Message of Love and Brotherhood to Africa — Page 35
35 office of president. It is evidently axiomatic that for making advancement for prestige and weight in the international community, the nation must choose a deserving person for the office and when the incumbent is replaced, he should be accorded the same respect and esteem as he enjoyed during the tenure of his office. An Arab poet claimed to belong to a tribe of chiefs, that leaders had queued up behind him and that whenever one leader departed this world, the next stepped in his place and became the head. The Ahmadiyya Community is likewise a community of leaders. Allah, the Magnifi- cent, has raised it for the role of world leadership. In the Ahmadiyya Jam a ‘at every ex-office holder is a worthy person. If he is not, then why those who were commanded to pass the trust to the trustworthy failed in their duty and if they handed the trust to the trustworthy then they must hold them in esteem and regard them highly. After instructing them in this manner I told them that their elections had to take place two months earlier, but that I had ordered their postponement. Their office- bearers, I said, were, thus legally my appointees and that I wanted to change all