Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 624
624 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI-THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION group is indeed the greatest Dajjāl whose emergence was prophesied. The Jews too were guilty of distortion but they became the target of such humiliation as was tantamount to death. This was the only group that went from height to height and devoted all their energies to decep- tion and distortion. But that was not all. They also wanted to make the rest of the world like themselves. On account of their material power and prestige they were able to acquire all the requisite means and thus they accomplished such feats of deception and distortion, the likes of which cannot be found throughout the history of the world from its inception until today. They tried to make people turn their backs on the One and Only God and accept instead Ibn-e-Maryam [the Son of Mary] as 'God'. In our own times this misconduct on their part peaked to its ultimate height. And they made so many interpolations in the Books of Allah the Exalted as if they themselves were Prophets in their own right. This is why the term Dajjal was applied to them; that is to say, those who distort the Books of God to the extreme and those who make falsehood appear as truth. In the aḥādīth the Promised Dajjal's coming is described frequently as khurūj [i. e. emergence] whereas in reference to the Promised Messiah the term nuzūl [i. e. descent] is used; the two words being opposites. By this what is meant is that the Promised Messiah will descend on behalf of Allah the Exalted, and that God will be with him whereas the Dajjāl will forge ahead with the help of material means, deception, and fraud. Indeed, just as the Holy Quran mentions the mischief of Christianity, so too does it mention Gog and Magog. There is an indication of their [material] dominance which would extend across the entire earth in the verse: 1 هُمْ مِّنْ كُلِّ حَدَبٍ يَنْسِلُونَ Now, if the Dajjāl, Christianity, and Gog and Magog are taken to 1. They shall hasten forth from every height (Surah al-Anbiya', 21:97). [Publisher]