It has been reported in the traditions that Dajjal will have a false paradise, where he will admit his friends, and a false hell, where he will throw his opponents. He will also have a saddle beast (donkey), one of whose ears is like Paradise, the other like Hell. Some other traditions say that he will have a huge physical stature. What is meant by all the traditions of this import?

 

Dajjal is a human being like everyone. He is a conspirator, a stupid devil who has forgotten God. He deifies himself because of his tyrannical rule, the apparent splendor of his despotism. However, the trend of atheism, which he represents, is very mighty and comprehensive. The traditions which describe Dajjal as an enormous man are actually about this trend, not about the person of Dajjal himself. I once saw a picture of the Japanese chief-commander, one of whose feet was on the Pacific Ocean, the other on Port Arthur. By this picture was the power of the Japanese army and the vast field of Japanese influence demonstrated.

As to the false paradise of Dajjal, this is the passing fancies, the charming playthings and amusements of modern civilization. His saddle beast (donkey) is modern vehicles of transportation from trains [to space ships]. There is at one ‘end’ of trains, for example, a fire-place into which Dajjal throws his opponents, while the other ‘end’ is richly furnished like Paradise, where he admits his followers. In fact, trains, which are a very important ‘mount’ of modern corrupt civilization, bring a false paradise to the corrupt worldly people, whereas they have become a means of colonizing Muslim countries, exploiting their riches and enslaving Muslim peoples.1

It is thus in this dramatic episode of human history that the religion of Islam, which will have gained great strength through the union of a ‘purified’ Christianity, will disseminate its light to the majority of the world’s population. But shortly before the end of time a new trend of unbelief will appear and have an overwhelming influence on the world’s people. As a result, the great majority will slip into unbelief while a few will continue to preserve their faith until the Last Day. Nevertheless, God, out of His mercy for believers, will make them die just before the destruction of the world so that they will not experience this terrible event, and the world will be destroyed over the heads of unbelievers.

 

1. That is, Dajjal makes much use of modern vehicles, weaponry and technology to colonize Muslim countries and enslave Muslim peoples. Trains have become one of the most important of those vehicles partly because trains were the main vehicles of transportation before other motor-vehicles were invented, Letter and partly because it is rather communism or, in a wider sense, materialism or atheism and the communist world to which the Prophet alluded by Dajjal. Innocent Muslim masses were carried to the concentration camps in Russia by trains. Again, trains were really of great importance for modern corrupt civilization especially in the previous century and in the first half of the twentieth, without, however, losing their importance today as well. While they were, on the one hand, carrying the privileged supporters of this corrupt civilization, and of the anti-Islamic regimes in the Muslim world, to the places of enjoyment, in richly furnished compartments, they have become, on the other, in the hands of imperialist powers, the means of colonizing Muslim countries, exploiting their riches and enslaving their peoples, as in Asia and Africa, and carrying them, piled-up into barn-like compartments, to work or to concentration camps, as in Russia, where most of them died.

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.