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A more detailed reply to the question why the Lahore Ahmadiyya Founders did not accept Mirza Mahmud Ahmad as khalifa in 1914, while they had accepted Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din as khalifa in 1908, is given below.

The khilafat established by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad in 1914 was of a totally different nature from the headship or khilafat of Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din that had existed before then. Firstly, Maulana Nur-ud-Din held the same beliefs about the status of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as those taught by Hazrat Mirza himself, in particular that other Muslims are also Muslims and they do not become non-Muslims by not believing in Hazrat Mirza’s claims. Secondly, Maulana Nur-ud-Din upheld the position of the Sadr Anjuman created by Hazrat Mirza and said in a speech about Hazrat Mirza’s booklet Al-Wasiyya that:

“It is indeed true that he has made fourteen men the Khalifat-ul-Masih, and written that their decision arrived at by majority opinion is final and binding.”

Please see our detailed article.

So Maulana Muhammad Ali, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din and their comrades had no hesitation in fully accepting him as Head of the Movement.

However, Mirza Mahmud Ahmad on becoming the khalifa started enforcing his belief on the Movement that all other Muslims must be treated as if they were kafir, and he gave himself absolute and autocratic powers as khalifa. Immediately upon becoming khalifa M. Mahmud Ahmad had a resolution passed that:

“…in place of the words ‘Promised Messiah’ the words ‘Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad the second Khalifa’ shall be entered. Therefore, Rule no. 18 shall now be as follows: In every matter, for the Majlis-i Mu‘timidin and its subordinate branches if any, and for the Sadr Anjuman and all its branches, the order of Hazrat Khalifat-ul-Masih Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad the second Khalifa shall be absolute and final.”

The change of wording from “Promised Messiah” directly to “the second khalifa” shows that when Maulana Nur-ud-Din became head he had not substituted his name for that of the Promised Messiah in this Rule, as Mirza Mahmud Ahmad did.

In our detailed article we have quoted from a speech made by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad in 1925 when he further changed the system of governing the Movement. He said, referring to the above resolution:

“The founding principle of the Council of Trustees (Majlis-i Mu‘timidin) did not include the existence of the khalifa of the time, which is the very fundamental issue in Islam. A resolution has been passed during the second khilafat to the effect that the Council must accept whatever the khalifa says. But this is not a matter of principle. What it means is that a body of members says that it would do so. However, the body which is entitled to say this, can also say that it shall not do so. For, the Anjuman which can pass the resolution that it shall obey the khalifa in everything, if ten years later it says that it shall not obey him, it is entitled to do so according to the rules of the Anjuman. Or if the Anjuman says that it will obey this khalifa in everything but will not obey another one, it has the right to do so according to its rules.”

Note his words: “A resolution has been passed during the second khilafat”. He himself admits that before this resolution (of April 1914) there was no such khilafat as that instituted by him. He took the first step by that resolution in April 1914, and then in 1925 he discovered that that was still insufficient to make the khilafat as autocratic as he wanted, and that his resolution was “not a matter of principle”. So the kind of khilafat that he finally established in the Movement had never ever existed till he became khalifa, so much so that he himself had to take more than one step over a number of years in order to establish it and achieve his purpose.

The headship or khilafat of Maulana Nur-ud-Din did not at all violate the teachings of Islam or the instructions of the Promised Messiah, while the khilafat set up by Mirza Mahmud Ahmad in 1914 violates the very basic teachings of Islam (making the khalifa into God’s spokesman on earth) and contradicts the clear instructions of the Promised Messiah given in Al-Wasiyyat.