The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 280
280. Essence of Islam-III day of resurrection, because Satan will remain alive only so long as men are alive. Satan does not operate on his own, but through his agents, who are the people who deify a human being. Being a group of people, they are called Dajjal as in Arabic Dajjāl also connotes a group. . If Dajjāl is taken to mean someone other than the misguided preachers of Christianity, this would entail a contradiction, because the very Aḥādīth which indicate that the Dajjal will prevail over the earth in the latter days, also indicate that in those days the power of the church will overwhelm all religions. This contradiction can only be solved by affirming that the two are one and the same. [Haqiqat-ul-Waḥi, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 22, p. 41]. The Word Dajjāl Signifies a Group. Dajjal is not the name of one man. According to the Arabic lexicon, Dajjāl signifies a group of people who present themselves as trustworthy and pious, but are neither trustworthy nor pious. Rather, everything they say is full of dishonesty and deceit. This characteristic is to be found in the class of Christians known as the clergy. Another group is that of the philosophers and thinkers who are busy trying to assume control of machines, industries and the Divine scheme of things. . They are the Dajjāl because they deceive God's creatures by their actions and tall claims as if they are partners in. God's dominion. The clergy are arrogating to themselves the status of Prophethood because they ignore the true heavenly Gospel and spread a perverted and corrupted version as the supposed translation of the Gospel. [Kitāb-ul-Bariyyah, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 13, pp. 243-244, footnote]