Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 233
215 Demise of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih IV (ra) One day you shall depart this mortal world Everyone is bound by the Divine Decree In 2003, we had chalked out a programme to hold our regional jalsa salana at Sare Mari village of Nioro region of Senegal. About forty villages had been informed of that. Two days before the Jalsa, a friend told me that Muridiyya, one of Senegal’s Muslim religious organisations, were planning a big conference near the spot marked for our Jalsa. This is Senegal’s strongest jama’at, founded by Amadu Bamba. After his death, a system of caliphate has been established which is in the form of hereditary leadership. It is a radical jama’at. Even the governments get established with their co-operation. When Abdullahi Wade became the president of the country, the first thing he did was to visit their caliph to pay homage and sat on his feet in his court. That photograph graced all the newspapers of the country. Under the circumstances it was expedient for us to postpone our jalsa to some other appropriate date to avoid any unpleasant situation. Accordingly, all jama’ats were informed of the postponement immediately. Because of the postponement, I returned to my base in Dakar. I happened to be in the office, when Ataul Qadeer rang me from London and told me weepingly that Huzur had passed away. Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’oon. Some muallims were sitting in the office then. I broke the heart rendering news to them and