Shaikh al-Albani (d. 1420 H.) —may Allah have mercy upon him—said: “[Allah says]:
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فُتِحَتْ يَأْجُوجُ وَمَأْجُوجُ وَهُم مِّن كُلِّ حَدَبٍ يَنسِلُونَ
“Until, when Ya’juj and Ma’juj (Gog and Magog) are let loose (from their barrier), and they swiftly swarm from every mound” [21:96]
No doubt Imaan in a people known as Ya’juj and Ma’juj is from the authentic, Islamic creed due to its origin being present in the Quran and their story and detailed in the Sunnah. The barrier whose mentioned has come before this verse in the Noble Quran is the one which our Prophet (ﷺ) spoke about in the authentic Hadith. Behind the barrier is the people of Ya’juj and Ma’juj and that they are attempting to escape from this barrier towards the world. So they lick it with their tongues until a ray of light manifests to them. They then say tomorrow we will complete excavating and will exit from this barrier. When they return, the barrier returns to how it was the first time until when Allah, the Exalted wants, He gives them permission to exit from it. He allows some of them to say tomorrow in shaa Allah. Then they will return to the barrier and find it how they left it the day before. Then they will complete excavating and exit from it: “And they swiftly swarm from every mound” [21:96] as the Lord of the Worlds said. So now about the doubt which is posed in this era which has sprung from the disbelievers and has ended among some of those who are weak in knowledge, if we do not say instead those who are weak in Imaan. These people claim more than what the disbelievers claim who are too weak in knowledge and faith. They say that the disbelievers have scanned the entire globe and they know all about it from its mountains, plateaus, plains, rivers, oceans, caves and the likes. Such that there does not remain a place, as they claim, which their feet have not walked upon. This claim is not what the disbelievers claim themselves because, unfortunately, we know that these disbelievers do not believe except in scientific research. Scientific research prevents them from claiming what they do not have knowledge of and they instead say: ‘We have reached this point of knowledge and we do not know what is beyond that (as of now)’. As for those who are weak in knowledge and Imaan from our Ummah they do not claim what these disbelievers claim that they have scanned the entire earth. So we say that is a claim which is absent of proof. The believer is obligated to belief in the Quran and Hadith of the Messenger (ﷺ)-of which the least that can be said-is that a person’s faith in them should be more than a person’s faith in the statements of the disbelievers, their researchs, and experiments. If the Quran makes clear that there is a barrier that exists, and behind this barrier is Ya’juj and Ma’juj, and that a day will come that they will escape from it, [then it will occur]. Allah, the Exalted said as a general principle addressing all of mankind:
وَمَا أُوتِيتُم مِّنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلً
And of knowledge, you (mankind) have been given only a little [17:85]
From this knowledge which they do not encompass until now is that they did not stumble upon the barrier of Dhul-Qarnayn and the people who are behind it. Where is this barrier? No doubt it is on this earth and Allah knows and you do not know. So there is not doubt presented in claim that the disbelievers have scanned/explored the earth. This is a baseless claim. Also these disbelievers, if they found something of that, they would hasten to deny it because it is in favor of the Religion of Islam while they are disbelivers in it. What Lord of the Worlds said about the earlier polytheists applies to them as well:
وَجَحَدُوا بِهَا وَاسْتَيْقَنَتْهَا أَنفُسُهُمْ
And they belied them (those Ayat) wrongfully and arrogantly, though their ownselves were convinced thereof [27:14]
This is my answer to this doubt and the summary of it is that we believe in what comes in the Quran and Sunnah, and we disbelief in the claim that this barrier is not existent” [Fatawaa Juddah —Tape no. 15 side B]
Imam al-Alusi (d.1270 H.)—may Allah have mercy upon him—said in regards to whereabouts of Ya’juj and Ma’juj: “The inability to find something does not necessitate the absence of its existence. After the truthful one (ﷺ) informed [us] of these two mountains and what is between them, it is necessary upon us to have Imaan in that, and in the remaining issues which he (ﷺ) has reported to us from the possibilities, and to turn away from the speech of the deniers. Speech that emanates from those who have little Religion” [Ruh al-Ma’aani (6/359)]
Translated by
Faisal bin Abdul Qaadir bin Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan
