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Two prophets and a century-old prayer duel birth Zion mosque

This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) This undated photo from the Makhzan-e-Tasaweer Image Library shows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi Muslim faith. The Ahmadis believe he defended the faith from evangelist John Alexander Dowie’s verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated Dowie in a sensational prayer duel more than 100 years ago. (Courtesy of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA via AP) A suburban home converted into a mosque used by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community believes their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, defended their faith from Zion founder John Alexander Dowie's verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated him in a sensational prayer duel. A century after this historic challenge, the Ahmadi community has built their first official mosque in Zion. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Visitors can tour John Alexander Dowie's original home, the Shiloh House, built in 1902, which is now maintained as a historical museum in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Dowie, a Christian faith healer, founded the town in 1900. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) An archival photo of John Alexander Dowie, his wife and two children, sits on display at the Shiloh House, the family's original home built in 1902, in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. The Zion Historical Society now preserves and maintains the 25-room mansion as a town museum. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Photos of John Alexander Dowie, founder of Zion, his wife and two children hang on the walls of their former 25-room mansion, which was built in 1902, in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. The Zion Historical Society now preserves and maintains the Shiloh House as a town museum. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Congregants of the Church of Christ pray after bible study on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Zion, Ill. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) David Padfield, minister of Church of Christ, leads an evening bible study on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Zion, Ill. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Members of the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim community attend Friday prayer on Sept. 16, 2022, in Zion, Ill. The Ahmadi community will move from a suburban house, which was converted into a community center where the members pray, to a new multimillion dollar mosque in Zion. The Fath-e-Azeem mosque will be inaugurated on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Suriyya Latif and her husband Junayd, longtime members of the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim community, sit for an interview after a Friday prayer on Sept. 16, 2022, in Zion, Ill. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Najia Munir Tariq holds her daughter, Zubdah Amhmed, during Friday prayer at the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim community house in Zion, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. The Ahmadi community believes their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, defended their faith from Zion founder John Alexander Dowie's verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated him in a sensational prayer duel. A century after this historic challenge, the Ahmadi community has built their first official mosque in Zion. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Christ Community church, which is the remnant of John Alexander Dowie's original congregation formed in the 1900s, sits in the center of Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. An assistant pastor at the church says the congregation now identifies as evangelical and doesn't adhere to Dowie's teachings. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Christ Community church, which is the remnant of John Alexander Dowie's original congregation formed in the 1900s, sits in the center of Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. An assistant pastor at the church says the congregation now identifies as evangelical and doesn't adhere to Dowie's teachings. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Mike McDowell, a board member for the Zion Historical Society and an associate pastor at Christ Community Church, stands for a portrait in the Historic Shiloh House, once owned by the town's founder, John Alexander Dowie. McDowell's great grandparents moved to Zion in 1905 from North Dakota because his great grandmother believed Dowie, a known faith healer, cured her whooping cough. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) A wooden bell tower, one of the last remaining large artifacts from the city of Zion's original construction in 1900, sits on display along Sheridan Road., in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Old photographs of Zion sit on display in the Historic Shiloh House, John Alexander Dowie's former home, restored and preserved by the Zion Historical Society, in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Issues of the "Leaves of Healing," a spiritual journal circulated worldwide, by faith healer and self-proclaimed "Elijah the Restorer," John Alexander Dowie, sit on display in the Historic Shiloh House in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. While Dowie welcomed Black people and immigrants into Zion, he had harsh words for politicians, medical doctors and particularly, Muslims, which he expressed in his journal. This ultimately sparked the prayer duel between Dowie and the Ahmadiyya Muslim community's founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) John Alexander Dowie is laid to rest near his wife and two children at Lake Mound Cemetery in Zion, Ill., as seen on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Lace curtains hang on a window in Esther Dowie's former bedroom, daughter of town founder and faith healer, John Alexander Dowie, on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Dowie brought the lace industry to Zion upon the town's founding in 1900. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) An archival photo of John Alexander Dowie, a Christian faith healer and the founder of the Zion as seen in the Historic Shiloh House in Zion, Ill., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Dowie, who envisioned Zion to be a Christian utopia, made town laws, which forbade gambling, theaters, circuses, alcohol and tobacco. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Kathy Goodwin, a volunteer at the Historic Shiloh House, gives a tour of the first floor of the 25-room mansion once owned by Zion's founder, John Alexander Dowie, on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. Goodwin tells the visitors of her grandfather, a master carpenter from Switzerland who heard Dowie speak in Chicago and decided to move his family north to help the preacher build the city of Zion. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) A flock of geese fly over a town bell, one of the last remaining large artifacts from the city of Zion's original construction in 1900, which sits outside of Christ Community Church, in Zion, Ill., on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. The town was founded as a Christian theocracy by faith healer John Alexander Dowie, who died just seven years later in 1907. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) An article written about the downfall of Christian faith healer, John Alexander Dowie, in a 1906 edition of the St. Louis Republic will sit in the archival display of the new Fath-e-Azeem mosque, in Zion, Ill., Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. This will be the city's first official mosque, which was born from a century-old prayer duel between the town's founder, Dowie, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim community's founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) A framed photo of Zion city founder and Christian faith healer, John Alexander Dowie, sits in the middle of a group of old family photos in the Shiloh House, now owned and operated as a historic museum by the Zion Historical Society, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, in Zion, Ill. Dowie founded Zion in 1900, but died of a paralytic stroke just seven years later. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) The historic Shiloh House, now home to the Zion Historical Society, was once the home of Zion city founder and Christian faith healer, John Alexander Dowie, in Zion, Ill., Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. Dowie had the 25-room mansion constructed in 1902 for $90,000. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Men of the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim community attend Friday prayer in Zion, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. The Ahmadi community will move from a suburban house, which was converted into a community center where the members pray, to a new multimillion dollar mosque in Zion. The Fath-e-Azeem mosque will be inaugurated on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Tahir Ahmed Soofi, president of the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's Zion Chapter, looks through articles and artifacts in an unfinished display case in the newly constructed Fath-e-Azeem mosque on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. The mosque will display newspapers, books and photographs about a prayer duel that took place between the Ahmadi Muslim founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and Christian faith healer and Zion founder, John Alexander Dowie. The small-sized city, 40 miles north of Chicago, is a place of special religious significance for their global messianic faith because they feel their prophet won this century-old duel. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) Tariq Naseem, imam for the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim community, stands for a portrait in the newly constructed Fath-e-Azeem mosque in Zion, Ill., on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. The Ahmadis' view this small-sized city, 40 miles north of Chicago, as a place of special religious significance for their global messianic faith after a century-old prayer duel between prophet and founder of the Ahmadi movement and the founder of Zion. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) The newly constructed Fath-e-Azeem mosque, which means "a great victory" in Arabic, in Zion, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community believes their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, defended their faith from Zion founder John Alexander Dowie's verbal attacks against Islam, and defeated him in a sensational prayer duel. A century after this historic challenge, the Ahmadi community has built its first official mosque in Zion. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) A member of the Zion Ahmadiyya Muslim community attends Friday prayer in Zion, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. A century after the Ahmadis' prophet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, challenged Zion's founder, John Alexander Dowie, a Christian faith healer, to a prayer duel, the community has built their first official mosque in the city. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)