Truth About the Split — Page 189
189 appoint or to depose a Khalifa. Thus my appointment as Khalifa was not due to Maulawi Muhammad Ahsan, nor could 1 be deposed by his command. It is, indeed, one of the favours of God, that since the announcement of deposition by Maulawi Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan, further success has come and continues to come to me. From that time up to now (March 1919), some fifteen to twenty thousand new members have joined me and every day brings more and more success. May God add to the success. Amen! It is not my intention at this stage to enter into a discussion of the charges brought against me by Maulawi Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan, nor shall I attempt here to prove or disprove the beliefs which he states. A full discussion of these beliefs will be made further on. All I wish to say at this place is that it is hardly proper on the part of Sayyid Sahib to attack me on the ground of those beliefs. It was certainly open to him to say that the error of those beliefs is now manifest to him, and that he has therefore, decided to renounce them, or he could have said that, in addition to those beliefs, there were some novel beliefs which I had adopted, and that it was on account of these that he would now renounce my Bai‘at. But he has no justification to speak of the beliefs held by me, as