Truth About the Split — Page 122
122 the office of Khalifa. Like Maulawi Muhammad Ali himself, M. Zahiruddin was one who did not recognise the validity of Khulafa’. He could not, therefore, be a claimant to that office. What he claimed was that he was the Promised Muslih (reformer). He held the opinion that a claim to the leadership of the Community was valid only if established on the basis of a revelation vision or prophecy. Accordingly, we find that he was never charged by the Community with having made a claim to the Khilafat, nor was there any announcement ever made of his exclusion from the Community on the ground of any such claim. It is true that the Community, in actual practice severed all connection with him, but that was because of the novel doctrines forged by him, e. g. formulating a new Kalima (formula of faith), turning the face towards Qadian while at prayer, asserting that the Promised Messiah as was a Nabi with a new Shariah (Law), denying the authority of Khalifatul Masih I ra and charging him with various malpractices. So far as I can recollect, the only person who took any notice of his writings was Mir Qasim Ali, editor of the Al-Haq. In his paper, then published from Delhi, he referred to him in the following words: