The Tribes of Gog and Magog are referred to in a coupleof places in the Quran. In one place in the Quran, God makes it clear thatthese tribes existed during the time of Dhul-Qarnain. God says:
“Then he [Dhul-Qarnain] followed (another) way, until, when hereached between two mountains, he found, before them a people who scarcelyunderstood a word. They said, ‘O Dhul-Qarnain! Verily! Gog and Magog aredoing great mischief in the land. Shall we then pay you a tribute in orderthat you might erect a barrier between us and them?’ He said, ‘That which myLord had established me is better (than your tribute). So help me withstrength (of men), I will erect between you and them a barrier. Give me pieces(blocks) of iron,’ then, when he had filled up the gap between the twomountain-cliffs, he said, ‘Blow,’ till when he had made it (red as) fire, hesaid, ‘Bring me molten copper to pour over it.’ So they [Gog and Magog] weremade powerless to scale it or dig through it. [Dhul-Qarnain] said, ‘This is amercy from my Lord, but when the Promise of my Lord comes, He shall level itdown to the ground. And the Promise of my Lord is ever true.’ And on that Day[i.e., the day Gog and Magog will come out], We shall leave them to surge likewaves on one another, and the Trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect themall together.” (Quran 18:92-99)
Elsewhere in the Quran, God also speaks about them as asign of the end of times. God says:
“Until, when Gog and Magog are let loose (from their barrier),and they swiftly swarm from every mound. And the true promise (Day ofResurrection) shall draw near (of fulfillment). Then (when mankind isresurrected from their graves), you shall see the eyes of the disbelieversfixedly stare in horror. (They will say), ‘Woe to us! We were indeed heedlessof this; nay, but we were wrongdoers.’” (Quran 21:96-97)
The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be uponhim, gave the following description for the ruthlessness of these tribes whenthey are finally released upon the world:
“Gog and Magog would walk until they would reachthe mountain of al-Khamar and it is a mountain of Bait-ul-Maqdis and they wouldsay, ‘We have killed those who are upon the earth. Let us now kill those whoare in the sky’ and they would throw their arrows towards the sky and thearrows would return to them besmeared with blood.”
Ahmad recorded the following hadeeth in his Musnad:
“Every day, Gog and Magog are trying to dig a wayout through the barrier. When they begin to see sunlight through it, the onewho is in charge of them says, ‘Go back; you can carry on digging tomorrow,’and when they come back, the barrier is stronger than it was before. This willcontinue until their time comes and God wishes to send them forth. They willdig until they begin to see sunlight, then the one who is in charge of themwill say, “Go back; you can carry on digging tomorrow, God willing.” In thiscase he will make an exception by saying, ‘God willing,’ thus relating thematter to the Will of God. They will return on the following day, and find thehole as they left it. They will carry on digging and come out against thepeople. They will drink all the water, and the people will entrench themselvesin their fortresses. Gog and Magog will fire their arrows into the sky, andthey will fall back to earth with something like blood on them. Gog and Magogwill say, ‘We have defeated the people of earth, and overcome the people ofheaven.’ Then God will send a kind of worm in the napes of their necks, andthey will be killed by it. By Him (God) in Whose hand is the soul of Muhammad,the beasts of the earth will become fat.” (As-Suyuti)
In the lengthy hadeeth from which two portions have beenquoted above, the Prophet further described the relationship between Jesus andthe tribes of Gog and Magog. After Jesus will kill the false messiah, theProphet continued speaking about what would occur:
“Then a people whom God had protected would come toJesus, son of Mary, and he would wipe their faces and would inform them oftheir ranks in Paradise and it would be under such conditions that God wouldreveal to Jesus these words, ‘I have brought forth from amongst My servantssuch people against whom none would be able to fight; you take these peoplesafely to the Mount of Toor, and then God would send Gog and Magog and theywould swarm down from every slope. The first of them would pass the lake of Tiberius and drink out of it. And when the last of them would pass, he would say, ‘Therewas once water there.’ Jesus and his companions would then be besieged here(at Toor, and they would be so hard pressed) that the head of the ox would bedearer to them than one hundred dinars (old currency) and God’s Apostle,Jesus, and his companions would supplicate to God, Who would send to theminsects (which would attack the necks of the Gog and Magog) and in the morningthey would perish like one single person. God’s Apostle, Jesus, and hiscompanions would then come down to the earth and they would not find in theearth as much space as a single span which is not filled with theirputrefaction and stench. God’s Apostle, Jesus, and his companions would thenagain beseech God, Who would send birds whose necks would be like those of Bactriancamels and they would carry them and throw them where God would will. Then Godwould send rain which no house of clay or (the tent of) camels’ hairs wouldkeep out and it would wash away the earth until it could appear to be a mirror.Then the earth would be told to bring forth its fruit and restore its blessingand, as a result thereof, there would grow (such a big) pomegranate that agroup of persons would be able to eat that, and seek shelter under its skin,and a milch cow would give so much milk that a whole party would be able todrink it. And the milch camel would give such (a large quantity of) milk thatthe whole tribe would be able to drink out of that and the milch sheep wouldgive so much milk that the whole family would be able to drink out of that. Atthat time God would send a pleasant wind which would soothe (people) even undertheir armpits, and would take the life of every Muslim and only the wickedwould survive who would commit adultery like asses and the Last Hour would comeupon them.”
In another important hadeeth from Saheeh Muslim,the Prophet spoke about the future coming of Gog and Magog and, at the sametime, stated a very important lesson that all should reflect upon. This lessonhas to do with the importance of not allowing evil to be prevalent in society.In this narration, the Prophet said,
“There is no god but God! There is a destructionin store for Arabia because of turmoil which is at hand, the barrier of Gog andMagog has opened so much.”
And Sufyan [the subnarrator] made a sign of ten with thehelp of his hand (in order to indicate the width of the gap) and I [Zainab, theProphet’s wife] said,
“God’s Messenger, would we be perished in spite ofthe fact that there would be good people amongst us?” He replied, “Of course,but only when the evil predominates.”
(Incidentally, there is a great deal of speculationconcerning who exactly these tribes are. However, due to space limitations,the discussion here is limited to what is known directly from the texts of theQuran and Sunnah. As such, these are the tribes of Gog and Magog and, withrespect to identifying them, very little more can be said, although a couple ofhadeeth do give further information concerning their physical characteristics.)
