Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 335
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 335 vened a meeting of the College on 9 November for the purpose of electing the new Khalifa. The interval between the demise of Khalifatul Masih II and the meeting of the Electoral College was spent by everyone in humble and earnest supplication to the Divine, that the members of the Electoral College may be righdy guided in their choice of the Successor to Khalifatul Masih II. The College met in a deeply prayerful mood and Sahibzada Mirza Nasir Ahmad Sahib, eldest son of the departed Khalifatul Masih, who had been Principal of the Talimul Islam College for 21 years, was elected Khalifatul Masih III by an overwhelming majority of the Electoral College. As soon as the choice of the Electoral College became known it was universally felt as if comfort and consolation were descending upon every heart from heaven. The funeral prayers over the beloved departed, led by the newly elected Khalifa, and his interment later on the same day were a deeply moving experience for everyone, which was born of conflicting emotions of grief and bereavement on the one hand and steadfast submission to the divine will, and a firm resolve to march forward in earnestness, giving of one's very best, o~ the other. The bonds of brotherhood were felt to be gaining in strength, and the urge towards greater uprightness and righteousness in every sphere appeared to be the prevailing mood. Tributes in superlative terms were paid to the memory of Khalifatul Masih II by the entire press of Pakistan. It would be enough to set out as an example the one that was published in The Light, a weekly publication of the dissentient group published from Lahore. In its issue of 16 November 1965, under the caption 'A. GREATNATION-BUILDER', the editor wrote: The death of Mirza Bashirud Din Mahmud Ahmad, Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement (Rabwah) rang the curtain down on a most eventful career, packed with a multitude of far-reaching enterprises. A man of versatile genius and dynamic personality, there was hardly any sphere of contemporary thought and life