Alexander Dowie in his robes as ‘Elijah the restorer’In 1899, a Scottish-born American clergyman by the name of John Alexander Dowie had laid claim to be the forerunner of the second coming of Christ. Ghulam Ahmad exchanged a series of letters with him between 1903-1907. Ghulam Ahmad challenged him to a prayer duel, where both would call upon God to expose the other as a false prophet. Ghulam Ahmad stated:
The best way to determine whether Dowie’s God is true or ours, is that Mr. Dowie should stop making prophecies about the destruction of all Muslims. Instead he should keep me alone in his mind and pray that if one of us is fabricating a lie, he should die before the other.
– Ghulam Ahmad, [45]
Dowie declined the challenge[citation needed], calling Mirza Ghulam Ahmad the “silly Mohammedan Messiah”.[citation needed]Ghulam Ahmad prophesied:
Though he may try 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. He will depart this life with great sorrow and torment during my lifetime.
– Ghulam Ahmad, The Renaissance of Islam[46]
The challenge of "prayer duel" was made by Mirza in September 1902. Dowie died before Mirza, in March 1907. The Dictionary of American Biography states that after having been deposed during a revolt in which his own family was involved, Dowie endeavoured to recover his authority via the law courts without success and that he may have been a victim of some form of mania as he suffered from hallucinations during his last illness.[47]
