Truth About the Split — Page 346
346 "At the death of the Promised Messiah as , the Jama'at had unanimously decided that they would have a succession of Khulafa’. No consultation is needed on this point. We cannot, in fact, open the question over again. The question to be consulted about is the election of the Khalifa. And as regards your question, what is the need for a Khalifa, my answer is that besides spiritual guardianship of the Community, the function of a Khalifa is to maintain unity in the Community, and to protect it against disorder and dissension. A practical definition of these functions is not possible. I cannot, therefore, enumerate the concrete forms which it may assume. Nor is spiritual governance a tangible thing, that I could specify the duties which the Khalifa must perform, nor can we say when troubles may arise, that we could be certain that, for some time at least, there would be no need of a Khalifa. It is possible that, even tomorrow there should arise a situation calling for the interference of a guardian hand. You ought to give up, therefore, the question whether we should or should not have a Khalifa. We should discuss only the question who should be Khalifa?" Maulawi Muhammad Ali answered: "Here lies the difficulty. As there are differences of doctrine, there would be differences over the election of a Khalifa. How can we pledge our