Truth About the Split — Page 364
364 Khilafat; the discussion should be confined to the question who was to be the next Khalifa. Maulawi Muhammad Ali and his friends contended that nothing ought to be done for the time being, that enough time should be allowed to enable the Community to think over and decide upon the proper course they ought to follow, and that only when a unanimous decision had been reached, should we take any practical step. In reply I repeated what I had already said on the subject the day before. I also pointed out on this occasion that if after all the waiting the Community were still divided over the question, what were they then going to do? If the question was later to be decided by a majority, it was open to them even at the time to let the majority decide the question. Incidentally, the conversation turned upon the question of beliefs and Maulawi Sayyid Muhammad Ahsan had a passage at arms with Maulawi Muhammad Ali, in which Maulawi Muhammad Ahsan strongly upheld the view that the Promised Messiah as was a Nabi. I believe that if Maulawi Muhammad Ali were asked even now to state on oath, he will not venture to deny the truth of the incident. I, however, stopped the discussion saying that the time was not a fit one for such controversy, and that now every one should devote his thought to