Ahmadiyya
After his death, his followers elected Mawlana Nur ad-Din as his successor. Nur ad-Din died in 1914, and the community split into two branches. The majority remained in Qadiyan and recognized Ghulam Ahmad as prophet ( nabi ). The basic belief held by the Qadiyani community was and is that it is the sole embodiment of True Islam.
The founder's son, Hadhrat Mirza Bashir ad-Din Mahmud Ahmad (1889–1965), was chosen as Khalifatul-Masih [caliph of the Messiah] by the Qadiyani branch, known today as the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam ( jamaat-i ahmadiyya ). His half-century of leadership shaped the movement, operating after 1947 out of the city of Rabwah (which they founded and gave a Qur'anically inspired name) in Pakistan and administering a network of schools and hospitals. His successors have been chosen from among Ghulam Ahmad's descendants the leader of the movement (since 2003) is Mirza Masroor Ahmad (b. 1950).
The other branch, less willing to distinguish itself from mainstream Islam, recognized Ghulam Ahmad as a reformer ( mujaddid ) and established what came to be known as the ahmadiyya anjuman ishaat-i Islam movement in Lahore, Pakistan, also known as the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. Both branches engage in energetic missionary activity in Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, and the Indian subcontinent.
Orthodox Islam has never accepted Ghulam Ahmad's visions, and Ahmadis in Pakistan have faced religious and political attacks to the extent that they have been declared apostate and non-Muslim by the country's religious and political elite. A 1984 Pakistani government decree banned the use of Islamic forms of worship by Ahmadis, and the fourth Khalifatul-Masih went into exile in London until his death in 2003. Ahmadis have also suffered from discrimination in other Islamic nations. The most widely cited figure for membership in the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam is 10 million, although this figure dates to the 1980s current official movement figures are significantly higher.
See H. J. Fisher, Ahmadiyyah (1963) S. Lavan, The Ahmadiyyah Movement (1974) Y. Friedman, Prophecy Continuous (1989).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Islam
Browse By Subject
- Earth and the Environment +-
- History +-
- Literature and the Arts +-
- Medicine +-
- People +-
- Philosophy and Religion +-
- Places +-
- Africa
- Asia
- Australia and Oceania
- Britain, Ireland, France, and the Low Countries
- Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Nations
- Germany, Scandinavia, and Central Europe
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Oceans, Continents, and Polar Regions
- Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the Balkans
- United States, Canada, and Greenland
- Plants and Animals +-
- Science and Technology +-
- Social Sciences and the Law +-
- Sports and Everyday Life +-