Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 96 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:96

حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا فُتِحَتْ يَأْجُوجُ وَمَأْجُوجُ وَهُم مِّن كُلِّ حَدَبٍ يَنسِلُونَ

“Until when [the dam of] Gog and Magog has been opened and they, from every elevation, descend”

Saheeh International

Essence

A barrier will be opened, and Gog and Magog will pour over every rise; it opens only when He opens it.

A reflection

The unstoppable, stopped by a worm

Notice the grammar of the opening. Futiḥat: it was opened. The verb is passive. Gog and Magog do not break out by their own strength. The barrier is opened, and the One who opens it is not named because He does not need to be. Another surah has the builder of that barrier say: 'When the promise of my Lord comes, He will level it' (18:98).

Sahih Muslim preserves a long account from the Prophet ﷺ of what happens next. Allah tells Isa, son of Maryam, that He has brought out servants of His whom no one has the power to fight. Isa is told to take the believers to safety on the mountain. Gog and Magog pour out, as this ayah says, from every rise. They drink lakes dry.

Then comes the turn. Isa and his companions turn to Allah in earnest prayer. And Allah sends small worms into the necks of that vast host. By morning they are dead, the narration says, like the death of a single soul.

Sit with the scale of that. No human army can face that force. Yet it is ended overnight by something as small as a worm. No battle. No general's brilliance. A prayer, and a worm.

Think of a vast container ship, the length of four football pitches, stuck fast in a narrow canal. Engineers, tugs and diggers work for days. Then a spring tide lifts it free in an afternoon. Nobody on the crew can claim the credit.

The ego loves to believe that history turns on its own strength. This ayah and its explanation say otherwise. Barriers open when He opens them. Unstoppable forces stop when He stops them. He needs no army to defend Him. The believers in that account are not saved by their swords but by their turning.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.