Messianic Legitimacy: the case of Ahmadiyya and Mahdiyya Movements

The Ahmadiyya and Mahdiyya are contemporary Islamic messianic movements emerging in the late nineteenth century during a period of general Muslim discontent. This study aims to see how the respective leaders of these two movements, Ghulam Ahmad and Muhammad Ahmad, sought to legitimize their claims while addressing the problems they perceived to exist in their societies. It is found that the originality and magnitude of Ghulam Ahmad’s messianic message, which aimed to address the claims of Christian missionaries as well as other religious groups by drawing on the example of the prophet Jesus for legitimacy and the abolishment of jihad, made the movement relatively inflexible doctrinally, but with focus on proselytization gained greater global influence. Muhammad Ahmad’s message and practice, by contrast, though highly unorthodox in its treatment of prophetic hadith, emulated to a greater degree the example of Prophet Muhammad, was more humble in its claims, and achieved relatively greater domestic popularity and doctrinal flexibility, paving the way for eventual political power in Sudan