Hazrat Maulvi Nooruddin - Khalifatul-Masih I — Page 170
STATUS OF KHALIFA Hadrat Maulw i Nur-ud-D i n ra — Khalifatul Masih I 170 orders will be as binding upon us as were those of the Promised Messiah as. They had left themselves no way of escape. It was clearly God’s doing. But in a short while they began to cast about for loopholes. Sophistication replaced zeal and sincerity. When their propaganda came to the surface those possessed of spiritual insight took alarm. One of them, M i r Muhammad Is ha q, younger brother of Hadrat Ummul Mu’min i n, an enlightened scholar and divine, and a person of exemplary piety and rectitude, drew up a set of questions in early January 1909, on the subject of the relationship between the Khal i fa and the S adr Anjuman , and submitted them to Hadrat Khalifatul Masih ra , requesting that he may be pleased to throw some light on them. The Khalifatul Masih ra sent the questions to Maulaw i Muhammad ‘Al i and asked him to suggest replies. When the Khalifatul Masih ra received his comments, he was amazed at their purport which revealed that the writer was in accord with the dissidents who were seeking to put an end to the institution of the Khilafat. For instance, he had written: "It does not appear from the Testamentary Direction of the Promised Messiah as that the Khal i fa must be an individual, though that can happen in special circumstances, as is the case just now. Indeed, Hadrat Sahib as appointed the Anjuman his Khal i fa. It is not necessary that a single individual should be Khal i fa. " 72 Thereupon the Khalifatul Masih ra directed that a large number of copies should be made of the questions and despatched to leading persons in the community who should be required to send in their