Trip to Europe for medical treatment

In an enchanting message to the members of the Community, Hadhrat Musleh Mau’ood [ra] gave details about his illness and the doctor’s advice to seek treatment in Europe. Thereafter, betraying an extraordinary attachment and devotion to his beloved Community he stated:

“Every human being who is born must also die. In the moments when I felt my soul ebbing away, I was not sad about leaving this world. I was sad over leaving you people forever. And I could see that such a man does not yet exist in our Community who can watch over you like a father. My mind could not bear any burden at the time but I kept praying during those moments that O my Lord who is my true Father and my Heavenly Father, I am not worried for my children who will be orphans. I am only worried for that Community which was established by the one commissioned by You after so many centuries. It will be orphaned. If You can comfort me with the assurance that You will cater for their orphaned state then these moments of suffering will become bearable.

However, how can you expect this from me when the enemies of these hundreds of thousands of spiritual children that you have granted me are present in every nook and corner and satanic spears are repeatedly being raised for their extermination? When there is nobody after me to absorb the blows from these lances, then please tell me how I should tolerate this reality.”

It is therefore quite apparent that this trip was for the treatment and well being of Huzur. However, every moment of Huzur’s life testifies that his contentment and tranquillity was connected to the progress and spread of Islam and this trip was no exception.

In May 1955, Huzur first arrived in Beirut, Lebanon where he visited the ancient

sites of Baalbek. From Beirut he travelled onto Switzerland via Athens and Rome. He

sought treatment from a homoeopathic doctor in Zurich and the same day he asked Hadhrat Chaudhry Muhammad Zafrulla Khan to oversee the building work on the new mosque in Holland.

In the same month he wrote to the Nazir Aa’la, Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiyya instructing him to plant trees throughout Rabwah. He stated:

“It is necessary to plant as many trees as possible in Rabwah for the well being of its inhabitants. Trees cannot survive without water…the existing tube wells ought to be serviced. Moreover, it would be better to upgrade with electric engines so that output can be maximised ensuring the trees already planted do not dry up. It is also important to establish other tube wells as soon as possible… ten or fifteen times more trees than we have now or even more than this should be planted. Electricity has now made the job very easy.”

He was examined very thoroughly by top experts in Zurich, Hamburg and London with such assistance as could be drawn from X-ray impressions, etc., and the unanimous conclusion was that the point of the knife had broken at the jugular vein and was embedded in it. The expert advice was that no attempt should be made to extract it, as the risk to his life involved in any such operation was too serious to be worth taking. It was hoped the pressure on the vein and the consequent effect on the nervous system might be slowly eased and the patient be able to resume his activities at a reduced tempo. He was advised to adopt a restful pattern of life and to avoid hard work and long periods of sustained labour. For a person of his temperament and high capacities this was a disappointing prospect. But there was no help for it. He was still able to carry on a comparatively active life, but the pressure on his nervous system, instead of being eased with the passage of time, tended to be intensified progressively.

During his visit Huzur inspected the various missions in Europe and held a confer-

ence in London of all the missionaries working in the different European countries in which he evaluated their activities and progress and gave them directions and furnished them with guidance with regard to their future work.

On 26 August 1955, Huzur embarked on his journey back to Pakistan and arrived in Pakistan on 5 September 1955. Hadhrat Sahibzada Mirza Tahir Ahmad, who later became the fourth Khalifa of the Community, stayed in England for studies until October 1957.

After his tour of Europe he called upon members to devote their children to the Jama’at for the preaching of Islam in European countries.