Kogi ‘Strange Illness’: 10 Early Symptoms Of Gastroenteritis

The Kogi State Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Audu, while appealing for calm over reports of a disease outbreak in the state told newsmen in Lokoja that those so far diagnosed were found to be suffering from Gastroenteritis and Malaria.
Early reports from the state Ministry of Health had in a statement put the figure of those who died at 62 in Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa all in Yagba West Local Government Area.
Gastroenteritis is an infection of the bowel and is sometimes called a ‘tummy bug’, ‘food poisoning‘, ‘the trots’ or ‘traveller’s diarrhoea’. Viral gastroenteritis is an inflammation of the stomach and intestines caused by one of any number of viruses.
Also known as the stomach flu, viral gastroenteritis can affect anyone throughout the world. This highly contagious illness spreads through close contact with people who are infected, or through contaminated food or water. It can easily spread in close quarters, such as childcare facilities, schools, nursing homes, and cruise ships.
The most common cause is a viral infection – such as with the norovirus and adenovirus. Food poisoning can also cause it, such as food infected with campylobacter, salmonella and E coli. Meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, shellfish and parboiled rice are the most commonly affected.
The infection, whether viral or bacterial, irritates the lining of the stomach and gut making the bowel muscles tighten, which in turn triggers vomiting and/or diarrhoea.
Depending on the type of bug involved and its severity, symptoms can occur from an hour to several days after getting infected.
Symptoms usually begin one or two days after infection and include:
watery diarrhea
nausea and vomiting
headache, muscle aches, joint aches
fever, chills
sweating, clammy skin
abdominal cramps and pain
loss of appetite
weight loss
becoming dehydrated
bloody stools
Symptoms can last anywhere from one to 10 days.
Gastroenteritis is easily spread. There are some things you can do to lower your chances of contracting the virus or spreading it to others.
Wash your hands often, especially after using the bathroom and before food preparation. If necessary, use hand sanitizer until you can access soap and water.
If someone in your household is sick, do not share kitchen utensils, plates, or towels.
Do not eat raw or undercooked foods.
Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly.
Take special precautions to avoid contaminated water and food when traveling. Avoid ice cubes and use bottled water whenever possible.
There are two vaccines for rotavirus. These are generally started when an infant is two months old. Ask your doctor if you should have your infant vaccinated.

"The son who helped his dad make a baby"

TUNDE had been separated from his wife for years. She lives abroad and they are good friends. After years of enjoying the single life, he eventually fell in love and things started going horribly wrong. His story:
“I am a medical doctor with a thriving private practice. Six years ago, I finally plucked up enough courage to ask Maureen out to lunch. She was a junior manager at the bank the hospital used and was always very friendly. Whenever interest rates on fixed deposits went up, she would advise me to push for the highest possible on our account. A professional to the core, I was very impressed with how brilliant and intelligent she was. Not to mention her smashing figure.
“She’d just helped push a soft loan I desperately needed to refurbish the hospital when I asked her to lunch as a ‘thank you’ gesture. To my pleasant surprise, she agreed and that was how our relationship started. I was in my fifties with two lovely children. Their mother had opted to stay behind when I wanted to relocate to the country – our marriage wasn’t working and she had a job she loved with the social service. So, we parted amicably and I so much enjoyed my freedom, I wasn’t really keen on getting married again- until I met Maureen.
She was a single mother of a two-year-old daughter and as I got to know her better, she told me she was thinking of leaving the bank to pursue a business in horticulture. She’d completed a horticultural course when she studied abroad and had done a bit on the side for a few clients who’d praised her efforts. I encouraged her to follow her dreams and gave her financial support to kick-start the business – she already had half of the outlay from her retirement benefits.
“Barely a year later, the business had taken off beyond our wildest dreams – thanks to elaborate decorations that are the in-thing at functions these days – weddings especially. With my clout, I was able to get her jobs from reputable companies and friends.
“It was around this time we gave a serious thought to getting married. One thing we both wanted very much was a baby of our own. For the next three years, we tried but nothing happened. In the end, I took her to a gynaecologist who was also a very good friend. He did tests upon tests until it was discovered that only one of her fallopian tubes was functioning. That, coupled with my age, had reduced our chances of having a baby. My friend then suggested we travel to Britain, giving us the address of a top IVF hospital. At first, I was reluctant, but Maureen was in her early 30s and feared her biological clock was ticking fast. And I loved her. So I agreed to go with her.
“I won’t bore you with details of the tests we had to do, including my being banged up in a cubicle with pornographic materials to facilitate my ejaculating sperm into a small tube I was given. But, I gladly did all that. Maureen was then given a series of fertility injections to help her improve her chances of harvesting as many eggs as she could produce. The more eggs that were fertilized and put in her womb, the better her chances of conceiving. The cost of all these procedures was staggering.
“After we got a firm date for the IVF, we both came back to Nigeria, with my top nurse giving her the hormonal injections everyday for the duration of the treatment. We had to push our travelling a few months forward as both of us were busy. When it was eventually convenient for us to go back to the IVF clinic, Maureen began stalling – she had some fresh contracts to fill and she wanted to arrange for her daughter to be looked after by a proper relative.
“I couldn’t really believe what was going on, especially when it was her idea to start a family. I was working late in the hospital that fateful day when my daughter came calling. She didn’t want to live with her old man when she finished at the university, so I gave her and her older brother a flat each in a four-flat apartment I had. Bibi, my daughter, and I have always been close – closer than I was with Mike, her brother, who was on the snooty side. He’d let his studies abroad go into his head and believed the sun rose and set for him!
“When Bibi didn’t hug me with the enthusiasm she used to, I knew something was wrong. But nothing prepared me for the bomb-shell she dropped. ‘I don’t know how to say this dad,’ she began, looking into her lap, ‘but I think Mike and Maureen are having an affair … ‘ The atmosphere was charged for seconds. Was she insane? What had Mike got to do with Maureen? She went on: “I had seen her a few times, sneaking into Mike’s flat, and just last night, as I made for my car, I heard them arguing, so I stayed back to hear what was going on. Mike was threatening to tell you about them if Maureen was too scared to tell you to your face. I thought I should prepare you for whatever shock they have in stock for you.’
“It was obvious my poor daughter had given coming to me a great thought because there was this sympathetic concern on her face as she finished this sad news she’d brought. I must have looked as shattered as I felt because she offered to stay with me for a while. I was confused. How long had this been going on? Why didn’t she tell me when it all started? But I couldn’t really blame Bibi – she hadn’t betrayed me. My son had. So had Maureen, and I intended to get to the bottom of this. I called at Maureen’s shop on my way home, mentally kicking myself for not asking her to move in with me when her treatment started. I’d thought we would do that when she got pregnant – a sort of icing on our good fortunes. No wonder she’d been reluctant to go back with me for the IVF treatment, was she now planning to throw me over for my own son? Impossible!
“She was her friendly self when I got to her flat. I gave her a penetrating look when she started fussing over me, but she couldn’t really meet my eyes.
‘What exactly is going on between you and my son?’ I asked quietly, silently hoping that she would deny being involved with him. Only, she sat down, shoulders sagging – and burst into tears, weeping profusely that I should forgive her. That when the doctors said she had only one functioning tube and that I wasn’t as fertile as I used to be, she’d toyed with the idea of finding another man. Only, she’d confided in Mike once and he’d encouraged her to have an affair. If she became pregnant, the child would be passed off as mine as it would have the same genes. Now she was pregnant. Mike was reneging on his promises …
‘’’Now wait a minute!’ I barked. ‘Pregnant?’ You’re actually pregnant?’ I didn’t wait to hear more. I drove straight to Mike’s and asked Bibi my daughter to join us. Quietly, I asked him what madness possessed him to get my fiancee pregnant? He looked a bit scared but tried to bluff things out. Bibi didn’t even know about the pregnancy. She was gobsmsmacked.
How many blows is a man to take in one fell swoop? If I’d had a gun, I would have happily terminated the life of this traitor that called himself my son. Instead, I turned on my heels and left. What a disaster, I thought on my way home. Spending all that money, time and emotion on fertility treatments only for my son to reap the benefits of my efforts …
“It’s often been said that betrayal always comes from people closest to you. Mike and Maureen eventually had a son and they’re now together. They’d toyed with the idea of getting married but none of them has the guts to come and discuss anything with me. My own son and my fiancee stabbing me in the back. It is betrayal of the worst kind. It’s going to take forever for me to really understand what happened and come to terms with it. I’ll never trust another woman again ..”.

South Korea reveals plans to assasinate North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-Un using undercover hitmen

South Korea's defence minister Han Min-koo has said his country has a plan to launch a special forces Unit to
go to North Korea and kill Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un if he decides to attack South Korea with missiles.
According to Han Min-koo, military chiefs are “considering launching a special forces unit to assassinate North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un.”
The operation would be part of ‘Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation’ plan (KMPR), which was announced
after North Korea’s tested it's fifth nuclear warhead earlier this month, Han added during a parliamentary meeting
in Seoul on Wednesday.
According to Korean times, Commandos and precision missile attacks will be deployed in Pyongyang if Kim
Jong-un deploys one of his nukes on South Korean soil.
According to Han, the retaliatory attack will be supported by Seoul's missile defence system and a pre-emptive
attack system operated by the US called 'Kill Chain'.
Han added:
“If it becomes clear the enemy is moving to attack the South with nuclear missiles, in order to suppress its
aims, the concept [of the special forces] is to destroy key figures and areas that include the North Korean
leadership,” Han told lawmakers.

How Hillary Clinton could win

The 2016 race remains within the margin of error in the
latest CNN/ORC poll
Clinton has started to be more aggressive against
Donald Trump this week

Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part series looking at the path to victory for Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton. Click here for the first story: How Donald Trump could win
(CNN) — Hillary Clinton has advantages heading into the final stretch of the campaign that any presidential
candidate would envy: a fleet of popular surrogates, a mountain of cash and an opponent who is often
sidetracked by self-inflicted wounds.
Yet the Democratic nominee enters this home stretch in a dead heat against Donald Trump, according to a
CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.
The close contest heading into the fall underscores Clinton's vulnerabilities on trust and honesty -- and her need
to summon a relentless and efficient ground game, even if many of her voters are fueled more by revulsion
toward Trump than excitement about her.
But in many ways, the nation's changing demographics make this Clinton's race to lose.
"In a sense, Trump can't win this election," said veteran pollster Neil Newhouse. "But Hillary can lose it."
In order to succeed where 17 Republican candidates failed to beat Trump, Clinton must maintain an incessant
focus on her unpredictable rival and persuade voters that he lacks the temperament, character and knowledge
required of a potential commander-in-chief.
Clinton, press do awkward dance at 30,000 feet
Clinton has already adopted an aggressive approach this week. She's held briefings for reporters on her new
campaign jet two days in a row. She slammed Trump's character and failure to release his tax returns. And she
blasted his business career, which is at the center of his campaign as full of "scams" and "frauds."
That is one way of trying to keep the conversation away from the private email server and accusations about the
Clinton Foundation that appear to have hurt her standing in recent weeks.
Despite signs the race is narrowing -- the CNN/ORC national poll showed her two points behind Trump among
likely voters -- Clinton's insists she's not rattled.
"I don't really pay attention to polls," she told reporters on her plane Tuesday. "When they are good for me, and
there have been a lot of them that have been good for me recently, I don't pay attention. When they are not so
good, I don't pay attention. We are on a course that we are sticking with."
A senior Clinton campaign official predicted single-digit battles across the swing states that will decide the
election. But ultimately her campaign stresses it expected a close race and single digit battles in swing states,
but believes it has multiple routes to 270 electoral votes and that Trump has a much narrower path
Some Clinton critics have, however, warned that her approach in August -- spending much of the month
fundraising away from TV cameras after the Democrats' successful convention in Philadelphia -- lacked the go-
for-broke energy of her rival.
"Trump is running a high-risk campaign right now. They have to, because they are behind and have eight weeks
to go," Newhouse, who was a pollster for 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said before
Clinton upped the pace after Labor Day.
"I don't think her campaign has shown any real guts or faith in their candidate. They're not bold. They are setting
themselves up for a potential loss by a thousand cuts."
Seizing on demographic and geographical advantages
It is without dispute that the hurdles for Trump are enormous. With assistance from teleprompters, he has
becomed more disciplined as a candidate, but he has yet to convince voters in swing states, where Clinton
leads most polls, that he is fit to be president.
For Clinton, the demographics of the electorate work in her favor, and she appears to be reassembling the
Obama coalition that was decisive in the 2008 and 2012 elections. She leads Trump among voters under the
age of 45 by 54% to 29% and among non-whites 71% to 18%, according to the CNN/ORC poll.
Democratic strategist and pollster Celinda Lake noted that Trump has consistently trailed by about 12 points
where Romney was among married women in 2012. Romney also ran strong among white women -- and led
President Barack Obama in exit polls among white women 56% to 42%.
Trump's campaign has yet to show any real effort to improve his image among women, beyond his attempt to
appear more moderate with his minority outreach to African-Americans.
Trump is also some 20 points behind his Democratic opponent among college-educated women, Lake said,
compared to Romney and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who were about 5 and 8 points behind,
respectively.
Beyond that, the demographic where Trump runs strongest -- non college-educated white men -- is dropping as
a share of the electorate each year.
"So he is relying on an ever-diminishing pool of votes, where she is relying on an ever-expanding portion of
votes," Lake said. To win, she said, "He would need to win the first debate; he would need to have a collapse of
Democratic turnout; and he would really need to close the race with independents and women."
The likelihood of those factors falling into place is slim. But the one way to put the race in reach for Trump, she
said, "is to assume that it's out of reach."
So the key for Clinton will be getting those vital constituencies out to vote. That's where her high-powered roster
of surrogates comes in.
Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and her primary foe Bernie Sanders remain highly
popular among key sectors of the Democratic coalition.
They will be vital to driving up swing-state turnout in Democratic strongholds like Cleveland, Philadelphia,
Northern Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, and parts of Florida that could decide the election.
Addressing the trust deficit
Clinton is certain to seize on any foreign policy or temperamental missteps by Trump to bolster her argument
that her foe is a "loose cannon" who can't be trusted with America's nuclear arsenal.
His efforts to reach out to minorities in recent weeks have managed, in some cases, to further alienate them.
His campaign has yet to demonstrate it can string together, not just a couple of good days, but a good two
months, given his disadvantages on the electoral map.
And beyond just having a good first debate later this month, Trump must force Clinton into making some
mistakes to have a chance of winning, strategists said.
The two candidates face similar hurdles in the sense that both may find it almost impossible to change voters'
opinions about them at this point. After all, Clinton and Trump are the most unpopular nominees of any major
party in memory.
Both Clinton and Trump are widely distrusted. In the CNN/ORC survey, only 42% had a favorable impression of
the former secretary of state while the real estate mogul was barely better with 45%.
Clinton clearly has work to do on the trust issue, though. Fifty percent of voters said Trump was more honest
and trustworthy. Only 35% chose Clinton.
"People just don't trust Hillary Clinton, and they don't trust her -- not on the basis of one single thing -- but on
the basis of whole collections of things going back over 20 to 30 years," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart,
noting that voters cite an array of her controversies from Whitewater to her email server.
The trust factor -- as well as the sense among many voters that they can't relate to Clinton or understand her as
person -- loom as challenges for the former secretary of state, because there is no one thing she can do in the
next two months to fix those issues.
Because of the depth of distrust, voters are unlikely to give her the benefit of the doubt if something goes
wrong, or she faces a new set of revelations, Hart said.
"They're locked in terms of who she is on the issue of integrity," Hart said. "There is not an individual issue that
she can address and that has a tremendous negative effect. All of this is baked in.... It doesn't mean that she's
going to lose the election. It's like driving your car on the shoulder: that's fine, unless a car nudges you over and
then you've got nothing going for you."
The trust factor -- as well as the sense among many voters that they can't relate to Clinton or understand her as
person -- loom as challenges for the former secretary of state, because she has been trying to do that
throughout the campaign, but has only a short time before voters begin casting absentee ballots.
Avoiding overconfidence -- and selling her message
A month ago, when she led Trump by double digits in the polls, Clinton's odds of victory looked good.
Historically the candidate who led in the polls two weeks after the conventions went on to win the election.
But this campaign has defied patterns of history before. Clinton's campaign warned against overconfidence, in
part to keep Democratic voters engaged.
Though Obama's numbers are above 50% -- no small achievement for a late-second-term president, Clinton
always faced a historically difficult feat as a candidate seeking the third successive term for the Democratic
Party.
Moreover, her three decades in politics made her a particularly ill-suited choice for an electorate whose chief
desire is change. She's effectively an incumbent with dynastic baggage facing an outsider candidate in Trump
who built a campaign on voter mistrust of establishment politicians.
But Clinton allies argue that her dual-pronged message has been more succinct this time than it was in 2008.
While many swing-state voters say in interviews they have no idea what her message is, her strategists say it is
piercing through in local markets where she is advertising: the idea that she will put families first while Trump
would put himself first; and that Americans are "stronger together" while Trump would be a divisive force.
Mo Elleithee, a former Democratic strategist who is now executive director of the Georgetown University Institute
of Politics and Public Service, pointed to one ad that Clinton ran just before the Nevada caucuses that he said
was a perfect distillation of that message. It was one featuring a little girl who was afraid that her parents would
get deported. Clinton told the girl to let her worry about it.
"It's incredibly hard for any positive message to break through" in this toxic political climate, Elleithee said. "If
she can make this: 'I've got your back' argument compelling enough, she can chip away" at voter distrust.
That work is important not only to help her win but also to help her govern, he said. "She needs to address that
issue now and continue until after the election.... She could win this race comfortably with no positive message,
but they should not mistake a comfortable win for a mandate."

The Dangerous Man In North Korea By Reuben Abati

Read his piece below...
When our public officials fall asleep while attending a meeting, or an official function, the standard Nigerian
reaction is to have a hearty laugh at their expense. Harmless laughter. You’d remember many photographs
of our lawmakers turning the National Assembly into an extension of their bedrooms, sometimes snoring
loudly in the middle of a heated and loud debate: not that many of them would be of much use anyway
even if they were awake.
Governors, commissioners, high ranking government officials have also all been caught at one time or the other,
sleeping on duty. Well, those whose circadian switches go off like that should count themselves really lucky they
are Nigerians. If they were to try that in North Korea, they will face the firing squad!
Yes, in North Korea, such careless sleeping attracts the death penalty. In that country of 25 million people,
there is a despot in power. He is Kim Jong-un. At 32, he is the world’s youngest leader but probably the most
dangerous man in the world. He rules his country like a concentration camp and continues to commit some of
the world’s most frightening crimes against humanity. Human lives mean nothing to him. He is so desperately
paranoid, the slightest act of irritation in his presence could make him commit murder. His word is law. He is
supreme commander, judge and executioner.
I was literally shivering when I read the latest horror story from Kim Jong-un’s North Korea. Two high-
ranking officials were ordered executed by the dictator. Ri Yong Jin, a senior official at the Ministry of Education,
was accused of putting up an “inappropriate posture” while “The Marshal” was delivering a speech. Ri Yong Jin’s
crime was that he dozed off. Former Agriculture Minister, Hwang Min’s crime was that he dared to disagree
with Kim’s guidelines for designing a working policy on agriculture. He developed his own ideas. He used his
own initiative. He was accused of trying to undermine the leader. Both Jin and Min were marched to the stakes
within 24 hours and executed with anti-aircraft guns. Kim Jong-un is not satisfied with an ordinary gun; his
victims have to face anti-aircraft guns, and you can imagine the impact of such a special purpose gun, targeted
at a human being.
Since assuming office in 2011, Kim Jong-un has murdered more than 70 persons, including elite
government officials who all lived in fear. His own uncle, Jang Song-taek, was one of the earliest victims at the
beginning of his dictatorship. Others include a military officer who was executed for drinking during the official
mourning period for Kim Jong II, Kim Jong-un’s father, and the proximate genetic source of his megalomania.
In 2015, the architect who designed a new airport terminal in Pyongyang was executed because Marshal Kim
did not like his design! And Ri Yong Jin won’t be the first man to die for succumbing to the call of nature. In
April, former Defence Minister Hyong Yong-Choi also faced the firing squad for falling asleep during an event.
The North Korean Human Rights situation is a threat to the whole of mankind. The use of execution, extra-
judicial killing, torture and forced labour as tools of political control is one of the worst abuses of power ever
known.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Kim Jong-un. The United Nations has also officially
condemned his atrocities, but Kim Jong-un is dangerous, again because of the nuclear power and missiles at
his disposal. Starkly egoistic as he is, he could throw the world into utter chaos, were he to press a nuclear
button. The United Nations Security Council has an obligation to take the situation in North Korea more
seriously. Kim Jong-un’s matter should be an urgent matter of concern for the International Criminal Court
(ICC).
I mean, to kill a man for falling asleep? Polysomnographers insist that there is nothing any one can do
about sleep. Even when you don’t suffer from somnipathy, when it is time for the body clock to switch off, it
does so on its own. The best option is to give in to nature so the body can rejuvenate. Many public officials
and business executives run crazy schedules. They over-stretch themselves, either travelling over long distances
and rushing from one meeting to another, without any opportunity to take a few moments of rest - jet-lagged,
tired or exhausted, they could doze off. This is why at many meetings, there is always a coffee pot on standby
or sweets or as I have seen, kolanuts and just about anything that you can put in your mouth to enable you
focus on the event at hand. But even these offer limited help. Balancing work with rest is often a challenge for
busy people. The whole world knows this, except Kim Jong-un who is so insecure he cannot stand other
people’s humanity.
I think of all the government officials in Nigeria who sleep during meetings. If they were to be in North Korea,
they would all be dead by now. I recall incidents involving soldiers on parade, even soldiers of the Guards’
Brigade, suddenly slumping, drawing sympathy, and one particular incident involving a former Minister of State
for Defence, who suddenly slumped while standing at attention at a military event. Try that in North Korea:
immediate execution by a firing squad would be the result. And if I were North Korean myself, and I had served
as official spokesperson to Kim Jong-un, I would have been executed by a firing squad long before 2015.
I used to doze off too at meetings. My boss ran a tough schedule and he had more stamina than his staff.
We could return from a foreign trip by 2 am, and we would all be expected to be at work by 8 am. If you know
how these things work, it could take another two hours to properly disengage and go home, leaving you with
only two hours of sleep. In our case, the principal would have been up and about by 6 am (only God knows
how he always did it) to attend morning devotion and spend some time in the gym, all before 8 am. We the
principal aides would struggle to arrive, still sleepy but struggling to appear capable. Sometimes, the source of
the grogginess may not be jet-lag but just work (and God, we worked!).
From one meeting to the other or a function after another, in the course of the day, I used to doze off
occasionally. Note taking often kept me awake, but there were moments when I simply lost control. You know
that kind of thing: you’d suddenly realize it and jerkily regain consciousness. On such occasions, I often caught
the President glancing at me. But one day, I guess I overdid it. In the middle of a meeting, I must have snored
– that kind of snoring that produces noisy decibels and note-changing, level-revising, rhythmic modulations. It
was the President’s voice that shook me out of the slumber.
“Abati, what is that?”
I opened my eyes.
“Next time you are feeling sleepy, just go out, walk around for a few minutes and come back. But don’t snore
when we are having a meeting.”
In North Korea, that would have earned me an appearance not before an anti-aircraft gun, may be an
armoured tank! Kim Jong-un is crazy. The problem is not form; it is the psychology of power. The civilized world
must stand up for the right of every human being to be human and not have to die because of a leader’s ego.
There is a nightmare going on in North Korea and that is probably better explained by the number of North
Koreans who are fleeing to the neighbouring countries of Japan, China and South Korea.
North Korea - the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK!) - is a hermit state where even the right
to information or free speech is impossible. People are not allowed to communicate with the outside world,
there are restrictions on movement and rights of association, there are no labour rights, the state is so
repressive, there is even a strict national policy on men’s haircut: not more than 2cm hair growth is allowed.
Why? You can’t grow your hair higher than that of the self-styled “great person born of heaven!” What exists in
that country is not leadership, but a cult of personality, and the only personality is the leader whose legitimation
derives not from the people but dynastic inheritance. North Korea is a living demonstration of the dangers of
power acquired not on the grounds of intellectual brilliance or competence or the people’s choice, but heredity.
Regime-change is a popular phrase in closed-door international circles, what is needed in North Korea is not
just regime change, but a people’s revolution that takes power away from class dynasty and hands it over to the
people. The world has enough dangerous men already, tolerating a schizophrenic in the Korean Peninsula who
has access to nuclear power makes the world a bit more dangerous than it is already.

Gog and Magog

Gog and Magog (/ɡɒɡ/ ; /ˈmeɪɡɒɡ/ ;
Hebrew: גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג Gog u-Magog ) in the
Hebrew Bible may be individuals, peoples, or lands; a prophesized enemy of God's people according to the Book of Ezekiel, but the people mentioned in
Genesis bear no such ominous connection.
The Gog prophecy is meant to be fulfilled at the approach of what is called the " end of days ", but this does not necessarily signify the end of the world, but only just "latter days" leading to a new age of lasting peace. Later Jewish eschatology viewed Gog and Magog as enemies to be defeated by Messiah ben Joseph, which ushers the age of the true
Messiah. Whereas Christianity 's interpretation is more starkly
apocalyptic: making Gog and Magog allies of Satan against God at the end of the millennium , as can be read in the
Book of Revelation .
To Gog and Magog were also attached a legend, certainly current by the Roman period , that they were peoples contained beyond the Gates of Alexander erected by Alexander the Great. Romanized Jewish historian Josephus knew them as the people descended from Magog the Japhethite, as in Genesis, and explained them to be the Scythians . In the hands of Early Christian writers they became apocalyptic hordes, and throughout the Medieval period variously identified as the Huns , Khazars , Mongols, or other nomads, or even the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel .
Deriving from this legend, Gog and Magog make appearances in the Alexander Romances . In one version, Unclean Nations who have "Goth and Magoth" named among their kings are encountered by Alexander. They are said to engage in human cannibalism in the romances and other literature. The Gog and Magog people are also depicted on Medieval cosmological maps or Mappa mundi , sometimes alongside Alexander's wall.
They appear in the Quran as Yajuj and Majuj (Arabic : ﻳﺄﺟﻮﺝ ﻭﻣﺄﺟﻮﺝ Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj ), adversaries of Dhul-Qarnayn, widely equated with al-Iskanadar (Alexander the Great) in Islam. Muslim geographers identified them at first with Turkic tribes from Central Asia and later with the Mongols. In modern times they remain associated with apocalyptic thinking, especially in the United States and the Muslim world.

The names Gog and Magog

The first mention of the two names occurs in the Book of Ezekiel, where Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10 Magog is a person, son of Japheth son of Noah , but no Gog is mentioned; and in Revelation Gog and Magog together are the hostile nations of the world. [1][2] Gog or Goug the Reubenite[a] occurs in 1 Chronicles 5:4, but he appears to have no connection with the Gog of Ezekiel or Magog of Genesis. [4]
The form "Gog and Magog" may have emerged as shorthand for "Gog and/of the land of Magog", based on their usage in the
Septuagint , the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. [5] An example of this combined form in Hebrew ( Gog u-Magog ) has been found, but its context is unclear, being preserved only in a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls . [b][6]
The meaning of the name Gog remains uncertain, and in any case the author of the Ezekiel prophecy seems to attach no particular importance to it; efforts have been made to identify him with various individuals, notably Gyges , a king of Lydia in the early 7th century, but many scholars do not believe he is related to any historical person. [7] The name Magog is equally obscure, but may come from the Assyrian mat-Gugu , "Land of Gyges", i.e., Lydia. [8] Alternatively, Gog may be derived from Magog rather than the other way round, and "Magog" may be code for
Babylon. [c][9][10]
The Biblical "Gog and Magog" possibly gave derivation of the name Gogmagog , a legendary British giant encountered by
Brutus's crew. A later corrupted folk tradition ( chapbook version) altered this to an encounter with two giants Gog and Magog, with whom the Guildhall statues came to be identified. [d][16][17]

Judeo-Christian texts

The Book of Ezekiel records a series of visions received by the 6th century BC prophet Ezekiel, a priest of Solomon's Temple who was among the captive during the Babylonian exile . The exile, he tells his fellow captives, is God 's punishment on Israel for turning away, but God will restore his people to Jerusalem when they return to him. [18] After this message of reassurance, chapters 38–39 , the Gog oracle, tell how Gog of Magog and his hordes will threaten the restored Israel but will be destroyed, after which God will establish a new Temple and dwell with his people for a period of lasting peace (chapters 40–48). [19]
"Son of man, direct your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy concerning him. Say: Thus said the Lord: Behold, I am against you, Gog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal ... Persia, Cush and Put will be with you ... also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you." [20]
Although the prophecy refers to Gog as an enemy in some future, it is not clear if the confrontation is meant to occur in a final " end of days " since the Hebrew term aḥarit ha-yamim (Hebrew : אחרית הימים ) may merely mean "latter days", and is open to interpretation. Twentieth-century scholars have used the term to denote the eschaton in a malleable sense, not necessarily meaning final days, or tied to the Apocalypse. [e][21] Still, the Utopia of chapters 40–48 can be spoken of in the parlance of "true eschatological character, given that it is a product of "cosmic conflict" described in the immediately preceding Gog chapters. [22]
In all the books of the Old Testament, Gog appears only in these chapters. [f][24] Of Gog's allies, Meshech and Tubal were 7th-century kingdoms in central Anatolia north of Israel, Persia towards east, Cush (Ethiopia) and Put (Libya) to the south; Gomer is the Cimmerians , a nomadic people north of the Black Sea, and Beth-Togarmah was on the border of Tubal. [25] The confederation thus represents a multinational alliance surrounding Israel. [26] "Why the prophet's gaze should have focused on these particular nations is unclear," but possibly their remoteness and reputation for violence and mystery "made Gog and his confederates perfect symbols of the archetypal enemy, rising against God and his people". [27]
Internal evidence indicates that the Gog oracle is substantially later than the chapters around it and was composed between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC. [28] The author has created his list of Gog's allies by blending names from Genesis 10, the "Table of Nations "–Magog, Meshek, Tubal, Cush, Put, and Gomer–with the names of Tyre 's trading partners in Ezekiel 27, which includes all these names except Magog, plus Persia–and has decided they are the end-time enemies of Israel by means of Isaiah 66:19, which has several of the names and, like the Gog prophecy, addresses an eschatological future. [29]

Gog and Magog from Ezekiel to Revelation

Over the next few centuries Jewish tradition changed Ezekiel's Gog from Magog into Gog and Magog. [31] The process, and the shifting geography of Gog and Magog, can be traced through the literature of the period. The 3rd book of the Sibylline Oracles , for example, which originated in Egyptian Judaism in the middle of the 2nd century BC, [32] changes Ezekiel's "Gog from Magog" to "Gog and Magog," links their fate with up to eleven other nations, and places them "in the midst of Aethiopian rivers"; this seems a strange location, but ancient geography did sometimes place Ethiopia next to Persia or even India. [33] The passage has a highly uncertain text, with manuscripts varying in their groupings of the letters of the Greek text into words, leading to different readings; one group of manuscripts ("group Y") links them with the " Marsians and Dacians", in eastern Europe, amongst others. [34]
The Book of Jubilees , from about the same time, makes three references to either Gog or Magog: in the first, Magog is a descendant of Noah, as in Genesis 10; in the second, Gog is a region next to Japheth's borders; and in the third, a portion of Japheth's land is assigned to Magog. [35] The 1st-century Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum , which retells Biblical history from Adam to Saul, is notable for listing and naming seven of Magog's sons, and mentions his "thousands" of descendants. [36] The Samaritan Torah and the
Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made during the last few centuries of the pre-Christian era) occasionally introduce the name of Gog where the Hebrew original has something else, or use Magog where the Hebrew has Gog, indicating that the names were interchangeable. [37]
Chapters 19:11–21:8 of the Book of Revelation , dating from the end of the 1st century AD, [38] tells how
Satan is to be imprisoned for a thousand years, and how, on his release, he will rally "the nations in the four corners of the Earth, Gog and Magog," to a final battle with Christ and his saints: [2]
"When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the Earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore." [39]

Midrashic writings

After the failure of the anti-Roman Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century AD which looked to a human leader as the promised messiah , Jews began to conceive of the messianic age in supernatural terms: first would come a forerunner, the Messiah ben Joseph, who would defeat Israel's enemies, identified as Gog and Magog, to prepare the way for the Messiah ben David ; [g] then the dead would rise, divine judgement would be handed out, and the righteous would be rewarded. [41][42]
The aggadah , homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism , treat Gog and Magog as two names for the same nation who will come against Israel in the final war. [43] The rabbis associated no specific nation or territory with them beyond a location to the north of Israel, [44] but the great Jewish scholar Rashi identified the Christians as their allies and said God would thwart their plan to kill all Israel. [45]

Alexander the Great

The 1st century Jewish historian Josephus identified the Gog and Magog people as Scythians , horse-riding barbarians from around the Don and the Sea of Azov. Josephus recounts the tradition that Gog and Magog were locked up by Alexander the Great behind iron gates in the "Caspian Mountains", generally identified with the
Caucasus Mountains. This legend must have been current in contemporary Jewish circles by this period, coinciding with the beginning of the Christian Era. [h][49] Several centuries later, this material was vastly elaborated in the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius and
Alexander Romance. [50]

Precursor texts in Syriac

The Pseudo-Methodius , written originally in Syriac, is considered the source of Gog and Magog tale incorporated into Western versions of the Alexander Romance. [51][52] An earlier-dated Syriac Alexander Legend contains a somewhat different treatment of the Gog and Magog material, which passed into the lost Arabic version, [53] or the Ethiopic and later Oriental versions of the Alexander romance. [54][i]
In the Syriac Alexander Legend dating to 629–630, Gog (Syriac : ܓܘܓ, gwg) and Magog (Syriac : ܓܘܓܡܵ, mgwg) appear as kings of Hunnish nations. [j][55] Written by a Christian based in Mesopotamia, the Legend is considered the first work to connect the Gates with the idea that Gog and Magog are destined to play a role in the apocalypse. [56] The legend claims that Alexander carved prophecies on the face of the Gate, marking a date for when these Huns, consisting of 24 nations, will breach the Gate and subjugate the greater part of the world. [k][57][58]
The Pseudo-Methodius added a new element into the narrative: two mountains moving together to narrow the corridor, which was then sealed with a gate against Gog and Magog. This idea found its way into both the Western Alexander Romance and the Quran. [59]

Alexander romances

This Gog and Magog legend is not found earlier versions of the Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes, whose oldest manuscript dates to the 3rd century, [l] but an interpolation into recensions around the 8th century. [m][61] In the latest and longest Greek version [n] are described the Unclean Nations, which include the Goth and Magoth as their kings, and whose people engage in the habit of eating worms, dogs, human
cadaver and fetuses. [62] They were allied to Belsyrians (Bebrykes, [63] of Bythinia in modern-day North
Turkey ), and sealed beyond the "Breasts of the North", a pair of mountains fifty-days' march away towards the north. [o][62]
Gog and Magog appear in somewhat later Old French versions of the romance. [p][64] In the verse Roman d'Alexandre , Branch III, of Lambert le Tort ( fr ) (ca. 1170), Gog and Magog ("Gos et Margos", "Got et Margot") were vassals to Porus, king of India, providing an auxilliary force of 400,000 men. [q] Routed by Alexander, they escaped through a defile in the mountains of Tus (or Turs), [r] and were sealed by the wall erected there, to last until the advent of the Antichrist. [s][65][66] Branch IV of the poetic cycle tells that the task of guarding Gog and Magog, as well as the rule of Syria and Persia was assigned to Antigonus , one of Alexander's successors. [67]
Gog and Magog also appear in Thomas de Kent's
Roman de toute chevalerie (ca. 1180), where they are portrayed as cave-dwellers who consume human flesh. A condensed account occurs in a derivative work, the Middle English King Alisaunder (vv. 5938–6287). [68][69]
[70] In the 13th century French Roman d'Alexandre en prose, Alexander has an encounter with cannibals who have taken over the role of Gog and Magog. [71] This is a case of imperfect transmission, since the prose Alexander's source, the Latin work by Archpriest Leo of Naples known as Historia de Preliis, does mention "Gogh et Macgogh", at least in some manuscripts. [72]
The Gog and Magog are not only human flesh-eaters, but illustrated as men "a notably beaked nose" in examples such as the "Henry of Mainz map", an important example of Mappa mundi . [73] Gog and Magog caricaturized as figures with hooked noses on a miniature depitcting their attack of the Holy City, found in a manuscript of the Apocalypse in Anglo-Norman. [t][30]

Identification with civilizations

Early Christian writers (e.g. Eusebius) frequently identified Gog and Magog with the Romans and their emperor. [74] After the Empire became Christian, Ambrose (d.397) identified Gog with the Goths , Jerome (d.420) with the Scythians and Jordanes (died c.555) said that Goths, Scythians and Amazons were all the same; he also cited Alexander's gates in the Caucasus. [75][u] The Byzantine writer Procopius said it was the Huns Alexander had locked out, and a Western monk named Fredegar seems to have Gog and Magog in mind in his description of savage hordes from beyond Alexander's gates who had assisted the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (610–641) against the Saracens . [77]

Nomadic identification

As one nomadic people followed another on the Eurasian steppes, so the identification of Gog and Magog shifted. In the 9th and 10th centuries these kingdoms were identified by some with the lands of the Khazars , a Turkic people who had converted to Judaism and whose empire dominated Central Asia–the 9th-century monk Christian of Stavelot referred to Gazari, said of the Khazars that they were "living in the lands of Gog and Magog" and noted that they were "circumcised and observing all [the laws of] Judaism". [78][79] Arab traveler ibn Fadlan also reported of this belief, writing around 921 he recorded that "Some hold the opinion that Gog and Magog are the Khazars". [80] According to the famous Khazar Correspondence (c. 960), King Joseph of Khazaria claimed that his people were the descendants of "Kozar", the seventh son of Togarmah , though he makes no mention of Gog and Magog. [81]
After the Khazars came the Mongols, seen as a mysterious and invincible horde from the east who destroyed Muslim empires and kingdoms in the early 13th century; kings and popes took them for the legendary Prester John , marching to save Christians from the Saracens , but when they entered Poland and Hungary and annihilated Christian armies a terrified Europe concluded that they were "Magogoli", the offspring of Gog and Magog, released from the prison Alexander had constructed for them and heralding
Armageddon. [82]
Europeans in Medieval China reported findings from their travels to the Mongol Empire . Some accounts and maps began to place the "Caspian Mountains", and Gog and Magog, just outside the Great Wall of China . The Tartar Relation, an obscure account of Friar Carpini's 1240s journey to Mongolia, is unique in alleging that these Caspian Mountains in Mongolia, "where the Jews called Gog and Magog by their fellow countrymen are said to have been shut in by Alexander", were moreover purported by the Tartars to be magnetic, causing all iron equipment and weapons to fly off toward the mountains on approach. [83] In 1251, the French friar André de Longjumeau informed his king that the Mongols originated from a desert further east, and an apocalyptic Gog and Magog ("Got and Margoth") people dwelled further beyond, confined by the mountains. [84]
In fact, Gog and Magog were held by the Mongol to be their ancestors, at least by some segment of the population. As traveler and Friar Riccoldo da Monte di Croce put it in ca. 1291, " They say themselves that they are descended from Gog and Magog: and on this account they are called Mogoli , as if from a corruption of Magogoli". [85][86][87] Marco Polo, traveling when the initial terror had subsided, places Gog and Magog among the Tartars in Tenduc, but then claims that the names Gog and Magog are translations of the place-names Ung and Mungul, inhabited by the Ung and Mongols respectively. [88][89]
An explanation offered by Orientalist Henry Yule was that Marco Polo was only referring to the "Rampart of Gog and Magog", a name for the Great Wall of China. [90] Friar André's placement of Gog and Magog far east of Mongolia has been similarly explained. [84]

The confined Jews

Some time around the 12th century, the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel came to be identified with Gog and Magog; [91] possibly the first to do so was Petrus Comestor in Historica Scholastica (ca. 1169–1173), [92]
[93] and he was indeed a far greater influence than others before him, although the idea had been anticipated by the aforementioned Christian of Stavelot, who noted that the Khazhars, to be identified with Gog and Magog, was one of seven tribes of the Hungarians and had converted to Judaism. [78][79]
While the confounding Gog and Magog as confined Jews was becoming commonplace, some, like Riccoldo or Vincent de Beauvais remained skeptics, and distinguished the Lost Tribes from Gog and Magog. [85][94]
[95] As noted, Riccoldo had reported a Mongol folk-tradition that they were descended Gog and Magog. He also addressed many minds (Westerners or otherwise[96] ) being credulous of the notion that Mongols might be Captive Jews, but after weighing the pros and cons, he concluded this was an open question. [v][87][97]
The Flemish Franciscan monk William of Rubruck , who was first-hand witness to Alexander's wall in Derbent on the shores of the Caspian Sea in 1254, [w] identified the people the walls were meant to fend off only vaguely as "wild tribes" or "desert nomads", [x][100] but one researcher made the inference Rubruck must have meant Jews, [y] and that he was speaking in the context of "Gog and Magog". [z][96] Confined Jews were later to be referred to as "Red Jews" ( die roten juden) in German-speaking areas; a term first used in a
Holy Grail epic dating to the 1270s, in which Gog and Magog were two mountains enclosing these people. [aa][101]
The author of the Travels of Sir John Mandeville , a 14th-century best-seller, said he had found these Jews in Central Asia where as Gog and Magog they had been imprisoned by Alexander, plotting to escape and join with the Jews of Europe to destroy Christians. [102]

Gog and Magog in Muslim tradition

The conflation of Gog and Magog with the legend of Alexander and the Iron Gates was disseminated throughout the Near East in the early centuries of the Christian era. [104] In Islam, Alexander probably lies behind the figure of Dhul-Qarnayn , "the two-horned one", mentioned in Surah 18 of the Qu'ran. [105] Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander), having journeyed to the ends of the world, meets "a people who scarcely understood a word" who seek his help in building a barrier that will separate them from the people of Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog), who "do great mischief on earth". He agrees to build it for them, but warns that when the time comes (Last Age), Allah will remove the barrier and Yajuj and Majuj will swarm through. [106]
The early Muslim traditions were summarised by Zakariya al-Qazwini (d. 1283) in two popular works called the Cosmography and the Geography. Gog and Magog, he says, live near to the sea that encircles the Earth and can be counted only by God; they are only half the height of a normal man, with claws instead of nails and a hairy tail and huge hairy ears which they use as mattress and cover for sleeping. [107] They scratch at their wall each day until they almost break through, and each night God restores it, but when they do break through they will be so numerous that "their vanguard is in Syria and their rear in Khorasan ". [108]
When Yajuj and Majuj were identified with real peoples it was the Turks, who threatened Baghdad and northern Iran; [109] later, when the Mongols destroyed Baghdad in 1258, it was they who were Gog and Magog. [110] The wall dividing them from civilised peoples was normally placed towards Armenia and
Azerbaijan , but in the year 842 the Caliph Al-Wathiq had a dream in which he saw that it had been breached, and sent an official named Sallam to investigate. [111] Sallam returned a little over two years later and reported that he had seen the wall and also the tower where Dhul Qarnayn had left his building equipment, and all was still intact. [112] It is not entirely clear what Sallam saw, but he may have reached the Jade Gate, the westernmost customs point on the border of China. [113] Somewhat later the 14th-century traveller Ibn Battuta reported that the wall was sixty days' travel from the city of Zeitun , which is on the coast of China; the translator notes that Ibn Battuta has confused the Great Wall of China with that built by Dhul-Qarnayn . [114]

Modern apocalypticism

In the early 19th century, some Chasidic rabbis identified Napoleon's invasion of Russia as "The War of Gog and Magog". [115] But as the century progressed, apocalyptic expectations receded as the populace in Europe began to adopt an increasingly secular worldview. [116] This has not been the case in the U.S., where a 2002 poll indicated that 59% of Americans believed the events predicted in the Book of Revelation would come to pass. [117] During the Cold War the idea that Russia had the role of Gog gained popularity, since Ezekiel's words describing him as "prince of Meshek"— rosh meshek in Hebrew—sounded suspiciously like Russia and Moscow. [18] Even some Russians took up the idea, apparently unconcerned by the implications ("Ancestors were found in the Bible, and that was enough"), as did Ronald Reagan. [118][119]
Post Cold War-millenarians still identify Gog with Russia, but they now tend to stress his allies among Islamic nations, especially Iran . [120] For the most fervent, the countdown to Armageddon began with the return of the Jews to Israel, followed quickly by further signs pointing to the nearness of the final battle–nuclear weapons, European integration, Israel's seizure of Jerusalem, and America's wars in Afghanistan and the Gulf. [121] In the prelude to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq , President George W. Bush told Jacques Chirac, "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East". "This confrontation", he urged the French leader, "is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase His people's enemies before a new age begins". [122] Chirac consulted a professor at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Lausanne (Switzerland ) to explain Bush's reference. [123] William Inboden has questioned the veracity of the alleged Bush quotation, pointing out that administration insiders are unaware of such a conversation ever taking place, and the trail of references for this quote leads to a dead end with no reliable original source. [124]
In the Islamic apocalyptic tradition the end of the world would be preceded by the release of Gog and Magog, whose destruction by God in a single night would usher in the Day of Resurrection. [125] Reinterpretation did not generally continue after Classical times, but the needs of the modern world have produced a new body of apocalyptic literature in which Gog and Magog are identified as the Jews and Israel, or the Ten Lost Tribes, or sometimes as Communist Russia and China. [126] One problem these writers have had to confront is the barrier holding Gog and Magog back, which is not to be found in the modern world: the answer varies, some writers saying that Gog and Magog were the Mongols and that the wall is now gone, others that both the wall and Gog and Magog are invisible.

Al-Masih ad-Dajjal

Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (Arabic :
ﺍﻟﻤﺴﻴﺢ ﺍﻟﺪﺟّﺎﻝ Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl, "the false messiah", or "the deceiver") is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. [1] He is to appear, pretending to be al-Masih (i.e. the Messiah), before Yawm al-Qiyamah (the Day of Resurrection). He is to be an anti-messianic figure, comparable to the
Antichrist in Christian eschatology and to Armilus in medieval Jewish eschatology.

Name [ edit source ]
Dajjāl is an adjective of Syriac origin. [2] It is also a common Arabic word (ﺩﺟﺎﻝ) whose root is dajl meaning "lie" or "deception". Al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl , with the definite article al- ("the"), refers to "the deceiving Messiah", a specific end-of times deceiver. The Dajjāl is an evil being who will seek to impersonate the true Messiah.
The name Dajjal also is rooted in an Arabic word dajel, which means to gold plate or coat in gold.
Hadith [ edit source]
According to hadith ,
Muhammad is said to have prophesied that the Masih ad-Dajjal would be the last of a series of thirty Dajjal or "deceivers". [3]
Muhammad is reported to have said:
...Ad-Dajjal is blind in the right eye and his eye looks like a bulging out grape. [4]
Ali was reported to have said:
His right eye will be punctured, and his left eye would be raised to his forehead and will be sparkling like a star. Only the believers will be able to read the word
‘Kafir’ [disbeliever], inscribed in bold letters, on his forehead. There will be big mountains of smoke at both front and backsides of his caravan. People will anticipate food within those mountains, during the severe famine. All rivers, falling in his way, will become dry and he will call upon people in a loud voice, "O my friends come to me! I am your lord who has made your limbs and given you sustenance. [5]
Muhammad is reported to have said:
If he comes forth while I am among you I shall be the one who will dispute with him on your behalf, but if he comes forth when I am not among you, a man must dispute on his own behalf, and Allah will take my place in looking after every Muslim. Those of you who live up to his time should recite over him the opening verses of Surat al–Kahf, for they are your protection from his trial. We asked: How long will he remain on the earth ? He replied : Forty days, one like a year, one like a month, one like a week, and rest of his days like yours. We asked : Messenger of Allah, will one day’s prayer suffice us in this day which will be like a year ? He replied : No, you must make an estimate of its extent. Then Jesus son of Mary will descend at the white minaret to the east of Damascus. He will then catch him up at the gate of Ludd and kill him. [6]
Muhammad is reported to have said:
The flourishing state of Jerusalem will be when Yathrib is in ruins, the ruined state of Yathrib will be when the great war comes, the outbreak of the great war will be at the conquest of Constantinople and the conquest of Constantinople when the
Dajjal (Antichrist ) comes forth. He (the Prophet) struck his thigh or his shoulder with his hand and said: This is as true as you are here or as you are sitting (meaning Mu'adh ibn Jabal). [7]
Signs of coming of Al-Masih ad-Dajjal [ edit source ]
Hadith attributed to Muhammad give many signs of the appearance of the
Dajjal, and exhorted his followers to recite the first and last ten verses of Sura
Al-Kahf (chapter 18 in the Qur'an), as protection from the trials and mischief of the Dajjal . [5][8] The following signs are ascribed to Ali in the coming of Dajjal: [5]
People will stop offering the prayers
Dishonesty will be the way of life
Falsehood will become a virtue
People will mortgage their faith for worldly gain
Usury and bribery will become legitimate
There will be acute famine at the time
There will be no shame amongst people
Many people would worship Satan
There would be no respect for elderly people
Signs of emergence [ edit source ]
Drying up of Sea of Galilee .
When date-palm trees of Baisan stop bearing fruit. [9]
Worship of satan becomes common.
The conquest of Constantinople. [7]
Eschatology [ edit source ]
See also: Islamic eschatology , Mahdi, and
Jesus in Islam
It was narrated that Abu Bakr Siddiq said:
"The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ ) told us: 'Dajjal will emerge in a land in the east called Khorasan, and will be followed by people with faces like hammered shields.'" [10] and will travel the whole world preaching his falsehood, but will be unable to enter Mecca and
Medina. [4] Isa (Jesus) will
return and the Dajjal will gather an army of 70,000 from Isfahan , of those he has deceived and lead them in a war against Jesus who shall be accompanied by an army of the righteous, along with Imam Mahdi .
Sunni [ edit source]
Sunni Muslims believe that Isa will descend on Mount Afeeq, on the white Eastern Minaret of Damascus . He will descend from the heavens with his hands resting on the shoulders of two angels . [11] His cheeks will be flat and his hair straight. When he lowers his head it will seem as if water is flowing from his hair, when he raises his head, it will appear as though his hair is beaded with silvery pearls. [12] He will descend during Fajr (sunrise) and the leader of the Muslims will address him thus, "O' Prophet of God, lead the prayer." Isa will decline with the words, "The virtue of this nation that follows Islam is that they lead each other." Implying that he will pray behind the imam (the man that leads the prayings (Mahdi)) as the word of God was completed after revelation of Qur'an and Muhammad being the last prophet of God. [12]
After the prayer, Isa will prepare himself to do battle and shall take up a sword. An army shall return from a campaign launched before the arrival of Isa. Isa shall set out in pursuit of Dajjal. All those who embraced the evil of Dajjal shall perish even as the breath of Isa touches them. The breath of Isa shall precede him as far as the eye can see. Dajjal will be captured at the gate of Lod . Dajjal shall begin to melt, as salt dissolves in water. The spear of Isa shall plunge into Dajjal’s chest, ending his dreaded reign. [13][14] The followers of Dajjal will be rooted out, for even the trees and rocks will speak out against them. Isa will break the cross and kill the pig (the animal). Then all battles shall cease and the world will know an age of peace. The rule of Isa will be just and all shall flock to him to enter the folds of the one true religion, Islam.
Shi'a [ edit source]
Shias believe that Dajjal will be killed by Muhammad al-Mahdi . [15][16]
Ahmadiyya [ edit source]
The Ahmadiyya take the prophecies about the Dajjal as pertaining to a collectivity of people centred upon deception instead of one individual. Ahmadiyya teachings interpret the prophecies regarding the appearance of the
Dajjal (Anti-Christ) and Gog and Magog in Islamic eschatology as foretelling, in essence, the emergence of two branches or aspects of the same turmoil and trial that was to be faced by Islam in the latter days and that both emerged from Christianity or Christian nations. Hence the reason why Muhammad specifically exhorted the recitation of the first and last ten verses of Sura Al-Kahf (chapter 18 of the Quran) as protection from the Dajjal. [17][18] Its Dajjal aspect relates to deception and perversion of religious belief while its aspect to do with deception and disturbance in the realm of politics and the shattering of world peace has been called Gog and Magog. the Dajjal being blind in his right eye while being sharp and oversized in his left is seen as indicative of being devoid of religious insight and spiritual light but excelling in worldly and material attainment, with the right eye representing godliness and spirituality, and the left eye representing worldliness . [18]
Ahmadis consider the widespread Christian missionary activity that was aggressively active in the 18th and 19th centuries and whose spread was propelled by the Industrial Revolution as being part of the prophesied Dajjal (Antichrist) and view Gog and Magog as emerging in modern times out of predominantly Christian nations. [18] Accordingly, the emergence of Russia and the United States as superpowers and the conflict between the two nations (i.e., the rivalry between communism and capitalism and their influence over the nations of the world) are seen as having occurred in accordance with certain prophecies regarding Gog and Magog. [19] Thus, Ahmadis believe that prophecies and sayings about the Antichrist are not to be understood literally, they have deeper meanings. Masih ad-Dajjal is then a name given to latter day Christianity and the west . [20]
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement whom Ahmadis believe to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi , writes extensively about dajjal in his books, in Shahādat-ul-Qurān , which is briefly mentioned in a topic-based, five-volume collection of his writings titled "Essence of Islam", he states:
The Holy Qur’an then specifies that in the latter days the Christians will dominate the earth, and they shall be the cause of all kinds of mischief running rampant. Waves of calamities will rise on all sides and will race down from every height ... They will possess great material strength and dominion, against which all other powers and states will seem powerless. They will also enjoy supremacy in all kinds of knowledge and sciences and establish new and wonderful industries. They will also be dominant in their policies, projects, and good administration, and will show great resolve in their worldly enterprises and will also excel in their endeavour to spread their faith. They will leave behind all other nations in their social, agricultural and commercial policies, as indeed in everything else.
—  Shahādat-ul-Qurān , page 361-362 [21]
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad gives a more direct definition of the meaning of Dajjal:
As to the Antichrist, now listen, I will explain to you the reality on the basis of the clear and pure revelation that I have received. Then understand, my dear ones, that it has been disclosed to me that the reference to the Antichrist as one individual is not designed to indicate his personal individuality, but his unity as a class, meaning thereby that in that class there will be a unity of ideas as is, indeed, indicated by the word Dajjal itself and in this name there are many Signs for those who reflect. The meaning of the word Dajjal is a chain of deceptive ideas, the links of which are so attached to each other as if it was a structure of equal-sized bricks of the same colour, quality and strength, some of them firmly overlapping others and further strengthened by being plastered from outside. [22]
Thus essentially the Dajjal is not believed to be a physical person or an individual but as representing a collectivity of people who would pose a great challenge to Islam; it is, essentially, a name given to the European nations of the latter days. In contrast to the Christians and mainstream Muslims who believe
Jesus to be still alive and one who would return himself towards the end of time, Ahmadis believe that Jesus is not alive but survived crucifixion and died a natural death. [23][24] The prophecies concerning the second coming of Jesus are thus interpreted as the coming of one from within Islam in the likeness of Jesus, who will correct the doctrines of Christianity which from the perspective of Islam are deemed erroneous and establish the truth of Islam to the world especially as against western scientific and philosophical ideals. Ahmadis believe their founder Ghulam Ahmad to have fulfilled in his person the prophecies of the second advent of Jesus by representing Islam in its pristine form and having revived the high morals it inculcates. Moreover, Ahmadi Muslims also believe the "Promised Messiah" and the "Mahdi " are the same person, and that it is through his teachings, influence and prayers – and those of his successors and followers – that Islam will eventually overcome the Anti-Christ or Dajjal in a period similar to the period of time it took for nascent Christianity to rise (see also: Ahmadiyya relationship with Christianity ); and that the Dajjal's power will slowly fade away, heralding the prophecised final victory of Islam and the age of peace. They also believe that the 'Gate of Lud' mentioned in certain Hadith refers to Ludgate where St Paul is thought to have preached the message of Christianity according to the Sonnini Manuscript of the
Acts of the Apostles .