Ahmadiyya Muslims and Sikhism
Sikhs and Ahmadi Muslims have historically had very good relations. A lot of Sikh religious representatives are often invited to the Ahmadiyya National Jalsa in Qadian, India. Even today Sikhs have very good relations with the Ahmadi Muslims. The Fourth Calif of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community referred to Sikhs as his own brothers. In 2005 the fifth Calif of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community visited Qadian India where he met several Sikh leaders who showed him great love and affection due to their historical strong ties with Ahmadies.
Ahmadies view Guru Nanak as a very holy person and a great Saint. Thus Guru Nanak serves as a great uniting factor between Ahmadi Muslims and Sikhs. However like some other Muslims, Ahmadies also regard Guru Nanak as a Muslim Saint. Ahmadies hold the view that Guru Nanak did not come to start a new religion as he mentions in several of his speeches. In fact Sikhism as known today was started around 200 years after the Gurus death. Guru Nanak did not teach the 5 k's of Sikhism. These were introduced by the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, who also introduced the element of militancy into Sikhism. They claim that Guru Gobind Singh had political problems with the Moghuls (who were Muslims) some of whom at times unfairly persecuted non-Muslims. As a result of these political wars some people of the Punjab region started resenting the Moghuls and all that they stood for; which of course included their religion Islam. Overtime the movement against Moghuls became stronger and stronger and the hatred towards Moghuls also turned into hatred towards Islam by some Sikhs. Guru Gobind Singh played a key role in organising a military against the Moghuls and introduced the 5 k's to them as well.
At the time of Guru Nanak's death there were no Sikhs as known today. At his funeral only Muslims and Hindus were present and both demanded the body of Guru Nanak. Hindus wanted to burn it as they claimed that he was born into a Hindu family. Muslims wanted to bury the body because they claimed he had converted to Islam and hence should be buried in an Islamic fashion and an Islamic funeral prayer should be carried out. Today Muslims present this as one of the arguments in favour of the claim that Guru Nanak was a Muslim as Muslims do not offer the Islamic funeral prayer for anyone who is not a Muslim regardless of his worldly position.
The founder of the Ahmadiyya, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, also wrote a book called Sat Bachan in the late 19th century in which he defended Guru Nanak against attacks by a prominent Hindu leader of the time. In his book, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad demonstrates that Guru Nanak was not a person of bad character as claimed by some Hindus at the time but was a very pious holy saint. Later in the book, attention is drawn to several belongings of Guru Nanak such as his chola (a long garment that Guru Nanak used to wear) which had Quranic verses written on it. Along with this historical fact the author presents several other arguments which attempt to show that Guru Nanak was a Muslim.
Read more about this topic: Islam And Sikhism