The System of Mushawarat in Jama'at-e-Ahmadiyya — Page 77
T he S ystem of M ushawarat in J am A‘ at - e -A hmadiyya elsewhere. Soon somebody came to me from some place and requested that he required the assistance o f the said person in a court case. I told him that I had promised not to send him anywhere. The man was o f an excitable nature and he argued with me, but I stayed firm on what I had already told him. He then contacted an officer o f the Anjuman who then sent the man with him. I said that if the Anjuman had meant that the man should not go at the behest o f the Khalifa, and only at their own behest, this would lead to friction. There are positive and negative aspects in everything; Islam has adopted the positive ones and discarded the negative ones. Islam does away with autocratic form o f government whereby the son—no matter how incompetent—becomes the successor, and instead endorses a government which is based on majority opinion. And when a leader has been appointed, he is required to act with consultation, so that the people do not resort to party politics. Since he cannot nominate even his own son as successor, he cannot pass on the benefits o f his office to his heirs. I believe that the Shariah does not permit the Khalifa to nominate his own son as successor, just as Hadrat ‘Umar1 * declared that the son cannot be a Khalifa. Some people wanted him to nominate his son as his successor, but he refused to do so. Moreover, there is no higher status for which the Khalifa can aspire, hence there is no competition or partisanship. The negative aspects o f the Anjuman are thus eliminated. Now, it is not only the right o f Indians to become Khalifa o f the Promised Messiah3 S , and it is quite possible that after one or two Khalifas, the next Khalifa may be from among the Arabs or Africans, for this is not the prerogative o f any particular class or country. The Khalifa can hail from any place. Thus Islam has made 77