(An announcement published by Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, Musleh-e-Maud, may Allah be pleased with him, in search of young Waqifeen)
1. Are you able to work hard, working up to 13 to 14 hours a day?
2. Are you able to speak the truth and not lie under any circumstance, to the point that even the closest of friends cannot lie to you? If someone does falsely narrate their tales of bravery to you, can you express your utter disdain?
3. Are you free from a sense of false pride? Can you sweep the streets? Can you lift heavy weights whilst wandering the streets? Can you make every type of loud announcement in marketplaces? Can you travel for entire days and stay awake throughout the night?
4. Can you perform e‘tikaf i.e. can you sit in one place for days, sit and recite prayers and refrain from talking to anyone for days?
5. Can you travel alone and bear your expenses without having any money in your pocket for yourself and live among enemies, opponents, strangers and unfamiliar people for days, weeks or months?
6. Do you believe that some men are above every type of defeat and do not like to hear the word “defeat”? Do you believe that such men are ready to carve their way through mountains and alter the fl ow of rivers? Do you think that you can prepare yourself to make such sacrifices?
7. Do you have enough strength to say “Yes” while the whole world says “No”; to observe everyone laughing around you, while you remain unshaken; to have someone chase after you and tell you, “Stop! We will kill you!” and you pause and say, “Go on!”, while presenting your head to them; to not listen to anyone because people can lie, but you have everyone listen to you because you are truthful?
8. Can you refrain from saying, “I made every effort, but God prevented me from being successful”, and instead, consider every failure to be of your own doing? Can you be certain that everyone who makes effort eventually succeeds and whoever is unsuccessful did not make any effort?
If you can answer the above affirmatively, then you have the capability of being a good missionary and businessman. But where are you? A man of God has been in need of you for a long time?
O Ahmadi youth! Find that person in your regions, in your cities, in your villages, in your households and in your hearts, for the tree of Islam is withering away. Only through such a person’s blood can it be revived.
Mirza Mahmud Ahmad
(Al Fazl, 22 May 1948)