CoB.book Page 230 Tuesday, June 6, 2006 9:46 AM
CONDITIONS OF BAI‘AT AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN AHMADI
the Qur’an? The characteristics that are mentioned in the Qur’an are the very character of the Holy Prophetsa.’ This is why the Promised Messiahas said that he followed his master and patron and declared each commandment of the Holy Qur’an to be his way of life. If others too complied with this, only then they would be counted in his Community. Once they made the bai‘at, the members of his Community too demonstrated such models. First of all I wish to present the model of an Ahmadi lady, the mother of Hadrat Chaudhry Zafrullah Khanra. This incident demonstrates how much she disliked innovative customs. The incident took place at the time of the wedding of Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad, her nephew. Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad states that after the nikah ceremony he was called into the ladies quarters. He noticed that two seats had been arranged facing each other, as is the custom in villages and he was expected to sit on one seat and the bride was to be seated on the other, and certain customs were to be carried out. He says: I felt nervous but then decided that it would not be proper at this time to argue with ladies at the time. So I sat on the seat designated for me and stretched my hand towards the things arranged for the customs. Immediately, my aunt, that is Chaudhry Zafrullah Khan Sahib’sra mother, held my wrist with force and pushed my hand away and said, ‘Son, this is shirk (associating partners with Allah the Almighty).’ This gave me courage as well and I pushed those things away with my hand, stood up and said: ‘I will not participate in those customs.’ That is how I freed myself. 230
