Dajjal and the destiny of Jerusalem

 

Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the Qur’an and the Beginning of History

Dajjal and the destiny of Jerusalem

Let us now return to Israel and the Balfour Declaration before we conclude. It would not be justified to conclude this essay without including Dajjal and his role towards the end of history. This verse of Surah al-Maidah is certainly linked strongly to Dajjal’s role in impersonating the Messiah when he comes into our dimension of existence, primarily because of what we have witnessed of events unfolding in the last hundred years. 

 

In order for Dajjal to successfully deceive the world into believing in him as the Messiah who would, according to scriptural basis, rule the world from the throne of Nabi Daud ʿalayhi as-salām in Jerusalem, he would have to do a number of things:

 

1. Liberate the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

2. Establish the state and consequently kingdom of Israel.

3. Raise that power to the ruling state in the world. 

4. Then appear and sit on the throne and declare that he is the prophesied Messiah and that the throne of David has returned. 

 

Now, it is impossible for anyone to deny that it was precisely this Judeo-Christian alliance that we have discussed so far, that has successfully fulfilled numbers one and two above. If Dajjal is to come and declare himself the Messiah, that cannot happen unless number three too comes to pass. It therefore only remains for us to witness Israel taking over from the United States of America as the ruling state in the world. Whether India or China becomes the ruling the state in the world as it has been of much debate, cannot be the concern of those who study the modern world using the Qur’an. It is Israel that we would have to pay particular attention to. 

 

More than two thousand years after Allah, Most Majestic is He, expelled the Jews from the Holy Land for the crime they committed against His Messenger, Nabi ‘Isa ʿalayhi as-salām, they returned to the Holy Land gradually over a matter of about three decades to reclaim it as their own. This occurred between the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947. The reference to this has been mentioned in the Qur’an in the 91st and 92nd verses of Surah al-Anbiyah, where Allah laid down clearly that it would be the function of Gog and Magog to cause the Jews to return to the Holy Land. From the testimony of history, what we witnessed in the world from 1917–47, it is clear that those who facilitated the return of the Jews to the Holy Land were precisely those very same Jews and Christians who allied amongst themselves in the very beginning effort of the First Crusades. Though they were not successful then, they eventually became successful in 1947. It should therefore be established from the clear and distinct link between the two verses (95 and 96) of Surah al-Anbiyah and the 51st verse of Surah al-Maidah that Gog Magog is located in the very Judeo-Christian alliance that  would cause the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and who would, as we witness clearly unfolding now before our very eyes—for those who have eyes to read the modern world using the Qur’an—raise that state of Israel to become the ruling state in the world for Dajjal to finally appear in our dimension of existence and declare himself the King of the Jews, the Promised Messiah.  

 

If we fail to grasp the meaning behind the 51st verse of Surah al-Maidah to be the very description of Gog and Magog, then we will remain blind to Allah’s warning in the Qur’an not to take them, this particular Judeo-Christian alliance, or in other words Gog and Magog as our Awliya. We will never understand who Gog and Magog are and we will never understand that after all that have already unfolded in the political world today, what remains is only Israel’s rise to become the ruling state in the world. We will never understand that it is this Judeo-Christian alliance, in whose ranks will be Dajjal’s foot soldiers.     

 

Conclusion 

The problem with modern Islamic scholarship generally is that anything new that comes out from a credible scholar is rejected on the grounds that scholars of the past did not hold such views. This is what may be called religious conservatism. Secondly, anything new that comes out from a credible scholar is rejected on the grounds that it contradicts the scholars of the past, while it actually may not. Why should it not be taken as something that adds on new knowledge to the scholarship of  the past? 

 

The essential question now is: Are we going to understand and attempt to explain the modern world using the Qur’an or remain in the dark of what has happened in history and what is to unfold tomorrow because of our holding on obdurately to what the noble scholars of Islam had written down in the past, without allowing ourselves any room to think things through? Consequently, we should also ask: Does the Qur’an prohibit us from doing that? 

 

We cannot afford to reserve knowledge of Allah’s Book, Most Wise is He, to the noble scholars of the past. They could not have seen what would unfold in the years 1917–47 for example, simply because it did not happen in their time. Prof. Hamka saw what happened in his time and gave new meaning to the verse of Surah al-Maidah according to what he saw. He did not put a full stop to the meanings of the verse there. Similarly Maulana Hosein has explained the same verse in a better light now about four decades after Prof. Hamka, quite simply because he was able to read all the world events that occurred thereafter using the Qur’an.  

 

Let us now read Maulana Hosein’s translation of the verse again after having gone through all of the analysis above that has led us to where we are now: 

O you who have faith, do not take (such) Jews and (such) Christians as your Awliya (friends and allies) who (themselves) are Awliya (friends and allies) of each other. And whoever amongst you turn to them for friendship and alliance, would belong to them (and therefore not to us). Surely Allah does not provide guidance to a people who commit Dhulm. 

 

This therefore is a modern attempt to translate the verse in as coherent as possible a manner to all the other verses mentioned above in our analysis that it would otherwise clearly contradict. This translation explains our times; it explains Akhir al-Zaman. It is further an attempt to be as coherent as possible to the trails of history. It is also a credible attempt of a scholar of integrity and age who found it necessary to add on to the meanings of the verse that the noble scholars of the past had explained and interpreted. Lastly it must be noted that the Maulana’s intention, as some would wrongly have it so, is not to contradict the scholarship of the past. This does not contradict previous explanations provided by the noble scholars of the past; it does not nullify all other explanations of the verse that have been given before. It has rather added on to them.  

 

Maulana Hosein’s interpretation of the verse broadens what is being misinterpreted as a moral alliance—in itself ambiguous—to political, economic and military dimensions; it also explains the times we are living in and clarifies the prohibition in our times violating which has caused in the Muslim world all the innumerable consequences of taking part in the Dzulm (wrongdoing, oppression and injustice) of the oppressor. Saudi Arabia’s, Morocco’s and Turkey’s alliance with NATO are clear examples of this. This is clearly not a contradiction of the scholarly work of the past but an expansion of the meanings of the Qur’an, most importantly from an eschatological perspective.

 

Lastly, when we bring to mind the meaning of Barakah in the Qur’an, that the Qur’an explains all times and that the Qur’an offers new and fresh knowledge in every age, we would not look at Maulana Hosein’s explanation of the verse as something which contradicts the previous classical commentaries to the Qur’an. We would only look at it with gratitude that a Muslim scholar, ripe of age, knowledge and experience, has added on fresh knowledge to the meanings of Allah’s Kalam.  

 

It now suffices to conclude that modern global events that occurred in the last hundred years have demanded this interpretation to come out from the Qur’an and it had to be Maulana Hosein whom Allah, Most High, had chosen to bring this forward to those who would now turn to the Qur’an to understand the ominous events unfolding in our world before our eyes, especially in the Holy Land. This has only given a new direction and meaning to the application of this verse in these times, especially now that we are living in an important phase of Akhir al-Zaman.

 

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Does the Qur’an explain the world today?

 

Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the Qur’an and the Beginning of History

Does the Qur’an explain the world today?

Let us now return to answer the question: What exactly is it regarding the modern world situation that Muslim scholars trapped in religious conservatism fail to explain using the Qur’an?   

 

In attempting to understand the modern world using the Book of Allah, Most Wise, one must have a grasp over the trails of history that has built up to the present world situation. If one has no idea of the modern world and where it is leading, one cannot turn to the Qur’an to take fresh knowledge from it. The opposite is also true. If one does not turn to the Qur’an to understand the modern world and take heed and warning on what is unfolding today and what is to come tomorrow, one will remain in the dark concerning them. All of this is to understand the modern world accurately and respond to it appropriately. 

 

With that light, we must first remember that we are now looking at the Judeo-Christian world. There is a faction within this community of Jews and Christians who are waging war on Islam and there is another faction amongst them who have defied the former and have refused to join them in their hegemonic rule, and as a consequence have been subjected to economic and political victimization. In the words of German legalist, Carl Schmitt, there is no justishostis in the world today. In other words, for those who rule the world today there is no tolerable enemy; the enemy has no right to exist; he must be demonized and depoliticized; he must be eliminated. Amongst those who are subjected to such victimization, are Christians and Jews too. Not all Christians and all Jews are hellbent on a hegemonic control over the world. Here is where we have to ask an important question: If Allah, Most Wise, has prohibited believers from taking as their Awliya all Jews and all Christians, and even if this prohibition is conditional on the count that this refers only to those who are hostile to Islam and the Muslims, then how do we deal with those Jews and Christians who not only defy the perpetrators of this political and economic bullying, but who are similarly victimized together with the Muslims and who have willingly opened their doors to Islam and the Muslims?  What will be our (Muslim) communal relationship with such people?  

 

The perfect example of this happened in the very blessed lifetime of Rasulullah ʿalayhi as-salām in the case of the Christian King, Najjashi, of Abyssinia. He was not part of the Qurayshi and Jewish hostility against Islam and the Muslims; he further offered his territory as a place of asylum that the Muslims could seek refuge in, and he finally defied the serpentine negotiations from the part of the Quraysh to hand over the Muslims to them. He continued to protect them until he died, long after the 51^st verse of Surah al-Maidah was revealed. The Messenger of Allah, ʿalayhi as-salām, went to the extent of accepting him as a believer and offered the Salat al-Janazah for him from Madina when the King passed away in Abyssinia. The most important point to note here is that when this verse of the Qur’an was revealed, the Prophet ʿalayhi as-salām did not demand the Muslims to give up the asylum they had sought in Abyssinia, which means to give up the Wilayah under Christian Abyssinia, and return to Madina. If what was meant in this verse is referring to all Jews and all Christians, the Prophet ʿalayhi as-salām would have called the Muslims to give up their homes in Abyssinia and return to Madina. But Sayyiduna Ja’far, one of the most beloved companions of the Prophet ʿalayhi as-salām continued to remain in Abyssinia until just before the war of Mu’tah, which occurred more than five years after this verse was revealed.  

 

Who are these people who have imposed their hegemony over the rest of the world? They are surely Christians and Jews who were themselves never allies of each other; they are Christians and Jews whose alliance in the trails of history commenced with their joint political and military objective to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim rule.  

 

In fact, the story could begin as early as the first Crusades in which a Euro-Christian world was funded by Jews to gather enough military strength to conquer the Holy Land—Jerusalem—and establish a Jewish national home there. They did not succeed but briefly until Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi courageously and brilliantly wrested control of Jerusalem again. It is significant to register into our study the fact that while Europe in her Judeo-Christian effort fought wars with the Muslim world to conquer Jerusalem, they similarly perpetrated such abominable crimes on Eastern Orthodox Christians, who were part of the kingdom of Constantinople, that it would be utterly unjust on our part to include the victims of that crime in the same Judeo-Christian alliance that commenced a hostile religious struggle against the Muslims and Muslim lands. In fact the story could even begin with the Khazars—also known today as the thirteenth tribe of the Jews—who embraced Judaism overnight when they clinically surveyed the world for a religion to embrace. Or, we could come down in history to a later time when soon after colonialism and mercantilism had ravaged Muslim lands by a forceful storm as it were and replaced their rule, when they left the lands in the hands of the people, with what we today call the secular nation-state. These colonial powers were made up of the same Judeo-Christian alliance that commenced the Crusades.   

 

However, such a historical narration would require another separate book to be written. What would suffice here is to look merely at what happened to Jerusalem—the blessed land where the three Abrahamic faiths had existed under Muslim rule for thirteen centuries—within the last hundred years. 

 

When Fir’aun’s body was discovered, something strange occurred in history that appeared to reveal the real intention behind the Zionist struggle to discover the body during the desperate excavation projects in Egypt. Some 30,000 Jews migrated to Jerusalem as a direct consequence of the discovery. During these migrations, the Zionist movement was legally established and launched. Within two decades came the Balfour declaration—1917—which promised the Jews an independent national home in Palestine. Those who did so were part of the same Christian world that had commenced the Crusades with the same objective. It was Britain; Christian Britain. America and Europe hopped onto the wagon and constituted a joint alliance with their Jewish funders who were primarily European Jews. By this time, the hatred the Christians had for the Jews had already been done away with. The Ottoman Empire was dismantled; the backbone of Christian Russia—or the Third Rome—was similarly broken and replaced with Communism.  

 

It was this very same alliance that mysteriously shook hands with Joseph Stalin, the Jew, just before the commencement of the Cold War (in fact, even Lenin and Trotsky, who were as Jew as Stalin, themselves originated from the same ranks). At that moment, just when the Cold War commenced, the Jewish state of Israel was established and their independence declared as a follow up and success of the Balfour Declaration. That Cold War was a sham because those who were leading it were only two factions within the same ranks of Gog and Magog who liberated the Holy Land from Muslim rule, who shook hands when they wanted to and had no qualms about fighting each other like waves crashing onto each other when they deemed it necessary. In fact, they only threatened to crash but never did. Only that some men of admirable courage like Fidel Castro were unfortunately caught in between. 

 

During the Cold War, the secular nation-state of Israel rose to power in the region and being armed to the teeth, ready for a display of her military strength was further supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was already established by that time as a response to the Cold War sham. Then Pope Paulus VI declared a religio-political forgiveness for the Jews from the part of the Catholic world, as Prof. Hamka pointed out in his Tafsir to the Quranic verse in discussion, thereby cementing the alliance further. The Protestants had no objection to it. They shook hands again. It was at this time that the Six-Day War commenced as a demonstration of the power that Israel—not baby Israel anymore—possessed.  

 

The persecuted Orthodox Christians and the persecuted Orthodox Jews never joined this American-Euro-Israeli alliance. They were victimized as much as they were during the Crusades, and the victimization of them continued until recently when they were challenged by the nuclear, economic, political and military power that energy-rich Russia and her allies possess.  

 

Here it is necessary to point out that a spilt occurred in the Christian world that drew a line between Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, and it requires experts in the history of Christian polity, beyond the scope of this essay, to explain why geography had a part to play in this, so much so that Catholicism and Protestantism belonged to the geographical West and Orthodox Christianity belonged to the geographical East. African Christianity that always maintained friendly ties with the Muslim world was hijacked by this Western Christianity in the last hundred years, so much so that today we find brutal wars between Christians and Muslims in Africa utterly unbefitting African history. These conflicts are funded, fuelled and even fanned by NATO in maintaining their strategic hegemony over the natural resources and lands of Africa, and that is population control too by implication. These forces are the same that belong to the ranks of the American-Euro-Israeli alliance.    

 

For a complete study of the split that occurred in the Christian world, please refer to Graham E. Fuller’s, A World Without Islam, which explains the subject in a succinct manner. Russia and the world of Orthodox Christianity are not on the side of that Judeo-Christian alliance, which gave to Israel her secular nation-state. 

 

A new Cold War commenced with the Iraq War in the year 2003. Russia and her allies have ever since been treated like an untrustworthy and unwanted power in the United Nations who is the only other power capable of challenging the American-Euro-Israeli hegemony. The American-Euro-Israeli alliance has not been able to deal with Russia and her allies the way they would have wanted to. Furthermore, Russia and her allies today, since after the commencement of the Iraq War in 2003, have proven to be an ally that Muslims can turn to in these times, especially after Russia intervened in Syria and turned the tables. 

 

Today fourteen years have passed after the Iraq War commenced. Fourteen years is enough time to test the waters for an effective political ally in challenging the political crimes that have been visited on the Muslims for a hundred years now. Those who are lusting to control the Levant today are biting their fingers in frustration because of a Sino-Russian political, economic and military presence in the region. They cannot anymore conduct their regime change activities in Syria without suffering serious consequences to their power. The balance of power has already tilted. 

 

That means, we cannot anymore hold on to the view that the 51st verse of Surah al-Maidah is referring to all Jews and all Christians. Those who say such a thing will have to remain politically and historically uneducated for as long as they continue to say so. They cannot then say that Allah, Most High, said so and hide behind the Qur’an for prohibiting them from doing so, let alone putting the blame on Allah Almighty Himself. This ignorance of history, especially the political history of the  world, even the political history of the first community of Madina al-Munawwarah, must be attributed to their own incompetency, at least academic incompetency if not incompetency in the capacity to think. Muslim scholarship in our days has failed in this regard and has no solution to the political problems of the Muslim world today. However, this meaning that Maulana Hosein has given to the verse is not merely due to giving a solution to the political problems of the world today. It is in fact the only way to be coherent in our approach to the Qur’an as a whole, to history and to the modern world situation. This is to understand the world accurately and to respond to challenges appropriately.  

 

As for now, what we see in the world today is that America and her pool of allies dominate political and economic control over the world. America remains the ruling state in the world, and that means she has the capacity to defy any other political challenger. Israel on the other hand, has risen to a nuclear power capable of waging war against any other state; she defies her very protectors—the United Nations Security Council, Britain and America and many other states in Europe. She is poised to become the ruling state in the world. 

 

It is this verse in Surah al-Maidah that explains the powers that dominate the world today. It is precisely this political alliance that comprises of a mysterious Western Judeo-Christian pool of hell-bent perpetrators of Fasad in the lands and in particular the Holy Land, including the Muslim world, that Allah, Most Wise, has referred to here. These are those who have allied amongst themselves,  while having been enemies in all of history before, to facilitate for something more  ominous to yet unfold in the Holy Land not long from now. If we understand this verse to mean all Jews and all Christians, then we will never be able to explain the contradictions it will create with the rest of the Qur’an; the political turmoil that the unsuspecting populations of the world is being churned in today; we will never understand the new Cold War that is unfolding before our very eyes; we will never understand and be able to explain history; we will never understand what is happening in the Holy Land after two thousand years. Most importantly we will never be able to understand this mysterious Judeo-Christian alliance that controls the world today. This alliance will then remain forever a mystery to us. This verse in Surah al-Maidah is the most important verse that explains all of this.  

 

This verse in Surah al-Maidah is the most important verse that explains what Allah, Most High, has mentioned in the opening verses of Surah al-Rum (31). He said that Rome will be victorious and “on that day, the believers will rejoice.” Why would a Roman victory against her enemies be a reason for Muslims to rejoice? Why would Muslims rejoice over a Christian victory if Allah has forbidden Muslims to enter into any kind of alliance with all Jews and all Christians? It is this verse in Surah al-Maidah that explains which part of the Judeo-Christian world we are allowed to enter into an alliance with and which part of that same Judeo-Christian world we are prohibited from allying with. This verse does describe to us in parallel which part of the Christian world will be closest in faith to the Muslims mentioned in verse 82 of the same Surah al-Maidah.   

 

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