33. MENTION OF THE NATIONS OF YA’JOOJ AND MA’JOOJ
Description of Them, What Has Been Related Regarding Them and a Description
It is reported on the authority of Abu Sa‘eed Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Allah, Most High, will say, on the Day of Resurrection, “O, Adam!” Adam will reply, “Labbaik wa Sa‘daik, and all the good is in Your Hand.” Allah will say, “Bring out the people of the fire.” Adam will say, “O, Allah! How many are the people of the Fire?” Allah will reply, “From every one thousand, take out nine-hundred and ninety-nine.” At that time children will become hoary headed {and every pregnant woman will drop her load, and you shall see mankind as in a drunken state, yet they will not be drunken, but severe will be the Torment of Allah.} (Soorah Al-Hajj 22:2).” The Companions of the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) asked, “O, Messenger of Allah! Who is that (excepted) one?” He said, “Rejoice with glad tidings; one person will be from you and one thousand will be from Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj.”
In another narration, the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Rejoice with glad tidings, for among you there are two nations (i.e. Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj), wherever they go, they defeat the people through strength of numbers.”
This proves that their numbers are great and that they outnumber mankind by many times. They are from the progeny of Nooh (Peace be upon him), because Allah, Most High, informs us that He answered the supplication of His slave, Nooh (Peace be upon him) against the people of the Earth, in His Words: {And Nooh said, “My Lord! Leave not one of the disbelievers on the earth!”} (Soorah Nooh 71:26) and He said {Then we saved him and those with him in this ship} and His statement {And, his progeny, them we made the survivors}
As for the claim that Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj were created when Adam (Peace be upon him) had a nocturnal emission and his sperm became mixed with the earth and that this resulted in their creation and they are not descended from Eve, this was related by Shaikh Abu Zakariyya An-Nawawi in his explanation of Saheeh Muslim and others, but they declared it to be weak – and it is only fitting that it should be so deemed, since there is no evidence for it. Indeed, it contradicts what we have mentioned, which is that all of the people today are descended from Nooh (Peace be upon him), according to the text of the Qur’an.
If it was said, how does the hadeeth in the Saheehain prove that they are the ransom of the Believers on the Day of Resurrection and that they will be in the Fire, though no Messenger was sent to them and Allah has said, {And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning)} (Soorah Al-Isra’ 17:15)’ the answer is that they will not be punished until the evidence has been established against them and they have been given a chance to offer their excuses, as Allah, Most High, says, {And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning)} (Soorah Al-Isra’ 17:15). So if they lived during the time before the sending of Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), then it means that Messengers from among them came to them, in which case, the evidence has been established against them. But if Allah had not sent Messengers to them, then they will fall under the ruling of the people of the Fatrah and those whom the call (to Islam) did not reach. And the hadeeth which has been reported from sources on the authority of a number of the Companions (May Allah be pleased with them) from the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him): “Verily, those who are thus will be tested in the fields of the Resurrection and whoever answered the caller (to Islam) will enter Paradise, while those who refused will enter the Fire.” We have recorded the hadeeth with its various chains and different wordings and the opinions of the Imams regarding it in our Tafseer, in the explanation of Allah’s Saying: {And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning)} (Soorah Al-Isra’ 17:15). It was related by Shaikh Abul-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari that there was a consensus (among the scholars) of AhlAs-Sunnah wal-Jama‘ah regarding this. Their being tested does not necessarily mean that they will be saved, nor does it contradict the information regarding them which states that they are the inhabitants of the Fire, because Allah informs His Messenger (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) of what He wills from the knowledge of the unseen, and He has informed him that these people are from among the wretched and that their characteristics prevent them from accepting the truth and acting upon it, so they do not accept the preaching of the caller (to Islam) until the Day of Resurrection. So it is known from this that they are the worst rejecters of the truth in this world, even when it comes to them therein, because in the fields of the Resurrection, some of those who rejected guidance in the life of this world will be guided, for there is even greater reason to believe there, because of the terrors that will be seen (on that Day), than in the life of this world – and Allah knows better – as He, Most High, says, {And if you only could see when the mujrimoon (criminals, disbelievers, polytheists, sinners, etc.) shall hang their heads before their Lord (saying), “Our Lord! We have now seen and heard, so send us back (to the world), we will do righteous good deeds. Verily, we now believe with certainty.”} (Soorah As-Sajdah 32:12). And He says, {How clearly will they (the polytheists and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) see and hear on the Day when they will appear before Us!} (Soorah Maryam 19:38). As for the hadeeth in which it is stated that the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) called them (to Islam) on the night of Al-Isra’ and that they did not accept his call, it is munkar; indeed, it is fabricated, and the person who fabricated it was ‘Amr Ibn As-Subh.
As for the barrier, we have mentioned previously that Dhul-Qarnain built it from iron and copper and he closed off the path between the towering mountains thereby; and no mightier construction on the face of the Earth is known, nor any more beneficial one to mankind in their earthly life. Al-Bukhari narrated that a man said to the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), “I saw the barrier.” The Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) asked, “How did you find it (i.e. what was it like)?” The man said, “I found it (i.e. it looked) like al-burd ul-muhabbar (a striped cloak).” The Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “You have seen it.” This is how Al-Bukhari reported it, in a mu‘allaq form and in an apocopate form. But I have not seen it with a connected chain of narrators which is acceptable to me, although Ibn Jareer narrated it in his Tafseer in a mursal form. He said, “Bishr informed us that Yazeed told him, “I was told by Sa‘eed, who reported on the authority of Qatadah that he said, “It was mentioned to us that a man said, “O, Messenger of Allah! I have seen the barrier of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj.” The Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Describe it to me.” He said, “It was like al-burd ul-muhabbar (a striped cloak), with black and red stripes.” On hearing this, the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “You have seen it.”
And if it was asked, then how can we reconcile the Saying of Allah, Most High: {So they (Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj) were made powerless to scale it or dig through it} (Soorah Al-Kahf 18:97) and the hadeeth narrated by Al-Bukhari on the authority of Zainab Bint Jahsh, the Mother of the Believers (may Allah be Pleased with her), who said, “The Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) awoke from sleep with a red face and he was saying: There is no god but Allah; there is a destruction in store for the Arabs because of the turmoil which is near at hand as the barrier of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj has been opened like this,” and he (in order to explain it) made a ring with the help of his thumb and forefinger. I said, “O, Messenger of Allah, would we be destroyed even though there are pious people amongst us?” The Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Yes, when evil predominates.” ’ The answer is: As for the opinion of those who hold that this is an indication of the opening of the gates of evil and trials and that this is simply a metaphor, there is no ambiguity. And as for the opinion of those who consider it to be information about a tangible thing, as appears obvious, then there is also no ambiguity, because His Saying: {So they (Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj) were made powerless to scale it or dig through it} (Soorah Al-Kahf 18:97), i.e. in that time, because this wording is in the past tense and so it does not negate the possibility that they might do so in the future, if Allah permits them to penetrate it by degrees, until the appointed time is reached and the (Divine) Ordainment is concluded and they emerge, as Allah, Most High, says, {And they swiftly swarm from every mound} (Soorah Al-Anbiya’ 21:96). But another hadeeth is more detailed than this, and it is that which was narrated by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad on the authority of Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him), who reported from the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said, “Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj will excavate the barrier every day until, when they begin to see the rays of the sun, their leader will say, “Return, and you will dig it tomorrow.” So they will return to it and when they come back, they will find that the barrier has become stronger than it was before. This will continue until their time comes and Allah wishes to send them forth. They will dig until they begin to see sunlight, then the one who is in charge of them will say, “Go back; you can carry on digging tomorrow, if Allah wills.” In this case, he will make an exception by saying “if Allah wills,” thus relating the matter to the Will of Allah. They will return on the following day and find the hole exactly as they left it. They will carry on digging and come out against the people. They will drink all the water, and find the hole exactly as they left it and the people will entrench themselves in their fortresses.
Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj will fire their arrows into the sky, and they will fall back to earth with something like blood on them. Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj will say, “We have defeated the people of earth, and overcome the people of Heaven.” Then Allah will send a kind of worm in the napes of their necks, and they will be killed by it… “By Him in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad, the beasts of the earth will become fat after grazing on their flesh and their blood.” So we are informed in this hadeeth that: “they (Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj) will excavate the barrier every day until, when they begin to see the rays of the sun,” this is due to the thinness of the barrier. Now if it is authentic, it can be understood to mean that this work of theirs will be at the end of time, when their emergence is near, or the meaning of His Words: {…or dig through it} (Soorah Al-Kahf 18:97) could be that they have made a small hole in it, and that does not negate the possibility that they dig it, but do not penetrate it. And Allah knows better.
Based on this, it is possible to reconcile this hadeeth with what has been recorded in the Saheehain, on the authority of Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him): “…the barrier of (Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj) has been opened like this.” That is, a hole has been opened in it. And Allah knows better.
By Ibn Katheer
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