The Anti-Christ and the End of Time in Christian

and Muslim Eschatological Literature

muwo_1332

505..529

Yvonne Y. Haddad,
Georgetown University
Washington D.C.

Jane I. Smith,
Harvard Divinity School
Cambridge, Massachusetts

arthquakes, floods, volcanoes, violent storms such spectacular and terrifying

displays of the power of nature seem to be in evidence with greater regularity these
days. For many Christians they are signs of the disruption of the natural order
predicted by the Bible to herald the arrival of the end of days. They appear at a time when
by Christian standards there will also be evidence of deep ethical and moral degradation.
But these eschatological expectations are not unique to Christianity. Since the early days
of Islam Muslims have speculated that the coming of end-times will be announced by a
combination of deep moral turpitude and devastating disruptions of the natural world.
Apocalyptic Christians foresee the destruction of nominal Christians as part of the
ushering in of the drama of the final days, while Muslims look to a period of deep
devastation of the Muslim community as one of the signs of the end. In the return of the
Jews to the Holy Land and establishment of the state of Israel, empowered by the United
States, some Christians see the step essential to ensure the Second Coming of Christ. In
response some contemporary Muslim writers are incorporating these same themes into
their own understanding of the imminence of the end. The US is the uni-polar power
and is in control of the whole world through the United Nations and the Security
Council, says Hisham Kamal Abd al-Hamid. The World Zionists control the internal
and external policies of the US. Gods destructive power is being manifest in the US
through earthquakes, disease, hunger, tornados, and repression of its population which
will lead to its final destruction.1 (Figure 1)
What is the relationship of religiously and theologically based expectations to
contemporary political realities? In the following pages we will take a comparative look
at the scriptures, traditions and current interpretations of millenarian Christians and
Hisham Kamal Abd al-Hamid, Yajuj wa-Majuj Qadimun (Imminence of Gog and Magog) (Cairo:
al-Bashir lil-nashr wal-Tibaa, 1979?), 150.

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Figure 1. Imminence of Gog and Magog

Muslims. In both cases, though for different reasons, the rhetoric has become more
heated as predictions of the imminence of the Day of Judgment seem inextricably linked
to the existence and support of the state of Israel. While for evangelical Christians such
support is crucial, for many Muslims it is precisely the injustice they see exemplified by
Israels expulsion and subjugation of Palestinians that helps define the players in the
drama of the end-days. The anti-Christ is increasingly identified by many Muslims with
Israel and America. History bears witness that the United States of America, which is
completely consumed by the teachings about the anti-Christ, is now the primary enemy
of Islam in every place.2 (Figure 2) At the same time rising anti-Muslim feelings in the
West have led to a revival of the old Christian notion that the anti-Christ is a Muslim figure
2

Said Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal: Qiraah Siyasiyya fi Usul al-Diyanat al-Kubra (The Anti-Christ: A
Political Reading in the Foundations of the Great Religions) (Cairo: Dar al-Itisam, 1989), 64.

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The Anti-Christ and the End of Time in Christian and Muslim Eschatological Literature

Figure 2. The Antichrist:A Political Reading in the

Foundations of the Great Religions
or even Islam itself. It is important to emphasize, of course, that many Christians share
neither the apocalyptic vision of the millenialists nor anti-Muslim sentiments.
An unexpected consequence of the Israeli pre-emptive war of 1967 has been the
growth in apocalyptic literature in the three Abrahamic faiths. The spectacular victory of
the Israeli army led some American evangelists to feel that the war heralded the end of
Christian power (already evident in Americas loss in Vietnam) and the beginning of a
new era of Jewish empowerment.3 (Figure 3) It also led to the rise of militant religious
3

It also spawned Christian millenarian expectations promoted in the LaHaye-Jenkins Left Behind series
[published by Tyndale House Publishers in Carol Stream, IL starting in 1995] as well as the Christian
Zionist expectations of the imminence of the end of time.

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Figure 3. The Hour is Real

Zionist groups such as Gush Emunim.4 Jewish liturgy in many United States synagogues
was revised to reflect the belief that the state of Israel is the fulfillment of history, in effect
replacing the ancient expectation that such a fulfillment would be realized by the
long-awaited Messiah.
In the Muslim world, Israeli victory and consequent empowerment led to a
reassessment of the causes of the defeat, now said to be due to Muslim deviance from
the straight path of Islam and adherence to imported ideologies of materialism and
secularism. Redemption, the discourse insisted, would only come in a return to Islam.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution was depicted by advocates of this line of argument as
4

Judith Miller, The Works; Israels Fundamentalist Thing, New York Times (June 9, 1996); available on
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E3D81639F93AA35755C0A960958260.

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vindication of Gods support for the believers against the greatest of tyrants, the Shah as
empowered by the United States. The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, believed to have
been given the green light by the US, and the subsequent massacres of Sabra and Shatila,
led to the intensification of Muslim feeling of disempowerment. Israel became central to
the story of the end of times. A new genre of literature began to be published in the 1980s
exploring the imminence of the last days.5 In the Islamic context, says Georgetown
Universitys Barbara Stowasser, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has joined the list of major
grievances that, especially as formulated in popular sermons, pulp fiction narratives, on
Websites and the like, can set the tone for an apocalyptic millenarian mind-frame in their
mass audiences and readers.6
With the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the appearance of triumphalist American
literature such as Francis Fukuyamas The End of History and the Last Man,7 Samuel
Huntingtons The Clash of Civilizations,8 and Paul Kennedys The Rise and Fall of the
Great Powers,9 as well as anticipation of the approach of the end of the century,
millenarian Christian expectations intensified in the US. In both secular and Christian
literature one can find evidence that supersession of western society is accompanied by
the corresponding destruction of Islam. Such assumptions appear to have directly
impacted Muslims, who in return have sought to assure themselves that Islam and not
Christianity has been assured victory in the end. To fully understand the import of
political realities on the converging eschatologies of evangelical Christianity and Islam it
is necessary first to look both at the basics of such Christian understandings of the end
times, predicated on biblical prophecies, and at the generally accepted scheme of
Islamic end-times narrative, also heavily influenced by the same biblical prophecies. The
article will then turn to an overview of contemporary Islamic apocalyptic writing,
looking particularly at works published in Egypt, and the way in which it serves as a
revisionist version of traditional Islamic eschatological literature.

The Structure of Millenialist Christian Thought

Much of the American reading public seems more than ready to be thrilled and
perhaps even motivated by the kind of apocalyptic literature that has hit the best seller
lists from Hal Lindseys The Late Great Planet Earth10 in 1970 to the more recent Left
Behind series. The latter, co-authored by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, unfolds its
narrative in some 12 volumes. Readers are introduced to the classic premillenial
Abd al-Hamid Kishk, al-Saah Haqq, (The Hour is Real) Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Tawfiqiya, n.d.
Barbara Stowasser, The End is Near: Minor and Major Signs of the Hour in Islamic Texts and
Contexts, in Abbas Amanat and John J. Collins, eds., Apocalypse and Violence. The Yale Center for
International and Area Studies (May 2002): 46.
7
Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Avon Books, 1992).
8
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993).
9
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires (New York: Vantage Books, 1987).
10
Hal Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970).
5
6

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dispensationist Christian view of history,11 featuring the Rapture, the reconstruction of

the Temple in Jerusalem, conversion of Jews to Christianity, and the death of up to
three-quarters of Christians who are not able to survive the Tribulation. The drama
concludes with the second coming of Jesus Christ, claimed by the authors to be predicted
318 times in the New Testament.
Whatever one makes of this particular fictional series, the fact is that it has been at
the top of the charts for long enough to prove that eschatological expectations make for
interesting and sometimes persuasive reading. Although many criticisms have been
raised about the precise theological interpretations of the series,12 it claims to be based
solidly on scripture, particularly the books of Daniel and Revelation. It may also be
influential not only on how some Christians see their own personal salvation history, but
how the pieces of the end-times drama fit together to influence their views of American
political decisions with respect to the Middle East. The anti-Christ of the Left Behind
series may serve well to focus the strong anti-Muslim feelings of many Americans.
What, then, is the actual structure of the millenialist end-times story? Evangelical
author and TV personality Mark Hitchcock suggests a useful way of listing the various
expectations:13
1. The Rapture. Persons both living and dead who have confessed Jesus Christ as personal
savior will be caught up in the air to meet Jesus and be taken up to heaven with him.14
2. The Tribulation. Gargantuan struggles are predicted to take place during the last seven
years of this age, which begins with a peace treaty between Israel and the anti-Christ and
ends with the second coming of Christ.15
3. The Rule of the anti-Christ over the world during the last 31/2 years of the Tribulation.16
The Antichrist will break the covenant with Israel and desecrate the Temple, which must
be re-built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
4. Armageddon. In this final event of the Tribulation all the armies of the earth will gather
in an attempt to eradicate the Jews.17
5. The Second Coming of Christ. In the climax of the end-days narrative Christ will return
to destroy all the armies of the earth and establish his 1000 year kingdom. This leads to
the final judgment and end of the world.

The capstone event of all of these apocalyptic visions is the Second Coming of Christ.
In order for that to happen events must be structured in such a way as to support the
11

Millenarian refers to those who see the current age as lasting for a thousand years, or more generally
those who want to predict the end of time. Refinements on the term suggest pre-milleniarism (future
tribulations will come before the millennium) and post-milleniarism (such bad times will happen after
the age has officially ended).
12
See, e.g. LeAnn Snow Flesher, Left Behind. The Fact Behind the Fiction (Judson Press, 2006), 13044.
13
Mark Hitchcock, Is America in Biblical Prophecy? (USA: Multoman Publishers, Inc., 2002), chapter
one.
14
Based on John 14:13; I Cor. 15:5058; I Thess. 4:1318.
15
Based on chapters 619 of the Book of Revelation.
16
Based on Revelation 13:118.
17
Based on Revelation 14:1920; 16:1216; 19:1921.

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whole biblical narrative. Essential to that narrative is the restoration of the Jews to Israel
and, and for some, the rebuilding of the Temple.
The movement urging the necessity of Christian support for Israel is commonly
referred to as Christian Zionism. According to the literal interpretation of the Bible, say
Christian Zionists, the end of history must involve the return of all diaspora Jews to
Jerusalem and the reconstitution of the nation of Israel. At the basis of this interpretation
is what is called dispensationalist theology, in which Gods interaction with the world is
described in seven successive stages (dispensations). The first four of these are the
periods of Eden, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Israel. The fifth stage is the Rapture,
followed by an age of the Spirit and finally Christs thousand year reign on earth.
Dispensationalist theology began in the 19th century in England. It grew in popularity
in Britain and the US, and by early in the 20th century had become the perspective by
which many American Christians came to view world events.18 Among its proponents
was Arthur Balfour, who in the propagation of the Balfour Declaration assumed that the
establishment of Israel as a contemporary homeland for the Jews was a fulfillment of
biblical prophecy. Thus Israel fulfills the covenant made by God with Abraham, an event
that American dispensationalists believe can be aided by US support of the current Israeli
expansionist policies.
Resurgence of dispensationalist interpretation came to a head during the presidency
of Ronald Reagan and the growing influence of Republican evangelicals on American
foreign policy. While not all evangelicals agree as to the role Israel plays in redemptive
history, says pastor, professor and talk-show host Kim Riddlebarger, for dispensationalists, a future role for Israel and the continuity of the land promise is essential to an
earthly kingdom which comes to fruition in a future millennial age.19
Here, then, is the crux of the problem: what is necessary for the fulfillment of
dispensationalist Christian belief on the one hand is exactly what is most painful for
Muslims on the other, and seems to be provoking a counter-response. We will see this
tension played out in the interpretation of contemporary popular Muslim eschatological
literature, but first let us briefly sketch the background of Muslim theological reflection
concerning the end of time.

The Structure of Muslim Eschatological Reflection

For Muslims the general outline of Gods authority over history is told in the Quran.
As God created the world so shall he end it and then recreate it to inaugurate the Day of
Judgment.20 Muslims know that the moment will arrive when bodies will be resurrected
and all persons, souls and bodies reunited, will have to account for their earthly deeds.
18
Thomas Kidd, American Christians and Islam. Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial
Period to the Age of Terrorism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), chapter four.
19
Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Millennialism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books), 1812.
20
See Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death and
Resurrection (NY: Oxford University Press, 2002; originally published 1981 by State University of New
York Press), chapter one.

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On that day all humans will be consigned to eternity either in the gardens of bliss or the
fires of recompense. The Quran affirms that the day of resurrection [yawm al-qiyama]
will be announced by a radical disruption of the natural order with events such as the sun
darkened, the stars cast down, the mountains moving and the seas boiling as described
in S 81. The earth will shake and the heavens will be stripped away.
That such events will occur is a Quranic certainty, although the exact time of such
eschatological realities remains a mystery. Might it be, speculate some contemporary
writers, that we are now seeing the signs of such a time? Along with these terrifying
descriptions of the natural order, in Muslim expectation, will also come an escalation of
human immorality. Such degradation is not described in the Quran but is detailed in the
eschatological manuals. Drawing from both reliable and not so reliable sources,
traditions predict a degeneration of the standards that are prescribed as necessary in
order to maintain a good Islamic society.
Islamic writers have not always agreed on the sequence of events to follow from
these signs of physical disorder and moral turpitude, but one can discern a general
outline of what is to be expected. The first category of happenings is often referred to as
isharat al-sa a (The signs of the hour), based on numerous references in the Quran to
that inevitable time when all will be called to accountability.21 As is true in all apocalyptic
religious traditions, predicting the exact moment when end-times will begin is difficult.
While on the one hand the early Muslim community hoped for, and expected, a quick
conclusion to history, exegetes and those concerned with apocalyptic matters have been
cautious in their predictions. Scripture specifies that exact knowledge of the event is
Gods alone, as in S 41:47: To Him is referred knowledge of the hour.
Because the Quran is silent on most of the details of apocalyptic narrative, Muslims
have relied on the elaborations of tradition. David Cook in his Studies in Muslim
Apocalyptic notes that the Quran is an eschatological book, though clearly not an
apocalyptic one. Cook details the ways in which the adoption of apocalyptic materials
from existing traditions combined with Islamic structures to produce a distinctively
Muslim set of interpretations. He also describes what he calls the inter-religious transfer
.22
of biblical materials, mainly from the New Testament, into Muslim traditional hadth
The imperialist tendency is strong in Muslim apocalyptic, says Cook, along with a
desire to denigrate and humiliate Christianity (especially), and to use the worldly success
of the new faith for polemical purposes.23 Our analysis of the new literature on the topic
will demonstrate that the contemporary writers are specifically concerned with what
they see as the humiliation of Muslims through Western imperialism and support of
Israel, and with Christian dispensationalist triumphalism that seeks the eradication of
Islam. It therefore posits a counter scenario in which it is Islam that will triumph at the
end of time, its truth vindicated through the coming of Jesus, son of Mary.
al-Sa a (The Hour) is mentioned 48 times in the Quran.
David Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic (Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 2002) 29.
23
Cook, Studies, 5.
21
22

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Figure 4. The Signs of the Minor and Major Hour

The Signs of the Hour are generally divided into minor and major.24 (Figure 4) The
minor signs include torrential rain, destructive storms, floods, erupting volcanoes, and
earthquakes. The major signs include the decline of Islam, altering of the natural order
such as the sun rising from the West or the eclipse of the sun, widespread evidence of
public evil and immorality such as adultery and other sexual misdemeanors, homosexuality, drinking of wine and many other licentious practices. They also include the
appearance of specific players who, in many ways, parallel those in the millenialist
Christian eschatological drama.
Layla Mabruk, Alamat al-Saah al-Sughra wal Kubra (Signs of the Minor and Major Hour) (Cairo:
al-Mukhtar al-Islami, 1986?); Ali Muhammad, Ashrat al-Saah al-Sughra wal-Kubra (Portents of Minor
and Major Hour) (Cairo: Dar al-Isra, 1990).
24

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The incorporation of current political realities into eschatological narratives is not

new to Islamic thought. From the earliest days the Muslim community has been fraught
with strife and dissention, which often has been associated with a sense that the end of
time is immanent. The expectation is that after the lesser signs of the hour have been
experienced and Muslims have suffered through a period of tribulation, the major signs
of the coming of the eschaton become evident. Among them are the arrival of the dabba
(Beast of the Earth)25, the coming of Yajuj and Majuj26 (the biblical characters Gog and
Magog),27 the return of the savior figure generally referred to by Sunnis and Shiites as the
Mahd, the appearance of al-Dajjal (the anti-Christ), and the return of Jesus, the
Messiah. While there is no specific reference to either the Mahd or the Dajjal in
the Quran, they have come to play a very important role in the development of the
eschatological narrative of Islam. It is easy to see the parallels in Christianity (and
Judaism) to these general elements of the eschatological scene.
While narratives differ in describing the order in which these figures will appear,
most medieval texts indicate that the first will be the Mahd. He is central to Islamic
traditional millennial teachings, although many Sunni scholars insist that there is no basis
in either Quran or Sunna for assuming his existence. He does feature prominently in
many hadith, however, and is understood by most Muslims to be a great righteous leader
who will unite the umma (community of Muslims) and begin to lead them to victory
against their foes. Descended from the family of the Prophet,28 the Mahd is the epitome
of what the true Islamic ruler should be; as David Cook puts it, he is the person who will
set things right.29 He will restore the umma to the true path by ridding the world of
bida, innovation of new religious thought. The Mahd will reestablish the Sunna (the
path of the prophet) as an integral part of Islam and will teach Islam in a manner
consistent with that of the prophet Muhammad. In the Sunni tradition the Mahd has

been seen as he who comes to rid the world of innovation and to replace the low
morality evidenced as one of the signs of the Hour with the high standards of true Islam.
Perhaps the figure most important to contemporary apocalypticists is the anti-Christ,
the great false prophet. It is generally believed that he will appear at the end of time and
will rise up against the Mahd and Gods people.30 (Figure 510) The Antichrist is
25

Referred to in S 27:82.
S 18:94; 21:9697.
27
See Abd al-Hamid, Yajuj wa-Majuj. 551.
28
The Mahd will be from the House of the Prophet, a descendent of Fatima his daughter. Mabruk,
Alamat, 5152.
29
David Cook, Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,
2005), 126.
30
Among the contemporary writers who deal with the figure of the anti-Christ are: Hisham Kamal Abd
al-Hamid, Iqtaraba Khuruj al-Masih al-Dajjal (Immeinence of the Coming of the Anti-Christ) (Cairo:
Dar al-Bashir, 1997?); Akasha Abd al-Mannan al-Tibi, Akhir al-Maqal fi al-Masih al-Dajjal (The Last
Word on the Anti-Christ) (Cairo: Dar al-Itisam, 1991); Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal; Muhammad Said
Dawud, Ihdhiru al-Masikh al-Dajjal Yaghzu al-Alam min Muthallath Bermuda (Beware the
Anti-Christ who Will Invade the World from the Bermuda Triangle) (Cairo: al-Mukhtar al-Islami, 1992);
26

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indicative of all that is wrong with the world in the final days. In Arabic he is referred to
as al-Masih al-Dajjal, the deceiver or false messiah, or simply as the Dajjal. The
traditional description of the Dajjal is important in understanding what contemporary
Muslim interpreters have to say about the identity of this figure. His physical condition
is especially alarming. Reddish in color, he is blind in one eye with the word kafir,
unbeliever, written on his forehead. The Dajjal, as the complete antithesis of the Mahd,
seeks to lead the umma away from the principles of true religion and to establish a
powerful kingdom with himself in charge.31 According to tradition the Dajjal will rule for
a period of seven years. Some traditions record that the Prophet used to seek refuge in
God from the wiles of the Dajjal whenever he prayed.32
The third figure to appear at the end of time is Jesus, son of Mary, who will join the
Mahd in destroying the anti-Christ and restoring justice to the world. Some traditions
hold that the Mahd and Jesus are synonymous figures, though most point to their
distinct differences.33 Verses 4:159 and 43:61 of the Quran are interpreted by most
commentators as indicating the return of Jesus.34 (The Quran attests that Jesus was not
crucified but was taken alive to heaven.) Unlike the gradual rise of both the Mahd and
the Dajjal, the coming of Jesus will be sudden. Most Muslims believe that he will appear
at the Great Mosque in Damascus, though others hold that he will come first to
Jerusalem. Traditionally the role of the Messiah is to kill the anti-Christ, rule the people
with justice, decimate Christians in their places of worship, break the cross, slaughter the
swine, restore the peace, institute freedom, establish the Sharia, and call people to Islam.
During his reign God will destroy all religions except Islam.35 Most traditions report that
Jesus confirms the Mahd as the true leader and that he prays behind him, a recognition
of the Mahds pre-eminence.36 Together they inaugurate the period of peace before the
actual arrival of the time of judgment.
Another constituent element of this eschatological picture is the emergence of the
figure(s) Yajuj and Majuj, who are sometimes seen as one person. They are familiar
Muhammad Isa Dawud, al-Khuyut al-Khafiya bayn al-Masikh al-Dajjal wa-Asrar Muthallath
Bermuda wa al-Atbaq al-Tairah (The Hidden Strings between the Anti-Christ and the Secrets of the
Bermuda Triangle and the Flying Saucers) (Cairo: al-Bashir lil-Tab wa al-Nashr, 1994?); Abu
Muhammad Jamal ibn Muhammad al-Shami, al-Aalam Yantazhir Thalath: al-Mahdi al-Muntazhar,
Isa ibn Maryam, al-Masikh al-Dajjal (The World Awaits Three: The Expected Mahdi, Jesus Son of Mary
and the Anti-Christ) (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nur al-Muhammadi, n.d).; Ali Muhammad, Ashrat al-Saah;
Abd al-Latif Ashur, al-Masih al-Dajjal: Haqiqa la Khayal (The Anti-Christ is Real not Imaginary)
(Cairo: Maktabat al-Quran, no date).
31
Smith and Haddad, The Islamic Understanding, 68.
32
Mabruk, Alamat al-Saah, 82.
33
Smith and Haddad, The Islamic Understanding, 68.
34
Muhammad Shahid Chaudhry, March Towards the Doomsday. (Lahore, Pakistan: SSNSAM Education
Foundation, 2008), 2.
35
Ashur, al-Masih al-Dajjal.
36
Said Amir Arjomand, Messianism, Millennialism and Revolution in Early Islamic History, in Abbas
Amanat and Magnus Bernhardsson, eds., Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient
Middle East to Modern America (London: I.B. Tauris, 2003), 113.
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Figure 5. The Imminence of

the Coming of the Antichrist

Figure 6. The Last Word on the

Anti-Christ

Figure 7. Beware of the

Antichrist who invades
the World from the
Bermuda Triangle

Figure 8. The Hidden Strings

Between the Anti-Christ and
the Secrets of the Bermuda
Triangle and the Flying Saucers

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Figure 9. The World Awaits Three:The Expected Mahd,

Jesus Son of Mary and the Antichrist
figures in the mythologies of the Middle East and are mentioned both in the Bible37and
in the Quran.38 Quranic exegetes suggest that 21:97 refers to the dam built somewhere
in the northeast by Dhu al-Qarnayn39 to contain the creatures. One of the indications that
the end times have arrived, then, will be Yajuj and Majuj breaking out of that dam.
Pictured as cannibals of great size, they will sweep down upon the earth like a scourge,
devouring humans and railing against God. The creatures will ultimately succumb to fire
and natural disasters. Since a great number of traditions go into the overall narrative, with
37

Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 38:2; 29:6; I Cor. 1:5; Rev. 20:8.

S 18:94; 21:9697.
39
Quran 18:8398. This figure is generally believed to refer to Alexander the Great.
38

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Figure 10. The Antichrist is Real and not Imaginary

emphasis on different details, it is unclear what the precise relationship of these creatures
is to the Dajjal. They are generally said to be one of the major fitan by which the coming
of the Hour will be evident.40

Contemporary Evangelical Christian

Apocalyptic Literature
The long history of strong anti-Muslim rhetoric that has characterized western
response to Islam has been chronicled many times and needs not be rehearsed here. The
modern West, and for our purposes particularly the US, falls heir to this deep mistrust,
often hatred, of the religion of Islam. Many factors have helped encourage it, including
guilt feelings about the Holocaust, the need for American energy resources, the many
40

Smith and Haddad, The Islamic Understanding, 6869.

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dimensions of American support of the state of Israel, the growing tensions between
Islam and the West following September 11, 2001, and the string of subsequent
responses on the part of the Muslim world to American intervention military, etc.
in the Middle East and other Muslim countries. It comes as no surprise that the
eschatological stories outlined earlier as part of traditional Christian millennialism have
come to be increasingly populated with Islamic figures. For dispensationalists this
identification of Islam with the end times is nothing new. Referring to trends in the
middle of 20th century America, historian Thomas Kidd reminds us that Although
dispensationalism did not naturally integrate Muslims as key figures in its events of the
last days, news from the Middle East kept bringing Muslims back toward the center of
dispensationalist narratives.41
Rather than trying to detail the large amount of apocalyptic literature that has come
out of evangelical Christianity in the last half century, and particularly recently, this
section will focus on three specific issues related to the end times narrative that have
ramifications for Islam: (a) Christian Zionism and support for the state of Israel, (b) the
importance of the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem, and (c) the identification of
specific figures as candidates for the role and person of the anti-Christ.
Support for the State of Israel. We saw outlined above the general theological position
that posits the necessity of establishing, supporting and expanding the state of Israel as
preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. For some interpreters that expansion
suggests an Israel with the borders promised in the Book of Genesis from the Nile to the
Euphrates. Others feel that the physical growth of Israel to such an extent is unrealistic,
but insist that expansion means the right of the Israeli government, with American
support, to continue to build and expand on Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory.
Dispensationalist Christians are not blind to the fact that the Palestinians may be suffering
from this kind of expansionist activity. They are buttressed, however, by the belief that
the whole drama supports the biblical division and resulting historical discord between
the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. The view of the Arab-Israeli conflict as
predestined hostility between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael would become
increasingly common among Christian conservatives in the late 20th century, as would
the belief that Christians had an almost unlimited obligation to support Israel against
Arab Muslims, says Kidd.42 In the view of many dispensationalists we have moved into
the period of history in which the stage is set for the playing out of the final drama of the
end of history. The prophecy of Genesis 12:13 is now fulfilled that God will bless those
who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel, says best-selling author Joel
Rosenberg. The prophecies of Ezekiel have also come true, he insists, including the birth
of Israel as a country, the desert blooming, and the growth within Israel of a great army.43
41

Kidd, American Christians, 91.

Kidd, American Christians, 86.
43
Joel Rosenberg, Inside the Revolution. How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson and Jesus are Battling to
Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Publishers, 2009),
47679.
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Rebuilding the Ancient Temple of Jerusalem. For many evangelicals a key piece of
this end-story is the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The reality, of course, is
that sitting atop the Temple Mount are the third most sacred sanctuaries in Islam,
namely the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. According to some interpre
tations the removal of those structures must occur before the Temple can be rebuilt,
and action should begin forthwith toward that end. Others seem more realistic about
what is possible and tend to keep the notion of rebuilding the ancient Temple as
more a dream than a practicality. If we count on the reconstruction of the temple,
says the anti-Muslim evangelical Marius Barr, we must assume the demise of Islam
and the oil countries.44 Barr worries that such a demise seems unlikely, despite the
fact that all the signs indicate the immanent return of Christ. In the meantime, he
acknowledges, Christians just have to live with the fact that the Temple has been
replaced by structures in which live the spirit of the anti-Christ which will rule the
world for a period. It may be Christ himself with the raptured saints who will rebuild
the Temple, thereby initiating the Millennium.45 Barr, writing in the 1980s, was one of
the first among the contemporary authors to posit that the anti-Christ will actually be
a Muslim.
For the majority of Jews since the late 1960s, of course, Temple rebuilding was not
on the top of their agenda. Since 1967, for security reasons, it has been the general policy
of the Israeli government to try to maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount, and to
protect the mosques. However, Israeli archeological excavations under the mosque have
raised Muslim suspicion of a preliminary plot to undermine its foundations. It is the
premillennialist Christians and some militant Israelis who have been impatient with the
status quo and have hoped that the Jews would take the initiative in building the Temple.
Since the 1970s Christian organizations have been active in helping Jews ignore Israeli
government policy and plan for building a structure that would even accommodate the
long postponed ritual of animal sacrifice.46 Muslim apocalypticists make frequent
mention of what they see as Jewish designs to destroy their mosque and replace it with
the Temple.47
Who is the anti-Christ? Several possibilities for describing the anti-Christ as having
connections with Islam have been raised by conservative Christians. Among the most
specific are the following:

44

Marius Barr. The Unholy War (NY: Dutton, 1978), 148.

Paul S. Boyer, When Time Shall be no More: Prophecy Belief in Modern Culture (Cambridge MA:
Belknap Press, 1992), 314.
46
Bruce D. Forbes, and Jeanne H. Kilde, eds. Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times. Exploring the Left
Behind Series (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 15253.
47
See, e.g., Abd al-Hamid, Iqtaraba Khuruj, 138, 222. A report on the activities and plans
of the Temple Mount Foundation became available in an Arabic translation of Grace Halsells
Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War, (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill
and Co., 1986).
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1. Allies of the Great Russian Bear. While the expectation that Russia is the anti-Christ has
lowered since the break-up of the Soviet Union, some scenarios posit a combination of
Russia and one or more of the Islamic countries. Mark Hitchcock notes that all the nations
revealed in Ezekiel 38:17 as attacking Israel in the end times are current Muslim states,
with the exception of Russia. However, he says, Ezekiel does prophecy that one of Irans
allies at the end times will be the great Russian Bear. Ties between Russia and Iran, he
notes, are getting stronger every day, and it is probable that by Magog is meant one of the
former southern republics of the Soviet Union, or perhaps even Afghanistan.48 Hitchcock
acknowledges elsewhere that Russias allies are Gog (and Magog), and that God will
utterly destroy them along with the military power of the Arab/Muslim world with whom
they are in league. This will happen at the midpoint of the Tribulation, paving the way
for the anti-Christ and his 31/2 year empire.49
2. Islam itself. The historical record makes it clear that throughout history Christians often
have identified Islam with the anti-Christ for both political and theological reasons. This
identification came back into vogue in the 1970s with the beginnings of the oil crisis, a
time during which Arab opposition to Israel came to be more visible in the West.
Demonization of Islam and association of it with the most violent elements of the
eschatological discourse has, of course, been particularly evident since 9/11, fostered by
the anti-Muslim rhetoric of a number of evangelical Christian leaders.
3. The Mahd. A few evangelicals have gone so far as to clearly identify the anti-Christ with
the awaited savior for Muslims. See, for example, Joel Richardsons The Islamic
Anti-Christ. The Shocking Truth About the Real Nature of the Beast. Richardson plays out
the entire end-time scenario, insisting that Islam is indeed the primary vehicle that will
be used by Satan to fulfill the prophesies of the Bible about the future political/religious/
military system of the Antichrist that will overwhelm the entire world just prior to the
second coming of Jesus Christ.50 Satan, through the anti-Christ, says Richardson, will
target for extinction first the Jews and then the Christians. Richardson professes himself
to be amazed at the way in which the unique and distinguishing aspects of the anti-Christ
of the Bible, including person, mission and actions, are matched by the classical Islamic
descriptions of the Mahd. . . . if we boil down the Muslim belief regarding the Dajjal to
its simplest and most important terms, we basically have a man who will claim to be
divine and will claim to be Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah.51 Such a claim, of course, is
particularly heinous to evangelicals for whom the second coming of Jesus is the ultimate
hopeful expectation.
4. Barak Obama. The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will
deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like
appeal . . . the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope
and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA?52 Jason
Dittmer, collecting increasingly outrageous rumors circulating in conservative circles
48

Mark Hitchcock, Iran: The Coming Crisis (Eugene OR: Multnomah Publications, 2006), 67, 87, 180.
Mark Hitchcock, Is America in Biblical Prophecy? (Eugene OR: Multnomah Publications, 2002),
5253.
50
Joel Richardson, The Islamic Antichrist. The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast (Los
Angeles: Wind Books, 2009), 12.
51
Richardson, The Islamic Antichrist, 77.
52
E-mail circulating in 2008 as reported in Jason Dittmer, Obama, Son of Perdition? Narrative
Rationality and the Role of the 44th President of the United States in the End-of-Days, in Jason Dittmer
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about the current President of the United States, says that according to his findings never
has one candidate for the highest office been so closely associated with Satan. Adding
together Obamas middle name with the fact that he was educated in an Indonesian
religious school, it was an easy next step to a whisper campaign identifying Barak
Obama with the anti-Christ many Christians see prophesied in the Bible. Even CNN aired
a brief segment in 2008 on Obamas supposed role in the end of days. According to the
Book of Revelation the number associated with the Beast is 666. Various mathematical
gymnastics have been employed to associate that number with Obama including the
letters in his name and his Chicago zip-code.

We now turn to an analysis of popular contemporary Muslim millenialist apocalyptic

literature, mostly published in the 1990s. It appears to be specifically formulated in
response to contemporary apocalyptic dispensationalist Christian literature and doctrines. In medieval times many of the interpretations of the Quranic narratives were
taken from Jewish hagiography and the narratives of Hebrew and Christian scriptures,53
what Muslim scholars refer to as the Israliyyat. The recent publications of the 1990s that
engage primarily with apocalyptic and dispensationalist Christian material have been

,54 or Christian interpretations, in

identified by at least one scholar as Mashiyyat
recognition of the fact that some Muslim authors have borrowed from Christian
dispensationalist literature. The hype associated with dispensationalist Christian thought
at the end of the last century has become the impetus for the production of this Islamic
literature, a contemporary form of apologetics and polemics.

Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Millenialist Literature

Much of the current Christian apocalyptic material described above became
available to Muslims primarily through two venues: the broadcasts of a television station
established by Pat Robertson in Israeli occupied South Lebanon and the translation of
apocalyptic and dispensationalist material into Arabic, some of which was propagated
through the Church of the Brethren in Egypt. For several years Robertsons station called
for the destruction of the Haram (the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosques) in
Jerusalem in order to rebuild the Jewish Temple.
The Islamic material written in response in the 1990s is focused particularly on the
character of the Dajjal. For example, Hisham Kamal Abd al-Hamid in Iqtaraba Khuruj
provides references to 16 Christian sources in his bibliography which document his
dependency on the Christian literature. These include two exegeses of the Book of
Revelation, one of Ezekiel, and two of Daniel, focusing on the end of times and on what
he sees as the Zionist penetration of Christianity. His bibliography references 23 books
that he calls scientific sources, including those of Hal Lindsey and the Temple Mount
and Tristan Sturm, eds. Mapping the End Times. American Evangelical Geopolitics and Apocalyptic
Visions (Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2010), 73.
53
Some of the mythology reportedly crept into Islamic teachings when Tamim bin Aws al-Dari of
Yemen converted from Christianity to Islam at the time of the Prophet.
54
Abu Rayya as quoted in al-Tibi, Akhir al-Maqal, 11.

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Foundation. Abd al-Hamid also includes references to material published on the

mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, Flying Saucers and alien invasion of the world.55
Egyptian author Said Ayyub engages directly with the Western sources, quoting
extensively from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. He refutes the Christian accusation that the Prophet Muhammad is the anti-Christ and that the Jews are Gods chosen

people. History bears witness that the United States of America, which is completely
consumed by the teachings about the anti-Christ, is now the primary enemy of Islam in
every place.56 Ayyub affirms that the Muslims have been commissioned by God to guide
humanity in righteousness, insisting that the reference to the faithful one in Revelation
12:16 is a prophecy about the Prophet Muhammad who will establish justice.57 The other

current dispensationalist texts we looked at for this essay did not provide bibliographies
or footnotes, although they did quote from Christian sources such as Billy Graham, Pat
Robertson, Hal Lindsey, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell and the Scofield Bible. They also
cited Christian presidents of the United States such as Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and
Ronald Reagan, all of whom have made comments about the end of time.
Traditional Islamic teachings about the drama of the end-times were generally
dismissed by Muslim commentators who wrote during the first half of the 20th century.
Scholars and reformers of al-Azhar cast doubt on the reliability of some aspects of the
medieval apocalyptic literature. Modernist reformer Shaykh Muhammad Rashid Rida, for
example, considered such teachings to be part of the Jewish expectation of a messiah,
whom he said is false and will lead many astray.58 These scholars especially questioned
the authenticity and reality of the Dajjal narratives. Shaykh Abd al-Razzaq Nawfal, for
example, the best known of the Egyptian spiritualists, as in Asila Harija
(Critical Questions) dismissed such narratives as inventions to undermine Islam. At least
two of the Shaykhs of al-Azhar, Mustapha al-Maraghi in his Tafsir (Exegesis) and
Mahmud Shaltut in his Fatawa (Legal Opinions), ridiculed the notion of the Dajjal.
Maraghi said that he has become the symbol for myths, concoctions and absurdities that
disappear in the light of the Sharia,59 while Shaltut raised questions about the reliability
of the hadiths.60
Other modernist authors also engaged in the refutation of the narratives of the end
of time. Muhammad Farid Wagdi wrote in Dairat al-Maarif (Encyclopedia) that the
Dajjal narratives were myths concocted by enemies of the Prophet Muhammad who

sought to minimize his role in the divine plan.61 These myths, he insisted, are incredulous
as they assume that the educated as well as the illiterate would follow a one-eyed

Abd al-Hamid, Iqtaraba Khuruj, throughout the text.

Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal, 64.
57
Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal, 99.
58
Al-Tibi, Akhir al-Maqal, 12.
59
Al-Tibi, Akhir al-Maqal, 711.
60
Al-Tibi, Akhir al-Maqal, 13.
61
Cf. Al-Shami, Al-Alam Yantazhir Thalath, 65.
55
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creature with the word kafir (infidel) emblazoned on his forehead. He further
pointed out that if the Dajjal were real the Quran would not fail to make reference
to him as it does to the Beast. This opinion is shared by Abu Rayya in his Adwa ala
al-Sunna al-Muhammadiya (Shedding Light on the Traditions of the Muhammad ) and

by Ahmad Amin in his Fajr al-Islam (The Dawn of Islam). Even the late Egyptian
interpreter Muhammad al-Ghazali, influential in the late 20th century, rejected the
idea of the coming of the Dajjal on the basis of the fact that he is not mentioned
in the Quran. One has to depend on the authority of the hadith to support the existence
of the Dajjal, he says, which can create confusion. The Beast itself is real,
however, because it is scripturally based. According to Ghazali the Beast is from the
House of Israel. The reign of Banu Israil (Quranic reference to Jews) has come to pass
with the coming of Muhammad . The Beast is not, therefore, one of the signs of

the Hour.62
For centuries the authority to discuss the nature of the end of days lay in the hands
of the conservative ulama (religious elites). In recent years, with the rise of an educated
class and the Protestantization of Islam, a new class of elites, doctors, engineers,
lawyers and journalists has assumed the role of crafters of the new apocalyptic scenarios
based on a combination of traditional Muslim material, which incorporates
Judeo-Christian expectations, and the contemporary political, economic and security
realities in the Arab World.63 The impetus for these writings is the perceived disruption
of the social order that has undermined Muslim sense of confidence and wellbeing by
altering the balance of power in the region. It is nurtured by a profound feeling of being
victimized by Israel and the United States and by Muslim rulers who are accountable to
foreign rather than Muslim interests.
While there is not a consensus in the contemporary Muslim apocalyptic writing as to
the identity or even the reality of the Dajjal, much of the discussion of this figure seems
to center on the issue of the empowerment of Israel. There appears to be growing
agreement that the Dajjal is associated with the Jewish longing for a Messiah. In some
cases it is said that the anti-Christ will come to the Jews because he is their expected
Messiah. The Dajjal is associated with the Jews, says Mabruk. He will restore their
power.64 The Jews are the ones who rejected Jesus and Muhammad , and the anti-Christ

will be the one who fulfills their desires.65 Having misinterpreted the prophecies about
Jesus and Muhammad in the Bible as dealing with their prophets, the Jews believe that
their expected Messiah will empower them over the world. The true Messiah, says Abd
al-Hamid, is Jesus son of Mary who was rejected by the Jews. Jesus will kill the Dajjal,
their purported Messiah, the sower of discord and wars whose role is to destroy religions
Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqqa, Daf al-Shubuhat ein al-Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazal (Refuting Dubious
Accusations Against Muhammad al-Ghazali) (Cairo: Mahtabat al-Kulliyat al-Azhariya, 1990), 107108.
63
Smith and Haddad, The Islamic Understanding, 68.
64
Mabruk, Alamat al-Saah, 175.
65
See, e.g., Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal, 2728.
62

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and create chaos.66 At the eschaton it is generally believed that all Jews will die except
those who become Muslims.67
Some contemporary literature discusses the Dajjal as presently existing in the world
and sowing chaos and tribulation. It depicts him either as a physical demonic being or
as the representation of larger societal forces. Those who perceive him as a physical
being think that he is currently working himself into a position to gain power. He is
generally believed to be in the United States, although Europe is not discounted as a
possibility of the origin of the Dajjal. Other authors reject the idea that the Dajjal is an
actual physical being and see the emergence of Israel, the power of the United States,
and the concept of Zionism all as possibilities of ways one might interpret the coming of
this eschatological reality.68
The subject of the Dajjal seems to evoke the Muslim imagination in particularly
intriguing ways. The covers of popular apocalyptic tracts in Cairo bookstalls and
sidewalks portray him with bulging eyes (one blind as he is reputed to be one-eyed),
often with a sword in his hand and the Star of David on his chest. One shows an
evil-looking one-eyed wretch with a hideous beast in the background. Another heralds
al-masih al-dajjal with a picture of a one-eyed, large nosed sneering American soldier
with the Star of David hanging around his neck and missiles on his back. Most of these
representations in one way or another identify the anti-Christ with Israel, such as one in
which the Dajjal is pictured standing in front of a synagogue, himself holding a Star of
David and surrounded by a beatific cone of light. The continuing identification of Russia
and China is expressed in one cover featuring the diabolic Gog and Magog with forked
tongues and horns, a skull and hammer and sickle emblem emblazoned on their chests.
Abd al-Hamid exemplifies the interest in connecting the Dajjal with such mysteries
as flying saucers and the Bermuda Triangle. He calls the Triangle the throne of Iblis
[Satan], saying that it is the dwelling of jinn69 and the research center of the Dajjal. He
offers what he calls scientific and religious proof that what have been seen as
extra-terrestrial creatures on flying saucers are simply the soldiers of the anti-Christ from
Satan, the saucers themselves being the aerial weapons of the Dajjal. He identifies Jewish
plans to destroy the Masjid al-Aqsa and rebuild the ancient Temple as a means of
providing a place in which to worship the anti-Christ. Satan worshippers also establish
churches to worship the Dajjal and preach his imminent coming to their followers. In
Egypt today, he says, the message of the anti-Christ is disseminated by Satan worshippers
through the medium of rock music such as Black Metal, Death Metal and Heavy Metal.70
Abd al-Hamid argues that flying saucers are a reality. They do not come from outer
space, but are the weapons of the anti-Christ which are produced by Satan. These
Abd al-Hamid, Iqtaraba Khuruj, 138, 199, 211, 288.
Abd al-Hamid, Yajuj wa Majuj Qadimun, 154.
68
Cook, Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic, 18587.
69
Creatures born of smokeless light, capable of assuming different forms to aid or to mislead humans.
70
Abd al Hamid, Iqtaraba Khuruj, 4563, 133650, 222, 235, 283.
66
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weapons are manufactured in the Bermuda Triangle.71 According to Muhammad Jamal

al-Shami, the anti-Christ is physically present today in the Bermuda Triangle. His
appearance is imminent due to the abundance of fitan (discord). He has united with the
Devil, the Jews and the Christians to destroy Islam and the Muslims.72 Muhammad Isa
Dawud even goes on to suggest that the association of Satan with the Bermuda Triangle
makes sense since it is in South America (sic) whose ancient societies had several satanic
cults that continue to flourish in Haiti and Belize. He posits that the name of Belize might
a distortion of the Arabic word Ibls (Satan).73
Muhammad Isa Dawud places his understanding of the Dajjal and the end days in
the context of the Israeli policy of ingathering.74 He notes that between 1986 and 1991
over a million Russian Jews emigrated to Israel, part of the ingathering that started with
the Yemeni Jews in the 1950s. More Jews will need more housing, thus Israel must annex
more Palestinian land to accommodate them. The resulting economic depression,
Dawwa says, which is made obvious in the disparity of wealth between developing and
developed nations, is evidence of the imminence of the Hour. Dawwa describes the
Dajjal as appearing in an American military uniform (or possibly Russian), armed with a
laser gun that can wreak havoc beyond imagination. He insists, however, that in the face
of this terrible figure the Muslim will be fearless.75
Ayyubs al-Masih al-Dajjal is clearly designed to refute the Christian missionary
claim in the Muslim world that the anti-Christ is the Prophet Muhammad . Such a claim,

he says, is an outright lie. Quoting the Hebrew and Christian scriptures extensively,
Ayyub rejects the notion that the Jews are Gods chosen people and points to the Gospel
message of a Jesus of peace, asking how Jesus could then be said to be coming at the end
of time to shed blood. Rather it is Muslims, he says, who have been commissioned by
God to guide humanity in righteousness. Let the People of the Book know that he who
lives by throwing bombs and believes in the policy of the cannon will meet the Muslim
whose forgiveness has its limits as he will take what is his right! By the blood and the
cannon . . . tomorrow the earth will be quenched by rain, a rain whose color is that of
blood. . . .76 Ayyub argues that the reference in the 12th Book of Revelation to the
faithful one is really a reference to Muhammad and his charge to establish justice in the

world.77
As for the Mahd, recent Muslim apocalyptic literature describes in surprising detail
the manner in which his fight with the West will unfold. According to writings of the last
few decades, he is currently being prepared for his redeeming mission, although he is
Abd al-Hamid, Yajuj wa Majuj, 153. See also Dawud, al-Khuyut al-Khafiyya, 186.
Al-Alam Yantazhir Thalath al-Shami, al-Mahdi, 69. See also Abd al-Hamid, Iqtaraba Khuruj for a
discussion of the Bermuda Triangle and flying saucers.
73
Dawud, al-Khuyut al-Khafiyah.
74
See Sura 17:104: We said to the children of Israel: Now dwell in the land, but when the promised
time of the Hereafter comes, We shall bring you all together.
75
Muhammad Isa Dawud, Ihdhiru al-Masikh al-Dajjal, 154181.
76
Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal, 159.
77
Ayyub, al-Masih al-Dajjal, 99100.
71
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not aware that he is the foretold Mahd. His reluctance to acknowledge his calling from
God will be washed away as he gains the support of the umma and reestablishes the
caliphate. Armies will combine against him after he is formally presented at the Hajj, but
with the power of God he will overcome his enemies.78 His appearance along with that
of Jesus will be followed by the war at Armageddon. Lebanese Shaykh Muhammad
Hisham Kabbani, self-styled Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, writes
of the impending end-times events in The Approach to Armageddon? An Islamic
Perspective. He says that in the last days the Mahdi will come with heavenly support from
Allah, filling the earth with justice. Non-Muslims will be running to catch faith (Islam),
observing that westerners today are entering Islam in droves by Allahs grace.79
An interesting text published at the height of millenarian expectations in the West
sheds light on the official Muslim attitude towards the incorporation of the Masihiyat in
teachings about the imminence of the eschaton. The engineer Amin Muhammad Jamal
al-Din, a graduate in higher studies from the Dawa College of al-Azhar University, notes
in the introduction to the second edition of his book Umr Ummat al-Islam80 (Age of the
Muslim Community) that the first edition included references to Christian eschatological
material which created a sustained and strong response. The book sold out in a few
weeks. And in accordance with the wish of many of my brothers I have removed some
of the pages of the appendices, particularly the ones pertaining to the discussions of
People of the Book on the subject.81 He then discusses whether it is acceptable to
appropriate, or even read material published by People of the Book. He goes on to
affirm the traditional teachings on the subject, referring to what he calls the war between
Jews and Muslims. Jamal al-Din devotes a whole chapter to a discussion of Armageddon
(a term not used in traditional Islamic eschatology and rendered by the author in Latin
script), and is fully cognizant of the teachings, scenarios and issues put forward by
American Christians.82 He writes that many Muslims have misunderstood the truth
because they became dependant on foreign teachings. The Battle of Armageddon is real
and imminent. But in the Muslim understanding the forces will be aligned differently.
Muslims will form a coalition with Europe and the United States to fight a common
enemy which could be a coalition of Russia with the Shiites. The Jews will inflame the
war between the two coalitions and the Russians and Shiites will be wiped out. The
remnant will be destroyed by the Muslims and the Mahd who will appear after Jesus son
of Mary kills the anti-Christ. Armageddon will be fought with nuclear weapons that will
precipitate utter destruction. All weapons will be eliminated and as the scriptures
78

Cook, Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic, 12628.

Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, The Approach of Armageddon? (ashington DC: Islamic
Supreme Council of America, 2003), 186211.
80
Amin Muhammad Jamal al-Din, Umr Ummat al-Islam wa Qurb Zuhur al-Mahdi Alayhi al-Salam
(The Age of the Muslim Community and the Imminence of the Mahdi Peace be Upon Him) (Cairo:
al-Maktaba al-Tawfiqiyya, 1996).
81
Jamal al-Din, Umr Ummat al-Islam, 6.
82
Jamal al-Din, Umr Ummat al-Islam, 1239.
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prophecy nations who resort to war will have to use swords, lances and horses.83 There
is nothing new in this, he says, it is part of the flow of history in which nations and
civilizations rise and peak and then are brought low.84
Jamal al-Din, whose book appeared in 1996, notes that there seems to be a
consensus among Jews, Christians and Muslims that the world will come to an end by the
year 2000. Isaiah 24:3435 is the basis of Jewish expectation of the coming of the Messiah
in 1998, 50 years after the establishment of the State of Israel. The Christians believe that
he will come at the end of the Millennium. Jesus will return to demonstrate to the Jews
that they did not kill him; rather he will kill them. His return is also a refutation of
Christian teaching that Jesus is divine. He will affirm his humanity and his Islam. The
choice for humanity will be Islam or the sword.85

Conclusion
Central to all Islamic apocalyptic exegeses is the Quran, particularly those passages
revealed in Mecca in the context of the early persecution of the Muslim community. It is
therefore grounded in the concept of the ultimate vindication of the suffering righteous
people and provides assurance of Gods dominion over the enemy, even at the point of
utter weakness and defeat. Interpretations of its passages have led to eschatological
conclusions, many of which have changed over time to account for relevant prevailing
political realities. The Quranic material is generally supplemented with the traditions of
the Prophet and Judeo-Christian expectations of the eschaton.
A great deal of contemporary apocalyptic literature is focused on the Dajjal, the
anti-Christ, reflecting the Christian absorption in the topic and the exigencies of the
times. Contemporary Islamic interpretations are carefully crafted to reflect the deep
frustration felt by Muslims that they are helpless and unable to control their present or
shape their future, that their fate is being manipulated by the Jewish conspiracy. The
anti-Christ thus takes the form of Israel, the United States, and the Zionism that both
supports and represents them. Being vanquished is not a permanent position.
Popular Islamic apocalyptic literature calls on individual Muslims to maintain the
faith, to prepare the way for Jesus the Son of Mary and the Mahd. It provides a fusion
of the old apocalyptic expectations with those of the current Judeo-Christian millenarian
expectations. These writers want to raise the consciousness of the Muslim community to
refute Christian claims to supersession, to call Muslims to moral rearmament to serve in
the army of the Mahd to defeat evil and bring about justice and peace. These new
interpretations of traditional apocalyptic literature thus are trying to help the Muslim
community, especially Arab Muslims, to see meaning and purpose in the current political
circumstance. In a sense by putting new flesh on old bones they are helping provide a
reprieve from the stress of the current situation of chaos and social disruption. The
Jamal al-Din, Umr Ummat al-Islam, 38.
Jamal al-Din, Umr Ummat al-Islam, 39.
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Jamal al-Din, Umr Ummat al-Islam, 106107.
83
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The Anti-Christ and the End of Time in Christian and Muslim Eschatological Literature

traditional signs of the hour are both the descriptors of current political realities and the
predictors of ultimate vindication of the believers and the defeat of the enemies of God.
This material is not prepared for dawa, not aimed at converting Christians and Jews
to Islam. Rather it seeks to affirm Muslim truth and counter the Christian apocalyptic
discourse, which predicts the destruction and eradication of Islam. By incorporating
elements of Christian apocalyptic literature, contemporary Muslim writers have created
a parallel discourse that sees the final solution for the Jewish problem. Both Muslim
and Christian apocalyptic authors look for the ultimate destruction of Israel and the death
of its population. Both see a remnant saved. The Christians see the Jewish remnant
converting to Christianity, while the Muslims see both Christians and Jews converting to
Islam.
It is clear that for some Christians deciphering the signs of the coming of the end
energizes them to seek a role in hastening its completion. For some Muslims, the signs
provide comfort that though they may be undergoing current tribulations, there is
assurance that God is in charge and that history is marching according to Gods will.
Christians active in facilitating the end of time believe that they have agency and can
speed the process of the coming of the Messiah by actualizing the prophecies of Ezekiel
and Daniel. Muslims rely on Gods power to initiate, implement and fulfill his will in
history and the end of times. Their participation or lack thereof does not hasten, interfere
or impede in any way Gods manifesting of his power in the world or his bringing
creation to its end.

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