Fazl-e-Umar — Page 251
Fazle Umar 251 The Community as a whole, and its individual members, rendered aid and assistance to their suffering fellow beings without distinction of caste or creed, in every situation in which they were capable of rendering assistance, at the risk, and sometimes even at the cost, of their own lives, security and property. This was freely acknowledged on all hands. So long as the Ahmadis were not expelled from the greater part of Qadian, under police and military action, Qadian continued to serve as an asylum for Muslim refugees who were being driven out of the areas which had been allotted to India and were fleeing to Pakistan. When the turn of Qadian itself came, and the greater part of it had to be evacuated, the Community exhibited an extraordinary spectacle of dis- cipline, orderliness, steadfastness and courage. Despite all the adverse developments that took place hourly after the announcement of the Boundary Award, the Khalifatul Masih himself remained in Qadian, while the steady evacuation of sections of the population of Qadian and of the records and valuables belonging to the institutions of the Community proceeded in an orderly manner. It was a time of severe trial, and a testing of faith and all sterling values. By the sheer Grace and Mercy of the Divine not only was there no falling from grace, there were numerous instances of true heroism and heartening and almost miraculous experiences of Divine help and protection. As soon as Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] arrived in Lahore he issued direc- tions that it was an obligation upon every member of the Community to render every assistance to such non-Muslims as were still in Pakistan. Many of them were exposed to danger at the hands of Muslims who were incensed at the brutalities and horrors to which Muslims in East Punjab had been subjected at the hands of the non-Muslims. Train after train arrived from East Punjab crammed full with Muslim refugees, some of whom had been cruelly murdered in the course of their journey by non-Muslim mobs which ransacked the trains at different stops, almost all the survivors bearing marks of injuries, many of them grievous; children with their eyes gouged out, their