Is the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat a new religion or a movement within Islam?

Neither. It is not a new religion and not an ordinary movement alongside others, but Islam itself, renewed in its original form, as in its earliest days.

Islam is a perfected religion. The first verse above says so clearly. Nothing can be added to something perfect without spoiling it. Whoever paints over a finished picture does not make it more beautiful, only uglier. That is why no new teaching can improve Islam.

Islam has always expected the Messiah and the Mahdi to come in a later age. They were not meant to add anything to Islam or take anything away from it. Their task was different. Over many centuries things had been attached to Islam that do not belong to it. They had distorted its image and its message. The Messiah was to remove these additions and make the original beauty of Islam visible again.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah, came with this mission. That is why the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat cannot be compared with a sect or a mystical school such as Sufism. It resembles rather the early period of Islam, when a small community lived the faith in its pure form.

One can also put it this way. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat is Islam, nothing more and nothing less. It coincides with it completely, without crossing its boundaries and without falling short of them. Others may dispute this, but the claim can be tested against its teaching.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) remains the Seal of the Prophets, as the second verse says. No renewal can replace his teaching. It can only make it shine again.