Truth About the Split — Page 207
207 association. But, nevertheless, so far as I can remember, I have never as yet issued any pronouncement on this subject. Apart, however, from these considerations, may not one ask of Maulawi Muhammad Ali, what right has he to bring the present charge against me, seeing that he himself declined to accept my invitation? He himself stands charged with departing from the example of the Holy Prophet sa in declining my invitation. After that it was no longer my duty to accept his invitation. To accept his invitation, under the circumstances, would have been dishonourable, and believers ought never to compromise their honour. I sought long not to cut off relations with this opposite party, and to see them return to the fold of truth. But Maulawi Muhammad Ali, from the beginning, saw his advantage in dissension and strife. It was because of this that he departed from Qadian, and founded a new Anjuman of his own, and published various slanders against me. After that, what right has he to expect that I should continue to be friendly with him? In the first place, by their denial of the Khilafat and by their attempt to create a breach in the Community, Maulawi Muhammad Ali and his associates—who were at the bottom of these dissensions—made themselves liable in the eye of the Shariah to have all intercourse with