The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 703
PT. 16 AL-KAHF CH. 18 وَعَرَضْنَا جَهَنَّمَ يَوْمَبِذٍ لِلْكَفِرِينَ And on that day We shall. 101 عَرْضَان الَّذِينَ كَانَتْ أَعْيُنُهُمْ فِي غِطَاء عَنْ ذِكْرِى وَكَانُوا لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ سَمْعَان present Hell, face to face, to the disbelievers,2 2137 102. "Whose eyes were under a veil so as not to heed My warning, and they could not even hear. 2138 2137. Commentary: "21:43; 39:46. Those will be terrible days. The fire of Hell will be kindled for the sinful. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and man will consign God to oblivion and, sinking in sin and iniquity, he will render himself deserving of Divine punishment. 2138. Commentary: The verse means to say that at that time worship of God will totally disappear from among the Christian peoples and love of Mammon will take the place of love of God in their hearts. They will completely forget their Creator and will attribute all their great achievements to their own skill and effort. The words, and they could not even hear, mean that their hearts will become so much rusted and corroded that they will lose all attachment for the word of God and will refuse to listen to it. The foregoing verses refer to the great material progress and widespread conquests of Gog and Magog western Christian nations- and their utter disregard for God and religion. We have also been told that, elated with their political power and 1911 military glory, they will give themselves up to a life of pleasure and sin and as a result will bring the wrath of God upon themselves and their prosperity will give place to decline and degradation. Then in despair and despondency, as hinted at God and, having realized the error of in Moses' vision, they will turn to their ways, will come back to the "junction of the two Seas" i. e. they will accept the Holy Prophet. The following prophecy of the Bible forms a befitting sequel to the account of Gog and Magog and indicates the time of their rise to power and greatness: And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea (Revelation 20:7-8). By "the thousand years" are meant the thousand years of the Hijrah— Migration of the Holy Prophet to Medina in 622 A. D. The above passage along with chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel makes it quite clear that the rise of Gog and Magog was to have begun in the 17th century A. D.