing it with us?" How can I refuse? No one can. No man with a morsel of decency can do that. How could the Prophet Muhammadsaw be like the person I have mentioned before? There is no option; he can only be the latter person I have described.
That is how his message should be spread and delivered to the world around you. Acquire the attributes of God through love, and love wherever those attributes are found and are reflected. Begin your journey in this regard with Hazrat Muhammad Mustafasaw. Then you will know he teaches you all that you need. Everything has been provided by him. You must fully understand how deeply Hadhrat Masih Maudas was in love with the Prophet Muhammadsaw, and how correct his vision was. His perspective was totally faultless because he saw him from close up.
What does this "closeness" mean? The Holy Prophet Muhammadsaw was as far away from him, as he was from all the people of that time. Thirteen centuries separated Hadhrat Masih Maudas and all the people of his time from Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw, but their journeys were carried on the wings of love which bring people closer. That is the only journey which can bring you closer to God.
God tells us that He is very far-away, so far away that even your imagination cannot reach Him, yet He is also so close to you that He is closer than your jugular vein. Where do we stand in between? Do we start pursuing Him in the distant journey where He is to be found ultimately, or should we look for Him within ourselves? We can bridge the distance through love. When you love Him you will begin to see Him within you. Don't you see that love wants to bring the object of love within you? That is the philosophy behind embraces. Many times you love someone and you embrace him, and squeeze him, yet it is not enough. Some children come and hug me and I hug them, and I am afraid for their bones lest they should be broken. I stop at some limit, but my heart does not stop. It wants more and more and more.
Love closes distances in reality, not just in theory. However, human beings cannot enter other human beings, they only enter metaphorically. But God is there within you. You do not have to travel far to find Him. When you meet Him within yourself, you begin to realize how far away He is from you. Only then do you realize that although He is with you now, in your character and habits, and in your attitude toward life, you are distant from Him. Then the endless journey begins. There is no end to it, because He is unlimited.
That is how you love all the godly people who are from Him. That is how you close in upon them. Hadhrat Masih Maudas has written that although my Holy Master is so far away, yet I see Him with my own eyes, coming to me with love. He lives within me. That is the true personality of a believer. That is the personality that must conquer the entire world for Islam, for Muhammad Mustafasaw, for Allah, our Lord.
I want to teach you the method of reaching out to others. Once again turning back to Guatamala, I will say, try to be better than crows, please. Share what you have with others. This is exactly what Hadhrat Masih Maudas has written. He speaks of God with immense love in a paragraph which is so charged with emotion that I have never seen the like of it in any human literature. He says:
I have found a treasure. An unbelievable treasure. It has no parallel in history. That treasure has filled my heart and I want to share it with the whole world. That is my Lord, my Beloved. He is my Paradise. I know none other. To be with Him is Paradise itself. No one can stop me from telling the world at the top of my voice that I have found that treasure, come and join me, come and share it with me. Oh, woe to those who do not listen. May Allah cure their blindness so they see what I see, may Allah cure their deafness so they hear what I hear, and may Allah open their hearts to God, whom I love so irresistibly.
The words are mine, but something to that effect was said far more powerfully by Hadhrat Masih Maudas in a language which defies translation [note: original quote from ‘Our Teachings’, p.12]. This is how I want all of you to preach. Rectify your intentions and correct your motivations. Set your orientation right with a B-line to God. Allow for no wavering or misstepping on the path. This is the path you pray for in every raka'at of every prayer by reciting:
“Guide us upon the right path.”
I know of no other "Siratul Mustaqeem" except the one that leads straight to God. On that path you begin to love others who are taking the same journey. They are going in the same direction. You do not love them just as individuals, you do not accept them as leaders and follow them wherever they lead. They are only your beloved ones, they are only your leaders as long as they walk on the straight path leading to God. Then you begin to view the whole world of religion in a different scenario. You follow and lag behind others. You begin to want to improve the quality of your journey.
Then you see Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw leading all and sundry at the top of the procession, making no mistakes, and closing upon God much faster than you can pursue him. The importance of learning from him then dawns upon you with a deep reality. You have to call others toward him, because when you love God and want to call others toward God, you have to tell them that I have learned the way to God from Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw. Come and join me and share my experience.
This is very essential. We are lagging behind. So much so that I shudder to think upon our responsibilities, and the lack with which you are attending to them. I say lack because there is a lack, not just a falling behind, or walking slowly. Most of us are not employed. That is the tragedy. When we speak of Dai ilallah (callers to Allah) in America we are only speaking of a few people. You can count them on your fingertips. They are the ones who are producing results. The rest are just enjoying the display, like you enjoy American baseball. You are not participating. You are just sitting out and cheering them on and sharing their glory, while you do not deserve to share anyone's glory unless you participated in making him glorious. Most of us have not gotten involved in this. Most of us are not trained in how to deliver the message. Some people suggest opening schools and classes to teach the differences between Christianity and Islam, between Ahmadiyyat and the rest of the Muslim sects. Of course, this is very essential, ultimately, but not to begin with.
It is a journey you cannot wait to start. You should have been on the way already. If you are not, then you have not begun the journey for which you are created. Maybe you say: I love God. That is enough. I say you are wrong. You do not love God. If you loved God you would have called others to Him like Hadhrat Muhammadsaw. You would not be able to resist it. You could not live without it. That is true love. Read Hadhrat Masih Maud as again. With indescribable passion he tells the world that "I have found a treasure which I must share with all of you."
If you love God, the signs must appear. It must create a transformation in you. It must create a revolution in you. You must become obsessed with the realization that all around you humanity is dying as a result of their remoteness from God. Every day brings worse news of what is happening to Americans from every sphere of life. Other religions are only concerned with the number of their followers. They do not care when people lose God and turn away from Him, because that is not their concern. However, if someone leaves their Church, or sect, or religion, then they are disturbed. What is this? Is this love of God? At every juncture of your experience you can test yourself. Did I do it for love or for something else? If someone goes wrong in his character, he is traveling away from God. He moves further away while becoming more vicious, more wicked, and more harmful to society as a whole. God is losing him, and you do not care. How could you love God?
If a mother has lost a child who has been abducted, can she sleep in peace? Certainly not! Those who love the mother also share her misery. God is losing mankind by millions upon millions every day. Those billions who were already lost are even further lost to Him. Their religious leaders are quite happy and content, as long as the people remain within their denominations. That is not love. That is not a sign of love at all. Concentrate on this sign. Always search your heart for your motivations.
If a person does return to God you have to look for ways and means to improve him. This is something completely different from preaching to others to become a member of your faith or sect. When you see someone who is lost to God you do not care if he belongs to your denomination or not. You are concerned. You get worried. That is a true sign of your love for God.
Let me remind you, although God possesses all the might of the universe and is the Supreme Master, He cares for every soul lost to Him. Hadhrat Muhammad Mustafasaw draws our attention to this fact through a beautiful example. He says:
"If someone stops to rest under the shade of a tree while traveling in the desert, and awakens to find his camel lost, imagine his worry. All his water and provisions are gone. How saddened would he be? Then imagine that he suddenly sees his camel on the horizon, walking toward him. Can you imagine the joy, the exhilaration, of finding that camel? I tell you that when a lost soul returns to God, God feels happier than that person."
Do you not want to please God? If you do not, you do not love Him. You go to such pains to please your beloved ones. If they were to change their attitude towards you, you would die of misery. Yet, you do not care if someone is lost to God and that you would share a part of His joy in finding him. That is the meaning of preaching. It is with this spirit that you must preach and when you do this, I assure you, your message will be irresistible. You will be speaking with the power of God. This is the "power of God". You love Him and He is with you and within you. He becomes your hands and feet and mind. All your faculties are handed over to Him. Then you become all-powerful in the world through the humility with which you submit to God; and you begin to love Him.
I hope you will take this message to heart and start a journey within you. I return to the subject of the journey because I know that, however beautiful and charming this message may appear, it is not enough to create a change in you. That change can only begin to take place when you know yourself better. Your expressions at this moment are those of love of God, I can see that on your faces. However, I know from experience that such expressions do not live long, such feelings do not live long, unless there is something within you that can preserve that message. This can only happen when you know yourself better.
You hear something good and are charmed by it. This is the normal attitude of man. However, while you love the good thing and know it's right, you say you cannot follow it. There is a duality in man. This is the great tragedy from which mankind is suffering today. I do not want you to suffer from this tragedy. Please start the journey inward. Set your courses within you. You are a universe, and I mean this. Without you the external universe is meaningless. You are the ultimate of that universe, which reflects the Creator. If you remove man from the universe, the God of that universe also diminishes to a smaller size. It is your concept of God that gives a new dimension to the universe that He has created, and through you God can be seen. Therefore, rectify your own inner universe, because God would not reside in a universe of chaos. He would not reside in a universe of falsehood and hypocrisy.
I am not talking of sins. I know God can reside with sins, as long as the person is pure. I assure you there are sinful people who are pure because they suffer from their sins. They seek forgiveness and are ultimately forgiven by God. God can cope with sins, but not with crookedness. It is impossible. Rectify yourself, not in the sense of being perfect, but in the sense of beginning your journey toward perfection. This can only happen if you straighten your own inner image and your path. That path, I remind you, is the straight path you are seeking from Allah. It is not something lying ahead of you, it lies within you. Create the straight path toward God within you, and then your prayer of “Guide us along the Straight Path” will be heard and you will have achieved the purpose of your life.
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