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Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the Qur’an and the Beginning of History
The Holy Spirit (al-Ruh al-Qudus)
There are four verses of the Qur’an which make mention by name of someone called the Ruh al-Qudus or Holy Spirit. In the other verses, the same Ruh al-Qudus is referred to simply as the Ruh.
In the first verse we are informed that Allah Most High strengthened Nabi Isa, i.e., Jesus pbuh, with the Holy Spirit. This verse is repeated twice in the Qur’an:
(Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:87, 2:253)
Allah Most High gave to Jesus, the son of Mary revelation which functions as evidence of the truth, and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit.
Who or what is the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit of the Qur’an the same as the Holy Ghost in the Christian belief in a third person in a Divine Trinity?
In the third reference in the Qur’an to the Holy Spirit we are informed that, as a consequence of being strengthened with the Holy Spirit, Jesus was able to perform miracles:
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:110)
Lo! Allah Most High would say: O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember the blessings which I bestowed upon you and your mother—how I strengthened you with Holy Spirit in consequence of which you could speak unto men miraculously while you were a baby in the cradle, and again speak miraculously as a grown man having returned to the material universe after departing more than 2000 years earlier; and how I imparted unto you revelation and wisdom, including the Torah and the Gospel; and how by My leave you created a bird out of clay, and then breathed into it, and by My leave, it miraculously became a living bird; and how you healed the blind by miraculously restoring their sight, and the leper by miraculously curing the leper of his leprosy, and how you raised the dead by My leave . . .
When the Qur’an referred for a fourth and last time to the ‘Holy Spirit’, it finally gave us the means with which to identify him as the Archangel who brought down divine revelation upon Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam:
(Qur’an, al-Nahl, 16:102)
Say: A Holy Spirit has brought the Qur’an down from thy Lord-God by stages, setting forth the truth, so that it might give firmness of resolve, conduct, speech, etc., to those who have faith, and provide guidance and a glad tiding unto all who have surrendered themselves to Allah Most High.
The Qur’an went on to declare that it was the Angel Gabriel pbuh who brought down the divine revelation (i.e., the Qur’an) from Allah Most High:
(Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:97)
Say Oh Prophet: Whosoever is an enemy of Gabriel—who, verily, by Allah’s leave, has brought down upon thy heart this divine writ which confirms the truth of whatever there still remains of earlier revelations, and is a guidance and a glad tiding for the believers.
It is quite clear that when the Qur’an referred to a Ruh al Qudus or Holy Spirit, it was referring to the Archangel Gabriel. This was again made clear when the Qur’an referred to the Ruh coming down on Lailatul Qadr, i.e., the night of power, to perform all errands (assigned to it by Allah Most High):
(Qur’an, al-Qadr, 97:3–4)
The Night of Destiny is better than a thousand months because, among other things, the Angels descend in hosts by Allah’s leave during that night, and so too the Ruh, with all decrees.
But the verse also disclosed that there were those who considered that Archangel to be their enemy. It was of course, the Jews (i.e., the Israelites who rejected Jesus as the Messiah), who considered Gabriel to be their enemy, and it should be obvious that their hatred for Gabriel arose from the fact that he played a crucial role in the test to which they were subjected when the Messiah appeared in the world as the son of a virgin mother,—and it was a test which they failed (this will be explained in greater detail in my next book on Dajjal entitled ‘From Jesus the True Messiah to Dajjal the False Messiah—A Journey in Islamic Eschatology). He also brought down the Qur’an which confirmed and validated that which had previously been revealed to the Israelite people in the Torah and Gospel, and in so doing, exposed whatever had been concealed or corrupted over time.
Perhaps the most glaring example of such corruption of divinely-revealed scripture was the verse of the Torah which permitted money being lent on interest to those who were not Jews, while upholding the prohibition of such transactions with fellow Jews (Deuteronomy, 23:19–20). The Qur’an denounced them for their money-lending (to non-Jews of course) in the strongest language. (See al-Nisa’, 4:161).
And finally, the Angel Gabriel brought the Qur’an down to an Arab (i.e., Prophet Muhammad pbuh) when they, the Jews, believed that only an Israelite could qualify to receive divine revelation since the Israelites believed (falsely so) that they were the chosen people of the Lord Most High to the exclusion of all of the rest of mankind. As a consequence, they hated Angel Gabriel (see Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:97–98).
While it is outside of the scope of this book to examine the hypothesis, it nevertheless remains worthy of study to determine to what extent did Jewish hatred for Gabriel provoke an attack on Christianity which culminated in the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit (i.e., Gabriel) being worshipped as the third person in a divine trinity (i.e., God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost).
More importantly, we must determine whether the Holy Spirit can descend on human beings who are not Jews. If such is possible, it would further expose the falsehood of the Jewish claim to an exclusive status with the Lord-God in which they are recognized as His chosen people.
The Qur’an confirmed that Allah Most High can bless any of His true servants by strengthening him with a Ruh, or spirit, from Him:
(Qur’an, al-Mujadilah, 58:22)
As for the true believers, it is they in whose hearts Allah Most High has inscribed faith, and whom He has strengthened with a Spirit from Himself . . .
(Qur’an, al-Nahl, 16:2)
Allah Most High causes the angels to descend with the Ruh or Spirit which is bestowed at His behest upon whomever He wills of His servants . . .
The Qur’an makes yet another mention of the Ruh which comes down with the Angels on a certain night of the year (i.e., Lailatul Qadr or the night of power) to perform whatever errand is assigned to them. Most commentators of the Qur’an recognize this Ruh who comes down to the believers on that night to be the Ruh al-Qudus or Holy Spirit:
(Qur’an, al-Qadr, 97:4)
The angels and the Spirit descend during that night, by the permission of their Lord, with all decrees.
It was precisely this Ruh al-Qudus which was sent to Mariam ʿalayhi as-salām so that she, who was still a virgin, could miraculously conceive a child. The Ruh, which is an entirely spiritual being, was made to appear before her in the material form of a man:
(Qur’an, Mariam, 19:17)
Mariam, or Mary, kept herself in seclusion from her people, whereupon Allah Most High sent unto her His Ruh, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being.
Our examination of the event of the creation of mankind at the beginning of history has thus allowed us to recognize that all human-beings are divinely-blessed with a Ruh that is breathed into them by the Lord-God Himself, and that selective human beings who have faith in their hearts and whose conduct is righteous can be chosen by Allah Most High, to be blessed to receive a visit from the ‘Holy Spirit’. The beginning of history did not confer on the Jewish people any special Divine status through which they were recognized as a chosen people of the Lord-God to the exclusion of the rest of mankind!
When Allah Most High breathed His Ruh into the human being, He gave to every human being a divine capacity to create. That creative capacity finds concrete expression in man’s creative intellect aided with internal intuitive spiritual insight through which he can forge new knowledge or thought and new ideas with which to extend the frontiers of knowledge. Unless the human mind or intellect flies with the wings of the Ruh it will not be able to penetrate and discover new knowledge in the scriptures—especially the last scripture or the Qur’an, and will not be able to even understand and hence can never respond, to the trials of Dajjal, the false Messiah, or AntiChrist, in Akhir al-Zaman.
In the previous chapter we found nothing in the Qur’an supporting the view that Jews, who claim to be a chosen people of the Lord-God, are the only people into whom a Divine Ruh or spirit was breathed, and hence the only people so honored by the Lord-God and endowed with a Divine capacity to create. Now we find further evidence which exposes as false the Jewish belief that Jews are the chosen people of the Lord-God, since they declare their enmity against Angel Gabriel, who is the Holy Spirit and, as a consequence, have no access to the Holy Spirit.
Allah Most High strengthened Nabi Isa, i.e., Jesus ʿalayhi as-salām with the Holy Spirit, yet the Jews rejected him, and Allah sent the Holy Spirit to his mother Mariam so that she could conceive a baby while yet unmarried and untouched by any man, and the Jews responded by slandering her. Finally Allah sent the Holy Spirit to Nabi Muhammad ʿalayhi as-salām continuously for a period of twenty-three years and sent down upon him, through the Holy Spirit, the blessed Qur’an, and yet the Jews rejected him and rejected the Qur’an. Finally, Nabi Muhammad ʿalayhi as-salām is reported to have invoked the blessing of the Ruh al-Qudus, i.e., the Holy Spirit, on his companion, the poet Hassan ibn Thabit (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daud, and Tirmidhi). Hassan ibn Thabit was an Arab, as was Nabi Muhammad ʿalayhi as-salām, and so they both belonged to that part of mankind whom the Jews refer to as Ummiyun, hence an inferior gentile people. It should be clear from the prayer of the blessed Prophet on behalf of his companion Hassan al-Thabit, that the Prophet, also, rejected the Jewish belief that they were the chosen people of the Lord-God with a birth-right of superiority over the rest of mankind.
It is possible that the Jews knew from their own sources that the Messiah would be empowered with the Holy Spirit and it was for this reason that they posed that question to the Prophet. If this was so then we can expect that Dajjal would have to demonstrate such miraculous powers as would be adequate to convince the Jews that he is indeed empowered by the Holy Spirit. We can therefore look forward to his scientific and technological revolution delivering many more gadgetries than would render even today’s so-called smart phone less than really smart!
