Ahmadiyyat Destiny and Progress — Page 34
Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad 34 [Sometime later], a group of people who did not identify themselves as Ahmadis because the jama‘at had not yet assumed this name, collected here with the same aims and aspirations as our own. It may have been 1893, ‘94, or ‘95, I cannot say for certain, but the season was similar to today. The weather, days and months were much as they are now. I cannot recall whether the proceedings were held in our current location or if the mosque 24 also hosted them. The precise details are lost to me as I was just a child of seven or eight years. I had no appreciation of the true significance of this meeting. My principle memory is of ducking and diving through the cluster of attendees. At the time I was astonished to see such an assembly of people. A rug was spread out on the part of the wall where the Promised Messiah as sat and those friends who had come for the Jalsa Salana were circled around him. Perhaps there were two rugs, but if memory serves me right there was only one and it was used to seat those present. I remember there being anywhere between 100 to 200 people, but the Promised Messiah as later published a list which recorded an attendance of 250 participants including children. They had come together in their concern for the way in which Islam was being abased the world over. [They saw 24 Masjid Aqsa, Qadian [Publishers]