The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 626
In order to expand the subject and give it more clarity, the Isrā' (Spiritual Journey) of Moses has been mentioned after the parable of the "two gardens". This Spiritual Journey of Moses describes in metaphorical language the great material and moral progress that his followers were to make just as the phenomenal progress of the followers of the Holy Prophet has been described in his own Isra', mentioned in Surah Bani Isrā'il. This Isra' of Moses describes in detail when and how this great advancement would commence and where it would stop and when the Israelites would become deprived of Divine favours which would be transferred to the House of Ishmael. After this we are told that the Ishmaelites, after having become heirs to God's favours, would in their turn incur His displeasure by defying His commandments and would receive severe punishment at the hands of Christian peoples the second misguided part of the Mosaic Dispensation. The depraved followers of the Holy Prophet would be punished by Gog and Magog who would, at one time, spread over and dominate the entire world. In order to show that these nations lived also even in the time of the Holy Prophet but that God in His own infallible wisdom had kept them in a state of dormancy and had stopped them from spreading over the world, the Surah has mentioned the causes that hindered their progress. Towards the end of the Surah, mention is made of one, Dhul-Qarnain, who stood in the way of the domination of the whole world by Gog and Magog. Thus light is thrown on the material and spiritual condition of Christians both in the early stages of their faith and in the Latter Days when power, wealth and material prosperity would make them depart from the path of truth and righteousness. The Dwellers of the Cave symbolize early Christians in the period of their weakness, and Gog and Magog represent them in the heyday of their glory in our own time. Gog and Magog are Christians only in name, being quite strangers to the real spirit of their religion. The Surah closes with an assurance to the followers of Islam that God would break and shatter the forces of irreligiousness unleashed by Gog and Magog and would bring about the deliverance of Muslims by means of a second Dhul-Qarnain. This second Dhul-Qarnain is the Holy Founder of the Aḥmadiyya Movement. In short, the Surah deals with two epochs of Christianity. In the first epoch the Christians led a life of virtue and righteousness and in the second they have given themselves up entirely to the pursuit and acquisition of material wealth and worldly gains. In between these two periods of Christianity's spiritual glory and its decline and degradation the Islamic Dispensation was established and we are told that when Muslims abandoned the path of virtue and adopted satanic ways, their political power would suffer a great eclipse at the hands of Christians. Later, however, Islam would emerge unscathed from this travail. This prophecy is being fulfilled in our own time. 1834