The forward march of Ahmadiyyat

Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] moved from his temporary residence in Rattan Bagh, Lahore to his permanent residence at Rabwah on 19th September 1949 and was now able to devote his full attention to the establishment of the new World

Headquarters of the Movement, pulling together all the threads that bound the Community and restarting the forward march of the Movement which had been so grievously interrupted by the tragic events that followed upon the partition of the country. The finances of the Community had fallen into a certain degree of inevitable disarray and were speedily reorganised on a firm basis and henceforward went on multiplying themselves in a surprising manner. In April 1949, the Annual Conference of the Movement had already been held in Rabwah, and most of the institutions of the Movement were re-established in Rabwah in the course of the year. Of the principal institutions, only the Talimul Islam College continued in the D.A.V. College building in Lahore, awaiting the construction of its own building at Rabwah. This took another five years. After the move of the Khalifatul Masih to Rabwah, everything began to hum as of yore and all the branches in Pakistan and abroad became firmly knitted together once more unobstructed and freely circulating under his guidance.

The Movement had established footholds in British East Africa, as it was then, in the time of the Promised Messiah [as]. The footholds became linked together in the course of time, and during the Second Khilafat burgeoned into a network of active branches.

In the early years of the Second Khilafat, branches of the Movement had been established in the British colonies of West Africa and were doing very good work. Indeed, they were making such rapid progress that Christian missionaries in West Africa, and those interested in the spread of Christianity in the West African states,

began to be apprehensive that their dream of Christianising the whole of West Africa was likely to be frustrated in consequence of the advent of Ahmadiyyat in some of the West African countries.

Ahmadiyya missions had also been opened in some of the countries of South East Asia and were making good progress, particularly in Indonesia. Active branches had been established as far a field as Palestine, Fiji and Mauritius.

An Ahmadiyya Centre had been established in Chicago, Illinois, and branches were springing up in some of the mid-western and eastern states of America. Thus, the Movement was already assuming worldwide standing. So far the only notable mission established in Europe was the one in London, which had come into being simultaneously with the Second Khilafat.

A mission had, at one time, been opened in Paris but was not able to gain a firm foothold in that city, or outside it, and was closed a few years later. The persistence and steadfastness of the missionary assigned to Madrid began slowly to yield fruit and within a few years a small Spanish group of adherents of the Movement emerged in Madrid. A mission was opened in Rome, and though at one time it appeared that a branch of the Movement might be established in the capital of Christendom, that expectation was fulfilled after the Second Khilafat. A beginning was made in Poland and later in Hungary and also in Albania, but political developments in those countries blocked further progress.

These instances afford further confirmation of the verity, repeatedly affirmed in the Qur’an, that all guidance is in the hands of God and proceeds from Him, and there is a term appointed for every consummation. Man’s part is to put forth earnest, prayerful effort in the full certainty that the divine purpose is bound to be fulfilled in all respects in due course.

Some of the other countries of Europe, however, presented a more hopeful picture.

Under the dynamic direction of Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] missions were also established in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. These missions made such good progress that mosques were built during the Rabwah period of the Second Khilafat in Zurich, Frankfurt, the Hague and Hamburg. All this activity has stemmed from the initiation of the Tehrike Jadeed by Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] in 1934.