Summary

The Aḥmadiyya Movement in Islam is a modern Muslim messianic movement established in 1889 by Ghulām Aḥmad in Qādiyān, a town in the Indian Punjab province. The Aḥmadī Movement became one of the most controversial and most active movements in modern Islam. The movement was accused of rejecting the Muslim dogma asserting the finality of Muḥammad’s prophethood, and therefore aroused fierce opposition of the Sunnī Muslim mainstream. After the partition of India in 1947, the Aḥmadī issue became a major constitutional problem in Pakistan. The Sunnī Muslim mainstream demanded the formal exclusion of the Aḥmadīs from the Muslim fold. This objective was attained in 1974: against fierce opposition of the Aḥmadīs, the Pakistani parliament adopted a constitutional amendment declaring them non-Muslims. In 1984, within the framework of the general trend of Islamization in Pakistan, a presidential “Ordinance no. XX of 1984” transformed the religious observance of the Aḥmadīs into a criminal offense, punishable by three years of imprisonment and a fine. Following its promulgation, the headquarters of the Aḥmadī Movement moved from Rabwa (in Pakistan) to London.

The article explains the Aḥmadī interpretation of the dogma relating to the finality of Muḥammad’s prophethood, the reinterpretation of the jihād idea and the substantial change that it introduced into the Muslim beliefs concerning Jesus. It also describes the ideological roots of the split between the Qādiyānī and Lāhorī sections of the movement. A substantial part of the article is devoted to the expansion of the movement in numerous countries of the world.