This latter stage can be divided into two periods: pre-
Renaissance and post-Renaissance. It was at this stage that,
according to the traditions of the Prophet of Islam, that event
took place which was referred to by the Prophet as ‘making a
hole in the barrier of Gog and Magog’. Although the wall built
by Dhul-Qarnayn was actually a material wall which disintegrated
by a natural process after a period of time, the wall mentioned
in the Hadith was probably not that material wall but was rather
an intellectual barrier. With the destruction of the actual stone
wall, Gog and Magog had the opportunity to spread throughout
the neighbouring areas, but the destruction of the other “wall”
is an event of far greater significance than the former, for this
gave Gog and Magog the opportunity to spread out globally. In
the words of the hadith, a time will come when “they will eat
every thing and they will drink all the water of the world.” (Ibn
Majah,
Kitab al-Fitan
). That is to say that they will come to
possess the world’s entire resources.
What will happen after the breaking down of the physical
barrier erected by Dhul-Qarnayn is recorded in the Qur’an in
the chapter entitled “The Cave” ( 18: 99):
“On that Day, We shall let them surge against each other
like waves and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall
gather them all together.”(18:99)
That is, Gog and Magog will surmount ancient geographical
boundaries and will interact with the rest of the world in general.
The subsequent eating away of all the things and drinking all
the water (i.e. using up all the resources) of the world (as referred
to in the above-mentioned hadith), relate to the events of the
latter phase when, after conquering nature, they would have
ushered in the modern industrial age, thanks to which they would
have the opportunity for global exploitation.
Chapters 18 and 21 of the Qur’an describe respectively the
first and second stages of Gog and Magog. There were apparently
three major periods of Gog and Magog: the period of
confinement, the age of interaction and the age of science and
industrial progress and development.
8
The alarm of Doomsday
