Khilafat-e-Rashidah — Page 77
KHILAFAT-E-R A SHIDAH 77 after the demise of the Promised Messiah as ?” I replied to him, “Something should happen, but as to what it should be, I cannot say anything”. He said to me, “In my opinion, we should give Bai‘at to Hadrat Maulaw i Sahib ra ”. At that time, due to my age and lack of knowledge, I said, “the Promised Messiah as did not mention anywhere that we should take the Bai‘at of someone after him, so why should we take the Bai‘at of Hadrat Maulaw i Sahib ra ”? (Though it was mentioned in Al-Wa s iyyat , it did not occur to me at that time). On this, he started arguing that the Community would be destroyed if the Bai‘at was not taken at the hand of one person. He added that after the demise of the Holy Prophet sa , the people took the Bai‘at of Hadrat Abu Bakr ra , so the same should be done now, and there is no one more suitable in the Jam a ‘at than Hadrat Maulaw i Sahib. He also told me that Maulaw i Muhammad Ali Sahib had the same viewpoint. Finally, the whole Community unanimously requested Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra to accept the Bai‘at of the people. Then, all the people gathered in the garden and Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra addressed them and said, “I have no wish for Im a mat (leadership), and in my opinion, the Bai‘at of someone else should be taken”. For this purpose, he first proposed my name, then the name of our maternal grandfather, Mir Nasir Nawab Sahib, then the name of our brother-in-law, Nawab Muhammad Ali Khan Sahib, and then the names of