Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi

On 17 May 2012, Messiah Foundation International republished The Religion of God with Balboa Press. As of 1 June 2012, it was #5 on the publisher's Best Sellers' List.

On the other hand, the Indian news agency PTI reported in 2008 that Shahi was based in the United Kingdom after being convicted of blasphemy by the High Court of Sindh. This view is supported by the Indian Express which reported in 2008 that Shahi had fled to the United Kingdom and was presently based there. Zee News also supported this claim. The Hindustan Times has reported that he is "serving a life term". The Sunday Leader in Sri Lanka stated that Shahi disappeared in 2001 and sightings of him were thereafter reported around the world.

In February 2002, prior to any decision on appeals filed with the High Court of Sindh, Ardeshir Cowasjee claimed in an article he wrote for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, that unnamed people who identified themselves to him as office-bearers of the All-Faith Spiritual Movement told him that Gohar Shahi died abroad, but this report was unconfirmed.

Shahi was reported to have disappeared in 2001, in London; afterwards, sightings of him were reported around the world of people claiming to have met and received spiritual guidance from him.

There have been rumours of him dying, with some sources reporting that he died in 2001 and others saying he died in 2003. According to the Pakistani Press Foundation Shahi died in 2001. An article from 2006 in the Sunday Telegraph reports that Shahi died in 2003, and a 2009 article in Your Local Guardian also says that he was reported to have died in 2003. However, none of these reports have been confirmed, as there is no body.

He is the author of a number of Urdu books on topics relating to spirituality, the most successful among these being Deen-e-Ilahi "The Religion of God" (2000), which was republished by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House and translated into English and other languages by Messiah Foundation International in 2012.

RAGS International was renamed to Messiah Foundation International in 2000. MFI claims that Shahi is the Mehdi, Messiah, and Kalki Avatar. Shahi disappeared from public view in 2001. There have been claims that he died in that year or in 2003, but these are unconfirmed.

The CEO of Messiah Foundation International is Younus AlGohar. Shahi claimed to have met with Jesus Christ in 1997.

On 18 November 1997, after appearing in court before Justice Rasheed A. Razvi of Sindh High Court Hyderabad Circuit, Shahi said, "The only justification to be Hazrat Imam Mehdi is the mark on [one's] back which can prove his existence".

In 1975, he went to Sehwan Sharif for self-mortification; he spent a period of three years in the mountains of Sehwan Sharif and the forest of Laal Bagh in self-purification, "for the sake of God's love".

Shahi became popular as a Sufi preacher in Pakistan during the late 1970s. He formed RAGS International and Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam in 1980. Of the two organisations, RAGS International is still active as Messiah Foundation International whereas Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam was reported to have been dissolved and banned in Pakistan in 2011.

Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi (Urdu: ریاض احمد گوھر شاہی) (born 25 November 1941) is a spiritual leader and founder of the spiritual movements RAGS International (now known as Messiah Foundation International) and Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam.

Shahi was born on 25 November 1941 in the village of Dhok Gohar Shah in the district of Rawalpindi of British India. He is a fifth generation descendant of the Sufi Baba Gohar Ali Shah.