Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement

The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam Lahore (Urdu: احمدیہ انجمنِ اشاعتِ اسلام‎; Aḥmadiyyah Anjuman-i Ishāʿat-i Islām, Lāhawr) (not to be confused with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community), also known colloquially as Lahori Ahmadis or Lahoris, formed as a result of ideological and administrative differences within the Ahmadiyya movement, after the demise of Maulana Hakim Noor-ud-Din in 1914, the first Khalifa after its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

The Lahoris believe Ahmadiyya founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi as well as the Mujaddid (reformer) of the 14th century (AH), but unlike the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, do not believe him to be a Nabi (prophet) or Rasool (messenger) of Islam, and hold that the use of those terms by Ahmad when referring to himself was metaphorical. Like mainstream Muslims, Lahoris interpret the term Khatam an-Nabiyyin (lit. Seal of Prophets) to mean that Muhammad was the last of the prophets sent by God. Relative to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, some mainstream Muslim opinion towards the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement has been more accepting, with the Lahore Ahmadiyya literature finding easier compatibility with Orthodox Muslims and some Orthodox Muslim scholars considering the members of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement as Muslims.

According to estimates from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and author Simon Ross Valentine, there are between 5000 and 10,000 Lahori Ahmadis in Pakistan and as many as 30,000 worldwide, making the group much smaller than the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

The reason for the split was summarised as follows by Maulana Muhammad Ali, the first Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, in his English booklet The Split in the Ahmadiyya Movement, published in 1918:

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