Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 195
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 195 addresses on the occasions of weddings, and leading funeral prayers. To this Sahibzada Mahmud Ahmad Sahib replied that the time of defining the authority of the Khalifa was before the making of the covenant at the hand of the Khalifa elect. He had announced very clearly that after making the covenant they would have to obey him in all things, and the cov. enant was made after this clear declaration. They were now committed to obey him and being so committed they had no right to seek to limit the authority of the Khalifa. On hearing this Khawaja Sahib changed the subject of conversa- tion and nothing more was said on this subject at the time. When the Promised Messiah had instituted the Central Ahmadiyya Association in January 1906 he had appointed Maulvi Nurud Din Sahib President of the Association. He continued President even after his election as Khalifa. Those who began to think that the authority of the Khalifa should be clearly defined and strictly limited took advantage of this situation and began to refer in their speeches to the Khalifatul Masih as the Chief President; thus subtly giving currency to the notion that the Head of the Movement exercised his authority by virtue of his office of President of the Central Association and not in his capacity of Khalifatul Masih. During the Annual Conference of 1908 some of them in their speeches had recourse to this device. They urged the Com- munity to remain united and to render full obedience to the Chief President and carry out faithfully the resolutions of the Central Association. In the record of the proceedings of the Association also, any reference to the Khalifatul Masih was carefully avoided and he was referred to only as the President of the Association. . Propaganda was carried on, especially in Lahore, stressing the importance and primacy of the Central Association and ignoring the capacity and authority of the Head of the Movement as Khalifatul Masih. In the beginning of 1909 Syed Muhammad Ishaq Sahib (brother-in-law of the Pro- mised Messiah) drew up a set of questions on the subject of the authority of the Khalifa and the juxtaposition between