Gog and Magog were no mysterious community —
‘they were men’ just like anyone else. In ancient times, due to
the widespread paucity of economic resources, banditry and
violence as a means of survival became rife. Even in Arabia there
were such people, known as Sa‘ali-kul-Arab, (Arab dacoits) and
Gog and Magog initially belonged to one such group.
The wall of Gog and Magog
I
N A TRADITION
of the Prophet, we find a reference to the mighty
wall that had acted as a barrier between Gog and Magog and the
rest of humanity finally giving way, thus giving them the
opportunity to wreak havoc on the world at large.
According to this tradition, during the period when Makkah
had been conquered and idolatry had been wiped out from
Arabia, the Prophet, then living at Madina, had a dream. At
that time he was sleeping in the room of his wife, Zaynab bint
Jahash (d. 641A.D.). When he woke up, his face had turned red
and he said:
“There is no god but God, woe to Arabs, the evil which has drawn
near! The barrier of Yajuj and Majuj has been dented today”
(
Sahih
Al-Bukhari,
Sahih
Muslim,
Kitab al-Fitan
).
An intellectual barrier
J
UDGING
FROM
THIS
tradition of the Prophet and the subsequent
history, it seems that ‘barrier’ here does not refer to any physical
obstacle, but is rather an intellectual barrier—that of nature
worship. The demolition of this belief is symbolized by the
physical disintegration of the boundary, after which all the doors
of progress and development were opened to Western countries.
In consequence, they were able to dominate the rest of the outer
world.
In reality, all the potential sources of development were
An intellectual barrier
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