Published on Feb 25 2010 

Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II(ra), on the 31^st October 1952, addressing the Jama’at in a Friday Sermon directed that our Jama’at should create humbleness within themselves. God Almighty has made them responsible for a great spiritual revolution, and this great spiritual revolution can take place only through the reformation of the heart and not through reformation of externalities. Below is the final part of the sermon that huzur addressed to the youth of the Jama’at.

 

"The inspiration for this sermon occurred to me during the annual Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Ijtema. It is the Jalsa for the youth and everywhere there is ‘Left, Right, Left, Right’. There is no doubting that reformation may be brought about through such methods also, however such reformations do not last for very long. 

 

In contrast to this the changes wrought by the Divinely Accepted Messenger^sa were related to the heart. They were related to the inner self and this is why he was able to create a real change. Today, fourteen hundred years have passed since the Holy Prophet^sa brought his teachings, and yet we may witness the signs of their presence to this day. Even today, there must be thousands of people who study the books of philosophers likewise there must be hundreds of people studying the works of Galen and yet we will find not a single person who actually puts these teachings into practice. However, even in these backward times, we will find hundreds of thousands of people who endeavour to mould their lives to the teachings of Muhammad, The Messenger of Allah – May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him. In contrast to this, of the teachings brought by the philosophers who came after the Holy Prophet^sa , we do not find even ten followers today. 

 

Thus, only those changes whose affects are permanent are blessed, otherwise superficial changes that pertain merely to externalities are no good. The world is in need of a spiritual revolution, and that revolution must needs take place. This revolution shall be wrought by one jama’at or another, since this is the Way of Allah that such revolutions are only ever brought about by jama’ats. Thus, when such a revolution is destined to take place, our youth should endeavour to accomplish such feats that shall forever be remembered by posterity. If they wish to accomplish such feats, they should remember that such changes can be wrought only by hearts, outer appearances cannot bring about changes of heart, but changes of the heart have the power to change externalities also. Off course, in a very few cases it is also possible that changes in outer appearances may also bring about changes of heart – but this will only ever be extremely slowly. The correct way to do this is to reform the hearts and then tackle the issue of changing outer appearances, this is because spiritual changes are brought about by changes of the heart and then it creates a relationship."

 

[31 October 1952, published Al Fazl 2 February 1961]

 

Mash’ale Raah: Vol1; p 644