Nubuwwat & Khilafat Prophethood & its Successorship — Page 52
N UBUWWAT AND K HIL A FAT 52 Maulav i Muhammad ‘Al i was printed under the caption, An Important Announcement. He wrote: The second matter to which I would like to draw the attention of the friends is that there is no injunction or testament issued by the Promised Messiah [ ‘alaihis sal a m ] which would require that those who have joined the Jam a ‘at by taking pledge at the hand of Promised Messiah as should take a pledge at the hand of someone else. This statement of Maulav i Sahib was in contradiction to his own professed belief. At the demise of the Promised Messiah as , all of the Jam a ‘at considered it incumbent to take a pledge at the hand of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra. Maulav i Muhammad ‘Al i gave a new interpretation to the following decision: I have firm faith in Allah, that this holy personage, Maulav i N u r-ud-D i n ra who has been bestowed the title of “Khalifatul Masih ,” and who alone is worthy of that title in a true sense, has been granted to us by Allah for fulfiling our spiritual needs. This is the holy, unselfish, personage with full trust in Allah that has no match in today’s world. There is no one in our Jam a ‘at of his spiritual status, knowledge and under- standing. If Allah so wills, He can create thousands of such people, but I speak only of what exists now. His knowledge and cognizance is so high, that we all would bow our heads to him even if we had not taken the pledge of allegiance. But, for the strength of the Jam a ‘at, the will of Allah inspired all of us to develop a spiritual bond with this holy and unselfish personage present among us at the demise of the Promised Messiah as. His election was not decided just by forty; rather the heads of the entire Jam a ‘at bowed to him. About fifteen- hundred members took a pledge at the same time—not a single one, male or female, remained outside the pledge. ( Paigh a m-e- S ul h , March 15, 1914)