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.
