Views on Ahmadiyyat

Ahmadis (Urdu: احمدیہ Ahmadiyya), are followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. They comprise two subsects, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (sometimes called the 'Qadiani' community, after Qadian, India, though this term is considered offensive by some [1] ) and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam).

Ahmadi Muslims' beliefs are considered heretical and outside of Islam by most mainstream Muslims, though an exception may be made by some in the case of the smaller Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.

According to Ahmadi beliefs, the Ahmadiyyat is the revival of the Islam. With so much in common, there still remains the fundamental difference which sets Ahmadiyya Muslim Community apart from other Muslims. The difference on the issue of revival of Islam. All other differences emanate from this main issue.

Christian Views

Christian churches during the life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad were actively engaged in debates, prayer duels and written arguments with the Ahmadiyya. Ahmadiyya consider Christians nations to be the propehcised Dajjal and Gog and Magog , thus making the relationship very hostile. The issue of death of Jesus has caused a lot of pressure on the Church throughout the 20th century and the controversy goes on in different forms.

Abbott Freeland, observed in his book, Islam and Pakistan,

The primary significance of the Ahmadiyya Movement lay in its missionary emphasis. Every Muslim believed that Islam was the only religion free from error. The Ahmadiyas made it part of their principles to show the errors of other religions to their adherents and to proselytize energetically for Islam. In a sense, the Ahmadiyas represent the Muslims emerging, religiously speaking, from the withdrawal that had begun with the arrival of the British, just as the Muslim League represents the political emergence from that same withdrawal.

[…] It is somewhat ironic that the sect most attacked by Muslims in India and Pakistan has also been that, which has worked hardest, in both its braches, to defend and extend Islam against the competition offered by other faiths.

Ghulam Ahmad was constantly engaged in controversies with the British missionaries. Western historians have recorded this effort as one of the features of Ghulam Ahmad's legacy. [ [http://eprints.rhul.ac.uk/archive/00000332/01/oupbrempmus.pdf] The British Empire and the Muslim World Francis Robinson, Page 21] Francis Robinson states;

At their most extreme religious strategies for dealing with the Christian presence might involve attacking Christian revelation at its heart, as did the Punjabi Muslim, Ghulam Ahmad (d.1908), who founded the Ahmadiyya missionary sect.

External links

* [http://www.real-islam.org Ahmadiyyat]
* [http://www.alislam.org Official site - Ahmadiyyat on alislam.org]
* [http://www.mta.tv Muslim Television Ahmadiyya]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ahmadiyyat Ahmadiyya Discussion Group]

References

* [http://www.alislam.org/books/ahmadiyyat/WelcomeBook2ndEd.pdf Introduction of Ahmadiyyat on Official Website of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association]
* [http://www.aaiil.org/index.shtml Official Website of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam -- Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-e-Islam Lahore]
** [http://opac.ide.go.jp/cgi-bin/exec_cgi/ibibdet.cgi?CGILANG=english&U_CHARSET=utf-8&ID=BB20120198 Islam and Pakistan by Freeland, Abbot. p. 160-161]