Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake.
Answering your question, Dr. Mohammad S. Alrahawan, Associate Professor at the department of Islamic Studies in English, Al-Azhar University, Egypt, states:
There are certain rules on how to deal with apocalypse (end of the world) from an Islamic perspective. We only receive information on the trials, tribulations and the end of the world through our reliable sources i.e. the Qur’an and authentic sayings of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
Moreover, we cannot apply a certain report of the Prophet (peace be upon him) on a specific case, issue or an event by stating that such a hadith is ramified in such a certain event.
The Prophet gave us general outlines and descriptions which may be fitting for different events in different areas at different times.
Neither the Prophet nor his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) have given definite events as real manifestations of a prophecy mentioned in the Qur’an or the Hadith unless it has been specified clearly and unequivocally in these sources.
Moreover, as Muslims we are presumed to prevent fitan and block all means leading to their emergence. We are not supposed to wait for trials and tribulations or spread their reports to spread frustration and dissension in the Muslim ummah.
The Prophet informed his ummah on those trials and tribulations in order to be aware of them and to deal with them properly.
Therefore, what the author of An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern Age is not correct.
He concluded that:
“Gog and Magog are present in both the Anglo-American-Israeli and the Russian-led alliances, and are leading them both to a mighty clash that will result in their mutual destruction as super-powers. However, it is important to note that Gog and Magog will survive that clash and will then use their power to so empower Israel that Israel can be firmly established as the ruling State in the world…”
His statement is criticized in many ways:
1- There are many violations and misinterpretations of reliable and authentic traditions of the Prophet. According to the report of Hudhayfah which was related by Abu Dawud:
We were sitting in the shade of the chamber of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) discussing (something) and when we mentioned the last hour, our voices rose high. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: The last hour will not come or happen until there appear ten signs before it: the rising of the sun in its place of setting, the coming forth of the beast, the coming forth of Gog and Magog, the Dajjal (Antichrist), (the descent of) Jesus son of Mary, the smoke, and three collapses of the earth: one in the west, one in the east, and one in the Arabian Peninsula. The last of that will be the emergence of a fire from Yemen, from the lowest part of Aden, and drive mankind to their place of assembly.” (Abu Dawud, it has been graded by Sheikh Al-Albani as authentic.)
This hadith did not provide definite chronological sequence of those major sings of the Last Day, but the report related by Muslim gives an indication on when Gog and Magog are going to appear, “Every disbeliever who will find his (i.e., `Isa’s) smell will die and his smell will reach as far as he will be able to see. He will then search for Dajjal until he will catch hold of him at the gate of Ludd (village near Jerusalem), and will kill him. Then the people, whom Allah will have protected, will come to `Isa son of Maryam, and he will wipe their faces and will inform them of their ranks in Jannah, and it will be under such conditions that Allah will reveal to `Isa these words: `I have brought forth from amongst my slaves such people against whom none will be able to fight, so take these people safely to the mountain.’ And then Allah will send Ya’juj and Ma’juj (Gog and Magog people) and they will sworn down from every slope.”
This report maintains that Gog and Magog will appear after the return of Jesus and the killing of the Anti Christ. The text of this hadith contradicts what the author of An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern Age claims.
The descriptions that prophetic hadith gave about Gog and Magog are totally different from Anglo Americans and Russians.
The Prophet said, “Allah will send Gog and Magog and they will sworn down from every slope. The first of them will pass the Lake Tabariyah [near the Dead Sea in Palestine] and drink all its water. And when the last of them will pass, he will say: `There was once water there.’ Prophet `Isa (peace be upon him) and his companions will then be so much hard-pressed that the head of an ox will be dearer to them than one hundred dinar, and `Isa along with his companions, will make supplication to Allah, Who will send insects which will attack their (Gog and Magog people) neck until they all will perish like a single person.” (Muslim)
Those symbolic interpretations about Gog and Magog cannot be accepted because the general rule which is admitted by the massive majority of Muslim scholars of Usul al-Fiqh (methodology of eliciting legal rulings from their respective sources) is that the literal and primary meaning of a text takes precedence when it contradicts a metaphorical interpretation. Recourse to the metaphorical interpretation is only guaranteed when there is a textual or a contextual clue that may tolerate migrating the primary meaning. The interpretations provided by the author of An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern Age are symbolic and remote. It does not have any precedent or reference from early or modern scholars of Islam. They are not even compatible with primary meanings or indications of the Arabic language.
The author of An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern Age articulated many statements about the companions of the Prophet, Shi`ah, and doubting the authenticity of some reliable traditions in Al-Bukhari and Muslim. For many other reasons, we should confirm that many of his views and interpretations do not go with mainstream understanding of the Qur’an and Hadith.
Allah Almighty knows best.