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Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah & Imam Mahdi
The Promised Messiah (as) wrote over 80 books in Arabic, Urdu, and Persian. Excerpts of his collected works have been translated into English and organised by topic.
The Review of Religions is pleased to present these excerpts as part of a monthly feature. In this issue, the Promised Messiah (as) elucidates the true meaning of Dajjal, also known as the Antichrist in various faiths.
This is the second part of a multi-part series.
Extracts from The Essence of Islam – Vol. III. pp. 287-293.
The Meaning of Dajjal Circuiting the Ka‘bah
Our Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saw in a vision that the Dajjal was performing the circuit of the Ka‘bah, and was doing it stealthily, like a thief, so that he could destroy the Ka‘bah whenever the opportunity offered…Obviously, no one can say that the Dajjal would actually become a Muslim and perform the circuit of the Ka‘bah. Every intelligent person will interpret this revelation as a vision through which the spiritual condition of the Dajjal was revealed to the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and that this allegory presented itself to him in a vision in which he saw the Dajjal was circuiting the Ka‘bah like an actual person. What it meant was that the Dajjal would be a bitter enemy of Islam and would hover around the Ka‘bah with evil intentions. We know that just as the watchman goes around the houses at night, so does a thief. But while the watchman seeks to protect the houses and to catch the thief, the thief’s motive is to steal and plunder. Thus the interpretation of this vision of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is that the Dajjal will be preoccupied with trying to violate the sanctity of the Ka‘bah, while the Promised Messiah, who was also seen performing circuit of the Ka‘bah, would be busy protecting the House of Allah and trying to apprehend the Dajjal.
—Ayyam al-Sulh, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 14, pp. 274-275
The fact that both the Promised Messiah and the Dajjal will perform circuits of the Ka‘bah proves that this does not mean that they will physically perform circuits of the Ka‘bah, for in that case we would have to concede that the Dajjal will succeed in entering the Ka‘bah or that he will become a Muslim; both of which assertions go against the clear purport of ahadith. This hadith has to be interpreted, and the interpretation which God has made manifest to me is that, in the latter days, a group of people will emerge who will be called Dajjal. This group will be a bitter enemy of Islam, and, in order to completely bring down the structure of Islam, it will go circuiting round the Ka‘bah, which is the centre of Islam, like a thief. As against this, the Promised Messiah will also perform the circuit of the centre of Islam, which the Ka‘bah symbolises. The purpose of the Promised Messiah in performing the circuit of the Ka‘bah would be to apprehend the thief named Dajjal, and to safeguard the centre of Islam from his designs. We know that the thief goes around the houses at night and so does a watchman, but while the purpose of the thief is to rob and plunder a household, the purpose of the watchman is to apprehend the thief and to have him locked behind bars so that people are safeguarded from his mischief.
Thus this hadith indicates that in the latter days the thief, who is designated Dajjal, will try his utmost to demolish the structure of Islam, and that the Promised Messiah, out of his devotion to Islam, will raise his supplications to heaven, and that all angels will lend him their support so that he should be victorious in this last final battle. He will neither get tired, nor dejected, nor will he slacken his efforts, but will try his utmost to catch the thief. When his supplications reach their climax, God will see how his heart has melted in his love for Islam. Heaven will do what the earth cannot. And the victory that cannot be achieved by man will be won at the hands of angels.
—Haqiqat al-Wahi, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 22, pp. 323-324
If – God forbid – it had truly been written in the Holy Qur’an that, contrary to the divine law which binds all of mankind, Jesus was raised bodily to heaven and will survive till the Day of Judgement, the Christians would have been furnished with tremendous means to mislead mankind. Excellent, therefore, it is that the god of the Christians suffered death. This assault that has been mounted by this humble one, on behalf of God Almighty, in his character as messiah son of Mary, against the people of Dajjal-like character who were bestowed holy things but mixed them with pollution and who performed that which should have been performed by Dajjal, is not in any respect less than an assault with a sharp sword.
It may be asked: Jesus, son of Mary, was to come to vanquish the Dajjal, and if it is you who have come in the spirit of Jesus, son of Mary, who then is the Dajjal against you? My answer is that, though I admit the possibility of another Messiah son of Mary coming after me, and he may even be the promised one in the context of some ahadith, and a Dajjal may also come to mislead the Muslims, yet my belief is that so far there has not been any Dajjal like the Christian clergy of these days, nor shall there ever be till the Day of Judgement. A hadith of Muslim reads:
وَعَنْ عِمْرَانَ بْنِ حُصَيْنٍ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ: مَا بَيْنَ خَلْقِ آدَمَ إِلَى قِيَامِ السَّاعَةِ أَمْرٌ أَكْبَرُ مِنَ الدَّجَّال
‘Imran son of Husain reports: I heard the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: From the creation of Adam (as) to the Judgement Day there will be no greater catastrophe than that of the Dajjal…’
Considering the import of this hadith of Muslim, I say that if we were to examine all documentary evidence available to us from the creation of Adamas to this day, and examine the activities of all those who have ever taken upon themselves to do the work of Dajjal, we shall not find anything matching the Dajjal-like activity of the Christian clergy of this day. They have in mind an imaginary Messiah who, according to them, is alive and claims to be God. Jesus son of Mary never made any such claim, rather it is these self-appointed advocates of his who claim that he is God. They have had recourse to every kind of distortion and deception in support of their claim, and there is hardly a place, with the exception of Makkah and Madinah, where they have not gone in pursuit of their objective. There is no form of deception, conspiracy or design to mislead, which they have not adopted. Is it not true that in pursuit of their Dajjal-like designs they have encircled the whole world? Wherever they go and establish a mission they turn everything upside down. They are so wealthy that all the treasures of the world seem to lie at their feet. Although the British government is concerned only with administration and has no concern with religion, the missionaries have a government of their own which possesses unlimited wealth and is spreading its tentacles all over the world. They carry with them all kinds of heaven and hell. One who is inclined to follow them is shown the heaven, and the one who chooses to oppose them is threatened with hell. They are accompanied by mountains of bread wherever they go, and many, who are the slaves of their stomachs, are carried away by the sight of white loaves of bread, and start proclaiming: ‘The Messiah is our Lord.’ There is no quality of the Messianic Dajjal that is not to be found in them. In a manner, they even revive the dead and kill the living. (Let him who possesses understanding understand.) And there is no doubt that these people possess only one eye, which is the left one. If they possessed the right eye as well, they would have feared God Almighty and refrained from deifying Jesus. All previous scriptures mention this Dajjal, as do the Gospels on the authority of Jesus son of Mary. It was only proper that every prophet should have warned against this Dajjal, and each of them has done so, whether expressly or implicitly, directly or indirectly. From the time of Noah down to the time of our lord and master, Seal of the Prophets (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), we find warnings about this Dajjal, and this is something I can readily prove.
No one can even imagine the extent of the damage that Islam has suffered at their hands and how truth and justice have suffered. Prior to the thirteenth century of the blessed Hijrah, there was no trace of such mischief. But around the middle of the thirteenth century this Dajjal-like group suddenly emerged and started to expand progressively, until at the end of this century, according to Reverend Mr Baker, half a million people had been converted to Christianity in India alone, and it is estimated that every twelve years one hundred thousands new converts enter the fold of Christianity and start to believe in a humble man as God.
No sensible person can be unaware of the fact that Christian missionaries have brought under their sway a large number of poor and needy Muslims by giving them bread and clothes; those who could not be lured by these means were seduced through women; and those who could not be so trapped were exposed to all kinds of atheistic philosophy which now holds captive hundreds of thousands of young Muslims, who make fun of the Islamic prayer and fasting and consider revelation to be a kind of hallucination. For those who are not able to learn European philosophy, a large stock of fictitious tales was cooked up – too easy a job for the clerics’ sleight of hand – which derided Islam in the guise of stories and historical events and was very widely published. In addition, they compiled countless books in refutation of Islam, blaspheming our lord and master the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and widely distributed them free of cost. Most of these have been translated into other languages…
Allah is Great. If our people still do not consider these missionaries to be Dajjal of the highest order, for whose refutation a Messiah is needed, then the plight of our people is pitiable indeed!
Look, ye heedless ones, just look how hard these people are trying to demolish the edifice of Islam and what large resources they have employed for this purpose. In their endeavours they have exposed their lives to danger, spent their wealth like water, and indeed they have carried their human abilities to the limit. They have adopted shameful means and implemented them to undermine righteousness, and they have laid down mines to destroy the truth and honesty. All the finely fabricated details of falsehood and pretence have been strenuously invented to bring ruin to Islam. If people’s minds could not be corrupted by other means, they invented thousands of supposed stories and dialogues to do this. Is there any method of the ruin of truth that they have not invented? Is there any way of misguidance that they have not adopted? Thus it becomes obvious that all these tricks and charms which the Christians and advocates of Trinity have resorted to, could not proceed from anyone but the great Dajjal and we have no choice but to identify this group of Christian missionaries with him. When we observe to the past history of the greater part of the world, we gain the impression that, as far as it can be ascertained, there has been no precedent of such successful deception and misguidance as undertaken by these people. And as the ahadith say, the Dajjal will cause such mischief as would be unmatched since the beginning of the world. It follows, therefore, that these people are the great Dajjal who was to come from the church, and to counter whose magic a miracle was needed. He who disputes this should produce a matching instance from the Dajjals of the past.
—Izala-e-Auham, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 3, pp. 361-366