| Introduction
Throughout their entire lives, everyone is at war with an enemy,
the extent of whose strength and influence they perhaps fail to fully comprehend.
The main feature of this enemy is subtlety. He constantly invites mankind to commit
evil, and many people he uses without them even being aware of it. Those who are
constantly in conflict with others, who always believe that violence is the answer,
who take pleasure in brutality, murder, chaos and anarchy, in short, those who
harm the peace and security of the world, have lost the war against this foe,
whether they realize it or not, and have fallen under his control. This most dangerous
enemy is the Devil, described to us in all his aspects by God in the Qur'an. The
Devil is a force who, ever since the time of the Prophet Adam, has been doing
all in his power to turn man away from God. One of the most common errors people
commit is their failure to adequately estimate the Devil, that one who incites
them to wickedness and leads them to Hell. The fact is, however, that the Devil
poses a serious danger to man, and is his declared enemy. In a verse, God reveals:
The Devil is your enemy so treat him as an enemy.
He summons his party so they will be among the people of the Searing Blaze.
(Qur'an, 35: 6)
One of the most devious quagmires that the Devil sets up for people is
conflict, terror and anarchy. As God revealed in another verse, "The
Devil wants to stir up trouble between them" (Qur'an, 17: 53); to
destroy feelings of friendship, love, compassion, forgiveness, peace and
trust between people, and to incite them towards violence, are the objectives
of the Devil. However, one point should be stressed here. Although the
Devil appears to be a creature who is active on many fronts, he is, in
fact, under God's control and is His subject. He knows that God has granted
him a set time until the day of judgement, and that he will have to pay
for sins when that time comes. The promises he fabricates to encourage
people to join him, and the schemes he sets in motion, are all part of
his deceptions. God describes this fact of the Devil:
They are like the Devil when he says to a human
being, "Disbelieve," and then when he disbelieves, says, "I wash my hands
of you. Truly I fear God, the Lord of all the worlds." (Surat al-Hasr:
16)
Nevertheless, the Devil is able to influence certain
people (those who do not believe in God, and who do not know or fear Him as they
should). The degree of this influence depends on the circumstances. He is often
behind certain events which impel human societies into disaster and which cause
harm to the innocent. One of the greatest sources of misery effected by the Devil
in our time is, without a doubt, terrorism. The hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, also mention that, during the end times, a devilish power will
emerge, one of whose most important attributes will be that he disrupts the peace
and order of mankind. Many people, though, attach little importance to that power,
known as the Antichrist (Dajjal). That is because, most people either have little
knowledge of the matter, or have never heard of it at all. However, the subject
of the Antichrist is very prominent in those of the Prophet's hadiths which point
out that the last day is approaching, and about which a substantial amount of
information has been provided. The aim of this book is to describe the characteristics
of the Antichrist, one of the Devil's primary minions on earth, as set out in
the hadiths, and to allow the reader to acquire more familiarity with this Devilish
power, of which God's messenger (pbuh) has warned us. From the hadiths,
one would ordinarily think of him as an individual. However, as well as an individual,
it can also be an ideology that tends towards violence and savagery, possesses
devilish characteristics, and inflicts suffering on mankind. Later chapters of
this book will treat that aspect, and demonstrate that the Antichrist is a perverted
ideological movement that has enormous influence in the world. That movement holds
whole communities under its spell, attracts followers despite all its manifest
absurdities and errors, and even has its own differing sects within it. Another
important matter that will be considered in this book is the way this movement
inspires fear and unease in people, giving rise to chaos and anarchy, and destroying
peace and security, in order to consolidate its hold on the entire world. One
of the most frequently employed methods that the movement in question resorts
to, in order to achieve its aims, is acts of violence and terrorism aimed at the
innocent. In other words, terrorism is the most prominent element of the way of
the Antichrist. That element is employed by the disciples of the system, in hysteria
and rage, as if it were a holy rite. The wars, conflicts, acts of brutal
terrorism, slaughter and acts of genocide that still go on in various parts of
the world today, are the work of the Antichrist, the principle devilish power
in the run-up to the last day. The main aim of that system is to turn people away
from religious belief, proper morality, spiritual depth, love and all human values,
and to turn them into uncompassionate and aggressive creatures that take pleasure
in savagery and violence, and thus turn the whole world into a battleground. However,
it must never be forgotten that this plan will not succeed, and that the system
of the Antichrist is doomed to annihilation. Whatever the degree of the strife
and chaos it manages to create, the ideological system of the Antichrist is doomed,
under the law of God, to ultimate defeat and destruction. By the will of God,
that defeat will come about by means of a war of ideas waged by those who turn
to Him with true sincerity and strive to bring about the spread of belief and
proper morality all over the world. That is a promise made by God to the believers.
The following verse is the way in which God says that the truth will be made known
in the end and falsehood be overcome:
Say: "Truth has come and falsehood has vanished.
Falsehood is always bound to vanish." (Qur'an, 17: 81)
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