No Plausible Pleas
Truth About the Split
Maulawi Muhammad Ali cannot possibly put forward the plea that the tract had been written before the Will. Even if it had been so, there was time for its withdrawal, and if he wished he could easily have recalled what he had written. He cannot put forward this plea because he himself wrote in that tract that Hadrat Khalifatul Masih (ra) had declared that he should have a successor. Maulawi Muhammad Ali offers only one explanation of his conduct. He says that what Hadrat Khalifatul Masih (ra) meant by having a successor was that a person should be selected from among the Jama‘at whose commands should be received with general respect. Such an interpretation, however, is obviously false, and I challenge Maulawi Muhammad Ali to say on oath, if he dares, that it was not the belief of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I (ra) that he was a Khalifa of the Promised Messiah (as), and the Bai‘at which people pledged to him was pledged to him in his capacity as Khalifa and not merely as an advanced Sufi or saint and further that after his death Khulafa’ who would succeed him would be Khulafa’ in the same capacity. I am sure, however, that Maulawi Muhammad Ali will never venture to deny this on oath, because he is fully aware that he has misrepresented Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I (ra) . He is also fully aware that the many published speeches of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I (ra) bear ample witness to what the great Khalifa thought and believed in this respect.
The conduct of Maulawi Muhammad Ali in the whole affair is indeed very amazing. But much of the amazement disappears when we remember that once before Maulawi Muhammad Ali had turned his back upon the Will of the Promised Messiah (as) himself. For, we remember that after the death of the Promised Messiah (as), agreeably to his instructions contained in Al-Wasiyyat, Maulawi Muhammad Ali not only pledged his Bai‘at to Hadrat Maulawi Nuruddin as Khalifa of the Promised Messiah (as), but also published an announcement calling upon other Ahmadis to do the same. (The Badr 2nd June, 1908, p. 6). Yet he ventures now to write that in the Will of the Promised Messiah (as) there is no mention of Khilafat at all, and that the Promised Messiah (as) never gave his sanction to Khulafa’ accepting Bai‘at from Ahmadis. Now, when it came to the knowledge of some people of the Jama‘at that Maulawi Muhammad Ali had not only played false with them, but had also ignored the Wills of the Promised Messiah (as) and the Khalifatul Masih, and had attempted to create a split in the Community and invited Ahmadis to signify their opinion on the subject of his tract, then they also wrote out a statement and circulated it among Ahmadis who had come from outside with a view to ascertaining their opinion on the subject. The statement requested those who agreed with it to put their signatures on it, so that it might become clear to which side the opinion of the majority was inclined. From these signatures it was found that of those assembled more than ninety per cent were of the opinion that there must be a Khalifa, and that he should possess the same functions and powers as the late Khalifa. This statement has been misrepresented by Maulawi Muhammad Ali and his friends as a kind of intrigue.
But what I wish to ask is whether it is an intrigue to ascertain openly the views of people, whether it was not Maulawi Muhammad Ali who, in his tract, had first invited Ahmadis to express their opinion on the questions in dispute, and whether it was not he and his party who first opened the door to this method of ascertaining the views of the people. Thus when the door was first thrown open by them, and others were constrained by the situation to enter the same door and make use of the same method, how could there be anything to object? Still there is this to be said to the credit of others that while Maulawi Muhammad Ali proceeded in the business with secrecy and craft, others acted throughout in an open and straightforward manner. Maulawi Muhammad Ali invited people to express their opinion about his views, and then others made a similar request to the people to give them their signatures in case they found themselves in agreement with views expressed in their statement.
All through Saturday, the stream of visitors continued to flow into Qadian. The idea was that as large a congregation as possible should be allowed to assemble, and the consultation made as wide as possible. By the time of Zuhr more than a thousand members from various centres had arrived and there was quite a large gathering. After the Zuhr prayers I assembled all my relatives and solicited their advice on the subject of the differences. Some were of the opinion that it was our duty to promulgate the doctrines which we believed to be true, and it was, therefore, indispensable that the Khalifa should be one who agreed with us in his views.
I explained to them that our most important concern at that moment was to preserve unity in the Jama‘at. To have a Khalifa was with us a religious necessity. If the other party should accept this view, then the proper course would be, to call for a general plebiscite, but if the party should object to such a course, then a person might be elected as Khalifa who was regarded by both parties as neutral, but if even this would not satisfy the other party, then some person might be selected from their ranks for the office of Khalifa, and to him the whole Community should pledge their Bai‘at. At my request the family of the Promised Messiah (as), to a person, agreed to these terms. Their agreement pleased me exceedingly and I thought that now the Community would be saved from the danger of a dissension. But providence had intended otherwise.
Last Conversation with
Maulawi Muhammad Ali
When I came out I received a note from Maulawi Muhammad Ali to the effect that he wanted to speak to me on the subject of our previous day’s conversation. I asked him to come to my place. There were then present with me Maulawi Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan, Khan Muhammad Ali Khan, and Dr. Khalifa Rashiduddin. Maulawi Muhammad Ali had with him some of his own friends. When conversation began, I told him it was no use discussing the question of the need or validity of
Khilafat; the discussion should be confined to the question who was to be the next Khalifa. Maulawi Muhammad Ali and his friends contended that nothing ought to be done for the time being, that enough time should be allowed to enable the Community to think over and decide upon the proper course they ought to follow, and that only when a unanimous decision had been reached, should we take any practical step. In reply I repeated what I had already said on the subject the day before. I also pointed out on this occasion that if after all the waiting the Community were still divided over the question, what were they then going to do? If the question was later to be decided by a majority, it was open to them even at the time to let the majority decide the question. Incidentally, the conversation turned upon the question of beliefs and Maulawi Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan had a passage at arms with Maulawi Muhammad Ali, in which Maulawi Muhammad Ahsan strongly upheld the view that the Promised Messiah (as) was a Nabi. I believe that if Maulawi Muhammad Ali were asked even now to state on oath, he will not venture to deny the truth of the incident. I, however, stopped the discussion saying that the time was not a fit one for such controversy, and that now every one should devote his thought to the problem, how to save the Community from a possible split. But the conversation showed no sign of coming to an end. Meanwhile, the noise outside increased and people got so excited that there was danger of the door being burst open. The people urged that they could wait no longer, that while we were unable to come to any decision the Community was waiting without a leader. I then said to Maulawi Muhammad Ali that we had better go out and consult the people assembled outside. Upon this, all at once the words escaped him, "You say so, because you know whom the people are going to elect."
I said, "Not so, I have already decided to pledge my Bai‘at to some one of your party." But, nevertheless, he persisted in saying, "No, no, you know what they would do", meaning that I knew that they would elect me as Khalifa. This made me despair of an agreement, and I could see that God had decreed quite otherwise. In spite of the decision, therefore, which I had come to, I saw that the other party showed no disposition for unity. These words which escaped Maulawi Muhammad Ali’s lips made it clear to me that the real cause of his opposition to the Khilafat was not his disbelief in Khilafat qua Khilafat but the fact that he had become afraid that the Community was bent upon choosing a particular person as their Khalifa. That this is the plain truth might be seen from the fact that only six years before, he had made a public announcement to the following effect:
"Agreeably to the commands of the Promised Messiah (as), contained in the book Al-Wasiyyat, we Ahmadis, whose signatures are appended below, with perfect sincerity of heart agree that all the present members of the Ahmadi Jama‘at, as well as all those who in future may seek admission into it, should in the name of Ahmad pledge their Bai‘at on the hand of Hadrat Haji Maulawi Hakim Nuruddin Sahib, the First of the Muhajirin, the most eminent amongst us in learning and piety, and the loyalist and the oldest Companion of our Imam, one whose example was held up before us by our Imam as a model for all of us, as in the couplet: 'How well had it been if every one of this community had been a Nuruddin. So would it have been indeed, had every heart been filled with the Nur (light) of certainty.' The commands of Hadrat Maulawi Sahib, in future, should be for us as the commands of the Promised Messiah and Mahdi (as)".
This announcement was published over the signature of a large number of the leading members of the Community. Maulawi Muhammad Ali was one of the signatories. The draft of the announcement which was published in the Badr of June 2, 1908, was first submitted as a supplication to Hadrat Khalifatul, Masih I (ra) on May 27, 1908. And then after the Bai‘at of Khilafat had been held, a further announcement in the same issue of the Badr was made by Khwaja Kamaluddin as Secretary, Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya. This announcement was to the following effect:
Before the funeral prayers of the Promised Messiah (as) were held at Qadian, and in accordance with his instructions contained in the book Al- Wasiyyat… Hakim Nuruddin Sahib was proclaimed the Promised Messiah’s (as) Successor and Khalifa, and the oath of Bai‘at taken on his hand... This announcement is being addressed as information to all members of the Movement, so that on reading it they should all in person or through letter present themselves at once to Hadrat Hakimul Ummat Khalifatul Masih wal-Mahdi and take the oath of Bai‘at.
No new will or testament had since been found by Maulawi Muhammad Ali that he had now come to regard Khilafat as wrong. So the truth is but this that for their next Khalifa the Jama‘at was looking not to him but to somebody else.