who gave me this message of truth and the path and summons, whatever, I have done that, and everybody, although I am not very much spiritually trained and I am not able to, maybe not to have that much knowledge, but I chose some very good persons and I started preaching them and every, about ten or eight they were… Is everybody taking it up gradually? I mean, more people are now joining this movement of becoming preachers? Well, we were very few, we were very few at that time. I mean, other Ahmadis in Nigeria, are they also responding well and becoming preachers? Yes. Alhamdulillah.
This is what I wanted to ask. So, but the end result of my all efforts and of all my arguments, they agreed, and whatever you are saying is very true, from Quranic versions and from the Sunnah, and from other quotations of the Qusm-ul-Islam, you are very true, but you cannot accept him as a prophet. Then I gave him so many examples that he will admit. But you should always say subordinate prophet. Yes, follower prophet or subordinate prophet. Because when you say subordinate, all their arguments fall out. Yes. So, they accept this thing. They had to come to me. This is why Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has made it clear, they do not refer to me as Nabi, but as Ummati Nabi. Ummati Nabi, yes. That’s what actually I explained to the world.
But then they had to come to me. Ghair-ummati Nabi cannot come. This is the important meaning of Khataman Nabi, one of the important meanings. That no ghair-ummati, no non-subordinate prophet can ever come. Because it is the prophet for all time, Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa S.A.W. His law and his word are never to be cancelled out by anyone. Whoever comes would come within the four walls of the Quranic teachings and within the four walls of the traditions of the Holy Prophet of Islam peace be upon him.
So, if anybody does not violate this, if Allah gives him any high status, it does not contradict the position of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa S.A.W. It enhances his position. That among his servants, Allah has raised such high people. This is the energy of belief and this is how it should be put across. But the end result was actually, in most of the cases, was either a little bit of tense relations and this thing. So, I don’t know how these people, after understanding it… No, but you learn, because you have yourself said that you did not have the practice previously, or not much personal knowledge of these things. You will learn through process, gradually.
You know, the Holy Quran tells us, Udo ila sabeela rabbika bil hikmati wal mu’iza fil hasanati. Hikmah is put before in order, put before the word mu’iza. While mu’iza is the object of preaching. So, before mu’iza, hikmah is mentioned, because mu’iza would be meaningless, admonition would not bear fruit, if you do not go about it with wisdom, with understanding. For instance, I have been quoting this many times before, that if someone is hungry and somebody tells him that here is the food, oh dog, take it or reject it, it’s up to you. Sometimes, even if he is dying of hunger, out of his self-respect he will say, to hell with you and your food, I don’t want it.
Even children reject the offerings of mothers if they do it sometimes with harshness. All right, take it. They say, all right, take it back, I don’t take it. Not like this. So, and sometimes if some friend of yours, who has come full laden to the brim with food, and you offer him food with such love and such humility, that I would be so honoured if you just have a little taste of this thing. That even if he feels like nauseated, he would have something for your sake. So this is hikmah, how the things are to be presented.
You must understand that these people who by misunderstandings begin to hate you already. In this state of affairs, if you approach them without hikmah, they will reject your hand. They already hate you. So, first you win their love. And through love you can approach them in the right perspective. Otherwise you will be misunderstood. This is why Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa s.a.w. was given the title of Rahma. He was Rahma first and a preacher second. Rahma stood as his hikmah. He was Rahmatul Ilalameen because he was to give his address to the whole mankind. So out of love you can preach well. Without love, without overwhelming love, you can’t preach well. They should see something in you that you are dying for their sake.
You are being hurt for what they are suffering. This is true Rahma, this is true love which bears fruit when you begin to preach. This is why Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa s.a.w. is elsewhere described in the Holy Quran as, Will you torture yourself to death? Will you grieve yourself out to death? Just because these enemies of yours don’t accept? That is the state of affair which Allah sees in his heart. And that was also apparent to everybody when he spoke to the others by way of preaching. That deep feeling of sorrow for them was so apparent that everybody knew that he is speaking out of love not just superficially. He just does not want to conquer us but he wants to save us.
This was the true love of Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa s.a.w. which showed miracles after his prayers. The prayers stood first and then Rahma came afterwards. All the arguments stood in the third place in order of preaching. So that is the right path for you to follow. You are a better judge of where you have been making mistakes. I don’t know. No, no, just a minute. There is no point of arguments. Please, stop debate. What I want to point out is this, that every preacher knows his way of preaching best. He can analyse himself much better than others do if he has an introvert look and capability to examine himself. So when one method fails, always try to find another method.
So maybe my analysis in your case is not applicable. But there may be other faults. Because if it is a faultless preaching, then people begin to get fruits very quickly. This is my experience. So when you are lacking fruits, there must be something wrong with the watering of the tree maybe. Or some bacteria have got attached to the leaves and they are doing their damage, sending toxins into the system. Or maybe some animals take the fruit before you reach it. So many things happen. Fruit is the objective. When an Ahmadi preacher does not get the fruit, he must begin to censure himself and examine and analyse his approach and try to improve it and adopt certain different methods better than the previous ones.
