Whilst Gog and Magog are mentioned twice in the Qur'an, the Dajjal has no direct mention. This is extraordinary, given the assertion of the prophet, peace be upon him, that there is no more significant matter between the creation of Adam and the last hour than the Dajjal.
People reading or listening to traditional descriptions of Dajjal, the anti-Christ, may be forgiven for considering him to be a character of fiction. He is of an enormous size, travels at the speed of the clouds blown by the wind on a donkey, the distance between his ears being 40 arm spans, the deep sea only reaches up to his ankle, he has with him a mountain of bread and rivers, and works amazing miracles. He has been around since the prophet's days, tied in iron chains on an island in the sea which is populated by spies. When he is let loose, time will become short and the ground will shrink.
This myth of a giant, however, is probably the reason that so many ahadith about him survived to the present day. Acquainted with the workings of modern technology, we are able to appreciate that the abilities of this superhuman creature are due to the equipment at his disposal. We have witnessed car and plane travel, we see images from across the world beamed into our living rooms via television, we use mobile telephones to keep in touch with people in the remotest corners of the world. We can understand how somebody can be in many places at once, listen to what happens at different locations in the earth, travel at speed and show us water you cannot taste and fire that does not burn you. To people before us, anybody accomplishing such tasks, must have been a magical being. Our unforgivable mistake is, that we love to hold on to the magic like a fairy tale from childhood which we can't let go of.
If we are talking about Dajjal, representing a system of disbelief clearly visible to anybody as such, be he literate or not, irrespective of the fact that it is being proclaimed in the name of trinitarian Christianity, then this Dajjal is alive and kicking amongst us, no longer tied down since he mastered the art of using iron, throwing off his chains and restrictions, making everything fancy from computer hardware to destructive weapons. He is one-eyed, materialistic, deprived of spirituality, his promised paradise is hell and his hell is paradise, and he is followed by an army of Jews, women and bedouins. He controls the resources of the world through his interest banking system, and has indeed mountains of bread, and people will suffer hunger unless they follow him. Whilst the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, would have argued with him on our behalf, were he still around, now everybody will have to argue with him on his own behalf.
Yet, Dajjal, the system, is not sufficient an explanation for all the descriptions given of him in the prophetic traditions. Many of them speak of Dajjal as an ordinary, short man of Jewish extraction (like Ibn Sayyad), with curly and coarse hair and a beak of a nose, and biting teeth. He commands armies and, ultimately, he will be slain. Dajjal the person is the leader who will ultimately lead the forces of evil on this earth, the system of Dajjal. He belongs to the one-world government of the brutish ruler of the empire succeeding the Romans, he will desire Madinah, but it will be out of reach for him. He will land at a place near Madinah, to the east, which could well be Kuwait, but he will be diverted north, to the region of al-Sham, that is Syria, (or possibly Iraq?) where he will be destroyed. He will emerge after fierce battles As-Sufyani (the Brute) will have with the Muslims, marked by hitherto unknown destructiveness. The fight will be over mountains of (black) gold near the Euphrates. The Muslims will be the loosers, but those who are sincere amongst them will eventually unite under the banner of al-Mahdi who will come from Madinah and will be given allegiance in Makkah, although he'd rather escape that responsibility, which rules out any of those who wish to be known as candidates for being the Mahdi. Finally, 'Isa bin Maryam, the real Christ, will return and put an end to Dajjal and his machinations.
Muslims should take the warnings about the Dajjal seriously. We should watch the "peace process" in Palestine and the military intimidation in Arabia with close concern. A shift to unified world government (under American UN leadership directed from Tel Aviv) might not be too far off any more. Bar coding, cable and satellite communications, computer networking, international monetary control, and endless other innovations of our times have put almost complete control at the disposal of the future head of the Dajjal system. Scientists still try to master the art of thought reading and mind control, but even without those techniques the word freedom has a more and more hollow sound. The fiction of Orwell's 1984 has long since been outdone by the facts. Soon this new Messiah will draw people around the globe into a mass hypnosis for his latest fashion new age cult. We must retain our critical faculties, and as always with dissent, in a dictatorial system, there is a price to be paid. Patiently holding on to one's beliefs, and acting upon them, will be like holding a burning coal in one's hands. Yet, this is bliss, as not to do so and to acquiesce into injustice and oppression out of fear of falling into the hell the Dajjal has in store for his opponents, means to deny the truth, belie humanity, and earn eternal condemnation. Worse still, to be so busy in petty pursuits and endless squabbles amongst each other, that we fail to notice altogether that we are being taken for a ride.
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