| Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice The Complete Layman’s Guide to the Koran Gog and Magog The story of Gog and Magog in the Koran bears a striking similarity to the tale told in the Alexander Romance, a collection of legends about the life of Alexander the Great. The chief source of all Alexander Romance, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica is “a folk epic written by a Hellenized Egyptian in Alexandria during the 2nd century A.D.” According to Wiki, Alexander in the Romance “came to a northern land devastated by incursions from barbarian peoples, including Gog and Magog. Alexander defends the land by constructing the Gates of Alexander, an immense wall between two mountains that will stop the invaders until the end times. In the Romance, these gates are built between two mountains in the Caucasus known as the Breasts of the World. This has been taken as a reference to the historical "Caspian Gates" in Derbent, Russia. Another suggested candidate is the wall at the Darial Gorge in Georgia, also in the Caucasus.” According to Allah, Alexander the Great built the wall between Gog and Magog and the rest of the world out of iron and brass. 18:94 They said: “O Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander the Great), surely Gog and Magog are making mischief in the land. Shall we pay you a tribute so that you may build a barrier between us and them?” 18:95 He said: “What my Lord has empowered me to do is better. So help me forcefully and I will build a barrier between you and them. 18:96 “Bring me large pieces of iron.” So that when he had levelled up [the gap] between the two sides, he said: “Blow.” And having turned it (the iron) into fire, he said: “Bring me molten brass to poor on it.” 18:97 Then, they (Gog and Magog) could neither scale it or make a hole through it. Like in the Alexander Romance, Allah expects His wall to last until the end-of-times when He will destroy it, thereby allowing the warring factions to fight one another until the trumpet is blown signaling the coming of Judgement Day, when all the unbelievers will be herded into Hell. 18:98 He said: “This is a mercy from my Lord; but when my Lord’s Promise comes to pass, He will turn it into rubble, and the Promise of my Lord is ever true.” 18:99 And on that day we shall make them surge upon one another, and the trumpet shall be blown, and we shall gather them together. 18:100 On that Day We shall boldly set Hell before the unbelievers. Gog and Magog and the True Promise. 21:95 And it is forbidden that any city We have destroyed should come back. 21:96 Until Gog and Magog are let loose, and they slink away from every quarter. 21:97 Then the true promise will draw near; and, behold, the eyes of the unbelievers are staring [and they will say]: “Woe to us! We were heedless of this; no, we were wrongdoers.” 21:98 You and what you worship, besides Allah, are the fuel of Hell, and into it you shall all descend. Allah’s Gog and Magog are not a people, as in the Alexander Romance, but false gods who will join their followers in Hell if the phrase “Had those been real gods” in verse 21:99 is a reference to the infamous twosome as deities, not tribes. 21:99 Had those been real gods, they would not have gone into it; yet they will all dwell in it forever. 21:100 They groan with pain therein and they do not hear.
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