Evil Manifest?

I was quite young when I was first introduced to the Islamic concept of the Antichrist (Arabic الدّجّال for the Deceiver/Impostor) and until last night I knew relatively nothing about him except that I was to flee when and if I ever caught sight of him. In order to know more I watched a video of a speech given by Canadian Islamic scholar Dr. Bilal Philips on the subject of the Antichrist.Philips began his speech first by comparing the different versions of the Antichrist. He found the reference in the Christian scrolls to be to be vague and obscure. He continued to dig deeper into history by examining the Jewish scrolls (namely the Book of Daniel) and ridiculed the description found therein. Finally, he moved on to the Islamic concept after an initial bout of praise for the complexity in the narrations by the Prophet’s companions.

According to Philips, the Antichrist is a sun-tanned Caucasian male, with a muscular physique, stooped back, curly hair, green eyes (of which one is blind), protruding forehead and a most prominent feature, the Arabic letters ف , ك and ر which would be deciphered by all devout Moslems, regardless of their literacy, as the mark of the Disbeliever.

Then Philips began describing his earthly manifestation prior to the Day of Resurrection. Three years before the Antichrist is set to appear, God shall command the skies to withhold a third of its rain and the Earth a third of its produce. The second year two-thirds and everything on the third year. Then only would the Antichrist appear before man, bearing powers only a god could possess. He shall carry mountains of bread and meat, along with rivers from both Heaven and Hell, he shall be able to raise the dead, cure the sick and fling those who oppose him into the pits of Hell for all to see. (These contesters enter the real Heaven as Martyrs). Most important of all, he shall claim to be God. This ultimate trial of faith will save the faithful who reject him and bring out the infidels and the hypocrites who align with him. The latter will suffer eternal ****ation.

I listened intently but all the while I was disturbed by an irritable conflict with the circumstances with which the Antichrist appears. Philips mentioned that he will be preceded by the Mahdi who will wage a global war against the infidels (a sort of crusade). Based on the narrations, I assume that after this war humanity’s stance on Earth would already be weakened. Then comes the drought and the famine brought about by Divine Intervention. We can all imagine what kind of a scenario this would create… think poverty struck regions of Africa, only a million times worse than that if agriculture is eradicated altogether. After taking this into consideration, how could any man (or woman for that matter) refuse the salvation offered by the Antichrist? How could anyone who is on the fringe of death refuse a morsel of food, even if it comes from this unholy impersonator, aided in his deception of mankind by God Himself? If a man were to be responsible for such acts of deception, would he not be deemed unfathomably cruel? Nobel winning physicist Steven Weinberg once said in an interview by a BBC documentary “The Atheism Tapes” by Jonathan Miller:

“Maybe at the very bottom of it… I really don’t like God. You know, it’s silly to say I don’t like God because I don’t believe in God, but in the same sense that I don’t like Iago, or the Reverend Slope or any of the other villains of literature, the god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to me a terrible character. He’s [a God] who obsessed the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don’t worship him in the right way. Now I realise that many people don’t believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he’s a terrible character. I don’t like him”

Sadly, I must agree with Weinberg. His observations are accurate albeit exaggerated. However, I REFUSE to believe that those traits are inherent to God’s true nature. They are in stark contrast to the Divine Characters that I do believe in… that God is The Most Beneficent, The Peace and Blessing, The Merciful, The Ever Providing, The Loving and The Truth and The Compassionate. After a lot of contemplation I reached only one conclusion. We have distorted our collective perception of God to further our own trifle agendas.

May God forgive us all for the atrocities we have committed and continue to commit in His Name.