Won’t reprimanding erring Ahmadis make them more distant from the Jama‘at?

When our children do something wrong, we punish them because we love them, not because we hate them. We discipline them to bring them back, not to push them away. When we discipline our children, some of them even think that we hate them, but in the end they realize it was for their own good and are grateful. Most of the people who are disciplined by the Jama‘at are not deprived of blessings, rather, they realize the blessings they were depriving themselves of, and they reform and come back. Hadrat Ka‘ab ibn Malik ^ra, a righteous companion, was excommunicated for some time by the Holy Prophet ^sas because of a mistake he made. This period of difficulty became a means of such sincere repentance for him that when he was forgiven, he narrates:

I greeted Messenger of Allah ^sas with Assalamu ‘alaikum and his face was beaming with pleasure. He ^sas said, “Rejoice with the best day you have ever seen since your mother gave you birth.”

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 64, Hadith 440; Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 62)

Unfortunately, there are always a few who respond to discipline by turning away and becoming resentful. The Promised Messiah ^as said:

The fact is that the field which is cultivated with much labour and is ripened also contains some weeds that have to be cut down and burnt. Such is the law of nature, and our Jama‘at is no exception.

(Essence of Islam, vol. 4, p. 252)

If we compromised with those who defy the purpose of the Jama‘at, we may temporarily increase in quantity, but we would lose so much more in quality:

They wish that you should compromise so that they may also compromise.

(Surah al-Qalam, 68:9)