The Qur’an and Internal Sight

 

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

The Qur’an and Internal Sight

 

In the following verses in which the Qur’an directs attention to a fate which can await those who are blind, it is quite obvious that the reference to blindness is not to be understood literally. Rather, the verses of the Qur’an obviously refer to internal blindness:  

(Qur’an, al-An’am, 6:50)

Allah Most High asks whether someone who is blind, can be deemed equal with someone who can see. Obviously, they cannot be equal—hence, will people not think? 

(Qur’an, al-An’am, 6:104)

The Qur’an declares above, that means of insight have now come unto mankind from their Lord-God through this revealed Book. 

 

Whoever, therefore, chooses to ‘see’ and recognize the Truth, does so for his own good; and whoever chooses to remain ‘blind’ to the Truth, does so to his own detriment. And (say unto the blind): I am not your keeper. 

 

(Qur’an, al-An’am, 6:110)

Those who reject this Qur’an will pay a price for that rejection. Allah Most High will keep their hearts and their eyes turned away from the truth, even as they did not believe in it in the first instance; and so they will be left in their overweening arrogance blindly stumbling to and fro. 

 

(Qur’an, al-‘Araf, 7:64)

When his people rejected Noah and Allah Most High responded to punish them, Allah saved him and those who stood by him, in the Ark, then He caused those who had rejected the Truth sent with Noah to drown. The Qur’an then declared that they were a people who were ‘blind’! 

 

(Qur’an, Yunus, 10:43)

Among the people there are those who pretend to look towards the Prophet: but can he show the right way to the ‘blind’—when they are a people who cannot ‘see’? 

 

(Qur’an, Hud, 11:24)

The Qur’an directs attention to two kinds of men who may be likened to the ‘blind’ and ‘deaf’, on the one hand, and the ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’, on the other. Can these two be deemed alike in their nature? Will people not, then, keep this in mind? 

 

(Qur’an, al-R’ad, 13:19)

The Qur’an asks whether one who knows and accepts that whatever has been bestowed from on high upon the Prophet by the Lord-God is the Truth, be deemed equal to one who is ‘blind’? Only they who are endowed with insight keep this in mind. 

 

(Qur’an, al-Isra’, 17:72)

The Qur’an declares that whoever is ‘blind’ in this world will be ‘blind’ in the life to come as well, and still farther astray from the path of truth. 

 

We can now conclude that Dajjal’s capacity to see with his left eye, and his blindness in his right eye, ought to be recognized as information that is Mutashabihah, i.e., allegorical, and hence subject to Ta’wil, or interpretation. Our interpretation of the description given by Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam is that Dajjal has external sight, but he is internally blind!   

 

There is an ominous implication which follows from the above interpretation. All those from amongst mankind who follow Dajjal will all eventually be similar to him, i.e., internally blind; and since he has the word Kafir or ‘disbeliever’ written on his forehead, the further implication is that all those who follow him would become Kuffar (plural of Kafir) or ‘disbelievers’, and thus be debarred from entering into Jannah or paradise.

 

It is, perhaps, because of this implication that the Qur’an has delivered a truly ominous warning to those who remain internally blind, that the hellfire can await them, since Dajjal can get them to dance to every tune he plays:

 

(Qur’an, al-‘Araf, 7:179)

Allah Most High has warned that huge numbers of Jinn and men who have hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth, ‘eyes’ with which they fail to ‘see’, and ‘ears’ with which they fail to ‘hear’, are destined to enter the Hell-fire. He considers them to have a status like unto cattle—nay, they are even less conscious of the right way: it is they, they who are the truly heedless! 

 

Protestant Islam, which seems, mysteriously so, to be a carbon-copy of Protestant Christianity, may remain unconvinced by our argument in favor of an interpretation that Dajjal’s blind eye should be interpreted to mean internal blindness, and may consequently remain steadfastly adamant in their literal understanding of his ‘blind’ right eye. Such a people would obviously refuse to recognize Dajjal when he eventually appears in Jerusalem with the claim to be the Messiah, unless he is literally blind in the right eye.

 

Protestant Islam should reflect over the mysterious incapacity of all disbelievers, regardless of how perfect their eyesight may be, to be able to read what all believers would be able to read, namely the word Kafir which would be written between Dajjal’s eyes—on his forehead! Such die-hards, who cling to a literal understanding of Dajjal’s blind right eye, and to the word Kafir written on his forehead, must explain to us why the Prophet singled out the Mu’min, i.e., believer, and hence excluded the Kafir, i.e., disbeliever, when he declared that the believer would be able to read what was written on Dajjal’s forehead? Why can the believer read what the disbeliever cannot read? Protestant Islam must either deliver an answer which is convincing, or abandon its defective methodology.

 

Indeed, unless they change their defective methodology they will never be able to explain why Tamim al-Dari, who saw Dajjal (who is so blind in his right eye that it looks like a bulging grape), failed to mention anything about his blind right eye when he reported the event to the Prophet: 

 

It was narrated that Fatimah bint Qays (may Allah be pleased with her) said:  .  .  . (what follows are the words spoken by Tamim al-Dari) ... Then we set off, rushing, until we came to that monastery, where we found the hugest man, we had ever seen, bound strongly in chains with his hands tied to his neck and his legs bound from the knees to the ankles with iron shackles ...  (Sahih al-Bukhari)

 

Protestant Islam has an even greater obstacle to overcome when they attempt to offer a credible explanation how Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam could suspect Ibn Sayyad, a Jewish youth in Medina, to be Dajjal, when he was not blind in the right eye? 

 

While the above exhausts our physical description of Dajjal, the false Messiah, derived from a literal understanding of scriptural texts in Islam, there is more information concerning Dajjal’s unique profile which can be discovered through a process of deduction from those texts; and it is to that process of deduction that we now direct attention.

 

Source

The Complexity of the Subject—Dajjal is One-Eyed

 

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

The Complexity of the Subject—Dajjal is One-Eyed

 

While it is true that Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam did declare that there would be many Dajjal’s who would appear in the world as liars (he said they would number close to thirty) before the appearance of al-Masih al-Dajjal himself (Ref. Sunan Tirmidhi, Sahih Muslim, etc.), it remains true that he did deliver a basic Prophetic description of al-Masih al-Dajjal as a Jew, a young man who would be powerfully built and who would have the curls required by the law of the Torah, etc. This book has already argued that the above description has to be understood literally. The complexity of this subject becomes apparent when we now proceed to argue that a further part of the description of the Anti-Christ or Dajjal, given by the Prophet, cannot be understood literally but, rather, must be interpreted in order to be understood. Indeed, the Christian or Jewish reader would readily show understanding when told that a significant amount of information in the religion of Islam concerning the Anti-Christ or false Messiah, is presented in language that is allegorical and symbolic. Indeed this is true for the most important Hadith of all, concerning Dajjal. Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam said:

 

Abdullah ibn 'Umar said: .  .  .  .  The Messenger of Allah then stood up in front of the people, praised Allah with words worthy of Him and then he mentioned Dajjal and said: I warn you about him, and there is no Prophet who has not warned his people about him. Noah warned his people about him. But I will say to you something about him that no Prophet has ever said to his people. You should know that he is one-eyed, and Allah is not one-eyed. (Sahih Bukhari) 

 

(The Prophet warned) Oh people, be firm! I describe him, i.e., Dajjal, to you as no Prophet before me ever did. He will commence by declaring: “I am a Prophet”, but there will be no Prophet after me (hence he will lie). Then he will praise himself and declare “I am your Lord-God”, but you will not see your Lord-God until you die. And (in addition) he is one-eyed, and your Lord-God is not one-eyed. And between his eyes is written (the word) KAFIR, i.e., disbeliever, which every believer (who has faith in his heart) will be able to read—whether he be literate or illiterate. (Sunan Ibn Majah)

 

In another Hadith recorded in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet declared that Dajjal sees with one eye—the left eye, and that he is so blind in the right eye; that it looks like a bulging grape.

 

In yet another Hadith, also recorded in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet again made mention of Dajjal’s blind right eye:

While sleeping near the Ka’aba last night, I saw in my dream a  man of brown color, the best one can see amongst brown color and his hair was long that it fell between his shoulders. His hair was lank and water was dribbling from his head and he was placing his hands on the shoulders of two men while circumambulating the Ka`aba. I asked, Who is this? They replied: This is Jesus, son of Mary. Behind him I saw a man who had very curly hair and was blind in the right eye, resembling Ibn Qatan, i.e. an infidel, in appearance. He was placing his hands on the shoulders of a person while performing Tawaf around the Ka`aba. I asked: Who is this? They replied, al-Masih al-Dajjal.

 

How can it be possible for someone who has ‘faith’, but is ‘illiterate’, to be able to read what is written between the eyes— on the forehead of the Anti-Christ? Our response is that such would be impossible if we were to understand the act of reading literally. As soon as we dismiss a literal understanding, and we turn consequently to search for an interpretation, it becomes readily apparent that the illiterate believer would have the capacity to read because he would be reading with ‘eyes’ other than those located on the face. The epistemology of the Qur’an, like that of all other divinely-revealed scriptures, recognizes that the heart can see. In other words, human beings have a capacity for internal sight, i.e., in addition to external sight. It is with internal sight therefore, that the illiterate believer would be able to read what is written on the forehead of the Anti-Christ.

Source

The Way to Salvation - TRUTH MEANINGS

TRUTH

He will not rest content merely with his own love of the truth but rather will also wish to see the whole world adhering to it. Wherever he sees the truth trampled upon and falsehood triumphant, he will be moved tremendously, and try to persuade his fellows to support the truth. This defense of his convictions is a natural and essential consequence of his own sentiment. Therefore, Allah has here mentioned ‘twasi’ (mutual exhortation) as an implication of ‘amal-i-saleh’ (righteous deed). 

Maulana Farahi has thus explained the literal meaning of the word ‘Truth’ or (Haqq):

Truth, though originally it signified anything existent, stable, and fixed , in actual usage has acquired a variety of meanings. It is generally used to mean the following three:

1. Anything the existence or occurrence of which is absolutely sure.
2. Anything rationally proved and accepted.
3. Any moral obligation.

This amply shows that the expression ‘twasi bil-haqq’ (mutual exhortation to truth) covers a wide range of activities starting from the teaching of minor moral duties and the self-evident principles of reason and established facts of the universe, to the highest and most esteemed activity, the propagation and establishment of the religion of truth (Din-aI-Haqq) which Allah (SWT) revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Maulana Farahi expressed this very explicitly in a passage:

“This brings out clearly the truth that it is incumbent on Muslims to do righteous deeds in order to fulfill their obligations (to the Almighty). This fulfillment further necessitates that they help each other in executing their religious and moral duties. Since execution of all the duties and obligations laid down by Allah (SWT) is not possible without ‘Khilafat’ (Islamic Government and justice), it is imperative that they strive to establish it”

Now only one step remains to be explored, that mutual exhortation to truth (twasi-bil-haqq) necessarily implies mutual exhortation to constancy (twasi bis-sabr). Self-restraint and constancy is required even in one’s own firm adherence to truth simply because one must exercise self-control in the face of a great many temptations, must curb his sensual appetites, and must face scores of painful disappointments and impediments. At the stage of mutual exhortation to truth (twasi-bil-haqq) much bigger trials of patience and resolution become inevitable. It is a matter of common observation that at times even propagating a minor truth puts a man to severe tests of endurance. Sticking to a right policy is sometimes as difficult as trial by fire.

History is replete with instances of torture and wanton injuries inflicted on champions of moral truths. Proclamation and dissemination of the basic truth of man’s life and obligation to God may well require proportionately greater ordeals and suffering. If an attempt is made to call all people to the fulfillment of their religious obligations and the establishment of an equitable and just order, severest opposition is sure to follow. 

Any one may try it for himself. He needs only start by advising people to perform ordinary and simple moral actions, and soon they will frown and become furious. Let him try to persuade somebody who has forcefully usurped the property of a poor man to give the man his due and he will see how great a resentment he must face. Let him just utter a word in support of someone oppressed, and in no time the tyrant becomes his deadly enemy. It should not take much thought to realize that demanding the fulfillment of one’s total moral obligations, fighting for an entire system of social justice and equity, and calling to the whole of ‘Din-al-Haqq’ (the true religion) can never be possible without utmost hostility and opposition.

Source: The Way to Salvation (Book by Dr Israr Ahmed)