...continued from "End of Days Part I".
Interpretation Derived From The Qur’an:
The latest the Day of Judgement commenced was 1950, at the start of the Korean War. Technically speaking, the Korean War never ended, the two countries have been at war since 1950…otherwise why is there still a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)? The fact they are still at war is understood in international legal terms as an Armistice. Hence since 1953, during the past 56 years Gog (North Korea) and Magog (meaning ‘a people from or of Gog’, i.e. South Korea) have had an extended 'breather or 'regrouping' of sorts. The first wave or sets of waves were unleashed when the two sides attacked each other during the years 1950-1953. Hence, when the Qur’an says,
Abdel Haleem 21:96
“when the peoples of Gog and Magog are let loose and swarm swiftly from every highland, when the True Promise draws near, the disbelievers ‘eyes will stare in terror, and they will say, ‘Woe to us! We were not aware of this at all. We were wrong.’
It is clear from the above verse that God will not reveal Himself immediately upon the first wave when the people of Gog and Magog swarm down upon each other. The first wave or surge (i.e. the 1950-1953 Korean War), however, was a clear event which signified the Day of Judgement had already and definitively arrived, as per the following verse:
Abdel Haleem 18:99
“On that Day, We shall let them surge against each other like waves and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall gather them all together.”
The capital ‘D’ denotes the Day of Judgement, as oppose to a small ‘d’ which means a human day. So clearly, the implication is the Day of Judgement is already upon us, and has been since at least 1950. Now, if you think a 56 year period for a ‘temporary truce’ is a long time, well it depends on your reference point. In terms of God’s Day - being 1,000 years by our measurement of time (see 22:47 below) – the fact that 56 years have already gone by only implies that God’s True Promise, i.e. Our Reckoning, is imminently near, just as 21:96 above implies.
Abdel Haleem 22:47
“They will challenge you (Prophet) to hasten the punishment. God will not fail in His promise – a Day with your Lord is like a thousand years by your reckoning. To many a town steeped in wrongdoing I gave more time and then struck them down: they all return to Me in the end.”
Gog Wants To Re-Unite with Magog:
It has been the singular objective of North Korea, ever since the Korean War, to unite the two Koreas and make them subservient to the Stalinist modeled regime of the North. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. They do not want world conquest. They do not want to influence any other country. They just want all of Korea; they are of the same blood after all, they are literally ‘from’ or ‘of’ each other. In fact, genetically speaking, the North and South Koreans are the most homogeneous population in the world. This is a direct result of their geography; for thousands of years they have been living in a peninsula isolated and surrounded by ocean on three sides, mountains all over the place, and effectively 'barricaded' by China on the north – which is a distinctly different culture and race. The Koreans, literally, were contained with nowhere to go. This is exactly the way the Qur’an describes them, Gog and Magog will be isolated - until such time of God’s choosing - when He will release them against each other.
The key phrase here is each other, not against the world as most doomsayers have been predicting. George W. Bush and the good old boyz club got it all wrong, Gog and Magog aren't Iraq or the Muslim world after all. God, in His infinite wisdom, tucked Gog and Magog away where we would least expect to find them. And now, with the truth revealed and we have found them - even if you all thought I wasn't a total crackpot, agreed with me, and spread the word - well quite frankly, it's too late. There's not a darn thing anyone can do about it, for as we shall see...the war will go forward, by God's leave. God's plan must come to pass...for there is no changing God's plan.
Since the Korean War, Kim II-Sung, the founder of North Korea, has promised to unite the two Koreas before his death. Well…he didn’t make it - he passed away in 1994 – and left this task to his son, Kim Jong-il, to complete. Kim Jong-il has reiterated the same vow, with an incredible resolve and backed by impressive results for a country with such little means. Since the 1990’s there has been a slow but deliberate movement of troops amassed at the heavily fortified North-South Korean border. The movement has been slow, and spread well over a decade, in order to avoid suspicion - the term being “creeping normalcy’. There are now over 700,000 North Korean troops lined at the border along with all the infrastructure necessary to support them. Now what possible ultimate purpose can this serve except preparation for eventual invasion?
The nuclear ambitions of North Korea, to this day, remain unmitigated. The reason: North Korea doesn’t want to nuke South Korea - it just wants an effective deterrent against imperial powers - mainly the U.S. North Korea wants the nukes, and the ability to deliver them to South Korea, Japan, and if possible U.S. soil, in order to deter the U.S. from resorting to nukes in the event the North appears to be unassailably winning the war. The aim of North Korea has been to develop the nuke arsenal along with sufficient delivery capabilities to reach an effective level of deterrence.
Once this is attained, the unrelenting conventional assault on South Korea would be given the green light. The North Korean strategy has been a wholly specialized strategy – it’s sole purpose is to strategically counter the U.S. backed military arsenal and fully leverage the unique terrain of the Korean peninsula. To that end, they have over 11,000 fortified underground facilities, 8 million reserves on top of the 1.2 million army, a fibre optics based specialized communications system, and the use of constant flux frequencies that no one, not even the U.S. can tap into. According to Intel, the North Korean army is the only army in the world capable of successfully executing a significant military maneuver without radio communication; now that is one formidably well trained and loyal army - truly a force to be reckoned with.
Regardless of how much North Korea plans, the overall plan however, belongs to God. God has intervened, and is putting a wrench in their nuclear ambitions. Or so it would seem. In the final analysis, we don’t know for sure what the North Korean capabilities really are. The best Intel suggests the North Koreans are not yet able to miniaturize the nukes onto a warhead for delivery. Without this critical capability, it’s as if they never had a nuclear bomb. And now the U.S. et al, will surely close the noose and board any ships entering and leaving North Korea, backed by U.N. resolutions supporting the same. This critical vote will almost definitely get the big 'Yes' this coming week. This really is tantamount to war. The North Koreans are correct to view it as such. What would happen if some country did that to US ships? What do you think the US would view it as? Why would it be any different for the North Koreans?
Gog’s Options
North Korea has its back against the wall. Considering the sole objective since its very foundation has been to unite the Koreas (on their own terms), it has virtually zero options left other than war. If North Korea relents to U.S. demands, it will likely never reach nuclear capability, and by now the U.S. had made it no secret that it intends to not just halt but completely dismantle North Korea's nuclear program.
On the conventional side, North Korea has invested whatever resources it has on thousands and thousands of military hardware - at the cost of millions of their own citizen's lives who died from starvation during the 1990's famine for example. There wasn't enough food, but somehow the military continued to grow and march forward. This should be a wake-up call on how determined this regime is on 'uniting' the Koreas. Most of North Korea's conventional military equipment however, is out-dated by today’s leading weaponry standards. The term is 'out-dated' not 'obsolete'. The two are not the same. Most military strategists vehemently assert North Korea’s 'out-dated' military equipment will be lethally effective when combined with their total peninsula specific infrastructure and strategy. But North Korea really cannot wait any longer to use it; the longer they wait the more likely ‘out-dated’ will in fact become ‘obsolete’. For all intent and purposes, it is a ‘now or never’ scenario - literally, 'do or die' for North Korea.
To be continued…in part III
Peace. Imran.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
END OF DAYS PART I - GOG AND MAGOG ARE NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA
So here’s another End of Days Theory - except this one is based solely on Qur’anic verses, world geography and current events. It is not based on any hadith (alleged saying and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him). Most of it has to do with Dhu ‘l-Qarnayn’s journey to the land of Gog and Magog as described in verses 18:83-102 and 21:95-96. I believe Gog and Magog are present day North and South Korea. There are many reasons for reaching this conclusion, but first things first, so let’s start at the beginning…
Since Dhu ‘l-Qarnayn had the means to do everything, and on three different occasions the Qur’an says “he traveled on”, the suggestion is he covered a vast distance in his travels. The starting point of Dhu 'l-Qarnayn’s journey is not stated in the Qur'an, nor do I think it is relevant. What is relevant are the three ‘pit stops’ he made along the way.
On the first pit stop he saw ‘the sun setting into a muddy spring’. I believe this to be the Hwang Ho river – China’s second largest river. The Hwang Ho is ranked as the muddiest river in the world. So muddy in fact, that it is better known as the Yellow River due to its discolouration from all the silt it carries. The Hwang Ho is also extremely prone to flooding. So much so that some estimates put the number of floods at about 16,000 in the last 3000 to 4,000 years. Each time the Hwang Ho floods, indeed it must look like a muddy spring.
On the second pit stop he found a people who ‘had no shelter from the rising sun’. Where do people have no shelter from the sun? Why a desert of course. I believe the Qur’anic verse is referring to the Gobi desert which is the largest desert in Asia covering parts of northwestern China and southern Mongolia. If Dhu 'l-Qarnayn was coming from the southwest, he pretty much had to cross the Hwang Ho river to get to the Gobi desert.
On the third pit stop he reached ‘a place between two mountain barriers and beside them a people who could barely understand him’. I believe the people beside the two mountains were the Chinese and the two mountain barriers are any of a number of mountain ranges that form along the present day China-North Korea border. After all, I think it’s a safe bet Dhu’l-Qarnayn didn’t speak much Chinese - and if he did speak Chinese it certainly would have been a very different dialect than that spoken in Manchuria (which borders with North Korea) - and geographically this all adds up since you have to travel east through the Gobi desert to arrive at the doorstep of North Korea.
The people said ‘Gog and Magog are ruining this land’. If Gog and Magog are ruining the land, the implication is they are constantly at war with each other. Both the Chinese and the Korean civilizations date back to well over 5,000 BC and war has been a mainstay of the area. To be even more specific, circa 100 BC:
Ref link: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/04/eak/ht04eak.htm
The people further requested, ‘Will you put up a barrier between them and us?’ Dhu’ l-Qarnayn replied ‘if you lend me your strength, I will put up a fortification between you and them’. The most obvious type of fortification or barrier is a wall. Korea ‘developed from a federation of walled cities into a centralized kingdom sometime between the 7th and 4th centuries BC.’ (Ref link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea). And of course the Chinese are well known for wall building, i.e. the Great Wall of China. So wall or barrier building seems to be an integral part of the military defense strategy of the two civilizations.
Dhu ‘l-Qarnayn further requested ‘iron to fill the gap between two mountain sides’ so that their enemies could not ‘scale the barrier or pierce it’. The iron age in Korea is dated at 400-60BC and China at 600-200BC, although there is evidence of ironwork in the region as early as 1200 BC. This supports the verse above. Interestingly enough, "there is a record that one of the ancient states, Pyonhan located around Kimhae of the present country (the Koreas), exported a great quantity of iron to Nakrang, an ancient country that existed in the Manchuria area and Japan." (Ref link: http://park.org/Korea/Pavilions/PublicPavilions/Public/nsm/eg/pe-3.html).
Ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo (Gog)
The ancient kingdom of Korea is known as ‘Goguryeo’ (Ref Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea). Notice the first three letters spell ‘Gog’. One meaning of Magog is 'from' or 'of' Gog. And indeed North and South Koreans are 'from' and 'of ' each other. If you placed a map of the ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo against a map of current day North Korea, we can see it is approximately the same geographical boundaries; this inspite of over 2,000 years passing by! It is also readily evident how mountainous the Korean peninsula is:
Topographical Map of Korean Peninsula
The Qur’an states “when the people of Gog and Magog are let loose and swarm swifty from every highland”...“On that Day we shall let them surge against each other like waves”. North and South Korea is 70% mountains, i.e. they are basically highlands. The present size of the North Korean army is 1.2 million – the 5th largest standing army in the world - this in a country whose entire population is only 23 million. Could you imagine if Canada - which has more people than North Korea - had an army of 1 million! But that's not all. The South Korean army is 670,000 strong. Between the two of them, there are 2 million soldiers - and that's not including reservists who can be called upon at any time - all in in a relatively small and isolated geographical peninsula. If there was a war, they literally would surge against each other in waves, just as the Qur'an describes.
And if that happened, the decisive verse “and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall gather them all together”...well you know what that means...it will be the Day of Judgement - the Day God has promised all along, and God does not break His promise.
Considering the verbal escalation happening right now, and what seems to be a growing isolation of North Korea even from its traditional allies, China and Russia, my personal view is that Kim Jong-il is not posturing - he really does mean what he says and we do have a very serious cause to be alarmed. In fact, it doesn't get any more serious than this.
But if it is written, it is written…there’s not a whole lot you and I can do about it.
To be continued...in part II.
Peace. Imran.
Since Dhu ‘l-Qarnayn had the means to do everything, and on three different occasions the Qur’an says “he traveled on”, the suggestion is he covered a vast distance in his travels. The starting point of Dhu 'l-Qarnayn’s journey is not stated in the Qur'an, nor do I think it is relevant. What is relevant are the three ‘pit stops’ he made along the way.
On the first pit stop he saw ‘the sun setting into a muddy spring’. I believe this to be the Hwang Ho river – China’s second largest river. The Hwang Ho is ranked as the muddiest river in the world. So muddy in fact, that it is better known as the Yellow River due to its discolouration from all the silt it carries. The Hwang Ho is also extremely prone to flooding. So much so that some estimates put the number of floods at about 16,000 in the last 3000 to 4,000 years. Each time the Hwang Ho floods, indeed it must look like a muddy spring.
Hwang Ho (Yellow River)
On the second pit stop he found a people who ‘had no shelter from the rising sun’. Where do people have no shelter from the sun? Why a desert of course. I believe the Qur’anic verse is referring to the Gobi desert which is the largest desert in Asia covering parts of northwestern China and southern Mongolia. If Dhu 'l-Qarnayn was coming from the southwest, he pretty much had to cross the Hwang Ho river to get to the Gobi desert.
Gobi Desert
On the third pit stop he reached ‘a place between two mountain barriers and beside them a people who could barely understand him’. I believe the people beside the two mountains were the Chinese and the two mountain barriers are any of a number of mountain ranges that form along the present day China-North Korea border. After all, I think it’s a safe bet Dhu’l-Qarnayn didn’t speak much Chinese - and if he did speak Chinese it certainly would have been a very different dialect than that spoken in Manchuria (which borders with North Korea) - and geographically this all adds up since you have to travel east through the Gobi desert to arrive at the doorstep of North Korea.
Korean Peninsula
The people said ‘Gog and Magog are ruining this land’. If Gog and Magog are ruining the land, the implication is they are constantly at war with each other. Both the Chinese and the Korean civilizations date back to well over 5,000 BC and war has been a mainstay of the area. To be even more specific, circa 100 BC:
"to the northeast of the Chinese commandery of Lelang, along the middle reaches of the Yalu River, lies the territory of the Goguryô (i.e. Gog), a warlike tribal people who pose a recurrent threat to Lelang".
Ref link: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/04/eak/ht04eak.htm
The people further requested, ‘Will you put up a barrier between them and us?’ Dhu’ l-Qarnayn replied ‘if you lend me your strength, I will put up a fortification between you and them’. The most obvious type of fortification or barrier is a wall. Korea ‘developed from a federation of walled cities into a centralized kingdom sometime between the 7th and 4th centuries BC.’ (Ref link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea). And of course the Chinese are well known for wall building, i.e. the Great Wall of China. So wall or barrier building seems to be an integral part of the military defense strategy of the two civilizations.
Dhu ‘l-Qarnayn further requested ‘iron to fill the gap between two mountain sides’ so that their enemies could not ‘scale the barrier or pierce it’. The iron age in Korea is dated at 400-60BC and China at 600-200BC, although there is evidence of ironwork in the region as early as 1200 BC. This supports the verse above. Interestingly enough, "there is a record that one of the ancient states, Pyonhan located around Kimhae of the present country (the Koreas), exported a great quantity of iron to Nakrang, an ancient country that existed in the Manchuria area and Japan." (Ref link: http://park.org/Korea/Pavilions/PublicPavilions/Public/nsm/eg/pe-3.html).
Ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo (Gog)
The ancient kingdom of Korea is known as ‘Goguryeo’ (Ref Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea). Notice the first three letters spell ‘Gog’. One meaning of Magog is 'from' or 'of' Gog. And indeed North and South Koreans are 'from' and 'of ' each other. If you placed a map of the ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo against a map of current day North Korea, we can see it is approximately the same geographical boundaries; this inspite of over 2,000 years passing by! It is also readily evident how mountainous the Korean peninsula is:
Topographical Map of Korean Peninsula
The Qur’an states “when the people of Gog and Magog are let loose and swarm swifty from every highland”...“On that Day we shall let them surge against each other like waves”. North and South Korea is 70% mountains, i.e. they are basically highlands. The present size of the North Korean army is 1.2 million – the 5th largest standing army in the world - this in a country whose entire population is only 23 million. Could you imagine if Canada - which has more people than North Korea - had an army of 1 million! But that's not all. The South Korean army is 670,000 strong. Between the two of them, there are 2 million soldiers - and that's not including reservists who can be called upon at any time - all in in a relatively small and isolated geographical peninsula. If there was a war, they literally would surge against each other in waves, just as the Qur'an describes.
And if that happened, the decisive verse “and then the Trumpet will be blown and We shall gather them all together”...well you know what that means...it will be the Day of Judgement - the Day God has promised all along, and God does not break His promise.
Considering the verbal escalation happening right now, and what seems to be a growing isolation of North Korea even from its traditional allies, China and Russia, my personal view is that Kim Jong-il is not posturing - he really does mean what he says and we do have a very serious cause to be alarmed. In fact, it doesn't get any more serious than this.
But if it is written, it is written…there’s not a whole lot you and I can do about it.
To be continued...in part II.
Peace. Imran.
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