Islam: Ahmadiyya (Vincent Littrell,US)

Vincent Littrell writes: WAISers might be interested in a brief description of the Ahmadiyya and the persecution they face in Pakistan. There are approximately 10 million Ahmadis world-wide with an estimated 4 million living in Pakistan. The Ahmadi movement?s vibrant missionary outreach program has caused there to be significant Ahmadiyya communities in south Asia and west Africa, as well as western Europe, Canada, and the United States. Unlike the Baha?is, the Ahmadiyya consider themselves to be Muslims and to fall under the aegis of the revelation of Muhammad. The bulk of the Sunni orthodox world does not consider the Ahmadiyya to be Muslim. The disagreement over whether the Ahmadiyya are Muslim or not has resulted in outbreaks of violence and enforcement of repressive laws against them throughout the 20th century up to the present. Despite orthodox Muslim views to the contrary, I will refer to the Ahmadiyya as a sect of Islam. The Ahmadis believe the Prophet Muhammad to be the supreme prophet from God for all of mankind and his revelation to be the final ?law-bearing? revelation. The primary difference between the Ahmadiyya and the rest of Sunni orthodoxy is over interpretation of the concept of Muhammad being the ?Seal of the Prophets?, which will be discussed in more depth below.

The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, northern India. Ahmad was born in about 1836. He proclaimed himself to be the recipient of divine revelation, to have prophetic status, and to be both the awaited messiah (return of Jesus Christ) and Mahdi (of Sunni eschatological expectation). Ahmad?s claim is that his prophetic status is of a lesser nature in that he does not bear a new revelation but is divinely inspired in interpreting the Qur?an and traditions of the past. Ahmad claims to re-enforce and re-invigorate the revelation of Muhammad during a time of Islam?s spiritual deterioration. He claims his prophecy is attained as a bounty ?through the light of Muhammad.?[i] Ahmad began receiving his revelations in 1876; however, he did not make his proclamation as Mahdi and Messiah until 1889. Ahmad was a noted apologist of Islam in northern India, defending it against polemics from Hindus and Christians before openly making his claims to prophecy. Though his proclamations aroused animosity in many orthodox Sunnis, his eloquence, charisma, and personal character attracted many to his message. His following had grown rapidly by the time he passed away in 1908. The succession to Ahmad was established allowing for the sect to exist and spread in vibrant fashion until today.[ii] It must be said that the Ahmadiyya, like the Baha?is, keep a very low profile in the Arab world.

Prior to the split of Pakistan from India in 1947, despite the vilification of the Ahmadiyya by Sunni Ulama, the Ahmadiyya were allowed to practice their faith freely under British rule. Once the Pakistan/India split occurred, because of Hindu animosity most of the Indian Ahmadiyya moved to Pakistan. Muslim persecution of the Ahmadiyya began during the life of Ghulam Ahmad. Executions of Ahmadis by stoning occurred in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1901 and 1903.[iii] During the reign of King Amanullah in Afghanistan (1921-29), persecution of the Ahmadiyya became more severe in that country. Amanullah was under pressure from Sunni orthodox clergy because of his modernizing ideas. In an attempt to appease the orthodox ulama, he executed a small number of Ahmadiyya and had others arrested, to be released upon recanting their faith (which some of them did). In 1924/25 a new penal code was introduced into Afghanistan, making being an Ahmadi a capital offense.[iv]

Persecution of the Ahmadiyya of Pakistan has been steady with varying degrees of intensity since Pakistan?s creation (this includes to some degree Bangladesh as well). In the 1950s formal attempts had been made by orthodox Sunni Islamist groups to have the Ahmadiyya excluded from Islam legally. Though riots occurred (there were attacks on Ahmadi mosques and members), such attempts at making the Ahmadiyya illegal were held off until the 1970s. In 1973/74, provincial legislatures throughout Pakistan began introducing motions to make the Ahmadiyya illegal. On September 7, 1974 Pakistan?s National Assembly unanimously voted to amend the constitution to say: ?a person who does not believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him), the last of the Prophets, or claims to be a Prophet, in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever, after Muhammad (peace be upon him), or recognizes such a claimant as a Prophet or a religious reformer, is not a Muslim for the purposes of the Constitution or Law.?[v]
The National Assembly further decided that any practicing of Islam advocating against the concept of the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad would incur punishment under the Pakistani penal code.[vi] Regarding the Ahmadiyya debate in Pakistan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor of Islamic studies Yohanan Friedmann comments: ?The 1974 debate on the Ahmadi issue revealed again the dilemmas facing countries that try to govern themselves according to modern liberal principles, yet feel attachment to a medieval civilization that recognized no separation between religion and state.?[vii]

Regarding the National Assembly deliberations, Friedmann also comments:?The minutes of the secret sessions will describe how a group of politicians, elected through a secular process, debate a subtle issue of Islamic theology. One may venture to say that a great number of them were ill-equipped for such a debate and easily succumbed to the arguments marshaled by representatives of the Jama?at-I Islami and of the various groups of ulama.?[viii]

The problems Professor Friedmann notes above are certainly transferable to events we see ongoing in both Afghanistan and Iraq at the time of this writing. After the Pakistani National Assembly?s decision other organizations began issuing anti-Ahmadiyya decrees. The Jordanian council of ulama, the African Islamic Congress, representatives of the Fifth Islamic World Congress of 1976 all issued statements decrying the Ahmadiyya. Legal ramifications against the Pakistani Ahmadiyya were quickly felt. Ahmadis are legally forbidden to refer to themselves as Muslims. They cannot refer to their places of worship at mosques. They cannot issue the call to prayer as most Muslims do. They cannot preach or propagate their version of Islam. Such offenses are punishable by imprisonment or fine in the Pakistani penal code and from time to time such are enforced. Of a non-legal nature in Pakistan, Ahmadiyya are harassed by orthodox mobs, police are lax at investigating incidents of vandalism against Ahmadiyya buildings, buildings are occasionally sealed off by authorities for spurious reasons, orthodox ulama regularly conduct sermons of a virulently anti-Ahmadiyya nature getting mobs worked up to conduct attacks against places of worship etc?[ix] As with the Baha?is, the bulk of the Muslim world is silent on the persecution of the Ahmadiyya of Pakistan as well as their harassment in other Muslim countries.

[i] Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Ahmadiyyat: The Renaissance of Islam (London, Tabshir Publications, 1978) p. 49
[ii] There are two branches of the Ahmadiyya movement now. In 1914 after the death of Ahmad?s immediate successor, there was a dispute over the nature of the successor and a schism occurred. Both branches exist today as the Lahori and the Qadyani. The larger of the two is the Qadyani who follow a Khalifa (Caliph) whom they consider to receive divine inspiration in his leadership of the Ahmadiyya.
[iii] Yohanan Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 27
[iv]Friedmann, 29
[v] Ibid, 42, quoting The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, article 260
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid, 43
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Antonio Gualtieri, Conscience and Coercion: Ahmadi Muslims and Orthodoxy in Pakistan (Montreal, Guernica Editions Inc., 1989), pp. 35-72

Plan to attend the WAIS conference on “Critical World Issues ” at Stanford July 31-August 1, 2006. It will be a rare opportunity to meet other WAISers. Tell interested friends.