Reality of Gog and Magog

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وصلى الله على نبينا محمد

وعلى اهل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المظلومين

Regarding the great number of Gog and Magog, and the fact that it is a massive confederation of nations, Hudhaifa b. al-Yaman رضى الله عنهما narrates that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said:

يَأْجُوجُ أُمَّةٌ ، وَمَأْجُوجُ أُمَّةٌ ، كُلُّ أُمَّةٍ أَرْبَعُمِائَةِ أَلْفِ أُمَّةٍ

“Yagog is a nation and Magog is a nation. Each nation consists of four hundred thousand nations.”

(Mu’jam al-Awsat lit-Tabarani)

This certainly fits with the idea that Gog and Magog are the vast majority of mankind - the children of Adam, as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said according to the narration of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri رضى الله عنه:

مِنْ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ تِسْعَمِائَةٍ وَتِسْعَةً وَتِسْعِينَ، وَمِنْكُمْ وَاحِدٌ

“From Yagog and Magog nine hundred and ninety nine, and from you, one.”

(Bukhari & Muslim)

The Book of Ezekiel describes them as “a great company” (Ezekiel 38:4), having עַמִּים רַבִּים “many people” with them (Ezekiel 38:6, 9, 15, 22), “coming like a storm and covering the land like a cloud, coming out from their place in the far north”. The oracle of the 38^th chapter of Ezekiel states that God Himself shall send Gog of Magog against the land of Israel, but that He shall destroy them along with the many people with them through a pestilence (Ezekiel 38:22). In the 39^th chapter, it is said that Gog shall perish upon the mountains of Israel, after having come down upon it from the far north. Their carcasses shall be fed upon by birds and by beasts of the field (Ezekiel 39:4). “Then the inhabitants of the cities of Israel will go out and make fires and feed them with the weapons - shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, clubs and spears; they shall use them as fuel for seven years. They will not gather firewood in the fields or cut any in the forests, but will use the weapons as fuel for their fires” (Ezekiel 39:9-10). Confirming the massive number of Gog and Magog, the Christian Book of Revelation states: “And (Satan) shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Revelation 20:8-9). According to the Book of Ezekiel, it is Magog and those that dwell in the “coastlands” which shall be destroyed by a fire sent by God (Ezekiel 39:6). Ezekiel 39 also states that their dead corpses shall be food for all sorts of beasts and birds: “Speak unto the birds of every sort, and to every beast of the field: Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to My feast that I do prepare for you, even a great feast, upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. The flesh of the mighty shall ye eat, and the blood of the princes of the earth shall ye drink; rams, lambs, and goats, bullocks, fatlings of Bashan are they all of them. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My feast which I have prepared for you. And ye shall be filled at My table with horses and horsemen, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 39:17-21)

The Qur’an and Hadith more or less confirm this prophecy. It is Allah Himself who shall send the hordes of Gog and Magog:

وَيَبْعَثُ اللَّهُ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ وَهُمْ مِنْ كُلِّ حَدَبٍ يَنْسِلُونَ

“Allah shall send Yagog and Magog, and they come down from every slope.”

(Sahih Muslim)

They shall come up against and invade the Holy Land, called “the land of Israel” in Ezekiel and “camp of the saints” and “beloved city” in the Christian Book of Revelation, drinking up all the water that remains in Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) and firing arrows into the sky once they reach a certain mountain in the Holy Land:

فَيَمُرُّ أَوَّلُهُمْ بِبُحَيْرَةِ الطَّبَرِيَّةِ فَيَشْرَبُ مَا فِيهَا ثُمَّ يَمُرُّ بِهَا آخِرُهُمْ فَيَقُولُ لَقَدْ كَانَ بِهَذِهِ مَرَّةً مَاءٌ ثُمَّ يَسِيرُونَ حَتَّى يَنْتَهُوا إِلَى جَبَلِ بَيْتِ الْمَقْدِسِ فَيَقُولُونَ لَقَدْ قَتَلْنَا مَنْ فِي الأَرْضِ هَلُمَّ فَلْنَقْتُلْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ ‏.‏ فَيَرْمُونَ بِنُشَّابِهِمْ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَيَرُدُّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ نُشَّابَهُمْ مُحْمَرًّا دَمًا

“The first of them pass by the Lake of Tiberias, drinking what is in it. Then the last of them pass by it saying: ‘There was water here at one time.’ They travel until they reach a mountain at Bait al-Maqdis. They will say: ‘We have killed whoever was in the Earth. Come! Let us kill whoever is in the skies.’ They will shoot their arrows into the Heavens, so Allah will return their arrows to them red with blood.”

(Jami at-Tirmidhi #2240)

ثُمَّ يَسِيرُونَ حَتَّى يَنْتَهُوا إِلَى جَبَلِ الْخَمَرِ وَهُوَ جَبَلُ بَيْتِ الْمَقْدِسِ فَيَقُولُونَ لَقَدْ قَتَلْنَا مَنْ فِي الأَرْضِ هَلُمَّ فَلْنَقْتُلْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ ‏.‏ فَيَرْمُونَ بِنُشَّابِهِمْ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَيَرُدُّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ نُشَّابَهُمْ مَخْضُوبَةً دَمًا

“Gog and Magog would walk until they would reach the mountain of al-Khamar and it is a mountain of Bait-ul-Maqdis and they would say: ‘We have killed those who are upon the earth. Let us now kill those who are In the sky’ and they would throw their arrows towards the sky and the arrows would return to them besmeared with blood.”

(Sahih Muslim)

These arrows which Gog and Magog shall fire into the sky, inflicting casualties, are perhaps better understood to be modern day anti-aircraft missiles or other advanced weapons.

Gog and Magog shall be destroyed by a pestilence:

فَيُرْسِلُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهُمُ النَّغَفَ فِي رِقَابِهِمْ فَيُصْبِحُونَ فَرْسَى كَمَوْتِ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ

“Allah shall send against them a bug in their necks so in the morning they will perish like the death of a single person.”

(ibid)

بَعَثَ اللَّهُ دَوَابَّ كَنَغَفِ الْجَرَادِ فَتَأْخُذُ بِأَعْنَاقِهِمْ فَيَمُوتُونَ مَوْتَ الْجَرَادِ يَرْكَبُ بَعْضُهُمْ بَعْضًا

“Allah will send a worm like a bug that will penetrate their necks. So they will die like the death of locusts, one on top of another.”

(Sunan Ibn Maja #4079)

Their carcasses shall be eaten by the beasts of the field:

فَيَخْرُجُ النَّاسُ وَيُخْلُونَ سَبِيلَ مَوَاشِيهِمْ فَمَا يَكُونُ لَهُمْ رَعْىٌ إِلاَّ لُحُومُهُمْ فَتَشْكَرُ عَلَيْهَا كَأَحْسَنِ مَا شَكِرَتْ مِنْ نَبَاتٍ أَصَابَتْهُ قَطُّ

“Then the people will come out and let their flocks loose, but they will not have anything to graze on except their flesh, and they will become very fat as if they were grazing on the best vegetation they ever found”

(ibid)

فَوَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ إِنَّ دَوَابَّ الأَرْضِ تَسْمَنُ وَتَبْطَرُ وَتَشْكَرُ شَكْرًا مِنْ لُحُومِهِمْ

“By the One in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad! Verily, the beasts of the Earth shall become fat from their meat.”

(Jami al-Tirmidhi #3153)

And as stated in Ezekiel 39:9-10, the Prophet Muhammad صلوات الله وسلامه عليه said similarly:

سَيُوقِدُ الْمُسْلِمُونَ مِنْ قِسِيِّ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ وَنُشَّابِهِمْ وَأَتْرِسَتِهِمْ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ

“The Muslims will use the bows, arrows and shields of Yagog and Magog as firewood for seven years.”

(Sunan Ibn Maja #4076)

These prophecies inform us that Gog and Magog shall come up against the Holy Land in such a large number, consisting of many nations within them or with them, that after Allah decimates them with a pestilence, they shall all immediately die “like locusts, one upon another”. But due to their sheer number, they shall have polluted the Holy Land with their corpses. The Hadith states:

ثُمَّ يَهْبِطُ نَبِيُّ اللَّهِ عِيسَى وَأَصْحَابُهُ إِلَى الأَرْضِ فَلاَ يَجِدُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ مَوْضِعَ شِبْرٍ إِلاَّ مَلأَهُ زَهَمُهُمْ وَنَتْنُهُمْ

“Then the Prophet of Allah, Jesus, and his companions will come down to the land and will not find in the land the space of a hand span except that it is filled with their putrefied corpses and stench.”

(Sahih Muslim)

وَيَهْبِطُ نَبِيُّ اللَّهِ عِيسَى وَأَصْحَابُهُ فَلاَ يَجِدُونَ مَوْضِعَ شِبْرٍ إِلاَّ قَدْ مَلأَهُ زَهَمُهُمْ وَنَتْنُهُمْ وَدِمَاؤُهُمْ

“The Prophet of Allah, Jesus, shall come down with his companions, but they will not find even the space of a hand span except that it is full of their stench and blood.”

(Sunan Ibn Maja)

According to Ezekiel 39, it shall take the people of the land seven months to bury them and cleanse the land of them. According to the Hadith, purification of the Holy Land shall be like this:

فَيُرْسِلُ اللَّهُ طَيْرًا كَأَعْنَاقِ الْبُخْتِ فَتَحْمِلُهُمْ فَتَطْرَحُهُمْ حَيْثُ شَاءَ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ يُرْسِلُ اللَّهُ مَطَرًا لاَ يَكُنُّ مِنْهُ بَيْتُ مَدَرٍ وَلاَ وَبَرٍ فَيَغْسِلُ الأَرْضَ حَتَّى يَتْرُكَهَا كَالزَّلَفَةِ

“Allah shall send birds with necks like those of Bactrian camels and would carry them and deposit them where Allah wishes. Then Allah will send a rain which no clay house or tent of camel hair could keep out to wash the land until it is like a mirror.”

(Sahih Muslim)

Whether these are literally birds or a description of some thing that flies, able to carry and deposit cargo, resembling the neck of Bactrian camels, remains to be seen.

So we see the following points mentioned in the Bible confirmed by Islamic prophecy regarding Gog and Magog:

1. They are great in number, having many nations with them

2. They shall come up against and invade the Holy Land

3. They are sent by God Himself

4. They shall be destroyed by a pestilence

5. Their corpses shall cover and pollute the land

6. The beasts of the field shall eat their flesh in a great feast

7. Their weapons shall be burnt for fuel for seven years

8. The land shall be cleansed of their corpses