Академия Корана:Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān/Aḥmadiyya

Yohanan Friedmann, "Aḥmadiyya" in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: J. D. McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

The Aḥmadiyya Movement in Islam (Urdu Jamāʿat-i Aḥmadiyya) is a modern messianic movement. It was founded in 1889 in the Indian province of the Punjab by Mirzā Ghulām Aḥmad (1835—1908) and has become exceedingly controversial within contemporary Muslim circles. Claiming for its founder messianic and prophetic status of a certain kind, the Aḥmadī Movement aroused fierce opposition from the Muslim mainstream and was accused of rejecting the dogma that Muḥammad was the last prophet. Under British rule, the controversy was merely a doctrinal dispute between individuals or voluntary organizations, but when the movement’s headquarters and many Aḥmadīs moved in 1947 to the professedly Islamic state of Pakistan, the issue was transformed into a major constitutional problem and the Muslim mainstream demanded the formal exclusion of the Aḥmadīs from the Muslim fold. This was attained in 1974, when the Pakistani parliament adopted a constitutional amendment declaring the Aḥmadīs to be non-Muslims.

Despite the impression which may be gained from anti-Aḥmadī polemical literature, the Aḥmadīs passionately attest that the Qurʾān is a heavenly book of unsurpassable beauty and unquestionable validity which will never be superseded (see inimitability). They initiated the translation of the Qurʾān into numerous languages and maintain that it is the only scripture (see scripture and the qurʾān) which has suffered no interpolation or corruption (q.v.). Their profound veneration of the Qurʾān has led them to re-interpret the idea of abrogation (q.v.). They claim that whenever abrogation is mentioned in the Qurʾān, it denotes the abrogation of all other religions by Islam rather than the abrogation of early qurʾānic verses by later ones. This implies that all qurʾānic verses have the same validity, a position which undermines the exegetical principle according to which injunctions included in later verses cancel those included in earlier ones. Consequently, they deal in an alternative manner with inconsistencies in the Qurʾān. Instead of following injunctions set forth in «abrogating» verses, they maintain that where there are contradictory statements about a certain issue, one should abide by the verses revealed in circumstances more similar to one’s own. Ghulām Aḥmad used this exegetical method in his reinterpretation of the mandated holy struggle, jihād (q.v.). According to his exposition, the verses commanding military struggle were revealed when nascent Islam was in danger of destruction by force. In Ghulām Aḥmad’s times, Islam was no longer in danger of military attack, but suffered from defamation by Christian missionaries. Military struggle is therefore unnecessary and Muslims should respond by verbal struggle: they should refute the defamatory statements of their opponents and propagate Islam by preaching.

Two qurʾānic verses are central to Aḥmadī theology. «Jesus, I cause you to die and raise you to myself» (q 3:55) is taken to mean that Jesus' ascension took place after his death. Coupled with the qurʾānic denial of the crucifixion in q 4:157, the verses are interpreted to mean that Jesus died a natural death and, contrary to numerous ḥadīths, there will be no second coming. q 33:40 which describes Muḥammad as «the seal of the prophets» (khātam al-nabiyyīn, see prophets and prophethood) is not understood as meaning that he was the last prophet, but that he was «the owner of the seal» without whose confirmation no other prophet may be accepted. The dogma asserting the finality of Muḥammad’s prophethood refers, according to the Aḥmadiyya, only to legislative prophets who bring a divinely revealed book of law. Non-legislative prophets like Ghulām Aḥmad whom God sends to revive the law promulgated in the Qurʾān can appear in a Muslim community even after the completion of Muḥammad’s mission. A similar idea can be found in the works of the famous Ṣūfī Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) and Ghulām Aḥmad’s prophetology may have been inspired by his thought. See also ṣūfism and the qurʾān .

Bibliography

• Ghulām Aḥmad, Ḥaqīqat al-waḥy, Lahore 1952
• id., Government-i angrēzī awr jihād [in Urdu], Rabwa 1965
• M.D. Ahmad, Die Stellung des Koran in der Ahmadiyya-Theologie (fully documented), in zdmg Suppl. III, 1, Wiesbaden 1977, 319-30
• Y. Friedmann, Prophecy continuous. Aspects of Aḥmadī religious thought and its medieval background, Berkeley 1989 (extensive bibliography)