Truth About the Split — Page 370
370 than in the case of the last Khalifa. Nevertheless, Maulawi Muhammad Ali and his friends were not satisfied. Still they called the whole thing an intrigue. They circulated to the Jama'at at large that no decision had been reached regarding the question of Khilafat, and that all that had taken place at Qadian was the result of collusion and conspiracy. Unscrupulous Propaganda Opposition grew until all ordinary scruples were thrown to the winds. The Paigham-e-Sulh for instance reported that the funeral prayers of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra had been attended by some two thousand five hundred men (March 17, 1914). But the same paper a little later wrote "Those who had seen the faces of the Promised Messiah as and of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra refrained from such a Bai‘at , and of all the people present nearly half refused to take Bai‘at (March 22, 1914). This report obviously implied that of the men who had been in the company of the Promised Messiah as and of Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra not one entered into Bai‘at with me, and further that of all the people present at Qadian nearly one half declined to pledge their Bai‘at. The truth, as I have said, was that those who refused Bai‘at did not number more than fifty, while of the 2,000 or,