Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya-Parts1-2

Part two
ministers and officials) are found to be indifferent, apathetic and
tight-fisted. They only indulge in their own passions and desires,
and their minds stink of apathy and indifference. They have scant
regard for Islam and its needs; but when their own honour and
prestige are at stake they do not hesitate to part with their entire
wealth. Those who show courage and resolve for their Faith (such
as His Excellency Hadrat Khalifa Syed Muhammad Hassan
Khan Bahadur, the Prime Minister of Patiala) are so few and far
between that they hardly need to be counted on one’s fingers. Of
course, some among them do spend in the cause of religion, but
it is more as a ritual than a genuine desire to fulfil a real need. For
instance, if one person builds a mosque, another will do the same
merely out of rivalry. They will spend thousands without stopping
to think if their money has served any real purpose. They do not
realize that the most urgent need of this day is to spread religious
teachings and that if people lose their faith there will be no one
left to fill these mosques. They imagine that they can fortify their
faith by building high and formidable minarets and embellishing
them with beautiful marble, while they pay scant attention to the
spiritual strength, loftiness and beauty [of Islam] that is presented
by the Holy Quran and illustrated in the verse:
*
Having become slaves of form and ritual like the Jews, they have
no interest in inviting the world to the comfort and shade of the
blessed tree of Islam. They fail to fulfil their religious obligations
* [Like a good tree,] whose root is firm and whose branches reach into
heaven.—Surah Ibrahim, 14:25 [Publishers]
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