If We Are Waiting for the Messiah, How Will We Recognize Him?

In June 1907, a Boston newspaper published a striking headline: "Great Is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Messiah."

The headline appeared in The Sunday Herald just months after the death of John Alexander Dowie, an American religious leader whom Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had publicly challenged over their competing religious claims.

Subscribe

More than a century later, that old newspaper headline raises a surprisingly modern question: What if the person people are waiting for has already come, and they simply do not recognize him?

I ask this question as an Ahmadi Muslim. I am not writing to tell Christians what they should believe or to criticize their faith. I am writing to explain why Ahmadi Muslims believe that the promised latter-day Messiah appeared in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and why we believe his claim deserves to be examined rather than dismissed.

Jesus and the Christian Expectation

For Christians, Jesus is central to faith. Historic Christian creeds affirm that Jesus was crucified, died, was buried, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will come again. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Ahmadi Muslims honor Jesus as a true prophet of God and the Messiah sent to the Children of Israel, but our understanding of what happened to him is different.

We believe that Jesus survived the crucifixion rather than dying on the cross. We further believe that he later traveled east and eventually died a natural death. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad developed this interpretation extensively, particularly in Jesus in India.

It is important to distinguish religious belief from established historical fact. The belief that Jesus traveled to Kashmir is an Ahmadiyya religious claim, not a conclusion accepted by mainstream historical scholarship. A Cambridge University Press study, for example, describes the Kashmir tradition as an article of faith within the Ahmadiyya community while examining the historical arguments surrounding it.

For Ahmadi Muslims, this belief has an important theological consequence. If Jesus did not remain physically alive in heaven awaiting a literal return to earth, then the prophecy of the Messiah's coming must be understood differently.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad taught that the promised latter-day Messiah would come in the spirit and likeness of Jesus, rather than being Jesus himself physically descending from heaven.

Who Was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad?

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in 1835 in Qadian, India. In the late nineteenth century, he claimed that God had appointed him as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi foretold in Islamic prophecy.

He did not claim to establish a new religion. He described his mission as a revival of Islam and a defense of the teachings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. He presented himself as a servant of Islam whose mission included explaining the teachings of the Quran, defending religion through reason and prayer, and calling people back to God.

For Ahmadi Muslims, the important question is therefore not simply that he made a claim. It is: What evidence did he present for that claim?

What Would We Expect from the Messiah?

An interfaith conversation can begin with questions rather than conclusions.

• If someone were divinely appointed as the Messiah, would we expect that person to call people toward God and moral reform?
• Would we expect him to defend the honor of Jesus, address religious misunderstandings, and invite people to examine scripture?
• Would we expect signs or prophecies that his followers would regard as evidence of divine support?
• And would his mission eventually reach people far beyond the place where he was born?

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad believed that the answers to these questions could be found in his writings, prayers, prophecies, and religious mission. Whether an individual accepts those claims is a separate question. But I believe they deserve to be examined rather than dismissed simply because they come from a religious tradition unfamiliar to many Americans.

The Dowie Episode

One of the most unusual chapters in this story involves John Alexander Dowie.

Dowie was an American faith healer and religious leader who founded Zion City, Illinois. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he was a prominent religious figure with an international following.

In 1902, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad publicly challenged Dowie to a prayer contest concerning their respective religious claims. In 1903, Ahmad reiterated the challenge and made a more specific prediction concerning Dowie's death.

Dowie did not accept the challenge. His health and leadership subsequently deteriorated, and he died on March 9, 1907. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died the following year.

Those are historical events. The interpretation is religious: Ahmadi Muslims regard Dowie's death, occurring before Ahmad's own death and following the prediction, as a fulfillment of a prophecy supporting Ahmad's claim.

That distinction matters. A historical event can be documented, while its theological meaning may be evaluated differently by different readers.

The American newspaper record makes the episode especially interesting. On June 23, 1907, The Sunday Herald of Boston published a magazine feature under the headline "Great Is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad The Messiah." The article discussed Dowie's death and Ahmad's claim, along with other predictions attributed to Ahmad.

The headline does not mean that The Sunday Herald formally endorsed Ahmad's religious claim. It means the newspaper chose those words as the headline for its report. But it demonstrates something historically significant: the claim of an Indian Muslim religious leader had entered the American religious conversation more than a century ago.

From Qadian to Chicago

The story did not remain in India.

In 1920, Mufti Muhammad Sadiq arrived in the United States as the first Ahmadiyya missionary to America. He established the movement's early American headquarters in Chicago. The Encyclopedia of Chicago records that Sadiq established the first Ahmadi mosque in the nation at 4448 South Wabash Avenue and that Chicago served as the movement's national headquarters until 1950.

In 1922, the Ahmadiyya community established its mosque and mission headquarters at 4448 Wabash Avenue, which became known as the Wabash Mosque and is now Al-Sadiq Mosque. Contemporary Ahmadiyya records describe the Chicago location as the permanent quarters of the mission, mosque, and office of The Moslem Sunrise.

This gives the question of the Messiah an unexpected American dimension. In 1907, a Boston newspaper was reporting on Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his claim. Thirteen years later, his followers were establishing a permanent Muslim mission in Chicago. The movement that began in Qadian had entered the American religious landscape.

Giving Life to the Dead

Another question arises when discussing the Messiah: What does it mean to give life to the dead?

Christianity includes belief in the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection of Jesus is central to historic Christian doctrine. Ahmadiyya theology places particular emphasis on another dimension of the Messiah's work: spiritual revival.

A person can be physically alive yet spiritually distant from God. Conversely, someone who has lost faith can experience a profound spiritual awakening.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad understood the Messiah's task as reviving spiritually dead hearts by turning people back toward God, prayer, morality, and righteousness. For Ahmadi Muslims, this does not deny God's ability to perform physical miracles. Rather, it reflects the belief that the deeper purpose of the Messiah's mission is the spiritual revival of humanity.

How Would We Recognize Him?

Ultimately, this is the question I hope readers will take away from this story.

If someone claims to be the Promised Messiah, should we accept the claim simply because his followers believe it? No. But should we reject it simply because it comes from a religious tradition unfamiliar to us? I would say no to that as well.

We can examine the scriptures. We can study the historical record. We can consider a claimant's teachings and character. We can investigate the prophecies he presented and what happened afterward. And we can distinguish between what history documents and how a religious community interprets those events.

As an Ahmadi Muslim, I believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad did not come to displace Jesus. I believe his mission was to revive the worship of the One God and call humanity toward prayer, moral responsibility, compassion, and peace.

Christians and Ahmadi Muslims may reach different conclusions about the Messiah's coming, and I respect that difference. But perhaps the question is not only whether we are waiting for the Messiah.

Perhaps the deeper question is: If the Promised Messiah has already come, are we willing to look carefully enough to recognize him?

By Farid Ahmad

Farid Ahmad is a resident of the Lehigh Valley, a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service, and serves with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the Lehigh Valley. He writes about faith, community service, and issues affecting everyday life.