Khilafat Centenary Souvenir 1908-2008 — Page 69
for a suitable site for establishing the Centre of the Movement. The choice of a site was soon made and an application was made to government for the sale to the Community of an area of just over one thousand acres of barren, uncultivatable land across the River Chenab from Chiniot. This area was 95 miles west of Lahore and was served by the Lahore-Sargodha Road. The railway line from Lyallpur to Sargodha also passed through the area and there was every reason to expect that the Railway Administration could be persuaded to estab- lish a railway station within the area. Such water as was available within the area was brackish but it was hoped that a supply of sweet water might be arranged. The application for the sale of the land was diligently pursued and despite red-tape and official dela ys the price demanded by the government for the area to be sold to the Movement was paid into the Government Treasury on 27 June 19 48, and the necessary official formalities were completed within a few days. Possession of the site, however, could not be obtained till 5 August. . . The proposed town to be constructed on the barren, treeless site on which not a blade of grass had ever sprouted, was named Rabwah , which is the name ascribed in the Hol y Qur 'an to the region where Jesus eventually found shelter. A survey party soon prepared a plan of the site and in due course a plan of the town was drawn up. . . As soon as official formalities had been complied with, temporar y accommodation was erected at Rabwah to enable the Khalifatul Masih ra , his immediate entourage and the offices of the principal institutions of the Movement to establish themselves at Rabwah. There were few facilities and amenities available at that time at Rabwah and life there, particularly in the trying heat of the summer, was most uncomfortable and stark. But the enthusiasm and eagerness of the Khalifatul Masih ra and his own shining example, in the face of all the hardships to which life at Rabwah was subject, served to inspire everyone to put forth his best in every situation. In due course, better accommodation was provided for all the institutions of the Movement, a plentiful supply of sweet water became available, electricity was supplied from the grid, a telephone connection was established, trees were planted and began to grow and in due course to afford shade along the principal streets, and most of the amenities pertaining to a town of the size of Rabwah were provided. The population of Rabwah exceeds fifteen thousand [1978], and though simplicity and even austerity are still the rule of life in Rabwah, more than a hundred thousand men and women from far and near are accommodated at Rabwah on the occasion of the Annual Conference of the Movement in the last week of December. Rabwah is still a comparatively small town but it is known all over the world as the headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Movement, whose membership already exceeds ten million. It is undoubtedly the most dynamic religious Movement in the world. All this has been consummated and has grown out of the seed sown by the Promised Messiah as and nurtured and guarded by his Successors more particularly by Khalifatul Masih n ra during more than half a century of his Khilafat. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih n ra moved from his temporary residence in Lahore to his permanent residence at Rabwah on 19 September 1949 and was now able to devote his full attention to the establishment of the new World Headquarters of the Movement, pulling together all the threads that bound the Community together and restarting the forward march of the Movement which had been so grievously interrupted by the tragic events that followed upon the partition of the country. . . In April 1949, the Annual Conference of the Movement had already been held in Rabwah, and most of the institutions of the Movement were re-established in Rabwah in the course of the year. Of the principal institutions, only the Talimul Islam College continued in the D. A. V. College building in Lahore, awaiting the construction of its own building at Rabwah. This took another five years. . . The Movement had established footholds in British East Africa, as it then was, in the time of the Promised Messiah as. The footholds became linked together in the course of time, and during the Second Khilafat, burgeoned into a network of active branches. In the early years of the Second Khilafat, branches of the Movement had been established in the British colonies of West Africa and were doing very good work. Indeed, they were making such rapid progress that Christian missionaries in West Africa, and those interested in the spread of Christianity in the West