Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 315
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 3 IS miles west of Lahore and was served by the Lahore-Sargodha Road. The railway line from Lyallpur to Sargodha also passed through the area and there was every reason to 'expect that the Railway Administration couldbe persuaded to estab- lish a railway station within the area. Such water as was available within the area was brackish but it was hoped that a supply of sweet water might be arranged. The application for the sale of the land was diligently pursued and despite red-tape and official delays the price demanded by the government for the area to be sold to the Movement was paid into the Government Treasury on 27 June 1948, and the necessary official formalities were com- pleted within a few days. Possession of the site, however, could not be obtained till 5 August. Nevertheless, the selec- tion and acquisition of the site within just short of one year from the arrival of the Khalifatul Masih in Lahore was a creditable achievement. This was a' necessary preliminary, but a tremendous effort was needed before the elementary facilities could be established in the absence of which even a token move to the site could not be contemplated. The proposed town to be constructed on the barren, treeless site on which not a blade of grass had ever sprouted, was named Rabwah, which is the name ascribed in the Holy Quran to the region where Jesus eventually found shelter (23:5I). A survey party soon prepared a plan of the site and in due course a plan of the town was drawn up and was submitted for approval to the Government Town Planner, who took objection to several features of the plan. For instance, he objected to the hospital being erected within the main area of the town and insisted that the hospital building should be sited at the farthest corner of the area which had been sold by government to the Movement. He also objected to a mosque being built in every quarter of the town. For the sixteen proposed quarters of the town he ruled that two mosques should be enough. He 0bjected that no site had been provided in the plan for a cinema or a theatre. All his objections were of the same type of absurdity. The organiza-