Chapter Eighteen of the Holy Koran, 'The Cave', refers to a great battle with Gog and Magog. Muhammad the Prophet provided the chapter in response to questions put to him by the powerful leaders of his tribe, the Quraish, who did not appreciate his disparagement of their polytheistic religion, and were accordingly persecuting believers in Allah, the Prophet’s one and only god. The Quraish leaders had sent deputies to the Jewish scholars in possession of the Torah and Gospel. The scholars happily supplied the Quraish delegation with questions designed to trip up Muhammad hence prove him to be a false prophet. One question appertained to Dhulqarnain, the ‘Two-Horned One’ – believed by some scholars to have been Alexander the Great. If Muhammad was a legitimate prophet, claimed the Jews, surely he would know about the great accomplishment of Dhulqurnain's legendary journey.
Dhulqarnain, the ancient story went, built a great barrier or wall to protect friendly foreigners from the barbarous northern invaders, Gog and Magog. After completing the structure, he purportedly took no credit for it, humbly stating that it existed by God's will, which would eventually lay it low, and then a great battle would ensue. Many imaginative People of the Book, dissatisfied with the world as it appears and hoping for an ideal future, believe the Gog and Magog battle, whether historical, legendary or mythical, is a true prophecy of the Final Conflict. In sum, Good and Evil are set apart by a Wall built by the Hero. The Wall collapses. A Final Conflict is fought. The Last Day is decisively won by the forces of Good, who are more than amply rewarded in Paradise, while the forces of Evil, of course, get their flaming deserts in Hell.
History foretells the future; the divorce proceeds from marriage; the conclusion is embedded in the premise: the original Armageddon is bound to recur, and on a global scale, to the extent that life as we know it on this Earth shall be extinguished.
God only knows when the Great Battle will break out. It appears that the more integrated individuals become through their selfish worship of Mammon or Money as the capital-god, and the more civilization becomes too big to fail, the more likely civilization shall collapse into the dust that made it, and individuals shall then become all-too familiar with the Almighty as they are crushed flat as matzo while pleading for mercy. Notwithstanding how civilized cosmopolitans and globally integrated people may become, at some point in time peoples shall yet again get sick and tired of being politically correct or tolerant and nice to each other in order to make a profit, and shall plunge the globe into an apocalyptic bloodbath, no doubt with some vague idea of a fine future in mind and a pleasing feeling of unity in risking their lives for something really worthwhile for a change, whatever that may be, instead of a condo, car and computer. No doubt that each conservative or liberal will have faith that he or she is fighting on the side of God or the Good, versus the Devil or Evil Adversary.
Naturally several variations of the popular tale developed as it was retold time and time again by different folk. There are different versions of the time, place and manner for the instantiation of the Supreme Ideal, the Totally Good; in sum, the Total. The flood shall turn the dust to mud, and man shall be reborn, remolded in his god’s image. Scriptures are bound to differ as to details, but almost all human beings, despite their suffering, have a will to persist hence the general desire for a Return to Paradise or a Progress to Utopia is unsurprising. Indeed, a sacred scripture that fails to exalt a necessarily indefinite, absolute ideal hardly has a holy future. As we know from the history of radical reformations and the Islamic reformation of our own time, the realization of the most perfect ideal on this earth is so seemingly impossible that it must be preceded by a facsimile of the Final Conflict on the Last Day.
Muslim and Jewish spirituals have cherished their differences about the Final Battle with Gog and Magog since Muhammad's time. Fortunately for the most blessed Christians and Muslims, they shall be lifted up and taken to a place where they will be spared from witnessing the horrible event. But several details of the Judeo-Christian vision do not jibe with Islam's, particularly as to the place it will occur and the people chosen by their deity to survive.
In Ezekiel's story, Gog appears as the last leader of the assault of the worldly powers on Israel, the Kingdom of God, which will bring about the Judgment before Jerusalem's walls, whereupon all the tribes shall return to a blessed state. Apocalyptic-minded people may believe that Russia and Islam will attack Israel and be soundly defeated. The Apocalypse says that Satan brings Gog and Magog together for a last time: just before the creation of a new heaven and earth, they are destroyed by fire from heaven.
A few Muslim scholars have speculated that the Final Conflict may recur where a similar battle between good and evil took place in ancient times, in or near northern Afghanistan – they opine that the Two-Horned-One is not Alexander the Great, but is Cyrus the Great, who ventured into the mountains there. Perhaps the primitive scene occurred at Derbent, Uzbekistan, the “Iron Gate” on the road north from Kabul, instead of Derbent, Dagestan, by the Caspian Sea, as surmised by other scholars – the natural “gate” at the Caspian Sea end of a Caucasus mountain range was in fact used by Persians to defend against “barbarian” (Turks, Arabs, et cetera) invaders. Northern Afghanistan, historically known as Aryana, was settled about 50,000 years ago, is believed to be one of the first places man domesticated plants and animals. It was home to Zoroaster, founder of Zoroastrianism, a religion once called Dualism by British scholars. Thus, as Zarathustra spake of Good and Evil and of Man's jihad against the Devil, we speak from our roots with forked tongue, having enormous difficulty reconciling Monism with the logical development of our argument unto Doom’s Day, whereupon the Good Twin shall finally prevail, once and for all.
Gog and Magog are variously identified throughout history, in holy books and fantastic travelogues, as barbarian individuals or peoples, gigantic monsters, or places they reside. In Genesis, Magog is the second son of Japeth, between Gomer and Madai, a representative of a great people somewhere north of Palestine. Ezekiel refers to Gog as the prince of Magog, believed by Josephus and other classical writers to be an area northeast of the Black Sea inhabited by avaricious, war-loving Scythians famous for their immense cavalry, strong armor and excellent archers. The Cimmerians reportedly lived in that area. According to Homer, the mythical Cimmerians inhabited and guarded a misty land of perpetual darkness, namely, the Land of the Dead. Herodotus relates how the Scythians invaded Cimmeria. The Cimmerians, confronted with a superior force, split into two groups: one group fled, the other group stayed and fought to the death of the last man.
Modern historians have speculated that the enigmatic Cimmerians were descendents of Gomer, the son of Japeth and grandson of Noah, and that they swept across Asia and plundered Lydia after being defeated in B.C.E. 634 by the Scythians. Anne Katrine Gade Kristensen, a Danish scholar, believes that neither Scythians nor Cimmerians were originally barbarians from Russia, but were Israelite tribes that moved north and wound up as neighbors near the Black Sea before descending again to various places. Perchance the Cimmerians became Goths and Milesians. They may have ventured into Wales – she notices that Welsh names occur around Crimea.
Now we may never know the true identity of the legendary Dhulqarnain or where he fought his most famous battle. Whether or not it will be fought again on an apocalyptic scale that the wrath of the Terrorist Almighty may be uncovered to consume the Cosmos in Fire remains to be seen – may the Rapture save us from the sight. It may be our own wrath that we expect hence are most afraid of, and not the wrath of an all-too-human deity. Perhaps we may divine from scripture something other than the doom we harbor in hearts. It is to that end that we return to Muhammad Ali's translation of The Cave:
Section 11, Dhulqarnain: "And they ask thee about Dhulqarnain. Say: I will recite to you an account of him. We established him in the land and granted him means of access to everything. So he followed a course. Until when he reached the limit whither the sun set, he found it going down into a sea of black mud and found by it a people. We said: O Dhulqarnain! Thou mayest chastise or do them a good. He said: As for him who is unjust, we shall chastise him, then he will be returned to his Lord, and he will chastise him with severe chastisement. And as for him who believes and does good, he will have a goodly reward; and We shall speak to him an easy word of Our command. Then he followed (another) course. Until when he reached the limit where the Sun rose, he found it rising on a people to whom We had given no shelter from it. Even so! And We had a full knowledge of what he had. Then he followed (another) course. Until he reached (a place) between the two mountains, he found on that side of them a people who could hardly understand a word. They said: O Dhulqarnain! Gog and Magog make mischief in the land. May we then pay thee a tribute on condition that thou raise a barrier between us and them. He said: That in which my Lord has established me is better, so help me only with strength (of labor), I will make a fortified barrier between you and them. Bring me blocks of iron. At length when he had filled up the space between the two mountain sides, he said, Blow. Until when he had made (the iron red) as fire, he said: Bring me molten brass to pour over it. So they were not able to scale it, nor could they make a hole in it. He said: This is a mercy from my Lord, but when the promise of my Lord comes to pass He will make it level with the ground, and the promise of my Lord is ever true. And on that day We shall leave a part of them in conflict with another part, and the trumpet will be blown, so We shall garner them all together."
Section 12, Christian Nations: "Do those who disbelieve think that they can take My servants to be protectors besides Me? We have prepared hell for the entertainment of the disbelievers. Say: Shall We inform of the greatest losers in (their) deeds? (These are) they whose labour is lost in this world's life and they think that they are well-versed in skill of the work of hands. There are they who disbelieve in the communications of their Lord and meeting with Him, so their works are vain, and We will not set up a balance for them on the day of Resurrection. That is their recompense, hell, because they disbelieved and held My communications and My messengers in Mockery. (As for) those who believe and do good deeds, for their entertainment are the gardens of Paradise. Abiding therein: they will not wish change from them. Say: If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would surely be consumed before the words of my Lord are exhausted, though We were to bring the like of that (sea) to add thereto. Say: I am only a mortal like you; it is revealed to me that your God is one God. So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and not join anyone in the service of his Lord."
Source quoted:
The Quran, Transl. Muhammad Ali, Lahore-Pakistan: 1948
Reference Made:
Anne Katrine Gade Kristensen, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Vol 45, Denmark: 1988
No comments:
Post a Comment