Prophecies About the Mongol Invasion

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والصلاة والسلام على خاتم النبيين

The Mongol invasion and devastation of the Muslim world in the beginning of the 13^th century CE may be termed the original Holocaust. Tens of millions of Muslims were put to the sword by the Mongol hordes as they vanquished city after city in the regions of Transoxiana and Khorasan. Eventually the Mongols reached Baghdad in 1258 and utterly destroyed the center of Islamic civilization. This apocalyptic catastrophe was reminiscent of the destruction of Jerusalem many centuries earlier, first by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6^th century BCE and then by the Romans under Titus in the year 70 CE. The holy Quran speaks of both instances of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and explains it was a consequence of the corruption and evil of the Israelites:

وَ قَضَیۡنَاۤ اِلٰی بَنِیۡۤ اِسۡرَآءِیۡلَ فِی الۡکِتٰبِ لَتُفۡسِدُنَّ فِی الۡاَرۡضِ مَرَّتَیۡنِ وَ لَتَعۡلُنَّ عُلُوًّا کَبِیۡرًا

And We decreed to the Children of Israel in the Scripture that ‘you will surely cause corruption in the Land twice and you will surely reach great haughtiness’

(Surah 17:4)

The ancient prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others عليهم السلام prophesied the first destruction of Jerusalem, while the Messiah of Nazareth عليه السلام prophesied the second (Gospel of Mark, chapter 13). Since the Mongol invasion mirrors the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians and then Romans, it stands to reason that the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم must have forecast that cataclysmic event. In the holy Quran we read about the impending doom at the hands of the hordes of Gog and Magog:

حَتّٰۤی اِذَا فُتِحَتۡ یَاۡجُوۡجُ وَ مَاۡجُوۡجُ وَ ہُمۡ مِّنۡ کُلِّ حَدَبٍ یَّنۡسِلُوۡنَ

Even when Gog and Magog are let loose and they shall hasten forth from every height

(Surah 21:96)

وَتَرَكْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ يَمُوجُ فِي بَعْضٍ

And on that day We shall leave some of them to surge against others

(Surah 18:99)

And there are several preserved traditions from the most holy Prophet Muhammad:

‏ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ، وَيْلٌ لِلْعَرَبِ مِنْ شَرٍّ قَدِ اقْتَرَبَ فُتِحَ الْيَوْمَ مِنْ رَدْمِ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ

None is worthy of worship except Allah! Woe to the Arabs from an evil that has drawn near! Today an opening has been made in the dam of Gog and Magog (Sahih al-Bukhari)

‏ لاَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى تُقَاتِلُوا التُّرْكَ صِغَارَ الأَعْيُنِ، حُمْرَ الْوُجُوهِ، ذُلْفَ الأُنُوفِ، كَأَنَّ وُجُوهَهُمُ الْمَجَانُّ الْمُطَرَّقَةُ، وَلاَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى تُقَاتِلُوا قَوْمًا نِعَالُهُمُ الشَّعَرُ

The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Turks; people with small eyes, red faces, and flat noses. Their faces will look like shields coated with leather. The Hour will not be established till you fight with people whose shoes are made of hair. (Sahih al-Bukhari)

However, the Mongol invasion of the Muslim world occurred several centuries after the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم died. Although there were technically no Prophets after him صلى الله عليه وسلم the Saints of the Ummah appeared as their substitutes and some of them prophesied about the impending doom very close to its actual occurrence. At the beginning of the 13^th century CE, Transoxiana, Khorasan and Iran were under the rule of the Khwarezmian empire. The last ruler of this empire was Ala al-Din Muhammad II. He was a particularly evil man who ordered the execution of a great Muslim saint and mystic, namely, Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi رحمة الله عليه (d. 616 H or 1219 CE) by having him drowned in the River Oxus. The martyrdom of Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi رحمة الله عليه mirrored the martyrdom of the Prophet Yahya or John the Baptist عليه السلام on the orders of the evil king Herod Antipas. When the army of Herod Antipas was defeated by the Nabataean king Aretas IV, the Jews considered it divine retribution for the execution of John the Baptist, as mentioned by Josephus. Likewise, soon after the execution of Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi at the behest of Ala al-Din Muhammad II, in that very year, 1219, Genghis Khan launched his invasion and devastation of the Khwarezmian empire, bringing it to an end once and for all. The Khwarezmian Shah was killed in that devastation, along with many of the people. Another great mystic and saint, Najm al-Din Kubra رحمة الله عليه even predicted that a terrible punishment awaited the Khwarezmians and even the Muslims in general as a consequence of the unjust killing of Majd al-Din al-Baghdadi رحمة الله عليه.

Abd ur-Rahman Jami mentions the fact that the great Sufi mystic and saint, Najm al-Din Kubra رحمة الله عليه predicted the Mongol invasion by Genghis Khan and his monstrous hordes in his work entitled Nafahat al-Uns:

Likewise, the Persian historian Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini says: “Majd-ud-Din Baghdadi, put to death on suspicion of an intrigue with the mother of Khwarazmshah. After his death Khwarazmshah repented of what he had done, and went to Shaikh Najm-ud-Din Kubra, and asked what atonement would suffice to expiate this deed, to which the Shaikh replied that their lives and the lives of many others would hardly expiate it; a saying presumably held to have hinted prophetically at the fatal results of the impending Mongol invasion.” (Tarikh-i-Guzida, English, p.215):

In conclusion, the rebuke of a tyrannical and evil Muslim king by the Sufi saint and mystic of his time, and often the martyrdom of the saint at the hands of that king, and the consequent destruction of the kingdom and the general population closely mirrors the history of ancient Israel. It points to the reality of the Muslim saint taking on the prophetic role of the ancient Israelite prophet. It is a strong proof for the reality of the phenomenon of Ilham (divine inspiration) and Kashf (divine vision) among the non-prophet saints of this Ummah, which is denied by many astray Muslim sects and individuals usually under the poisonous influence of materialism and modernism.