become dizzy and deranged, and with its reversed uncontrolled motion, the sun would rise in the west. There is another interpretation, which is that due to a collision, Doomsday would break forth at the Divine command.

As for the Beast (Dabbat al-Ard), in the Qur’an is an extremely concise indication, a brief expression made by its tongue of disposition. As for its details, like with some other matters, I do not know with any certainty for the present. I can only say this much: None knows the Unseen save God, just as the people of Pharaoh were visited by plagues of locusts and fleas, and the people of Abraha, who were trying to destroy the Ka‘ba, were attacked by “flights of birds;”36 so too, for the purpose of bringing to their senses those people who knowingly and willingly rebel due to the dissension of the Sufyan and Dajjals, and through the anarchy of Gog and Magog embark on corruption and savagery, and fall into irreligion, disbelief, and denial, a beast will emerge from the earth and beset and rout them. God knows best, that beast is a species. For even if huge, a single creature could not be everywhere. That means there will be a truly terrible species of animal. Perhaps, as indicated by the verse,

Except a little worm of the earth, which kept [slowly] gnawing away at his staff,37

that creature will be a sort of termite, called “Dabbat al-Ard,” which will gnaw away at the bones of men as though they were wooden, establishing themselves in every part of their bodies, from their teeth to their finger-nails. By making the creature speak on the question of belief, the verse38 indicates that through the blessing of belief and their avoiding vice and abuses, the believers will be saved from it.

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.39

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which you have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.40