The Return of Jesus (part 5 of 5)
Description: The end of Gog and Magog, followed
by peace and plenty, a world without war, the universality of God's
True Religion, and the death of Jesus.
By Jeremy Boulter (© 2006
IslamReligion.com) - Published on 19 Jun 2006 - Last modified on 01
Apr 2008
When the Gog and Magog will have driven the Muslims to hole up in
their strongholds and refuges, and when they see the blood on their
weapons, which will have returned from the sky, they will take
these as evidence for their imminent victory over the Muslims.
However, that evening:
«Jesus and his companions will beseech
God, and God will send against them (the Gog and Magog) worms which
will attack their necks; and in the morning, they will all perish
as one» [Saheeh Muslim].
Not knowing that the horde was already destroyed, the Muslims in
their strongholds will call for a volunteer to scout out what the
enemy was doing. The volunteer, knowing he would probably die, will
descend to find them all dead, lying on top of one another.
Returning, he will call out: 'O Muslims, rejoice! God has sufficed
us against our enemies!'[1]
When Jesus and the people who took refuge on Mount Tur descend,
they will find the same scene, with not a single spot of the earth
around them free of the putrefying stench of rotting bodies. So
sickening and dangerous to health will be the situation that Jesus
will pray again to God, Who will send huge birds to carry them
off[2] and throw them into the sea where the sun rises.
The
Aftermath
After that, God will send a drenching, intense rain that penetrates
into everything, lasting forty days. Unlike the Deluge,[3] this
torrential rainfall will be beneficial, for:
«The earth will be washed till it
looks like a mirror. God will then order the earth: 'Bring forth
your fruit and restore your blessing.'» [Saheeh
Muslim].
The Muslims will let their cattle and flocks out to graze again,
and they will fatten up better than from any vegetation they had
fed on before.[4] Orchards will produce fruit of size and quality
never known before, and cattle produce fine quality milk in copious
amounts, enough so that nobody will experience any shortage of
it.[5]
The benefits, then, from the advent of the Gog and Magog, will the
decimation of non-believers, leaving the world for a nation of the
believers, and food in abundance after the earth had absorbed all
the dead decaying bodies caused by their invasion and later
extermination. For a period of time, wealth would be so abundant
that people would not be able to find those to whom they could pay
out the poor due.[6] Abu Hurayrah reported the Prophet, may the
mercy and blessings of God be upon him, as saying:
«…And there will be no Jizya. Money
will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (in
charity)» [Saheeh Al-Bukhari].
Not so beneficial will be the reduction in the numbers of men,
causing a major imbalance in the sex ratio. Women will far exceed
the men in numbers, possibly due to casualties in war, as was the
case in Germany after World War Two.[7].
The Reign and Death of
Jesus
The reign of Jesus, may God grant him peace, will be by the Law
that Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him,
brought. This is in accordance with the Covenant that God took from
all his prophets. In the Quran, it says:
Behold! God took the Covenant of the prophets, saying: "I have
given you the Book and Wisdom; then will come a messenger to you
confirming what is with you, so believe in him and render him
help." God said: "Do you agree, and take this Covenant as binding
upon you?" They said: "We agree." He said: "Then bear witness! And
I am with you among the witnesses." [Quran 3:81].
{وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللّهُ مِيثَاقَ
النَّبِيِّيْنَ لَمَا آتَيْتُكُم مِّن كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ
جَاءكُمْ رَسُولٌ مُّصَدِّقٌ لِّمَا مَعَكُمْ لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ
وَلَتَنصُرُنَّهُ قَالَ أَأَقْرَرْتُمْ وَأَخَذْتُمْ عَلَى ذَلِكُمْ
إِصْرِي قَالُواْ أَقْرَرْنَا قَالَ فَاشْهَدُواْ وَأَنَاْ مَعَكُم
مِّنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ}
Transliteration: Wa 'Idh 'Akhadha Allāhu Mīthāqa An-Nabīyīna Lamā
'Ātaytukum Min Kitābin Wa Ĥikmatin Thumma Jā'akum Rasūlun
Muşaddiqun Limā Ma`akum Latu'uminunna Bihi Wa Latanşurunnahu Qāla
'A'aqrartum Wa 'Akhadhtum `Alá Dhālikum 'Işrī Qālū 'Aqrarnā Qāla
Fāsh/hadū Wa 'Anā Ma`akum Mina Ash-Shāhidīna
The reign of Jesus, therefore, will be according to the Covenant
with God, and this is backed up by an explanation of the saying of
the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, by Abu
Hurayrah, when he reported a question he had asked to his
companions. He said:
The Messenger of God said: «What would
you do when the son of Mary descends among you, and lead as one
among you?»
One of the companions, Ibn Abu Theeb, asked:
What does, 'He will lead as one among you' mean?
Abu Hurayrah replied:
"He will lead you according to the Book of your Lord, exalted and
praised is He, and the Way of your Messenger, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him."[8]
His reign will be marked by mutual respect, peace and prosperity
among the people.In another hadeeth, Abu Hurayrah said:
«Spite, mutual hatred and jealousy
against one another will disappear, and when he (Jesus) summons
people to accept wealth, none will do so» [Saheeh
Al-Bukhari].
The lack of rancor between people will be absolute, not relative,
for at least seven years, wherein no two people would be stirred to
ire towards each other,[9] and the word between them would be
'peace'. In fact, religiosity and piety will be the order of the
day, for to each person:
«A single prostration to God (in
prayer) will be better than the whole world and whatever is in
it» [Saheeh Al-Bukhari].
Jesus himself will not only rule and judge by the Muslim Shariah,
he will complete all the Islamic pillars. The Prophet of Islam
said:
«By him in Whose hand my life is, the
son of Mary will certainly invoke the name of God for Hajj or
Umrah[10] or both in the valley of Rauha (a valley near
Medina)» [Saheeh Muslim].
Then, forty years after his second coming, he will die, and the
Muslims will perform the funeral prayer for him.[11] And this
moment is the moment God is referring to in the Quranic
verse:
"And there is none of the People of the Book who must believe in
him before his death…" [Quran 4:159].
{وَإِن مِّنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ إِلاَّ
لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ بِهِ قَبْلَ مَوْتِهِ}
Transliteration: Wa 'In Min 'Ahli Al-Kitābi 'Illā Layu'uminanna
Bihi Qabla Mawtihi
God willing, all the people will be of one Book at that time.
Conclusion
As we can see, the return of Jesus to the Earth will be a truly
magnificent event, surrounded by truly magnificent incidents, so
magnificent that one may find it even fantasy-like. Jesus will come
at a time when the world is in true need of Divine Help. Indeed
this Divine Help will come with Jesus, but some of the trials of
those days will be so great that not even he will be able to face
it, fleeing to the tops of mounts with his followers. Only God will
be able to save humanity in that time. Albeit, not only will this
Divine Help come to put an end to the greatest trials faced by
humankind since the dawn of time - the False Messiah and Gog and
Magog - but it will also come to show the truth about God, putting
an end to all falsehood, with everyone being united under the one
true religion of God.
__________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] Musnad Ahmed.
[2] Saheeh Muslim
[3] The Deluge that descended
upon the people of Noah.
[4] Musnad Ahmed
[5] Saheeh Muslim
[6] ibid
[7] The shortage of men was so
acute that the international youth conference held in Munich in
1948 suggested polygyny as a solution for women left on the
shelf.
[8] Saheeh Muslim
[9] Saheeh Muslim
[10] These are the Greater and
Lesser Pilgrimages to the Holy Sanctuary in Mecca, the former being
an obligatory ritual pillar of Islam.
[11] Abu Hurayrah narrated that
the Prophet, may God praise him, said "He (Jesus) will live on the
earth forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over
him at his funeral prayer." In Musnad Ahmed and Abu Dawood
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