Tabligh Guide — Page 94
(American Edition) 94 Prophecy about Mr. Dowie John Alexander Dowie was an American who in 1896 founded a Christian Catholic sect and started building a town near Chicago, Illinois, called Zion City. He claimed to be Elijah or the forerunner of the second coming of Jesus Christ. He collected a great following and claimed to heal people by prayer. He was a bitter enemy of Islām and hurled vile abuse at Islām and its Prophet and proclaimed his mission to destroy Islām before the coming of Christ. When Ḥ a ḍ rat A ḥ mad — the Promised Messiah was informed about him, he wrote to Mr. Dowie about his claim as the Promised Messiah and challenged him to a prayer contest that each of them should pray to God that of the two, whoever was impostor be punished and destroyed by God in the lifetime of the other. The Promised Messiah wrote, “I am about seventy years of age while Mr. Dowie is about fifty - five and thus compared with me he still is a young man. But since the matter is not to be settled by age, I do not care for this great disparity in years. The whole matter rests in the h ands of Him Who is the Lord of heaven and earth and judge over all judges. He will decide in favor of the true claimant. ” When Mr. Dowie did not reply and remained silent, Ḥ a ḍ rat A ḥ mad made the statement; “Though he may try as hard as he can to fly from d eath which awaits him, yet his flight from such a contest will be nothing less than death to him; and calamity will certainly overtake his Zion, for he must bear the consequences either of the acceptance of the challenge or its refusal. ” This challenge was widely published in the American press. Some of the papers commented that the proposed mode of decision was just and reasonable. The challenge was issued in 1902 and was repeated in 1903. When Mr. Dowie paid no attention to it, he was hard pressed by American papers. Finally, Mr. Dowie announced in his paper, Leaves of Healing of December 1903: “In India, there is a Mohammedan Messiah who keeps on writing to me that Jesus Christ lies buried in Kashmir. People ask me why do I not send him the necessary reply? Do you think that I should answer such gnats and flies? If I were to put my foot on them, I would crush them to death. The fact is that I merely gave them a chance to fly away and survive. ” Finally the prophecy was fulfilled. Rebellion broke out against Mr. Dowie in Zion. His wife and son deserted him and he was charged with many illicit and immoral practices. He was finally expelled from Zion and reduced to a miserable