Born in 1835 in Qadian (India), Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah and Mahdi^(as), devoted himself to the study of the Holy Quran and to a life of prayer and devotion. Finding Islam the target of foul attacks from all directions and the fortunes of Muslims at a low ebb, he, as the Imam and the voice articulate of the age, undertook the task of vindicating Islam and presenting its teachings in their pristine purity. In his vast corpus of writings, lectures, discourses, religious debates etc., he argued that Islam was the only living faith, by following which, man could establish contact with his Creator and enter into communion with Him. He announced that God had appointed him the Messiah and Mahdi, according to the prophecies of the Bible, the Holy Quran and Ahadith. In 1889 he began to accept initiation into his Jama‘at, which is now established in over a hundred and eighty countries. He wrote more than eighty books in Urdu, Arabic and Persian.

After his demise in 1908, the Promised Messiah^(as) was succeeded by Khulafa (Successors), who have continued his mission. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V^(at), is the present head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the fifth Successor of the Promised Messiah^(as).