How should we react when some office bearers do not understand the true essence of their responsibility and lack in fear of Allah?

Becoming disenchanted is a stage in growing up that we all have to go through. When children are young, they imagine that their parents are perfect because they do not know any better yet. As they grow older, they start to see the faults in their parents and become disillusioned. This strong reaction that teenagers often have is not because parents are evil, but because teenagers have difficulty adjusting to this developmental stage. The journey from thinking that our parents are perfect to realizing that they are humans just as we are is not easy. Teenagers sometimes react to every fault they find in their parents by condemning them. They become so disenchanted because they were overly enchanted in the first place. When they finally mature, they grow to appreciate the qualities in their parents and overlook their shortcomings, and they can finally develop a loving and respectful friendship with them.

We have to go through a similar process of maturity with our spiritual growth as well. We start off being overly enchanted and thinking that officeholders must be perfect people. As we grow, some people react with strong disillusionment. Facing disenchantment and overcoming it is a necessary stage in our development. It isn’t easy to fight our way out of intellectual and spiritual adolescence, but when we finally mature, we develop a loving and respectful friendship with Jama‘at officeholders.

An office in Jama‘at is a service and a responsibility entrusted upon an Ahmadi which must be exercised with righteousness and honesty. Some office bearers do not understand the true essence of their responsibility and lack in the fear of Allah. Thus, they do not discharge their responsibilities sincerely. Such members will be accountable in the sight of Allah for their negligence. It’s important to avoid becoming cynical. Hadrat Musleh Mau‘ud ^ra once addressed the question:

“Why are there more satanic people in the world than good?” He answered that most people are good, but evil seems more apparent because it is a fearful thing that stands out.

(Anwarul ‘Ulum, vol. 5, p. 544)

If a white shirt has a stain on it, the only thing we remember is the stain. Similarly, if we see an officeholder do something wrong, we sometimes forget that it is not the norm, it is an unfortunate exception that always exists in any group of imperfect humans. If the reality were really as bad as some people can sometimes make it out to be, then the Jama‘at would have fallen apart long ago (God forbid).