The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 281
Dajjal-the Antichrist 281 Christian Priests as Dajjāl Dajjal in fact is none other than the people known as Christian missionaries and European philosophers. They act like the two jaws of the Promised Dajjal with which he devours people's faith like a python. First it is the common and ignorant people who get caught in the wiles of the missionaries; and then, those who happen to es- cape their clutches being disgusted with the disgraceful and false beliefs, are caught in the net of the European philosophers. I see that the common people are more vulnerable to the lies of the clergy, whereas the intellec- tual ones are more susceptible to the falsehood spread by the philosophers. [Kitab-ul-Bariyyah, Rūķānī Khazā'in, vol. 13, pp. 252-253, footnote] There have been many Dajjāls and there may be more to come. But the greatest Dajjal, whose deceit is so vile in God's estimation that heaven might well be rent asunder by it, is the group which deifies a mere human being. God Almighty has set forth in the Holy Qur'ān various kinds of deceit practised by the Jews, the Polytheists and others, but does not single out any which might cause heaven to be rent asunder. Therefore, we should not des- ignate any group as the greatest Dajjal but the one so des- ignated by God in His Holy Word. It would be most unfair and cruel to try to find someone else as the great- est Dajjal. On no account can we justify the existence of a greater Dajjal than the present day Christian clergy. Whereas God has designated them in His Holy Word as the great- est Dajjal, it would be the height of faithlessness to con- sider anyone else to be the greatest Dajjal in contrast to the Word of God. Had there been any possibility at any