Truth About the Split — Page 365
365 the problem, how to save the Community from a possible split. But the conversation showed no sign of coming to an end. Meanwhile, the noise outside increased and people got so excited that there was danger of the door being burst open. The people urged that they could wait no longer, that while we were unable to come to any decision the Community was waiting without a leader. I then said to Maulawi Muhammad Ali that we had better go out and consult the people assembled outside. Upon this, all at once the words escaped him, "You say so, because you know whom the people are going to elect. " I said, "Not so, I have already decided to pledge my Bai‘at to some one of your party. " But, nevertheless, he persisted in saying, "No, no, you know what they would do", meaning that I knew that they would elect me as Khalifa. This made me despair of an agreement, and I could see that God had decreed quite otherwise. In spite of the decision, therefore, which I had come to, I saw that the other party showed no disposition for unity. These words which escaped Maulawi Muhammad Ali’s lips made it clear to me that the real cause of his opposition to the Khilafat was not his disbelief in Khilafat qua Khilafat but the fact that he had become afraid that the Community was bent upon choosing a particular person as their Khalifa. That this