A Mere Pledge is Not Enough

I repeat that you should not be content with having made a superficial covenant of Bai‘at, for this amounts to nothing. God looks at your hearts and will deal with you accordingly. Look here, I discharge the obligation of conveying my message by telling you that sin is a poison—do not consume it. Disobedience to God is a filthy death—safeguard yourselves against it. Supplicate so that you might be granted strength. He who at the time of supplication does not believe that God has power over all things, except that which might be contrary to His promise, is not of my community. Whosoever does not give up lying and deceit, is not of my community. Whosoever is consumed by material greed and does not lift his eyes to look at the hereafter, is not of my community. Whosoever does not truly give precedence to religion over the world, is not of my community. Whosoever does not repent of every vice and every evil deed, such as drunkenness, gambling, lustful glances, deceit, bribery and every misappropriation, is not of my community. Whosoever does not observe the five daily prayers, is not of my community. Whosoever is not constant in supplication and does not remember God with humility, is not of my community. Whosoever does not discard the company of an evil one who influences him towards vice, is not of my community. Whosoever does not honour his parents and does not obey them in all matters that are not contrary to the Quran, and is careless in serving them diligently, is not of my community. Whosoever does not treat his wife and her relatives with gentleness and benevolence, is not of my community. He who refrains from doing even the least bit of good to his neighbour, is not of my community. He who does not desire to forgive an offender and harbours rancour, is not of my community. Every husband who deceives his wife, and every wife who deceives her husband, is not of my community. Whosoever breaks the covenant of Bai‘at in any respect, is not of my community. He who does not truly believe in me as the Promised Messiah and Awaited Mahdi, is not of my community. Whosoever is unwilling to obey me in all that is good, is not of my community. Whosoever associates with my opponents and endorses what they say, is not of my community. Every adulterer, transgressor, drunkard, murderer, thief, gambler, deceiver, bribe-taker, usurper, tyrant, liar, forger and those who sit amongst them, and everyone who slanders his brothers or sisters and does not repent of his foul deeds, and does not abstain from evil company, is not of my community.

(Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^as, Noah’s Ark, pp. 32-33)