This affirmation is the defining and most contested belief of the Ahmadiyya. The mainstream Sunni and Shia consensus holds that Muhammad is the final prophet in an absolute sense and therefore regards the claim as incompatible with Islam; several states have legislated on the question, and Ahmadis have faced persecution. This article describes the belief as the Ahmadiyya community holds and explains it, without adjudicating the theological dispute. It is inseparable from the community's further distinctive beliefs, including its account of the fate of Jesus.
The contestation has had severe legal consequences. Pakistan's parliament amended its constitution in 1974 to declare Ahmadis non-Muslim for the purposes of law, and Ordinance XX, issued by military ruler Zia-ul-Haq in 1984, made it a criminal offence for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim, refer to their places of worship as mosques, or use Islamic terminology and practices in the ordinary way other Muslims do; violations can carry prison sentences, and Ahmadis have faced mob violence and targeted killings in Pakistan and elsewhere in the decades since. The community's own khalifa relocated its international headquarters from Rabwah, Pakistan, to London in 1984 in response to the ordinance, from where it continues to direct the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community today.