Tanveer Ahmed stabbed Asad Shah outside his store in the Shawlands area in Scotland.
Shah, 40, an Ahmadi Muslim who moved from Pakistan to Glasgow in 1998, was discovered outside his shop on Minard Road on March 24 this year with stab wounds and taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
He suffered multiple broken bones and the base of his skull was fragmented in a way more commonly seen in victims of road traffic accidents, with "numerous powerful blows" to his head and back, the High Court in Glasgow heard.
The court was told that when Ahmed was interviewed by police he said his actions were motivated by Shah's disrespect to Islam.
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Ahmadis differ from the majority of Muslims in that they do not hold that Muhammad is the final Prophet, the court was told.
It emerged in court that Ahmed, a cab driver, was in Glasgow a couple of days before the murder with a friend who knew Shah and showed his Facebook page.