The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 86
THE PROMISED MESSIAH AND MAHDI. 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 Islam and hurled vile abuse at Islam and its Prophet and proclaimed his mission to destroy Islam before the coming of Christ. . When Hadhrat Ahmad -- 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 life time 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 hands of. Him Who is the Lord of heaven and earth and judge over all judges. . He will decide in favour of the true claimant". . When Mr. Dowie did not reply and remained silent, Hadhrat. Ahmad made the statement; "Though he may try as hard as he can to fly from death 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: 86