After reciting the Tashahhud, the Ta’uz and the first chapter Al Fatiha of the Holy Quran, Hazrat Amirul Mo’emenine, Zafrullah Domun said:

By the Grace of Allah we were able to hold our Jalsa last week. However there were still some important pieces of advices that I wanted to give to our members but which I would not give because we were short of time. Since today almost if not all our members are present in this Jummah prayer, I will say a few words about these matters today. I hope and pray that you will heed them and will try your best to put them in practice. May Allah always assist all of us to strive in His path and to truthful and loyal to his teachings.

You will all remember that I have delivered several sermons on the subject of “how we should pray”. All our young ones should reread these sermons on the net and try to pray in the way that I have explained. If you are able to do better than what I have explained Al hamdo lillah. But from my personal observations and the casual conversations that I have with some parents it appears that our young members are not observant of prayers as they should be. It is true that when we are young we have several frivolous pursuits. For example some persons are so devoted to watching football that they completely ignore the time of prayer. Others devote much time to the internet chatting that they forget their prayers completely. Very often the young ones go to sleep late and they skip their Fajr prayer completely. There are some who pray but they do not spend as much time as they should to supplicate and to develop love of Allah in their hearts. For us Ahmadis this is a very bad state of affairs. As followers of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad ^as,it is our duty to pray the five prayers daily and to do so as long as we live.

This is not the first time that I am talking about this subject and it will definitely not be the last time. It is a subject that needs constant reminding. In the Holy Quran Allah says of Hazrat Ismail^as:

            “And relate to them the story of Ismail as mentioned in the book.

He was indeed true to his promises. He was a messenger and a prophet.

He used to enjoin prayer and almsgiving on his people and he was well pleasing to his Lord.”

Allah says of Hazrat Ismail that when he made a promise he fulfilled it. Haven’t all of you made a promise in your pledge of initiation that you will be regular in your five daily prayers? Just ask yourself if you are true to this promise of yours or not. Your conscience will give you the reply. If you have been negligent up till now I advise you to shrug off your negligence and never forget that one day you will die and you will have to give an account of your deeds. Today you might be thinking that you are in excellent health and you will live long. Although I wish that all of you live to a ripe old age but who has a guarantee that he will live long? No one knows when he will die. Do you remember our brother Said (may Allah enlighten his tomb). How old was he. He was indeed very young when he died. Most of our young ones these days are spending hours on the computer on the net but how many are taking it to heart to read the Holy Quran for at least ten minutes per day in order to understand what is really important in life? So remember that reading our prayers everyday is a must for each one of us. Do not let the world or Satan beguile you. Allah says in the Holy Quran:

 “O ye men, assuredly the promise of Allah is true, so let not the present life deceive you, nor let the Deceiver deceive you with respect to Allah

            Surely Satan is an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy. He calls his followers only that they may become inmates of the burning Fire” (35:6-7)

It is Satan that tries to keep you away from your prayers. It is Satan that incites you to enjoy films or trivial pursuits late in the night and makes it difficult for you to wake up for Fajr prayer. As a good Ahmadi Muslim you should resist all sorts of satanic temptation and take the firm resolution that you will strive to offer all your prayers every day and as far as possible on time. All of you should make it a lifetime pursuit to try to discover the blessings of prayer. This is not something that you will know from books. It is something that we learn from experience. We are here to be the ambassadors and personification of the teachings of Islam. So we cannot rest until we have achieved this objective in our lifetime.

In chapter Maryam of the Holy Quran, Allah speaks about many prophets. He tells us about some of their qualities. Then He says that these prophets were people that Allah chose in this world and whenever they recognized the signs of Allah they prostrated and wept. By the Grace of Allah you also are a group of people that Allah has chosen. How many times in the past I have told you that Allah had revealed to me “Inni fazzaltokoum alal aalameen” which means “I have exalted you above all the nations of the time”. If Allah has showered us with His Favours He has also placed some important responsibilities upon us. One of these responsibilities is that we should lead a life devoted to Him although we should not neglect our lot in this life. Allah should be the centre of our life. All else should be subordinated or organized around Him. In another verse which follows the one that I have explained above Allah says:

“Then came after them an evil generation who neglected prayer and followed their evil desires. So they will meet destruction, except those who repent and believe and do good deeds. These will enter heaven and they will not be wronged in the least. Gardens of Eternity, which the Gracious God has promised to His servants while they are yet hidden from their sight. Surely His Promise must come to pass” (19:61-62)

So on the one hand we should not become like those who abandon their prayers at all nor should we follow our evil desires. We need to combat all the evil inclinations of our self but as Allah has said above they come from Satan who wants to take us to hell. When one is young one has a tendency to think that we will live for ever. As we grow old if we have been careful to try to seek our salvation in Allah, death becomes a daily possibility. We become more conscious of the fragility of our life. How many of us can have a certainty that will wake up the next day. We always hope that we will wake up the next morning but no one amongst us has the certainty that he will definitely wake up. Yet how many amongst us read some prayers as prescribed before we go to sleep.

To procrastinate is a habit of many people and yet almost all those who procrastinate know quite well that it is a bad habit. If we have an assignment for school we will do it just before it is due. We are not at all amongst those fortunate few people who fix some objectives for us and strive to accomplish them everyday bit by bit. As an Ahmadi Muslim in our daily to-do list we should include the five daily prayers and some reading of the Holy Quran to begin with. If you do so I am sure that slowly Allah will expand your consciousness and will help you to distinguish between what is important and what is unimportant. As you make the above two habits permanent you may add some new tasks like saying 100 times “I seek forgiveness from Allah” (astaghfiroullah) and some Darood as well.  By doing so you will have for yourself a spiritual self improvement plan that will help you throughout your life. Do not try to do too much at once. Try to make small improvement in your life daily and you will be amazed with the results if you are sincere in all your endeavour.

In order to be aware of your duties towards Allah I advise you to remember these two verses of the Holy Quran. There may be many others but these ones are quite short and I have seen that they help a lot. Allah says “wa yohazzerohomoullaho nafsahou” which means “Allah warns you to beware of Him” (3:31). In the translation proposed by the Jamaat it is translated as “Allah cautions you against His punishment”. I prefer the previous translation. It is literal and gives the idea contained in the verse quite well. The next verse is “wattaqou yawman tourja’ouna fihe elallah”which is translated as “Fear the day when you shall be made to return to Allah” (2:282). These are some parts of verses that may make us to become fearful of Allah. But there are also many verses in the Holy Quran that show us Allah’s all encompassing mercy and that He forgives all sins provided there is sincere repentance.

We members of Jamaat Ahmadiyya Al Mouslemeen claim that by the Grace of Allah we are here to follow the teachings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to the best of our capabilities. Hence it is incumbent upon all of us to be aware of those teachings and to put them into practice. Our behavior in public and private should be better than others. We should not allow ourselves to become one of the crowd. We should display such a behaviour that will help us to stand out of the crowd. We need to set the trend and let others follow. We do not follow the trend set by others. We understand Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as to Messiah and Mahdi. We understand that after him Allah may give to others these titles. Since Allah has distinguished us from the mainstream Ahmadiyya Movement as He distinguished Hazrat Ahmad’s Jamaat from that of the mainstream Muslims, all of us should strive to become living embodiments of the teachings given by Hazrat Ahmad as. Unless and until we do so, our claim to be following his teachings will be vain. By the Grace of Allah there are many amongst us who have already made this objectives the focus of their sojourn on earth. But this is not sufficient until we see that these values are transmitted to our next generation. Hence all the members of the next generation should rise up to the challenge and become the real helpers of the Mahdi and Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad ^as.

Recently I happened to read an extract from the book “Al Futuhaat ul Makiyya” by the Sheik Akbar Ibn Arabi. He was a great Muslim saint who lived in the 13^th century Spain. He wrote about many subjects having a relationship with spirituality. In one of these extracts he wrote about the “helpers of the Mahdi”. He said:

 “He will have divine men upholding his call (to the true Religion) and aiding him in his victory; they are the Helpers (wuzara'). They will bear the burdens of (his) government and help him to carry out all the details of (the duty) God has imposed on him.

God will appoint as his ministers a group (of spiritual men) whom He has kept hidden for him in the secret recesses of His Unseen (i.e., the spiritual world). God has acquainted (these Helpers), through unveiling and immediate witnessing, with the (divine) realities and the contents of God's Command concerning His servants. So the Mahdi makes his decisions and judgments on the basis of consultation with them, since they are the true Knowers who really know what is There (in the divine Reality). As for the Mahdi himself, he has a sword (in the service of the) Truth and a (divinely inspired) political policy (siyasa), (since) he knows from God the exact extent of what is required by his rank and station; for he is a rightly guided Vicegerent (of God)…….

Among the secrets of the knowledge of the Mahdi's Helpers whom God has appointed as ministers for him is His saying:

"The victorious support of the men of faith is obligatory for Us" (Kor. 30: 47), for they follow in the footsteps of those men among the Companions (of the Prophet) who sincerely fulfilled what they had pledged to God. These Helpers are from the non-Arab peoples; none of them is Arab, although they speak only Arabic. And they have a guardian, not of their kind, who never disobeys God at all, he is the most elect of the Helpers and the most excellent of (the Mahdi's) Trusted Ones.

Now in this verse (30: 47)which the Helpers take as their constant prayer (by day) and their inseparable companion at night-God has given them the most excellent knowledge of true sincerity (sidq), as their inner state and direct experience. So they know that true sincerity is God's sword on earth:

God always gives His victorious support (nasr) to whoever stands up for someone (in the divine cause) while being distinguished by this true sincerity..

This is something that has been written almost seven hundred years ago. But see how aptly it might describe what we are or what we strive to be. That is the true helpers of the Mahdi Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. By the Grace of Allah I can even tell you that during the past week Allah revealed to me the verse 37:40 to which Ibn Arabi has made a reference in this extract. Allah has chosen us to be His helpers and the helpers of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as. So let us begin this year afresh with new and firm resolution to develop our relationship with Allah to the extent we all as a Jamaat become the Jamaat of the helpers of the Mahdi(ansar ul Mahdi) as we should be incha Allah.