Fazl-e-Umar — Page 115
Fazle Umar 115 the notion that the office of the Khalifa was purely spiritual and for the purposes of regulation of the Community and the administration of its affairs, the Sadr Anjuman was the real Successor of the Promised Messiah [as]. The Sadr Anjuman was a self-renewing body. By its rules, which were approved on the recommendation of Khawaja Kamal Uddin, a vacancy among the members of the Anjuman, arising from the death or resignation of a member, was filled by nomination by a majority of the remaining members. So that, once as many as eight members, out of a total of fourteen, found themselves in accord with each other, they formed a majority which could perpetuate itself by filling every vacancy by nominat- ing a like-minded person. At the time of the demise of the Promised Messiah [as] , there was such a group in the Anjuman, the prominent ones in which were Maulvi Muhammad Ali, Khawaja Kamal Uddin, Shaikh Rahmatullah, Dr. Syed Muhammad Husain and Dr. Mirza Yaqub Beg, the last four belonging to Lahore. The President was Hadhrat Maulvi Noorud- din and some of the other members were Syed Muhammad Ahsan, Sahibzada Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan and Khalifa Rasheedud- deen, Khawaja Kamal Uddin was Secretary. 74 Hadhrat Maulvi Nooruddin, Khalifatul Masih I [ra] , continued as president of the Sadr Anjuman even after his election as Khalifa. Maulvi Muhammad Ali, Khawaja Kamal Uddin and several others, a solid block of their bent of mind, took advantage by boosting the presidency of the Anjuman as the real source of authority rather than the Khalifa. They began to refer in their speeches to the Khalifa 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 Sadr Anjuman, the central body and not in his capacity of Khalifa. Some of them had recourse to this device during their speeches in the Annual Conference of 1908 by stressing the need of perfect obedience