By Masroor Mahmud Adeeyo
Imagine that an important dignitary is about to begin his speech at the Jalsa Gah, so you leave for the Jalsa Gah very early to get a front seat. With this in mind, you hurriedly leave your tent with the hope of getting to the Jalsa Gah before the crowd rush starts.
On your way to the Jalsa, you notice someone; an older person, a member of the Majlis Ansarullah, having difficulties with his bag. Apparently, the person is going in the opposite direction – exactly the direction which you are coming from – but this person has more than two bags and cannot easily carry them. Bear in mind the chilling cold of Jalsa mornings.
You are the only person around because you woke up early. What do you do in this situation?
Do you:
1. Help the person with his bags and miss the chance of getting a seat that gives you the
advantage of seeing the aforementioned important personality closely?
2. Or do you continue with your journey, thereby guaranteeing your chance of sitting close to
this influential personality, while leaving this old person to his fate?
Basically, would you place kindness to a stranger over personal gain? Or vice versa? On paper,
everyone’s answer is likely No. 1; normally, everyone is a hero in their story. To make it more realistic, let us use the case of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), being that he has been a guest at the Jalsa Salana Nigeria before. Now, imagine that the person for which you are rushing to secure a vantage seat at the Jalsa Gah is Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, what will you do? Furthermore, this elder in question did not request for your help. Probably due to dignity, the person is obviously struggling with the bag and yet, refuses to ask the help of the person he sees first.
What would you do?
The beauty of Jalsa is the unquantifiable blessings that come with it. Apart from the blessings of following the teachings of the Promised Messiah, the blessings of prayers, the blessings of spiritual advice, the blessings of community, and so on… Despite all these, there is a particular source of blessings that is often ignored, in the bid to claim other blessings.
The Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (A.S) once said, “My state is such that if I am offering prayers and I hear the voice of someone in pain, I would prefer to break the prayer if I can assist him.” Inarguably, every Muslim knows the importance of prayers. Every Muslim knows the blessings and rewards attached to prayers. If the Promised Messiah can say that he is willing to break his prayer, just so he can show kindness to another person, what does this tell us? There are a plethora of blessings in showing kindness and being respectful to another person, especially when this person obviously needs help. Sadly, in our rush to claim other blessings, these blessings that are got from kindness have frequently been neglected to the point of absolute abandonment. Ironically, also, the Jalsa Salana is a gathering that harbours numerous opportunities of showing kindness, especially to strangers. From the first day, where new arrivals might need directions, to the last day, where others will be needing help with their bags and their paraphernalia, occasions to show kindness are abundant.
As narrated in a Hadith of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W), “A person’s faith is incomplete until he loves for his brother, what he loves for himself.” The Holy Prophet (S.A.W) followed this Hadith to the letter. On numerous occasions, he placed the welfare of others over himself. From the incident where he gave a bowl of Milk to Abu Hurairah, to the Ramadan incident where he had to pry a date palm from his grandson’s mouth, just so it could be enough to be shared. How complete, then, is your faith?
Surah Al-Mā’idah, Chapter 5 verse 94 says, “On those who believe and do good works, there shall be no sin for what they eat, provided they fear God and believe and do good works, and again fear God and believe, yet again fear God and do good. And Allah loves those who do good.” Ask anyone around to randomly name 10 good deeds they know, kindness and respect would definitely be in the upper quartile of everyone’s list. It shows how deeply rooted those acts are. Modernity, however, is striving to uproot these deeds from our core. It is now commonplace, albeit sadly, to find Muslims openly disrespecting themselves without a modicum of thought given to that verse of the Qura’n that talks about fearing Allah.
The Jalsa Salana, being a place where people with diverse behaviours and attitudes converge,
irritation with the actions of others is bound to occur. That does not justify disrespect in any way.
In the tales of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) and his companions, despite being pelted with rocks of
disrespect and unkindness by the vast majority of Meccans, they continued to toss olive branches of respect and kindness? Why, then, as Ahmadis who claim to be followers of the true teachings of the prophets jettison these values?
When he was imprisoned at the Birmingham Jail, for his fight against racism, the late Martin Luther King Jr. famously said in his ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail,’ “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” There is something, I surmise, about jails that enhance a Writer’s Muse. The Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka wrote his famous collection of poems, ‘Shuttle in the Crypt’ while in jail and until this day, the depth of those works of poetry are still being studied. Martin Luther King Jr remembered to discuss the ripple effects of every single action made by humans, while in jail. It speaks volumes about the consequences of actions. One might easily display acts of unkindness and disrespect to others, and then assume that it ends there…
Apart from the risk of incurring the ire and displeasure of Allah, what about the other person?
How would that person feel? What would that person, in turn, do to the next person he or she
meets? These are the fundamental questions that need to be pondered upon while at the venue of
the Jalsa Salana.
As the Present Khalifa, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (atba) has said, “Serving humanity is a
core objective for a true Muslim, as Islam instructs us to serve those in need and to show sympathy and compassion for all mankind.” This point is further buttressed by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad that, “Each day, every person should analyse himself and see to what extent he is concerned for the wellbeing of others and to what extent he shows love and compassion to his brothers.” So the question is, how well are you concerned for the well-being of others, and to what extent do you show love and compassion to them?. Consider how you can acquire the blessings attached to Kindness and Respect. Verily, in this, is a man willing to have complete faith.
