Gog and Magog: The Unleashing of Corruption

The Qur'an's account of Gog and Magog (Ya'juj and Ma'juj) is brief, yet its implications reach across the entire human condition. It is not an apocalyptic myth but a revelation of how corruption rises, how it is restrained, and what happens when the final wall collapses.

"Until, when Gog and Magog are let loose, and they rush down from every height." (21:96)

These few words compress an entire cosmology. The Qur'an does not speak of two future tribes but of two unleashed forces, archetypes of rebellion and excess that surge through civilisation when divine order collapses. Gog and Magog are not waiting behind a physical barrier; they are already here, unbound through human forgetfulness and sustained by collective rebellion against the Source.

The Sovereign of Balance

To understand the flood, one must first understand the one who built the wall: Dhul-Qarnayn, The Two-Horned One. His title encodes duality, mastery over two realms, authority over light and shadow, east and west. He is introduced not through lineage but through movement. The Qur'an presents him as a traveller through creation, passing through three symbolic horizons: west, east, and the space between. Each represents a state of civilisation and a dimension of the self.

The Western Journey: Dominion over Decline

"Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of black mud, and he found a people near it." (18:86)

The west symbolises the twilight of civilisation, where the light of revelation descends into shadow, and knowledge becomes self-worship.
The sun setting in a murky spring describes the drowning of truth in the subconscious: the occult depths, the psychic residue of forgotten empires. Dhul-Qarnayn rules even there. He judges with justice, bringing equilibrium to a world intoxicated by its own decline. He is the righteous counterpart to Pharaoh, one who can wield power without becoming enslaved to it. This westward realm represents the fire-born domain: intellect without humility, brilliance without obedience, where fallen civilisations mirror Iblīs, claiming divine light while denying divine command.

The Eastern Journey, Innocence without Covering

"Then he followed a course until he reached the rising of the sun; he found it rising upon a people for whom We had made no covering from it."(18:90)

If the west is decadent knowledge, the east is raw innocence. These people live unshielded, without veil or protection, exposed to divine light in its purest form. They are close to fitrah (natural order) yet lack the structure of revelation. Dhul-Qarnayn does not conquer them; he leaves them.

"Thus it was. And We encompassed all that he had in knowledge." (18:91)

This restraint reveals the ethics of true authority: the understanding that innocence cannot be improved by domination. The enlightened ruler balances civilisation's order with nature's purity, recognising that both are part of the same divine design.

Between the Two Barriers, The Valley of Containment

After mastering both extremes, the overcivilised and the unformed, Dhul-Qarnayn travels between two mountains. Here he encounters a people "who could scarcely understand speech" (18:93), a symbol of sincere humanity unable to articulate its suffering. They live under constant threat from Gog and Magog, corrupters who devour the fruits of others' labour and lay waste to every field they touch. These humble people represent the heart of mankind: well-intentioned but overwhelmed by the forces of corruption. Dhul-Qarnayn becomes their interpreter, the archetype of divinely guided authority that protects rather than exploits.

The Wall of Mercy, Iron and Copper

"He said: ‘Bring me blocks of iron.’ When he had filled the gap between the two mountains, he said: 'Blow!' When he had made it a fire, he said: 'Bring me molten copper that I may pour upon it.'" (18:96)

This is no primitive engineering feat, it is spiritual metallurgy. The wall is built not merely of materials, but of meanings. Iron (hadid) is strength, firmness, polarity, the metal of divine law and moral clarity.

"And We sent down iron, wherein is mighty power and benefits for mankind." (57:25)

Copper (qitr) is conductivity, receptivity, sealing, the element of mercy, harmony, and reflection. When molten copper covers the iron, the wall becomes both rigid and radiant, sealing chaos behind a mirror of equilibrium. Alchemically, iron grounds magnetic polarity; copper conducts energy. Together they create a closed circuit of mercy, restraining the psychic contagion of corruption. The barrier represents divine governance, the balance of justice and beauty, strength and compassion. Without that balance, the Gog and Magog condition cannot be contained.

The Corrupted Then and Now

In ancient times, the corrupters used occult power, sorcery, and blood ritual to control others. They built empires through fear and superstition, drawing energy from sacrifice and enslavement. Today, the tools have changed, but the essence remains. The technological age is simply sorcery mechanised, the manipulation of energy and image rather than spirit and blood. Screens, signals, and algorithms have replaced temples and idols, but the egregores remain the same: deified systems that harvest attention and devotion. What was once accomplished through ritual and blood is now achieved through electricity and code.

The Modern Unleashing

Gog and Magog are not tribes behind mountains; they are the globalised masses, spiritually inverted and emotionally sedated. They surge through every institution, every ideology, every feed. Their corruption is normalised, lust marketed as liberation, confusion praised as compassion, desensitisation sold as progress. They have no flag or faith; they wear all flags and all faiths. They are the clay-born who have become hosts for the fire-born agenda. The Qur'an's image of them "rushing down from every height" describes not invasion but infiltration, the flood of corruption descending through every domain: politics, science, religion, and media.

The Misreading of Gog and Magog

For centuries, commentators have interpreted Gog and Magog as literal tribes, descendants of a lost people, awaiting release in a final war. Among modern voices, Sheikh Imran Hosein has advanced a detailed eschatological framework, boldly linking these forces to global Zionism, Western civilisation, and end-time geopolitics. His work on symbolism, economics, and moral collapse is courageous and deeply thought-provoking. There is deep respect for his sincerity and his courage in confronting empire. Yet, there is a clear divergence in understanding.

Gog and Magog are not future ethno-political tribes, nor physical nations to emerge from behind a literal wall. They are the corrupted Adamite masses, spiritually overrun and released upon the world through egregorical programming, materialism, and rebellion against the Divine. Their flood is psychological, not geographical; their warfare, spiritual, not military. Furthermore, the heavy reliance on hadith literature, despite its contradictions, interpolations, and theological issues, has blurred what the Qur'an makes clear. The Qur'an is self-sufficient, guarded from distortion, and when read in its own language, it presents Gog and Magog not as an external race but as an internal decay. This critique is offered in sincerity, not hostility. The Qur’an invites reasoning, not repetition, remembrance, not ritualism.

The Lost Language

The people who sought Dhul-Qarnayn's protection "could scarcely understand speech". They represent the sincere but unawakened, those whose hearts sense corruption but whose tongues cannot articulate truth. In today's world, that condition has returned. Language itself has decayed; words like truth, virtue, and freedom have been emptied and repurposed. The righteous and the corrupted no longer speak the same tongue, one speaks the language of remembrance, the other of inversion. This is the ultimate Babel: not the confusion of tongues, but the confusion of values.

The Melting of the Wall

"He said: 'This is a mercy from my Lord; but when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it level, and the promise of my Lord is true.'" (18:98)

The wall was never meant to stand forever. It was a temporary containment, a mercy, not a cure. When the balance of iron and copper erodes, the wall collapses from within. We are living that collapse. Iron, once a symbol of moral firmness, now fuels the engines of war. Copper, once a conductor of balance, now carries circuits of distraction and surveillance. The sacred metals of Dhul-Qarnayn have been inverted into instruments of enslavement. The physical barrier once restrained the corrupted; the digital barrier now restrains the sincere.

Sidebar: The Return of the Metals, Reforging the Wall Within

When Dhul-Qarnayn built his wall, he chose iron and copper, not stone or gold. The choice was deliberate. Iron grounds and restrains; copper conducts and harmonises. Together they embody divine equilibrium, justice and mercy fused. In the modern world, both metals have been corrupted. Iron now fuels machines of war, and copper carries endless currents of digital noise. The very elements that once contained corruption now transmit it. The wall has inverted. To rebuild it, we must return the metals to their true order, physically, socially, and spiritually.

Physically, reclaim their natural resonance. Iron grounds the body and sharpens the will; copper balances energy and softens emotion. Reconnect with them through intention: simple tools, uncoated metals, and contact with the earth.

Socially, embody their principles. Let iron define truth, firm, unbending, incorruptible, and let copper temper it with empathy, refinement, and beauty. Together they form the only civilisation worth saving: one that disciplines without cruelty and loves without weakness.

Spiritually, unite both within the heart. The believer's inner wall is forged from conviction and compassion:

• Iron of faith that refuses compromise.

• Copper of remembrance that reflects the Divine.

When those two metals fuse inside, the heart becomes a fortress, a living barrier against corruption. This is what Dhul-Qarnayn built outside; it is what every spark-bearing soul must build within.

The Inner Geography

The journeys of Dhul-Qarnayn are not geography but psychology:

• West, knowledge drowned in materialism; civilisation collapsing under its own shadow.

• East, innocence unprotected, raw fitrah exposed to unfiltered light.

• Between the mountains, the heart, where both forces meet and must be balanced.

His entire narrative mirrors the human soul: intellect, instinct, and the heart that must reconcile them.
The wall is not just historical, it is internal. When the inner wall of remembrance collapses, the outer world follows.

The Age of Meltdown

"We shall leave them surging over one another, and the trumpet will be blown, and We shall gather them all together." (18:99)

This verse describes our moment. Every boundary is melting, moral, biological, and spiritual. Humanity has become a swirling mass of uncontained energy, mistaking freedom for chaos. Technology amplifies the corruption: what the ancients did through ritual and empire, modern man achieves through algorithms and code. The occult has become mechanical; sorcery industrialised. Every device transmits light without wisdom, heat without heart, fire mimicking creation.

The Inner Wall Restored

Yet hope remains. Dhul-Qarnayn called his wall "a mercy from my Lord." That mercy now resides within the sincere. The true barrier against Gog and Magog is not built from stone or steel, but from faith and remembrance. The heart that unites iron (discipline) and copper (compassion) becomes unassailable. Such souls stand as living walls, restraining corruption through presence alone. They rebuild what the world has forgotten, the inner circuitry of mercy.

Closing Reflection

Gog and Magog are not coming, they are here. They are the culmination of humanity's rebellion, the fire of intellect severed from spirit.
Dhul-Qarnayn’s story is not about lost tribes but lost balance: between east and west, intellect and instinct, justice and beauty. When man forgets that balance, the wall collapses, and the flood returns. Yet even in the deluge, the Qur'an offers the same timeless mercy: remembrance. When a single spark remembers the Source, the fire-born tremble, and the wall begins to rise again, not in the mountains, but in the heart.