A man entered a certain recruiting office and said,
“I want to join as a soldier.”
“But how old are you?” the sergeant asked.
“Sixty,” was the man’s reply
“You know quite well that sixty is too old for you to
become a soldier.”
“All right, if 60 is too old for a soldier, don’t you
need any generals?”
If one wants to start one’s career as a general, one
will be hard put to it to do so. It’s just like a race
where one can’t leap straight from the starting point
to the finishing line. To succeed in anything, we
have to be like the tree, starting from the seed,
growing slowly and putting out branches, twigs,
leaves and flowers when the appropriate times
come around. Similarly, business starts with
investing money, not with earning profits. The
construction of a house starts with the laying of the
foundation, not with the tiling of the roof. The
factory begins with the acquisition of machinery
and not with the sale of the end products.
Congregational matters are very much on a parallel.
They begin from the inculcation in individuals of a
sense of purpose and an understanding of the
importance of hard work, honesty, endurance and
unity.
Not until the individuals of a nation are imbued
with these important ideals to a very high degree
can measures be taken for the advancement of the
cause. If we ignore the importance of
preconditioning, our missionary ventures are
bound to end in failure. Any attempt to launch a
movement without a solid, national infrastructure
would be like trying to roof a house without raising
its walls. A roof put up in this way is bound
eventually to collapse on one’s head. In much the
same way, any steps taken before individuals have
been properly prepared for them will lead
inevitably to failure and chaos—even death and
destruction. They will be found to lead only further
and further away from the true objectives.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
