Early Services to Father and Family — Essence of Islam Vol. 4

14 Sep, 2026 Essence of Islam 0

Essence of Islam Book Cover by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (AS)

Introduction

In this discourse from Essence of Islam (Volume 4), Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (AS), the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, expounds upon Early Services to Father and Family, presenting profound spiritual insights and scriptural verities.

Book Series: Essence of Islam (Volume 4)
Author: Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (AS)
Section: Part 2: Family and Personal Background
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to the then current syllabus and as far as God Almighty so willed. My father was an expert physician and under him I studied some books on medicine. By this time I had become so fond of reading that I gave little attention to anything else. My father repeatedly admonished me to cut down on my study of books for he was afraid that too much devotion to them might affect my health and he was also anxious that laying aside books I should begin to take an interest in his affairs and should share his responsibilities. And this is what happened. He was at that time engaged in litigation in the British Courts for the recovery of some of our ancestral villages and finally succeeded in employing me in that pursuit. For a long time I remained so occupied. I have always regretted that a good deal of my precious time was wasted in this useless pursuit. My father also committed the management of our landed property to me. But as I was by nature and disposition averse to such occupations, my father would sometimes be annoyed with me. He was most kind and affectionate towards me but he desired that I should become a man of the world like my contemporaries, but this was something I was much averse to. On one occasion, the Commissioner was coming to Qadian and my father asked me repeatedly that I should go out two or three kose 7 to welcome him.

Family and Personal Background But I was wholly disinclined to do so and was also not feeling well. Therefore I could not go. This also became a cause for my father’s displeasure. In short, he wished me to completely occupy myself with worldly affairs, which I could not do. Nevertheless, out of goodwill and in order to earn spiritual merit, but not for the sake of any worldly gain, I devoted myself to serving my father and for his sake I occupied myself with worldly affairs and also supplicated for him. He believed fully that I was dutiful towards my parents and often used to say that he desired me to participate in worldly affairs out of a sense of sympathy for me though he realized that faith—the thing in which I was most interested—was alone worth pursuing and that he himself was only wasting his time. In the same way, while I was under his care I had most unwillingly spent a few years in the employment of the British Government, but he found that separation from me sat heavy on him and so he directed me to resign from my post. This I gladly did and returned home. My brief experience of official life made me realize that most people in that position lead very undesirable lives. Very few of them carry out their religious duties properly and few of them restrain themselves from indulgence in the illicit pleasures which are meant as a trial for them. I was surprised with their way of life. I found that most of them were eager to collect money lawfully or unlawfully and all their efforts in this brief life were directed towards the world. Only a few did I find who, out of regard for the Divine majesty, cultivated the higher moral values like meekness, nobility, chastity, courtesy, lowliness, humility, sympathy for mankind, purity of heart, eating lawful food, speaking the truth and righteousness. I found most of them afflicted with arrogance, transgression, neglect of religious values, and all types of evil morals. As the wisdom of God Almighty had decreed that I should have experience of all types of people I had to keep company with those of every kind. All this time I spent in great constraint and unease. As the author of Mathnawi Rumi says: 8 When I returned to my father I became occupied with the management of our land but the greater part of my time was devoted to the study of the Holy Qur’an and its commentaries as well as Hadith. I would often read out portions from these books to my father, who was mostly melancholy on account of the failure of his efforts to recover a part of his patrimony. He had spent some seventy thousand rupees in the prosecution of those cases, but the result was failure. We had lost those villages long ago and their recovery was a chimera. 8 I joined every kind of company—those who lived well and those who lived ill. Everyone in his own concept became a friend of mine but none of them sought to discover my inner secret. [Translator] Family and Personal Background
[Essence of Islam, Vol. 4]
[Essence of Islam, Vol. 4, p. 10]

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Introduction