IN the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
The Holy Qur’an, Ra’d 13:38-40, says, “We did send apostles before thee, and appointed for them wives and children: And it was never the part of an apostle to bring a sign except as God permitted (or commanded). For each period is a Book (revealed). God doth blot out or confirm what He pleaseth: With Him is the Mother of the Books. Whether We shall show thee (within thy lifetime) part of what We promised them or take to ourselves thy soul (before it is all accomplished). Thy duty is to make (the Message) reach them: It is Our part to call them to account”.
The 10 major signs, among which is the second coming of Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus), are summarised in one Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW): “The Hour will not come until you see ten signs: the smoke; the False Messiah; the Beast; the sun rising from the West; the descent of Jesus son of Mary; the Gog and Magog; and three tremors – one in the East, one in the West, and one in Arabia, at the end of which fire will burst forth from the direction of Aden and drive people to the place of their final assembly” (Ahmed).
Meanwhile, when the Gog and Magog will have driven the Muslims to hole up in their strongholds and refuges, and when they see the blood on their weapons, which will have returned from the sky, they will take these as evidence for their imminent victory over the Muslims. However, that evening: “Jesus and his companions will beseech God, and God will send against them (the Gog and Magog) worms which will attack their necks; and in the morning, they will all perish as one” (Sahih Muslim).
Therefore, not knowing that the horde was already destroyed, the Muslims in their strongholds will call for a volunteer to scout out what the enemy was doing. The volunteer, knowing he would probably die, will descend to find them all dead, lying on top of one another. Returning, he will call out: “O Muslims! Rejoice. God has sufficed us against our enemies!”
However, when Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) and the people who took refuge on Mount Tur descend, they will find the same scene, with not a single spot of the earth around them free of the putrefying stench of rotting bodies. So sickening and dangerous to health will be the situation that Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) will pray again to God, Who will send huge birds to carry them off and throw them into the sea where the sun rises.
Thereafter, Almighty Allah will send a drenching, intense rain that penetrates into everything, lasting 40 days. Unlike the Deluge, that descended on the People of Prophet Nuh (AS), this torrential rainfall will be beneficial, for: “The earth will be washed till it looks like a mirror. God will then order the earth: ‘Bring forth your fruit and restore your blessing” (Sahih Muslim).
The Muslims will let their cattle and flocks out to graze again, and they will fatten up better than from any vegetation they had fed on before (Sahih Ahmed).
Orchards will produce fruit of size and quality never known before, and cattle produce fine quality milk in copious amounts, enough so that nobody will experience any shortage of it (Sahih Muslim).
The benefits, then, from the advent of the Gog and Magog, with the decimation of non-believers, leaving the world for a nation of the believers, and food in abundance after the earth had absorbed all the dead decaying bodies caused by their invasion and later extermination.
For a period of time, wealth would be so abundant that people would not be able to find those to whom they could pay out the poor due (Sahih Muslim).
In an authentic Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Abu Hurairah reported the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, as saying: “…And there will be no Jizya. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (in charity)” (Sahih Al-Bukhari).
Indeed, not so beneficial will be the reduction in the numbers of men, causing a major imbalance in the sex ratio. Women will far exceed the men in numbers, possibly due to casualties in war, as was the case in Germany after World War II. The shortage of men was so acute that the International Youth Conference in Munich, Germany in 1948 suggested polygamy as a solution for women left on the shelf.
Meanwhile, the reign of Prophet ‘Isa (AS) (Jesus), may God grant him peace, will be by the law that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) brought, i.e., the Holy Qur’an. This is in accordance with the covenant that God took from all his prophets. The Qur’an, Al-Imran 3:81, says, “Behold! God took the covenant of the prophets, saying: ‘I have given you the Book and Wisdom; then will come a messenger to you confirming what is with you, so believe in him and render him help’. God said: ‘Do you agree, and take this covenant as binding upon you?’ They said: ‘We agree’. He said: ‘Then bear witness! And I am with you among the witnesses.’”
The reign of Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus), therefore, will be according to the covenant with God, and this is backed up by an explanation of the saying of Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) by Abu Hurairah, when he reported a question, he had asked to his companions. He said: The Messenger of God said, ‘What would you do when the son of Mary descends among you, and lead as one among you?’”
One of the companions, Ibn Abu Theeb, asked: “What does ‘He will lead as one among you’ mean?” Abu Hurairah replied: “He will lead you according to the Book of your Lord, exalted and praised is He, and the Way of your Messenger” (Sahih Muslim).
Prophet ‘Isa’s reign will be marked by mutual respect, peace and prosperity among the people. In another hadith, Abu Hurairah said: “Spite, mutual hatred and jealousy against one another will disappear, and when he (Jesus) summons people to accept wealth, none will do so” (Sahih Al-Bukhari).
The lack of rancour between people will be absolute, not relative, for at least seven years, wherein no two people would be stirred to ire towards each other, and the word between them would be ‘peace’ (Sahih Muslim).
In fact, religiosity and piety will be the order of the day, and esteem for each other. A Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) testifies,”A single prostration to God (in prayer) will be better than the whole world and whatever is in it” (Sahih Al-Bukhari).
Thus, Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) himself will not only rule and judge by the Muslim Shariah, he will complete all the Islamic pillars. The Prophet of Islam said: “By Him in Whose hand my life is, the son of Mary will certainly invoke the name of God for Hajj or Umrah or both in the valley of Rauha (a valley near Madinah)” (Sahih Muslim).
Then, 40 after his second coming, he will die, and the Muslims will perform the funeral prayer for him, as reported by Abu Hurairah.
As we can see, the return of Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) to earth will be a truly magnificent event, surrounded by truly magnificent incidents, so magnificent that one may find it even fantasy-like. Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus) will come at a time when the world is in true need of divine help.
Indeed, this divine help will come with Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus), but some of the trials of those days will be so great that not even he will be able to face them, fleeing to the tops of mounts with his followers. Only God will be able to save humanity in that time. Albeit, not only will this divine help come to put an end to the greatest trials faced by humankind since the dawn of time – the False Messiah and Gog and Magog – but it will also come to show the truth about God, putting an end to all falsehood, with everyone being united under the one true religion of God.
May Allah grant us the wisdom to reason and accept the revelation towards the path of truth. Amen.
