Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of
Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
(1835–1908), who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the
end timesThe end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
, who was to herald the
EschatonEschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
as predicted in the traditions of various world religions and bring about the final triumph of Islam as per Islamic prophecy. He claimed that he was the
MujaddidA Mujaddid , according to the popular Muslim tradition, refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity...
(divine reformer) of the 14th Islamic century, the promised
MessiahA messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
and
MahdiIn Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
awaited by Muslims. The adherents of the Ahmadiyya movement are referred to as Ahmadis or Ahmadi Muslims. Ahmadi emphasis lay in the belief that Islam is the final dispensation for humanity as revealed to
MuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
and the necessity of restoring to it its true essence and pristine form, which had been lost through the centuries. Thus, Ahmadis view themselves as leading the revival and peaceful propagation of Islam. The Ahmadis were among the earliest Muslim communities to arrive in
BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and other Western countries.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the movement on 23 March 1889 and termed it the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'atThe Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
(community), envisioning it to be a revitalisation of Islam. Ahmadis consider themselves
MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s and claim to practice
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in its pristine form; however, Ahmadiyya views on certain beliefs in Islam have been controversial to orthodox Muslims since the movement’s birth. Orthodox Muslims do not consider Ahmadis to be Muslims, citing in particular the Ahmadiyya viewpoint on the death and return of Jesus (see Jesus in Islam), the Ahmadiyya concept of
JihadIn Ahmadiyya Islam, pacifism is a strong current, and jihad is one's personal inner struggle and should not be used violently for political motives. Violence is the last option only to be used to protect religion and one's own life in extreme situations of persecution.Ahmadiyya claims its objective...
in a peaceful format and the community’s view of the
finality of prophethoodSeal of the Prophets is a title given to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by a verse in the Qur'an. Muslims traditionally agree upon that Muhammad received the final revelation in the form of the Qur'an for all mankind, for all time....
with particular reference to the interpretation of . In several Islamic countries today Ahmadis have been marginalised by the majority religious community; severe
persecutionThe Persecution of Ahmadis is the religious persecution of Ahmadi Muslims as a consequence of professing their faith. They have been subject to various forms of persecution and discrimination since the movement's inception in 1889...
and often systematic oppression have led many Ahmadis to emigrate and settle elsewhere.
History
At the end of the 19th century, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian proclaimed himself to be the “Reformer of the age” (
MujaddidA Mujaddid , according to the popular Muslim tradition, refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity...
),
Promised MessiahIn Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
and the
MahdiIn Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
awaited by the Muslims and obtained a considerable number of followers especially within the
United ProvincesThe United Provinces of British India, more commonly known as the United Provinces, was a province of British India, which came into existence on 3 January 1921 as a result of the renaming of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It corresponded approximately to the combined regions of the...
, the
PunjabThe Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
and
SindhSindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
. He and his followers claim that his advent was foretold by
MuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, the Prophet of Islam, and also by many other religious scriptures of the world. In 1889, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad laid down the foundation of his community, which was later given the name of “Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at”. Ahmadiyya emerged in
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
as a movement within
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, also in response to the
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and
Arya SamajArya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
missionary activity that was widespread in the 19th century.
Soon after the death of the first successor of Ghulam Ahmad, the movement split into two groups over the nature of Ghulam Ahmad’s prophethood and his succession. The
Ahmadiyya Muslim CommunityThe Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
believed that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had indeed been a “non-law-bearing” prophet and that mainstream Muslims who categorically rejected his message were guilty of disbelief in Islamic prophecies. The
Lahore Ahmadiyya MovementThe Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam Lahore , also known as the Lahoris, formed as a result of ideological differences within the Ahmadiyya movement, after the demise of Maulana Hakim Noor-ud-Din in 1914, the first Khalifa after its founder,...
, however, affirmed the modern-day orthodox Islamic interpretation that there could be no prophet after Muhammad and viewed itself as a reform movement within the broader
UmmahUmmah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
. The question of succession was also an issue in the split of the Ahmadiyya movement. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement believed that an Anjuman (body of selected people) should be in charge of the community. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, however, maintained that
CaliphsKhalifatul Masih sometimes simply referred to as Khalifah is the elected spiritual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian...
(successors of Ghulam Ahmad) should continue to take charge of the community and should be left with the overall authority.
The larger body of Ahmadi Muslims belonging in the
Ahmadiyya Muslim CommunityThe Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
however contend that
Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
himself received a revelation by God concerning a future split in his Community and that it would be concerning his Promised Son:
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has established centers in 200 countries and states that its membership is in the tens of millions, while the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement states it is established in 17 countries of the world.
Overseas Ahmadiyya missionary activities started at an organised level as early as 1913 (the UK mission in Putney, London). For many modern nations of the world, the Ahmadiyya movement was their first contact with the proclaimants from the Muslim world.
The Ahmadiyya movement is considered by some historians as one of the precursors to the African-American
Civil Rights MovementThe civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. According to some experts, Ahmadiyya were “arguably the most influential community in African-American Islam” until the 1950s.
The Ahmadiyya faith claims to represent the latter-day revival of the religion of Islam. Today, the Ahmadiyya community has a presence in 195 countries, and in every country but Pakistan, they are legally identified as Muslims. In Pakistan they are prohibited by law from self-identifying as Muslims.
Origin of the name
The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in 1889, but the name Ahmadiyya was not adopted until about a decade later. In a manifesto dated November 4, 1900, Ghulam Ahmad explained that the name did not refer to himself but to
AhmadAhmad or Ahmed are the principal transliterations of the Arabic given name, . The name comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D, meaning "highly praised", implying "one who constantly thanks God".-Etymology:...
, the alternative name of the prophet
MuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. According to him, ‘Muhammad’, which means ‘the most praised one’, refers to the glorious destiny, majesty and power of the prophet who adopted the name from about the time of the
HegiraThe Hijra is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. Alternate spellings of this Arabic word are Hijrah, Hijrat or Hegira, the latter following the spelling rules of Latin.- Hijra of Muhammad :In September 622, warned of a plot to...
; but ‘Ahmad’, an
Arabic elative formIn Semitic linguistics, the elative is a stage of gradation in Arabic that can be used both for a superlative and comparative. The Arabic elative has a special inflection similar to that of colour adjectives, though differing in certain details...
which means ‘highly praised’ and also ‘comforter’, stands for the beauty of his sermons, for the qualities of tenderness, gentleness, humility, love and mercy displayed by Muhammad, and for the peace that he was destined to establish in the world through his teachings. According to Ghulam Ahmad, these names thus refer to two aspects or phases of Islam and in later times it was the latter aspect that commanded greater attention.
Accordingly, in Ghulam Ahmad's view, this was the reason that the
Old TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophesied a Messenger ‘like unto Moses’ referred to as Mohammad, while according to the Qur'an, Jesus foretold of a messenger named Ahmad.
In keeping with this, he believed, his object was to defend and propagate Islam globally through peaceful means, to revive the forgotten Islamic values of peace, forgiveness and sympathy for all mankind and to establish peace in the world through the spiritual teachings of Islam. He believed that his message had special relevance for the Western world, which, he believed, had descended into
materialismIn philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
.
Overview
Ahmadiyya shares beliefs with
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in general, including belief in the prophethood of Muhammad, reverence for historical prophets, belief in the oneness of
GodAllah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
(
tawhidTawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God is one and unique ....
). They accept the
Qur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
as their holy text, face the
KaabaThe Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The Qur'an states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham, or Ibraheem, in Arabic, and his son Ishmael, or Ismaeel, as said in Arabic, after he had settled in Arabia. The building has a mosque...
during prayer, accept the authority of
HadithThe term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
s (reported sayings of and stories about Muhammad) and practice the
SunnahThe word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
.
Central to the Ahmadiyya is the belief in
Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
as the
Promised MessiahA messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
and
MahdiIn Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
. Ahmadis emphasize the implementation of the Kalima (the fundamental creed of Islam) as essentially linked with the Islamic principles of the rights of God (
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
: Haqooq-Allah) and the rights of His creation (mankind) (Arabic: Haqooqul-Ibād).
Ahmadis believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was divinely commissioned as a true reflection of Muhammad's prophethood to establish the unity of God, remind mankind of their duties towards God and God's creation, to emphasize both aspects of religion which Ahmadis believe is the need of the present age. As such Ahmadis hold that Ghulam Ahmad was the representative and spiritual readvent of all previous prophets. From the Ahmadiyya perspective, the Christians have erred with regards to the rights of God in that they have attributed divine status to a mortal human, and it is on this account that in
Islamic eschatologyIslamic eschatology is concerned with the al-Qiyāmah . Like the other Abrahamic religions, Islam teaches the bodily resurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the judgement of the soul; the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah while the unrighteous...
the promised reformer has been named the Mahdi (the "Guided One"—a title meaning one who is naturally guided and is an heir to all truths and in whom the attribute of "guide" of the Almighty is fully represented). Ahmadis also hold that the Muslims have erred with regard to the rights of creation for they, unjustly raising the sword and calling it Jihad, have misunderstood the concept and purpose of
jihadJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
in Islam; it is on this account that he has been called the Isa Messih ("Jesus the Messiah")—a term which relates to his function in re-establishing the rights of people by reforming their distorted, violent notion of "Jihad" just as Jesus Christ came principally to reform the hearts and attitudes of the Jewish nation.
Giving precedence to faith over worldly pursuits is also a fundamental principle in Ahmadiyya teachings with emphasised relevance to the present age of
materialisticIn philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
prevalence.
Distinct Ahmadiyya beliefs
Although the
central values of IslamThe Pillars of Islam are basic concepts and duties for accepting the religion for the Muslims.The Shi'i and Sunni both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts, but the Shi'a do not refer to them by the same name .-Pillars of Shia:According to Shia Islam, the...
(prayer, charity, fasting, etc.) and the six articles of belief are shared by Muslims and Ahmadis, distinct Ahmadiyya beliefs include the following:
- That the prophecies concerning the second coming of Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
were metaphorical in nature and not literal, and that Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
fulfilled in his person these prophecies and the second advent of Jesus, that he was the promised Mahdi and Messiah.
- The continuation of divine revelation. Although the Qur'an is the final message of God for mankind, He continues to communicate with his chosen individuals in the same way he is believed to have done in the past. All of God's attributes are eternal.
- That Jesus, contrary to mainstream Islamic belief
The issue of the crucifixion and death of Jesus is important to Muslims as they believe that Jesus will return before the end of time. Muslims believe Jesus was not crucified, but was raised bodily to heaven by God....
, was crucified and survived the four hours on the cross. He was later revived from a swoon in the tomb. Ahmadis believe that Jesus died in KashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
of old age whilst seeking the Lost Tribes of Israel. Jesus’ remains are believed to be entombed in Kashmir under the name Yuz AsafSimilar to mainstream Islamic views, the Ahmadiyya Movement consider that Jesus was a mortal man, but go a step further to describe Jesus as a mortal man who died a natural death in India - as opposed to having been raised up alive to Heaven...
. Ahmadis believe that Jesus foretold the coming of Muhammad after him, which Christians have misinterpreted.
- That Jesus Christ did not bring a new religion or law, i.e., that he was not a law-bearing prophet, but was last in the line of Israelite prophets who appeared within the dispensation of Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
akin to that of DavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
, SolomonSolomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
, JeremiahJeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...
, IsaiahIsaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
, etc.
- That the “Messiah” and the “Imam Mahdi” are the same person, and that it is through his teachings, influence, his prayers and those of his followers that Islam will defeat the Anti-Christ or Dajjal
al-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...
in a period similar to the period of time it took for nascent Christianity to rise (see also: Ahmadiyya relationship with Christianity) and that the Dajjal's power will slowly melt away like the melting of snow, heralding the final victory of Islam and the age of peacePeace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
.
- That the history of religion is cyclic and is renewed every seven millennia. The present cycle from the time of the Biblical Adam is split into seven epochs or ages, parallel to the seven days of the week, with periods for light and darkness. That Mirza Ghulam Ahmad appeared as the Promised Messiah at the sixth epoch heralding the seventh and final age of mankind, as a day in the estimation of God is like a thousand years of man's reckoning. According to Ghulam Ahmad, just as the sixth day of the week is reserved for Jumu'ah
Jumu'ah is a congregational prayer that Muslims hold every Friday, just after noon in lieu of dhuhr...
(congregational prayers), likewise his age is destined for a global assembling of mankind in which the world is to unite under one universal religion: Islam.
- The two Ahmadiyya groups have varying beliefs regarding the finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
believes that Muhammad brought prophethood to perfection and was the last law-bearing prophet and the apex of man’s spiritual evolution. New prophets can come but they must be subordinate to Muhammad and cannot exceed him in excellence nor alter his teaching or bring any new law or religion. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement believes that Muhammad is the last of the prophets and no prophet, new or old, can come after him.
Comparison
| Article of faith |
Orthodox Islam |
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam Lahore , also known as the Lahoris, formed as a result of ideological differences within the Ahmadiyya movement, after the demise of Maulana Hakim Noor-ud-Din in 1914, the first Khalifa after its founder,...
|
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
|
| Return of Jesus |
Only few with different belief (mainly in 20th Century), but most believe that at the “end of days” Jesus himself will descend from heaven in the flesh. |
References to the second coming of Jesus among the Muslims are allegorical in that one was to be born and rise as a prophet within the dispensation of Muhammad who by virtue of his similarity, and affinity with Jesus and the similarity between the Jews of Jesus’ time and the Muslims of the time of the promised one (The Mahdi) is called by the same name. The prophecy of the second coming was fulfilled in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. |
References to the second coming of Jesus among the Muslims are allegorical in that one was to be born and rise as a prophet within the dispensation of Muhammad who by virtue of his similarity, and affinity with Jesus and the similarity between the Jews of Jesus' time and the Muslims of the time of the promised one (The Mahdi) is called by the same name. The physical coming of Jesus (an old Israelite prophet) would disqualify Muhammad as the final prophet. The prophecy of the second coming was fulfilled in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. |
Status of
Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
|
Mainstream Muslims consider him an apostate Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
and believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was one of the 30 false claimants to prophethood about whom the prophet Muhammad had warned Muslims 1400 years ago. |
Ahmad was a Mujaddid (Islamic Reformer) of the 14th Islamic century (19th Century Gregorian), the promised Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus. He is referred to as a prophet in the metaphorical sense only (as other recognized Islamic saints and sufis are similarly referred to), not a prophet in the technical meaning of the word. |
Ahmad was a prophet ("Rasul" as mentioned in 2:285 [We make no distinction between any of His Messengers]) but subordinate and deputy to the Prophet Muhammad. The Messiah, Imam Mahdi and Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, and the second coming of Jesus. |
Who is a MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
? |
Professing the Kalima is required to become a Muslim with a belief that in the finality of Prophets came at Prophet Muhammad. The amended Pakistani constitution (Article 260, clause 3) defines a "Muslim" as a person who believes in the oneness of God, in the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad, and does not believe in any person who claims to be a prophet after the prophet Muhammad.
Most Muslim sects that believe in the concepts of Masih ad-Dajjal (Antichrist), MahdiIn Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
, and return of Jesus also believe that it will be required for believers to accept the promised MahdiIn Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
as their leader. One exception to this is the Lahore Ahmadiyya MovementThe Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam Lahore , also known as the Lahoris, formed as a result of ideological differences within the Ahmadiyya movement, after the demise of Maulana Hakim Noor-ud-Din in 1914, the first Khalifa after its founder,...
which considers that it is not required for a believer to accept the promised MahdiIn Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
. |
Anyone professing the Kalima is a Muslim and cannot be declared a non-Muslim by anyone else. |
Anyone professing the Kalima is a Muslim and cannot be declared a disbeliever of Islam by anyone else. However, a distinction is made if someone explicitly claims to be against Ahmadiyyat. Yet this distinction does not put anybody outside the fold of Islam. However, a person who knowingly rejects Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claim is a kafir Kafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...
(non-believer) in the sense of forming a rebellion against God's revelation. |
| Finality of the Prophethood Seal of the Prophets is a title given to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by a verse in the Qur'an. Muslims traditionally agree upon that Muhammad received the final revelation in the form of the Qur'an for all mankind, for all time....
of Muhammad |
The meaning of “Seal of the prophets” is that Muhammad is the last of the prophets. |
The meaning of “Seal of the prophets” is that Muhammad is the last of the prophets. No prophet, either new or old can come after him. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the Mujaddid (reformer) of the 14th century Hijra and not a true prophet In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
. |
Muhammad brought prophethood to perfection, he sealed prophethood and religious law, thus being the last law-bearing prophet. New prophets can come but they must be subordinate to Muhammad and cannot exceed him in excellence, alter his teaching, nor bring any new law or religion. They shall be sent for the revival of the true spirit of Islam. |
| Jesus, Son of Mary |
Born of a miraculous birth from the virgin, Mary, but not the son of God. Did not die on the cross but was transported to heaven, where he lives to return in the flesh to this world shortly before Doomsday. Since Jesus (considered a prophet) came before Muhammad, his return to Earth would not disqualify Muhammad as the “last” prophet. Jesus will come to earth not as a prophet but as a follower of Muhammad and preach the teachings of Muhammad. |
Similar to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community belief except that the question of Jesus's virgin birth is not an essential requirement of faith and is left to the individual's personal conviction. |
Believes in virgin birth of Jesus but not that he is son of God. He survived the crucifixion and did not die an accursed death. Everything with Jesus was natural like other human beings regarding his birth and his death and that is the Lord's rule. Instead he travelled east to India in search of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Jesus lived a full life and died on earth, specifically Jesus's (Yuz Asaf Similar to mainstream Islamic views, the Ahmadiyya Movement consider that Jesus was a mortal man, but go a step further to describe Jesus as a mortal man who died a natural death in India - as opposed to having been raised up alive to Heaven...
's) tomb lies in Srinigar, Kashmir in the Roza BalRoza Bal is the name of a shrine located in the Khanyar area of district Srinagar, in Kashmir, India, venerated by some Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Some people identify the sage buried there with one Yuz Asaf, that is Jesus of Nazareth, whom they allege to have arrived in Kashmir after...
. |
| Armed jihad Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
|
Jihad literally means "to strive or exert to the fullest", referring to striving against the devil, one's low desires (self) and the peaceful propagation of Islam with special emphasis on spreading the true message of Islam by example. In all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, and the equivalent in Shi'ite law, defensive jihad is the only legal form of warfare permissible under Islamc law. This obligates Muslims to join in defense of their lands and people. |
Jihad primarily means "to strive or exert to the fullest". On an ongoing basis this refers to striving against the devil, one's low desires (self) and the peaceful propagation of Islam with special emphasis on spreading the true message of Islam by the pen. In special circumstances jihad could be an armed struggle, but only as a defensive war against extreme persecution. |
The word jihad is interchanged with the meaning of "Ijtihad" and primarily means to strive or exert to the fullest. This refers to striving against the evil of one's low desires and the peaceful propagation of Islam, with special emphasis on spreading the true message of Islam by the pen. As per prophecy, the Messiah rendered the concept of violent jihad unnecessary in modern times. They believe that the answer of hate should be given by love. Their khalifas said that "if anyone attacks us we must not attack him and should treat them with love and kindness"; this is called “Jihaad-e-Akbar” (The Greater Jihad). |
Current status
Ahmadis have been subject to various forms of persecution since the movement's inception in 1889. The Ahmadiyya faith emerged from the Sunni tradition of
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and its adherents believe in all the
five pillarsThe Pillars of Islam are basic concepts and duties for accepting the religion for the Muslims.The Shi'i and Sunni both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts, but the Shi'a do not refer to them by the same name .-Pillars of Shia:According to Shia Islam, the...
and articles of faith required of Muslims. The Ahmadis are active translators of the
Qur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
and proselytizers for the faith; converts to Islam in many parts of the world first discover Islam through the Ahmadis. However, in many Islamic countries the Ahmadis have been defined as heretics and non-Muslim and subjected to persecution and often systematic oppression.
India
India has a significant Ahmadiyya population. Most of them live in
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
,
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
,
OrissaOrissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
,
HaryanaHaryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Delhi,
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, and a few in
PunjabPunjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
in the area of
QadianQadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....
.
Ahmadis are held to be Muslims by law in India. Their legal status as Muslims is supported by a landmark ruling by the
Kerala High CourtHigh Court of Kerala is the highest court in the Indian state of Kerala and in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. The High Court of Kerala is headquartered at Kochi...
on 8 December 1970 in the case of Shihabuddin Imbichi Koya Thangal vs K.P. Ahammed Koya, citation A.I.R. 1971 Ker 206. In this case, the court ruled that Ahmadis are Muslims and that they cannot be declared apostates by other Muslim sects because they hold true to the two fundamental beliefs of Islam: that there is no god but
AllahAllah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
and that
MuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
was a servant and messenger of god.
There are hence no legal restrictions on the religious activities of Ahmadis in India and Ahmadis are free to practice their religion and call themselves Muslims. However, there is some discrimination against Ahmadis in India from fellow Muslims of other sects. Specifically, the Islamic University of India and
Darul Uloom DeobandThe Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic school in India where the Deobandi Islamic movement was started. It is located at Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It was founded in 1866 by several prominent Islamic scholars , headed by Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi...
have declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Ahmadis are also not permitted by Muslim leaders of the other sects to sit on the
All India Muslim Personal Law BoardThe All India Muslim Personal Law Board is an organization constituted in 1973 to adopt suitable strategies for the protection and continued applicability of Muslim Personal Law in India, most importantly, the The Muslim Personal Law Application Act of 1937, providing for the application of the...
, an independent body of Islamic religious leaders that the Indian government recognises as representatives of
Indian MuslimsIslam is the second-most practiced religion in the Republic of India after Hinduism, with more than 13.4% of the country's population ....
.
Pakistan
Pakistan has roughly 4 million Ahmadis and is the only state to have officially declared the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims; here their freedom of religion has been curtailed by a series of ordinances, acts and constitutional amendments. In 1974
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's parliament adopted a law declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims; the country's constitution was amended to define a Muslim “as a person who believes in the finality of the Prophet Muhammad”. In 1984
General Zia-ul-HaqGeneral Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
, the then military ruler of Pakistan, issued
Ordinance XXOrdinance XX is an legal ordinance of the Government of Pakistan that was promulgated under the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq and is meant to restrict members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from applying certain Islamic terms to their own religious practices and beliefs.-Precedent:Ordinance XLIV...
. The ordinance, which was supposed to prevent "anti-Islamic activities", forbids Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to "pose as Muslims". This means that they are not allowed to profess the Islamic creed publicly or call their places of worship mosques. Ahmadis in Pakistan are also barred by law from worshipping in non-Ahmadi mosques or public prayer rooms, performing the Muslim call to prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quoting from the Quran, preaching in public, seeking converts, or producing, publishing, and disseminating their religious materials. These acts are punishable by imprisonment of up to three years. In applying for a passport or a national ID card, all Pakistanis are required to sign an oath declaring Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to be an impostor prophet and all Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Because he was an Ahmadi, the word "Muslim" was erased from the gravestone of the
Nobel prizeThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
winning theoretical physicist
Abdus SalamMohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...
.
As a result of the cultural implications of the laws and constitutional amendments regarding Ahmadis in Pakistan, persecution and hate-related incidents are constantly reported from different parts of the country. Ahmadis have been the target of many attacks led by various religious groups. All religious seminaries and
madrasahMadrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
s in Pakistan, belonging to different sects of Islam, have prescribed essential reading materials specifically targeted at refuting Ahmadiyya beliefs.
In a 2005 survey in Pakistan, pupils in private schools of Pakistan expressed their opinions on religious tolerance in the country. The figures assembled in the study reflect that even in the educated classes of Pakistan, Ahmadis are considered to be the least deserving minority in terms of equal opportunities and civil rights. In the same study, the teachers in these elite schools showed an even lower amount of tolerance towards Ahmadis than their pupils. Ahmadis are harassed by certain schools, universities and teachers in Pakistan's
PunjabPunjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
province. The harassment includes social boycott, expulsions, threats and violence against Ahmadi students by extremist students, teachers and principals of the majority sect.
28 May 2010 saw the worst single incident of violence against Ahmadis to date (see: May 2010 Lahore attacks), when several members of an extremist religious group (allegedly Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab) entered two Ahmadi mosques in
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, opened fire, and three of them later detonated themselves. In total, the attacks claimed the lives of 95 people and injured well over 100. The members were gathered in the mosques attending Friday services. In response to the attacks, Pakistan minister for minorities
Shahbaz BhattiClement Shahbaz Bhatti , popularly known as Shahbaz Bhatti, was a Pakistani politician and elected member of the National Assembly from 2008. He was the first Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs from November 2008 until his assassination on 2 March 2011 in Islamabad...
visited the Ahmadi community.
Bangladesh
In
BangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, fundamentalist Islamic groups have demanded that Ahmadiyyas be “officially” declared to be
kafirKafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...
s (infidels). Ahmadiyyas have become a persecuted group, targeted via protests and acts of violence. According to Amnesty International, followers have been subject to “house arrest”, and several have been killed. In late 2003, several large violent marches, led by Moulana Moahmud Hossain Mumtazi, were directed to occupy an Ahmadiyya mosque. In 2004, all Ahmadiyya publications were banned.
Indonesia
Ahmadiyya had existed before Proclamation of Indonesian Independence. However, Ahmadiyya as a controversial religious minority in Indonesia has only risen sharply in the 2000s with a rise of Islamic fundamentalism. In 2008, many Muslims in
IndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
protested against the Ahmadiyya movement. With large demonstrations, these religious conservatives put pressure on the government to monitor, and harass the Ahmadiyya community in Indonesia. Public opinion in Indonesia is split in two major views on how Ahmadiyya should be treated: (a) majority of Muslim over Indonesia hold that it should be banned outright on the basis that Ahmadiyah had misleaded the central tenet of Islam that Muhammad is the last messenger of God, and pretend Ahmadis to not using Islam as their banner and should made their own recognized religion in order to ensure their freedom of religion in Indonesia; (b) some minorities including Ahmadis and numbers of Non-Governmental Organization hold that it should be free to do and say as it pleases under the banner of Islam to fulfill the Constitutional right of freedom of religion. In June 2008, a law was passed to curtail “proselytizing” by Ahmadiyya members. An Ahmadiyya mosque was burned. Human rights groups objected to the restrictions on religious freedom. On February 6, 2011 some Ahmadiyya members were killed at
Pandeglang,
BantenBanten is a province of Indonesia in Java. Formerly part of the Province of West Java, it was made a separate province in 2000.The administrative center is Serang. Preliminary results from the 2010 census counted some 10.6 million people.-Geography:...
province.
In the few past years there has been an increase in attacks on religious freedom, including incidents of physical abuse, preventing groups from performing prayers and burning their mosques. Data from the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace show 17 incidents, 18 and 64 for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. Although the data cover persecution of all religions, the recent persecution of Ahmadis is significant and hard, followed by persecution of Christians and persecution of other Islamic sects who claim 'genuine/pure/fundamentalist Muslims'.
As of 2011, the sect faces widespread calls for a total "ban" in Indonesia. On February 6 2011, hundreds of orthodox Muslims surrounded an Ahmadiyya household and beat three people to death. Footage of the bludgeoning of their naked bodies - while policeman looked on - was posted on the internet and subsequently broadcast on international media.
Even so, majority of Muslims in Indonesia see that the widespreading attack on Ahmadiyya is a counter-action to Ahmadis' stubbornness to fulfill the Indonesian Three-Minister Collective Decree on Ahmadiyya that ask Ahmadis to leave the Islamic banner and create their own religion, in order to maintain situation and ensure their freedom of religion and safety.
Views by Orthodox Muslims
Orthodox Muslims consider both Ahmadi movements to be heretical and non-Muslim for a number of reasons, chief among them being the question of finality of prophethood, since they believe members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community do not regard the Islamic prophet Muhammad as the last prophet. The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement does not subscribe to this belief; its members, in fact, do not see Ghulam Ahmad as a prophet in the conventional sense . Ahmadis claim that this is a result of misinterpreting Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's statements referring to his coming “in the spirit of Muhammed”, (similar to
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
coming in the spirit and power of Elijah). Ahmadi Muslims believe Ghulam Ahmad to be the Mahdi and promised Messiah. Orthodox Muslims reject this and cite that Ghulam Ahmad did not fulfill the prophecies of Imam Mahdi and the title of Messiah was given only to Jesus and no one else. He is considered to be a
false prophetIn religion, a false prophet is one who falsely claims the gift of prophecy, or who uses that gift for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a "true prophet" by some people is simultaneously considered a "false prophet" by others....
.
The
Muslim World LeagueThe Muslim World League is one of the largest Islamic non-governmental organizations. Muslim religious figures from 22 states founded it in Makkah in 1962.-Structure:...
held its annual conference at
MeccaMecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
,
Saudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
from 14th to 18th of Rabiul Awwal 1394 H (April 1974) in which 140 delegations of
Muslim countries and organizations from all over the world participated. At the conference, the League issued the following declaration:
"Qadianism or Ahmadiyyat: It is a subversive movement against Islam and the Muslim world, which falsely and deceitfully claims to be an Islamic sect; who under the guise of Islam and for the sake of mundane interests contrives and plans to damage the very foundations of Islam."
Both Ahmadi movements are considered non-Muslims by the Pakistan government, and have this fact recorded on their travel documents. By contrast, Ahmadi citizens from Western countries and some Muslim states perform
HajjThe Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
and
UmraUMRA is an abbreviation that stands for:*Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista, an anti-fascist organization for military members in Spain during the Second Spanish Republic...
, as the Saudi government is not made aware that they are Ahmadis when they apply for a visa. A court decision has upheld the right of Ahmadiyyas to identify themselves as Muslims in India.
As the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement’s view regarding Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s status as a Prophet is closer to current Orthodox Islamic thought, the literature published by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement has found greater acceptance among the Muslim intelligentsia.
Some Muslims group both Ahmadi movements together and refer to them as “
QadianiQadiani is a term, with pejorative connotations, used by Sunnis to refer to the minority Ahmadiyya, primarily in Pakistan...
s”, and their beliefs as “Qadianism” (after the small town of
QadianQadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....
in the
Gurdaspur DistrictGurdaspur district is a district in the state of Punjab, situated in the northwest part of the Republic of India. Gurdaspur is the district headquarters. It internationally borders Narowal District of the Pakistani Punjab, Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, the Punjab districts of Amritsar and...
of Punjab in India, where the movement's founder was born). However most, if not all, Ahmadis of both sects dislike this term as it has acquired derogatory connotations over the years and furthermore they prefer to differentiate their two separate movements. Most Muslims will not use the term “Muslim” when referring to Ahmadis, even though both sects refer to themselves as such, citing the fatwas given by the Islamic scholars. However, as members of Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement deny the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, some orthodox Islamic Scholars consider the Lahore Ahmadiyya to be Muslims. In earlier times in Pakistan and India, there was widespread
persecution of AhmadisThe Persecution of Ahmadis is the religious persecution of Ahmadi Muslims as a consequence of professing their faith. They have been subject to various forms of persecution and discrimination since the movement's inception in 1889...
by certain Muslim groups. Sporadic violence as well as persecution of a more subtle nature against Ahmadis continues even today.
Christianity
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was actively engaged in debates, prayer duels and written arguments with the Christian missionaries. The Ahmadiyya view of Jesus' survival from the crucifixion, his subsequent travels to the east in search of the
'Lost Sheep of Israel'The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel refers to those tribes of ancient Israel that formed the Kingdom of Israel and which disappeared from Biblical and all other historical accounts after the kingdom was destroyed in about 720 BC by ancient Assyria...
and his natural death, as propounded by Ghulam Ahmad, have been a source of ongoing friction with the Christian church. Western historians have acknowledged this fact as one of the features of Ghulam Ahmad's legacy.
Francis RobinsonProfessor Francis Christopher Rowland Robinson is a British academic who was awarded a CBE in 2006 for his services to higher education and his research into the history of Islam....
states:
The Ahmadiyya teachings also interpret the prophecies regarding the appearance of the
Dajjalal-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...
(Anti-Christ) and
Gog and MagogGog and Magog are names that appear primarily in various Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures, as well as numerous subsequent references in other works. Their context can be either genealogical or eschatological and apocalyptic, as in Ezekiel and Revelation...
in
Islamic eschatologyIslamic eschatology is concerned with the al-Qiyāmah . Like the other Abrahamic religions, Islam teaches the bodily resurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the judgement of the soul; the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah while the unrighteous...
as foretelling the emergence of two branches or aspects of the same turmoil and trial that was to be faced by Islam in the latter days and that both emerged from Christianity or Christian nations. Its Dajjal aspect relates to deception and perversion of religious belief while its aspect to do with disturbance in the realm of politics and the shattering of world peace has been called Gog and Magog.
Thus Ahmadis consider the widespread Christian missionary activity that was 'aggressively' active in the 18th and 19th centuries as being part of the prophesied Dajjal (Antichrist) and Gog and Magog emerging in modern times. The emergence of the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the USA as superpowers and the conflict between the two nations (i.e., the rivalry between
communismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and
capitalismCapitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
) are seen as having occurred in accordance with certain prophecies. This has also proven controversial with most Christians. Freeland Abbott observed in his book Islam and Pakistan:
Sikhism
Ahmadis like other Muslims believe that the last and perfect message from God was brought to Muhammad. However, unlike mainstream Muslims, Ahmadis acknowledge many founders of various faiths to have brought messages from God, like
KrishnaKrishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
and
BuddhaIn Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
. However with respect to Guru Nanak, the founder of
SikhismSikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
, Ahmadis recognize Guru Nanak to be a very holy Muslim. In particular, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was deeply convinced that Nanak was a holy man after he carried out a detailed study of Guru Nanak and history of Sikhism. Ahmadis believe that historically Sikhism was a sufi sect of Islam founded by Nanak. It was Nanak's spirtiual mission to reform his people and bring about unity. However over time Sikhism drifted away from Islam, simultaneously becoming aligned to a political entity. This view however is strongly opposed by Sikhs of today.
Hinduism
Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
was also actively involved in the debates with
Arya SamajArya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
and wrote several texts on the subject. He claimed that he was the
Kalki AvatarIn Hinduism, Kalki is the tenth and final Maha Avatar of Vishnu who will come to end the present age of darkness and destruction known as Kali Yuga. The name Kalki is often a metaphor for eternity or time...
, the last avatar of
VishnuVishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
whom Hindus were waiting for.
Leaders
In 1914, 25 years after its founding, the Ahmadiyya movement split into two separate movements with different leaders. One movement remained in
QadianQadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....
, and became known as the
Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam (Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya); the other was established in
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, and is known as the
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam).
Only two leaders are recognized by both branches:
- 23 March 1889 – 26 May 1908: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
, the founding Messiah and Mahdi (b. 1835 – d. 1908)
- 27 May 1908 – 13 March 1914: Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Din (b. 1841 – d. 1914)
Leaders recognized by the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, referred to as
Khulafa or CaliphsKhalifatul Masih sometimes simply referred to as Khalifah is the elected spiritual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian...
(Successors):
- Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Din (1908–1914)
- Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad
Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad , was Khalifatul Masih II, head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the eldest son of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad from his second wife, Nusrat Jehan Begum...
(1914–1965)
- Mirza Nasir Ahmad
Hafiz Mirza Nasir Ahmad was Khalifatul Masih III, head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was elected as the third successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on November 8, 1965, the day after the death of his predecessor and father, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad.Nasir Ahmad is credited with...
(1965–1982)
- Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad was Khalifatul Masih IV, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and fourth successor to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad...
(1982–2003)
- Mirza Masroor Ahmad
His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad is Khalifatul Masih V, the spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was elected as the fifth successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on April 22, 2003, a few days after the death of his predecessor Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth Caliph for the Ahmadiiya...
(2003–present)
Leaders recognized by the
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, referred to as Emirs:
- Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Din (1908–1914)
- Maulana Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was a Pakistani writer, scholar, and leading figure of the Ahmadiyya Movement.-Biography:Ali was born in Punjab, British India, in 1874. He obtained an English and Law in 1899...
(1874 – 13 October 1951), (Emir 1914–1951)
- Maulana Sadr-ud-Din (c. 1880 – 15 November 1981), (Emir 1951–1981)
- Saeed Ahmad Khan
Saeed Ahmad Khan Saeed Ahmad Khan (سيد احمد خان in Urdu) Saeed Ahmad Khan (سيد احمد خان in Urdu) (1900–1996, (Emir 1981-1996) was an adherent, and later third Emir, of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, religious movement which evolved as a sect of Islam.-Early life:...
(1900 – 15 November 1996), (Emir 1981–1996)
- Asghar Hameed
Asghar Hameed was the fourth Emir of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.- External links :*...
(1919 – 14 October 2002), (Emir 1996–2002)
- Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha
Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha is the fifth and current Emir of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. He was a medical doctor before being elected emir of the Lahori Jamaat....
(current Emir)
Notable people
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community:
- Muhammad Zafrulla Khan
Chaudhry Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, KCSI was a Pakistani politician, diplomat, international jurist, and scholar of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, known for drafting the Pakistan Resolution, for his representation of Pakistan at the United Nations, and serving as a judge at the International...
– first Foreign Minister of PakistanThe Foreign Minister of Pakistan heads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The current Foreign Minister is Hina Rabbani Khar who took office as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on 11 February 2011, and as full Minister of Foreign Affairs on 20 July, 2011...
(1947–54), President of the UN General Assembly (1962–64), President of the International Court of JusticeThe International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
(1970–73)
- Abdus Salam
Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...
– The first Pakistani and the first Muslim scientist awarded the Nobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
in 1979
- Farimang Mamadi Singateh
Alhaji Sir Farimang Mamadi Singateh was the second and last Governor General of The Gambia, representing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Succeeding Sir John Warburton Paul, who had previously been Governor before independence, Sir Farimang was the only Gambian citizen to hold that post,...
(1912 – 19 May 1977) was the second and last Governor General of The Gambia, representing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. He became governor General in 1966. He was a Muslim and president of the Gambian Ahmadiyya movement.
- Akhtar Hussain Malik – lieutenant general of the Pakistan Army, 1965 war hero
- M M Ahmad
Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad , commonly known as MM Ahmad, was a Pakistani civil servant and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.-Education and early life:...
– prominent civil servant of Pakistan and former executive director and vice president of the World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
- Iftikhar Janjua
Major General Iftikhar Khan Janjua, HJ & Bar, SPk, SQA, of the Pakistan Army is the most senior Pakistani officer to have been killed in action. He is known in Pakistan as the hero of Rann of Kutch, as he was a brigadier in command of 6 Brigade, during the fighting in April 1965 prior to the...
– major general of the Pakistan Army; 1965 war hero, killed in 1971 war
- Abdul Ali Malik
Lieutenant General Abdul Ali Malik was a Pakistan Army engineer officer and a high-ranking military general. He is a well known figure from the Chawinda tank battle during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.-Biography:...
– war hero of ChawindaThe Battle of Chawinda was a part of the Sialkot Campaign in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. It was one of the largest tank battles since the Battle of Kursk in World War II....
, 1965 Indo-Pakistan war
- Sahibzada Abdul Latif
Sahibzada Abdul Latif was an Afghan of Khost. He was born in Sayed Ga of Tani District in Khost Province, Afghanistan in 1853, to Sahibzada Mohmmad Shareef. He had two brothers, Sahibzada Abdul Aziz and Sahibzada Abdul Haleef...
– martyr of Ahmadiyya Islam; Afghan king Abdur Rahman KhanAbdur Rahman Khan was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901.The third son of Mohammad Afzal Khan, and grandson of Dost Mohammad Khan, Abdur Rahman Khan was considered a strong ruler who re-established the writ of the Afghan government in Kabul after the disarray that followed the second...
's advisor and representative of the Afghan government in the formation of the Durand LineThe Durand Line refers to the porous international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has divided the ethnic Pashtuns . This poorly marked line is approximately long...
- Qalandar Momand
Sahibzada Habib-ur-Rahman Qalandar Momand was a well known Pashto scholar, poet, critic, short story writer, journalist, linguist, lexicographer, and academician...
– Pakhtun scholar, poet, writer, journalist, researcher, critic, academician, lexicographer. Recipient of Pakistan's Pride of PerformancePride of Performance , is one of the highest civil award given and conferred by the Pakistan Government to Pakistan's citizens in recognition of distinguished merit in the fields of Literature, Arts, Sports, Medicines, and Science for civilians in most particular cases.The announcement of civil...
civil award, the National Award for Democracy and Sitara-e-Imtiaz.
- Tariq Ahmad - Member of House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
and vice chairman of the Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
for cities.
- Hadayatullah Hübsch
Hadayatullah Hübsch was a German author, journalist, activist of the 68s movement and long-time spokesman of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Germany. From 1992 to 2000 he was chairman of the Association of German Writers in Hesse...
- Prominent GermanThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
writer and journalist.
- Yusef Lateef
Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...
. – jazz musician and Grammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winner
- Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...
– jazz musician
- Obaidullah Aleem
Obaidullah Aleem was a modern poet of Urdu language. He is ranked among the best Ghazal writers of modern times.He was born in 1939 in Bhopal, India. His father lived in Sialkot and was from the Butt family. He received an MA in Urdu from the University of Karachi. He began work as a radio...
– famous UrduUrdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
poet
- Saira Wasim
Saira Wasim is a noted contemporary artist from Lahore, Pakistan. She currently lives in US. Wasim uses the miniature style of painting, pioneered by the Persians but extensively used in South Asia, to make primarily political and cultural art...
– internationally acclaimed miniature artist
- Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
– jazz musician
- Adnan Virk
Adnan Virk is a sports anchor, currently for ESPN. He was previously an anchor for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment's Raptors NBA TV, Leafs TV and Gol TV. Until June 2009 he hosted several programs on The Score, and was previously an associate producer for Sportscentre at TSN...
– ESPN anchor
- Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Richard Tyler on the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400, and "Tizzy" in the 2008 motion picture The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.Ali was born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore in Oakland,...
- American actor.
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam:
- Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din , a lawyer by profession, was a member of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement and the author of numerous publications about Islam and the Ahmadiyya movement.- Life :...
– lawyer; founder of the Woking Muslim MissionThe Woking Muslim Mission was founded in 1913 by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din at the Mosque in Woking, 30 miles southwest of London and was managed by members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement . It was run by Lahore Ahmadiyya missionaries until the mid-1960s.- Woking Mosque :The Woking Mosque was built by...
in UK; founder of The Islamic Review; companion of Mirza Ghulam AhmadMīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...
; leader of Lahori group
- Naseer Ahmad Faruqui
Naseer Ahmad Faruqui OBE, SPK, HQA was a prominent civil servant of Pakistan and prior to that in British India....
– chief election commissioner Pakistan, (d. 6 December 1991)
See also
- Ahmadiyya views on evolution
- Persecution of Ahmadiyya
The Persecution of Ahmadis is the religious persecution of Ahmadi Muslims as a consequence of professing their faith. They have been subject to various forms of persecution and discrimination since the movement's inception in 1889...
Further reading
- Yohanan Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background; Oxford University Press (2003). ISBN 965-264-014-X.
External links
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam