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NOTE: Alislam Team takes full responsibility for any errors or miscommunication in this Synopsis of the Friday Sermon

The subject of today’s Friday sermon was derived from a sermon of Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) on communal flaws and shortcomings.

Shortcomings are of two kinds, individual and communal just as good qualities are also both individual and communal. It should be remembered that flaws and shortcomings develop due to the influence of the environment. Just as seed cannot germinate without soil and even if it did it would wither away very soon, shortcomings and virtues which are borne of flaws and good qualities are influenced by environment, making environmental factors a necessary element.

Environments are also of two types; one kind only affects individuals and does not influence everyone in a community. For example lands in specific areas are specifically good for growing certain crops. Like there are areas in Pakistan where fragrant Basmati rice is grown and which cannot be replicated elsewhere. Virtue or evil also develop due to specific situations on communal level and results in rise or fall of nations. Individuals can improve and progress through effort but an individual’s effort cannot impact communal good or evil. An individual is only an element of a community and a communal shortcoming cannot be rectified by reformation of just one element.

If swallowed toxin will impact one’s entire body adversely just as good, wholesome food impacts one’s body in a positive way. Thus communal virtue or communal evil impacts the entire community. A whole certainly impacts all its elements and the principle is that benefit or loss to a whole is beneficial or adverse for every element. An individual can correct himself but the entire community needs to reflect and make effort for communal reformation. While it is important for each individual to self-reflect it is also important to reflect on communal shortcomings and rectify them. There can be no success without collective remedy!

Governments make efforts to avoid loss from natural disasters etc. And where governments do not take action, as it was in last summer’s floods in Pakistan, people suffer greatly. If governments do not take precautionary measures and are not conscientious, communal loss can intensify.

Hazrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that… read more at alislam.org