Origin of The Name
The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in 1889, but the name Ahmadiyya was not adopted until about a decade later. In a manifesto dated 4 November 1900, Ghulam Ahmad explained that the name did not refer to himself but to Ahmad, the alternative name of the prophet Muhammad. According to him, 'Muhammad', which means 'the most praised one', refers to the glorious destiny, majesty and power of the prophet, who adopted the name from about the time of the Hegira; but 'Ahmad', an Arabic elative form which means 'highly praised' and also 'comforter', stands for the beauty of his sermons, for the qualities of tenderness, gentleness, humility, love and mercy displayed by Muhammad, and for the peace that he was destined to establish in the world through his teachings. According to Ghulam Ahmad, these names thus refer to two aspects or phases of Islam, and in later times it was the latter aspect that commanded greater attention.
Accordingly, in Ghulam Ahmad's view, this was the reason that the Old Testament prophesied a Messenger 'like unto Moses', which referred to Mohammad, while according to the Qur'an, Jesus foretold a messenger named Ahmad.
In keeping with this, he believed his object was to defend and propagate Islam globally through peaceful means, to revive the forgotten Islamic values of peace, forgiveness and sympathy for all mankind, and to establish peace in the world through the spiritual teachings of Islam. He believed that his message had special relevance for the Western world, which, he believed, had descended into materialism.
Ghulam Ahmad also called it the Ahmadiyya madhab (school of thought within Islam):
اور جائز ہے کہ اِس کو احمدی مذہب کے مسلمان کے نام سے بھی پکاریں - And it is permissible that this also be referred to as ‘Muslims of the Aḥmadī way (madhhab).
— Ruḥānī Khazāʾin, v.15, p.526, Tiryāqu'l-Qulūb pg. 1066–1067
However the movement is based on the fiqh (jurisprudence) of the Hanafi madhab within Islam.
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