Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who said he had been divinely appointed as both the promised Messiah and Mahdi expected by Muslims to appear towards the end times and bring about, by peaceful means, the final triumph of Islam; as well as to embody, in this capacity, the expected eschatological figure of other major religious traditions. Adherents of the Ahmadiyya—a term adopted expressly in reference to Muhammad's alternative name Ahmad — are known as Ahmadi Muslims or simply Ahmadis.
Ahmadi thought emphasises the belief that Islam is the final dispensation for humanity as revealed to Muhammad and the necessity of restoring it to its true intent and pristine form, which had been lost through the centuries. Its adherents consider Ahmad to have appeared as the Mahdi—bearing the qualities of Jesus in accordance with their reading of scriptural prophecies—to revitalise Islam and set in motion its moral system that would bring about lasting peace. They believe that upon divine guidance he purged Islam of foreign accretions in belief and practice by championing what is, in their view, Islam's original precepts as practised by Muhammad and the early Muslim community. Ahmadis thus view themselves as leading the propagation and renaissance of Islam.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad established the Community on 23 March 1889 by formally accepting allegiance from his supporters. Since his death, the Community has been led by a succession of Caliphs. By 2017 it had spread to 210 countries and territories of the world with concentrations in South Asia, West Africa, East Africa, and Indonesia. The Ahmadis have a strong missionary tradition, having formed the first Muslim missionary organisation to arrive in Britain and other Western countries. Currently, the community is led by its caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, and is estimated to number between 15 and 20 million worldwide.
The movement is almost entirely a single, highly organised group. However, in the early history of the community, some Ahmadis dissented over the nature of Ahmad's prophetic status and succession. They formed the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, which has since dwindled to a small fraction of all Ahmadis.
Ahmadiyya's recognition of Ahmad as a prophet has been characterised as heretical by mainstream Muslims, who believe that Muhammad was the final prophet, and the Ahmadi movement has faced non-recognition, takfir, and persecution in many parts of the world.
Naming and etymology
The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in 1889, but the name Aḥmadīyah was not adopted until about a decade later. In a manifesto dated 4 November 1900, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad announced that the name chosen to identify the movement from other Muslim groups would be in reference to Muhammad's alternative name Aḥmad. According to him, the meaning of the name Muḥammad — "the most praised" — comported with the traits of glory and indicated the triumphant career of the Islamic prophet following his migration to Medina; but Aḥmad, an Arabic elative form meaning "highly praised" and also "one who praises the most", comported with the beauty of his sermons and conveyed the perseverance and forbearance that characterised his earlier life at Mecca. Accordingly, these two names reflected two aspects of Islam and in later times it was the latter aspect that was destined to be the chief characteristic of its progress. Ghulam Ahmad deemed it a blameworthy innovation to label an Islamic school after anyone other than Muhammad. The announcement of 1900 stated:Lexicology
The term Aḥmadīyah—formed by way of suffixation from Aḥmad and the suffix -īya —is an abstract noun used in reference to the movement itself; while the term Aḥmadī is a noun used in reference to an adherent of the movement, whether male or female. Despite Ahmadis dissociating the name from their founder, deriving it instead from Islamic prophecy and the name variant of Muhammad, some Sunni Muslims, especially in the Indian subcontinent from where the movement originated, refer to Ahmadis using the pejorative terms Qādiyānī or Mirzaī — derived from Qadian, the home town of Ghulam Ahmad, or from Mirza, one of his titles, respectively. Both are externally attributed names and are never used by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community itself.History
Formally, the history of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community begins when Mirza Ghulam Ahmad took the oath of allegiance from a number of his companions at a home in Ludhiana, India, on 23 March 1889. However, the history can be taken back to the early life of Ahmad, when he reportedly started receiving revelations concerning his future, but also as far back as the traditions of various world religions. At the end of the 19th century, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian proclaimed himself to be the "Centennial Reformer of Islam", metaphorical second coming of Jesus and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims and obtained a considerable number of followers especially within the United Provinces, the Punjab and Sindh. He and his followers believe that his advent was foretold by Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, and also by many other religious scriptures of the world. Ahmadiyya emerged in India as a movement within Islam, also in response to the Christian and Arya Samaj missionary activity that was widespread in the 19th century.The Ahmadiyya faith believes that it represents the latter-day revival of the religion of Islam. Overseas Ahmadiyya missionary activities started at an organised level as early as 1913. For many modern nations of the world, the Ahmadiyya movement was their first contact with the proclaimants from the Muslim world. According to Richard Brent Turner, "until the mid-1950s the Ahmadiyyah was arguably the most influential community in African-American Islam". Today, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has one of the most active missionary programs in the world. It is particularly large in Africa. In the post colonial era, the Community is credited for much of the spread of Islam in the continent.
First Caliphate
After the death of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Hakeem Noor-ud-Din was unanimously elected as his first successor and Caliph of the Community. Within the stretch of his Caliphate, a period which lasted six years, he oversaw a satisfactory English translation of the Quran, the establishment of the first Ahmadiyya Muslim mission in England and the introduction of various newspapers and magazines of the Community. As a result of growing financial requirements of the Community, he set up an official treasury. Most notably, however, he dealt with internal dissensions, when a number high-ranking office bearers of the Ahmadiyya Council disagreed with some of the administrative concepts and the authority of the Caliph.Second Caliphate
Soon after the death of the first caliph, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad was elected as the second caliph, in accordance with the will of his predecessor. However, a faction led by Maulana Muhammad Ali and Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din strongly opposed his succession and refused to accept him as the next caliph, which soon led to the formation of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. This was due to certain doctrinal differences they held with the caliph such as the nature of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophethood and succession. It has also been theorised that a clash of personalities with that of the dissenters and the caliph himself, who had a relatively poor academic background, also played a role. However, the Lahore Ahmadiyya movement, which settled in Lahore, has had relatively little success and has failed to attract a sizeable following. In the history of the Community, this event is referred to as 'The Split' and is sometimes alluded to a prophecy of the founder.Elected at a young age, Mahmood Ahmad's Caliphate spanned a period of almost 52 years. He established the organisational structure of the Community and directed extensive missionary activity outside the subcontinent of India. Several weeks following his election, delegates from all over India were invited to discuss about propagation of Islam. Two decades later, Mahmood Ahmad launched a twofold scheme for the establishment of foreign missions and the moral upbringing of Ahmadi Muslims. The Tehrik-e-Jadid and Waqf-e-Jadid respectively, initially seen as a spiritual battle against the oppressors of the Ahmadi Muslims, called upon members of the Community to dedicate their time and money for the sake of their faith. In time the scheme produced a vast amount of literature in defence of Islam in general and the Ahmadiyya beliefs in particular. The funds were also spent on the training and dispatching of Ahmadi missionaries outside the Indian sub-continent.
During his time, missions were established in 46 countries, mosques were constructed in many foreign countries and the Quran published in several major languages of the world. Although the Community continued to expand in the course of succeeding Caliphates, sometimes at a faster pace, the second caliph is credited for much of its inception. Ahmad wrote many written works, the most significant of which is the ten volume commentary of the Quran.
Third Caliphate
was elected on 8 November 1965, and he served as Caliph until 1982. He expanded the missionary work initiated by his predecessor, particularly in Africa. Following a 1970 tour of West Africa, the first visit to Africa by an Ahmadi Caliph, he established the Nusrat Jehan Scheme, which now operates numerous medical facilities and schools in Africa.He also established the Fazl-e-Umar Foundation in honour of his predecessor, oversaw the compilations of dialogues and sayings of the founder of the Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and also directed the complete collection of the dreams, visions and verbal revelations of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.
He is seen by Ahmadis as having shown great leadership and guidance to the Community during the period when the National Assembly of Pakistan declared the Community as a non-Muslim minority. He coined the popular Ahmadiyya motto love for all, hatred for none.