Fazl-e-Umar — Page 133
Fazle Umar 133 About a couple of weeks prior to the publication of Al-Fazl, The “Lahore Group” to which the dissentients belonged started a paper called the Paigham-i-Sulh (Message of Peace) in 1913. Although an Ahmadi organ, the proprietors took considerable pains to keep the fact of their Ahmadiyyat as much in the background as possible. Two anonymous pamphlets bearing false and slanderous allegations against Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih [ra] and members of the family of the Promised Messiah [as] were published in October 1913. The statement published in the Paigham-i-Sulh of 16 November 1913 establishes the fact that they were inspired by the leadership of the dissentients, despite their anonymity. 90 This was an age of democracy, said the pamphlets, and true to the spirit of the age the Promised Messiah [as] had left his sacred Will and Testament that after his death the Anjuman would have the final authority. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih [ra] directed the Anjuman Ansarullah to prepare and publish a rejoinder to the pamphlets. It proved most effective and fully safeguarded the Community against the mischief that the pamphlets were designed to stir up. Regarding the best means of propagation of Ahmadiyyat, the Lahore Group thought that success was to be attained only by adopting the policy of Khawaja sahib and not by that pursued by Hadhrat Sahibzada Sahib. These views were supported and encouraged by articles published in the Paigham-i-Sulh. This and other controversies, however, led to one good result. They exposed to view the machinations, which had previously been carried on in secret, and thus served to put the Community upon its guard. No doubt, a section of the Community was carried away by the tide but the loss proved a source of safety for the rest. When the internal dissensions of the Community had once been made public, there remained no longer any reason for further secrecy. In the Paigham-i-Sulh, attacks began to be made openly on the Ahmadis who lived at Qadian, and refutations of those