Exegesis of Verses on Gog and Magog

QUR’ANIC ODYSSEY
M. Imran Faruqui
M. Imran Faruqui
Copyright © M. Imran Faruqui, 2012. All Rights Reserved.
For the sake of God
In honour of the pledge I made
That I would devote my life in His cause
If He gave me guidance
Bear witness that I continue to deliver His message
But God is witness enough
CONTENTS
Introduction
6
Chapter 1: Zul-Qarnayn’s Journey to the Land of Gog and Magog
Qur’anic Verses on Zul-Qarnayn’s Journey
Exegesis of Qur’anic Verses 18:83-97
Exegesis of Qur’anic Verses 18:98-108 and 21:95-100
8
9
11
32
Chapter 2: Etymology
Etymology of ‘Korea’
Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in the Old and New Testaments
Etymology of ‘Magog’
Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in Arabic (‘Ya’juj and Ma’juj’)
Meaning of ‘Zul-Qarnayn’
48
48
51
67
68
69
Chapter 3: Other Eschatological Prophecies
Colonization of Space
Partial Lunar Eclipse of June 26, 2010
Eruption of Icelandic Volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, on April 14, 2010
75
76
83
91
Chapter 4: Organization of the Qur’an
97
Chapter 5: A Corrupted World
The Islamic World
The Second Coming of Jesus is a ‘Hadith Zone’ Fabrication
The Qur’an Refutes the Second Coming of Jesus
The Islamic World – Summary
The Non-Islamic World
98
102
106
113
118
119
Chapter 6: God’s Grace and Mercy
Prophet Muhammad was not the Last Messenger
The Difference between a Messenger and a Prophet
The Seal of the Prophets
The Last Warner of the Final Hour
123
124
128
134
139
Conclusion
144
Bibliography
147
FIGURES
1. The Silk Road in the 1st Century
12
2. Geographical Region of the Loess Plateau
13
3. Loess Plateau, ‘Most Erosion Prone Soil on Earth’
13
4. Yellow River, Aerial View
13
5. Yellow River, seen from Downtown Lanzhou
13
6. Founding Dynasties of China along the Yellow River Basin
15
7. Geographical Region of the Yellow River
15
8. Geographical Region of the Gobi Desert
18
9. Topographical Map of the Korean Peninsula
19
10. Geographic Distribution of Sinitic Language Families
20
11. Han Commanderies; 2CE
23
12. Goguryeo & Proto-Three Kingdoms; 001CE
24
13. Goguryeo at Territorial Prime and Modern Political Boundaries; 476CE
24
14. North and South Korea
25
15. The Nakdong River
27
16. The Silk Road, Hexi (Gansu) Corridor
28
17. The Korean DMZ
39
18. Etymology of Korea: Root origins link back to Biblical ‘Gog’
50
19. Etymology of ‘Gog’ Root origin links back to the Hebrew,
or ‘gag’
51
20. The Historical GDP per Capita of North Korea
60
21. Height in the Two Koreas
63
22. Night-Time Satellite View of the Korean Peninsula
68
23. Partial Lunar Eclipses of 26 July 1972 and 26 June 2010 with U. Mag. of 0.54
85
24. Images of the 38th Parallel
86
25. Redoubt Volcano in Alaska, 21 April 1990 Eruption Cloud
92
26. Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in Iceland, April 2010 Ash Cloud
92
27. Eyjafjallajökull Ash Plume, 17 April 2010, Satellite View
92
28. Ash Cloud on 15 April 2010
93
29. Ash Cloud on 16 April 2010
93
30. Composite Map of Volcanic Ash Cloud Spanning 14-25 April 2010
94
31. Airspace Completely or Partially Closed to IFR Traffic on 18 April 2010
94
TABLES
1. Summary of Qur’anic Verses 18:83-97
31
2. Summary of Qur’anic Verses 18:98-102 and 21:95-100
43
3. Partial Lunar Eclipses with Umbral Magnitude of 0.54, 601CE to 3000CE
85
4. Countries with Airspace Closings due to 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruptions
91
5. Gregorian and Islamic Calendar Dates of Prophecies
99
6. ‘End of Days’ Super Heroes and Villains in ‘The Hadith Zone’
110
7. Prophet Muhammad was not the Last Messenger – Summary
138
NOTES
1. Abdel Haleem’s English translation of the Qur’an is referenced throughout for all Qur’anic citations,
with the following changes:

The spelling of the name ‘Dhu ’l-Qarnayn’ is changed to the more
phonetically intuitive ‘Zul-Qarnayn.’

The term ‘unlettered prophet’ is replaced with ‘gentile prophet.’

‘Prophet’ in parenthesis ( ) as stated in the original translation is omitted.

In some instances, explanatory remarks are inserted in parenthesis ( ).
2. Key portions of Qur’anic verses and referenced quotations are highlighted in bold to draw the
reader’s attention.
3. References are listed at the end of each chapter.
INTRODUCTION
In the 1960 Hollywood western classic, ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ a small Mexican farming
village is viciously and repeatedly raided by a marauding outlaw gang. Each year the village is
left ‘ruined’ through pillage and plunder by these fierce, highly skilled gunmen riders. It seems
the outlaws’ only means of existence and sole purpose is systemic raids of targeted villages,
while the raids themselves act as practice sessions to further hone their looting skills. Naturally,
the farming community is no match for the outlaws, with neither the skills nor the arms
necessary to defend itself. Out of desperation, the villagers – left with only meagre harvest
rations after an entire year having tilled the land and suffered from repeated confiscation of
their wealth, murder of their people and rape of their women – spend what little remain of their
resources, and recruit seven professional gunmen (hence the movie title) to fight the fearsome
bandits and once and for all put an end to the recurring raids that are literally ‘ruining their
land.’
This unlikely Hollywood movie backdrop is a befitting analogy that aptly portrays the scene
faced by the agrarian highland community rescued by the messenger, Zul-Qarnayn, about two
thousand years ago in the Korean Peninsula as described by the Qur’an in verses 18:92-98.
Rather than engage in battle with the heavily armed and fierce warrior horsemen, Zul-Qarnayn
instead blocked the only readily accessible alpine passageway to the community and erected an
impenetrable iron barrier that ‘filled the gap between two mountainsides.’ The Qur’an asserts
this iron barrier will remain standing until God’s Promise is fulfilled – and God never breaks
His Promise.
In the pages to follow, evidence is presented to show God’s Promise – that He will level the
earth and resurrect the dead – is about to be fulfilled within our very generation. The verses that
describe Zul-Qarnayn’s journey are analyzed in detail and correlated to specific physical land
formations in the context of historical and contemporary geopolitical events. Definitive
arguments identify Gog as present day North Korea (DPRK, Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea) and Magog as South Korea (ROK, Republic of Korea). The inevitable conclusion is
thus reached that the prophecy of the ‘surge of Gog and Magog against each other’ has already
been fulfilled with the onset of the Korean War in 1950; which has technically not ended as
only an armistice was signed and not a peace treaty.
The realization of other Qur’anic prophecies, including key geological and celestial events as
well as the technological progress of human civilization, add to and solidify the mounting proof
6
that mankind, though unaware, is in its final throes. These include the April 14, 2010 eruption
of the Icelandic Volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, the June 26, 2010 partial lunar eclipse that produced
a half moon, and man’s efforts to pioneer space colonization that began fifty years ago with the
first manned space flight. The coalescing of these events as foretold by their associated Qur’anic
eschatological verses serves as a beacon for the imminent arrival of the Final Hour.
God, however, does not destroy a community unless it has become corrupt and gone astray –
this has always been God’s practice and God does not change His practices. The development
of human civilization is now at such a scale that it is effectively one global community. It will
be demonstrated the entire global community – including the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds –
to a large extent currently meets God’s criteria of corruption, and is therefore slated for
destruction by the arrival of the last, overwhelming Earthquake. The Islamic world has taken
the Hadith, which are historical documents – the narrations of the alleged actions and sayings
of Prophet Muhammad – as religious doctrine, and thereby corrupted the true teachings of the
Qur’an. Meanwhile, the non-Islamic religions follow misguided or altered Scriptures, and the
secular world, by definition, is Godless.
God’s practice has also been to extend His Mercy to all individuals who lived in a doomed
community but heeded God’s signs and returned to the path of true guidance before the certain
end came upon them. His Mercy was even offered to Pharaoh and his people, who had placed
the Children of Israel in bondage and slaughtered their sons. Surely, then, there can be no doubt
God’s Mercy extends to everyone alive today. But since Prophet Muhammad was 33:40‘…the
seal of the Prophets…,’ God has encompassed the entire world in His Mercy by preserving His
Words intact and unaltered in the Qur’an, and by including eschatological verses; so that
mankind may reason and determine ‘End of Days’ signs through them.
The purpose of this work, therefore, and its real value, is only for people to recognize and reflect
on ‘End of Days’ signs, and in so doing, perchance make the effort to take God into their lives
in a truly meaningful way, by following the guidance illuminated in the Qur’an…before it is
too late.
7
CHAPTER 1
Zul-Qarnayn’s Journey to the Land of Gog and Magog
God states in the Qur’an the arrival of the Final Hour
is a time 7:187‘…that is momentous in both the
heavens and earth…’ This momentous time is
inextricably linked to the fate of the peoples of Gog
and Magog when they will be ‘let loose’ and ‘surge
against each other.’ It is therefore of supreme
consequence to determine the entities called ‘Gog
cultural insights, in both historical and
contemporary settings, in the context of Empire.
and Magog.’ God furnishes the means to identify
systematically breaks down, elucidates and puts into
Gog and Magog through the revelation of verses that
describe the major landscapes associated with each
of the three communities Zul-Qarnayn encountered
along his travels. These landscapes function as key
geographic markers, while the descriptions of each
community yield political, military, economic and
perspective the meaning and context of each verse.
As the exegesis progresses verse by verse, so too
does the mystery of Zul-Qarnayn’s journey unravel
in concert; culminating with the irrefutable
identification of Gog and Magog as present day
North and South Korea.
A complete text of the English translation of the
Qur’anic verses that describe Zul-Qarnayn’s
journey to the land of Gog and Magog is provided.
This is followed by a detailed exegesis that
8
Qur’anic Verses on Zul-Qarnayn’s Journey
and the Peoples of Gog and Magog
18:83-108
83
They ask you about Zul-Qarnayn. Say, ‘I will tell
you something about him.’ 84We established his
power in the land, and gave him the means to
achieve everything. 85He travelled on a certain
between the two mountainsides (he said), ‘Work
your bellows!’ and then, when he had made it glow
like fire, he said, ‘Bring me molten metal to pour
over it!’ 97Their enemies could not scale the barrier,
road; 86then, when he came to the setting of the sun,
he found it (seemed to be) setting into a muddy
spring. Nearby he found some people and We said,
‘Zul-Qarnayn, you may choose (which of them) to
punish or show kindness to.’ 87He answered, ‘We
shall punish those who have done evil, and when
they are returned to their Lord He will punish them
(even more) severely, 88while those who believed
and did good deeds will have the best of rewards:
we shall command them to do what is easy for them.’
nor could they pierce it, 98and he said, ‘This is a
mercy from my Lord. But when my Lord’s promise
is fulfilled, He will raze this barrier to the ground:
my Lord’s promise always comes true.’ 99On 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. 100We shall show Hell
to the disbelievers, 101those whose eyes were blind
to My signs, those who were unable to hear. 102Did
they think that they could take My servants as
89
masters instead of Me? We have prepared Hell as
the disbelievers’ resting place.
He travelled on; then, 90when he came to the rising
of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom
We had provided no shelter from it. 91And so it was:
We knew all about him.
He travelled on; 93then, when he reached a place
between two mountain barriers, he found beside
them a people who could barely understand him.
94
They said, ‘Zul-Qarnayn, Gog and Magog are
Say, ‘Shall we tell you who has the most to lose
by their actions, 104whose efforts in this world are
misguided, even when they think they are doing
good work? 105It is those who disbelieve in their
Lord’s messages and deny that they will meet Him.’
Their deeds come to nothing: on the Day of
ruining this land. Will you build a barrier between
them and us if we pay you a tribute?’ 95He answered,
‘The power my Lord has given me is better than any
tribute, but if you lend me your strength, I will put
up a fortification between you and them: 96bring me
lumps of iron!’ and then, when he had filled the gap
Resurrection We shall give them no weight. 106Their
recompense for having disbelieved and made fun of
My messages and My messengers will be Hell.
107
But those who believe and do good deeds will be
given the Gardens of Paradise. 108There they will
remain, never wishing to leave.
103
92
9
21:95-100
We were wrong.’ 98You (disbelievers) and what you
worship instead of God will be fuel for Hell: that is
where you will go – 99if these (idols) had been real
gods they would not have gone there – you will all
stay there. 100There the disbelievers will be groaning
piteously, but the (idols) will hear nothing.
95
No community destroyed by Us can escape its
return, 96and when the peoples of Gog and Magog
are let loose and swarm swiftly from every highland,
97
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.
10
Exegesis of Qur’anic Verses 18:83-97
resources at his disposal, including command of
military forces. Of particular importance, the words
‘power’ and ‘achieve everything’ strongly infer the
tasks assigned by God and associated abilities given
to Zul-Qarnayn were significant in both ‘scope and
scale:’
ask you about Zul-Qarnayn. Say, ‘I
will tell you something about him.’
18:83They
It can be surmised from this verse that a group of
people from the Prophet’s community enquired
about Zul-Qarnayn. The story of Zul-Qarnayn’s
journey, in turn, was revealed to address the request.
The concept of significant ‘scope and scale’ is a
Notice the narrative begins with ‘something about
him,’ or alternatively, ‘a remembrance of him:’ as is
plain from the Qur’anic discourse, God did not
detail an extensive biography, but disclosed only the
portion of Zul-Qarnayn’s travels necessary to
achieve His intended purpose.
central and paramount guiding principle that will
be used throughout to unravel the mystery of ZulQarnayn’s journey; the validity of its use will
become axiomatic as the exegesis progresses.
18:85He
travelled on a certain road;
Note: There are historical accounts that offer
explanations on how the Prophet’s community knew
In keeping with the central guiding principle of
about Zul-Qarnayn in the first place. These
accounts, however, are immaterial and remain
outside the scope of this analysis. This paper will
rely, as much as possible, on only Scripturally
derived interpretations.
significant ‘scope and scale,’ the suggestion is ZulQarnayn travelled a great distance along this road,
and hence the road was well established during his
time, quite extensive and likely spanned many lands.
Of all roads extant in antiquity, these criteria are
perhaps best met by the ancient Silk Road. The
name ‘Silk Road’ is misleading, as it was not simply
a singular road, but rather an elaborate,
intercontinental network of trade routes that
18:84We
established his power in the land, and
gave him the means to achieve everything.
Here, it is clearly stipulated Zul-Qarnayn held a
position of leadership amongst his people. Only a
leader with vested authority has ‘established power
in the land’ and by virtue of this authority the
availability and capacity to deploy resources that
‘gave him the means to achieve everything.’ It is
consequently made evident Zul-Qarnayn occupied
the seat of a high level office with considerable
stretched from Asia, through the Middle East and
into Europe. [1][2][3] The Silk Road consisted of both
overland and maritime trade routes (Figure 1). Since
the verse states, ‘He travelled on a certain road,’
obviously Zul-Qarnayn travelled on an overland
route. Unlike the Roman Empire, which
strategically built stone roads to support its military
campaigns, the overland routes of the Silk Road
11
were formed ‘naturally’ by the movement of traffic:
carries silt in suspension. It is impossible for a
relatively stationary body of water to appear
[4][5]
‘muddy’ because silt cannot be held in suspension
due to lack of flow and will deposit on the waterbed
leaving the top levels clear. Wetlands such as
swamps and marshes with water shallow enough for
their muddy waterbeds to show through and thereby
discolour their surface appearance, do not appear as
‘a muddy spring’ because they are checkered with
abundant aquatic vegetation. Any pooled shallow
expanse of water without aquatic vegetation – that
‘The Silk Road, which cut through many deserts,
was actually opened by the feet of travelers to and
from China and West Asia who passed along it with
their horses and camels.’ [4]
functions to retain water – would quickly evaporate.
With the principle of ‘scope and scale’ in mind, the
only alternative is a large moving body of water
which further eliminates the possibility of creeks,
streams and small tributaries. Naturally occurring
large springs are also discounted; springs contain
some of the purest and clearest water in the world as
the water is filtered by soil and rock before it
emerges. Hence, by method of elimination, the verse
can only refer to a major ‘muddy’ river.
Figure 1: The Silk Road in the 1st Century [6]
The formation of the various trade routes that
comprised the Silk Road was an evolutionary
process that took place over thousands of years
dating back to some of the most ancient
civilizations. [3][5][7] The main path of the ancient
Silk Road, however, is most commonly associated
with a caravan trail opened up during the Western
Han Dynasty in the 1st century BCE, which linked
China to the West. [8][9][10]
18:86then, when
China’s second longest river and sixth longest in the
world, is called the Hwang Ho or Huang He, but
most often known simply as the Yellow River. The
name ‘Yellow River’ describes the perennial
reddish-yellow colour of the muddy water in the
middle to lower courses of the river. The Chinese
even poetically term the river, ‘the muddy flow.’
he came to the setting of the sun,
[13][14][15]
he found it (seemed to be) setting into a muddy
spring...
An examination of the geology of the Yellow River
and its surrounding terrain reveals how its reddishyellow hue is attained. The Yellow River is
commonly divided into three stages. [15][16] In its
upper reaches, the Yellow River starts off clear and
begins to gather rain water and ice melts from
surrounding hills and mountains. As it travels
Bodies of water can be grouped according to two
basic functions; those that collect and move water,
such as rivers and streams, and those that primarily
hold water, such as lakes and oceans. [11][12] A
‘muddy’ appearance is produced by water that
12
through its middle reaches, the river passes through
the Loess Plateau (Figures 2 and 3).
which carved out the Grand Canyon, and 35 times
more silt than the Nile. [20]
The Yellow River then enters its lower reaches,
begins to slow down, and no longer having
sufficient velocity for the accumulated silt to remain
in suspension, the river starts to unload sediment and
creates an elevated river bed. [15] The volume of
sediment deposited is so massive that a surreal
reddish-yellow ‘river above ground’ is produced – a
rather unusual geological formation at a vast scale.
Figure 2: Geographical Region of the Loess Plateau [17]
Figure 4: Yellow River; aerial view [21]
Figure 3: Loess Plateau;
‘Most Erosion Prone Soil on Earth’ [18]
It is the peculiar and unique nature of this
widespread plateau that gives the river its distinct
reddish-yellow colour. Loess is a type of soil known
as ‘the most erosion prone soil on earth’ and the
plateau readily releases large amounts of mud and
sand as it is eroded by the river and the elements. [19]
By the time the Yellow River passes through the
Loess Plateau, it is the most sediment-laden and
literally, ‘the muddiest river in the world.’ [15] By
way of comparison, the Yellow River on average
carries 3.5 times more silt than the Colorado River,
Figure 5: Yellow River; seen from downtown Lanzhou [22]
If ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ then the
views in Figures 4 and 5 speak volumes and
highlight the beauty, hue and grandeur of the Yellow
13
River. If Zul-Qarnayn approached the middle to
lower reaches of the Yellow River, it would indeed
6:6
seem like ‘a muddy spring’ as the sun set behind it.
earth more firmly than you, sent down abundant
rain on them from the sky and made running rivers
flow at their feet, yet We destroyed them for their
misdeeds and raised other generations after them.
Do they not realize how many generations We
destroyed before them? We established them in the
The question remains, ‘why can it not be any other
major muddy river?’ Taking into account the
principle of significant ‘scope and scale’ and that no
other major river in the world carries as much silt as
the Yellow River, the answer is further revealed as
the exegesis progresses.
19:74
We have destroyed many a generation before
them who surpassed them in riches and outward
glitter!
…Did he not know that God had destroyed many
generations before him, who had greater power
than him and built up greater wealth?…
28:78
18:86...Nearby
he found some people and We
said, ‘Zul-Qarnayn, you may choose (which of
them) to punish or show kindness to.’ 87He
answered, ‘We shall punish those who have
done evil, and when they are returned to their
Lord He will punish them (even more) severely,
88while those who believed and did good deeds
will have the best of rewards: we shall command
them to do what is easy for them.’
And since God does not change His practices:
This has been God’s practice with those who
went before. You will find no change in God’s
practices.
33:62
such was God’s practice in the past and you will
find no change in God’s practices.
48:23
Note the verse says ‘nearby’ and not ‘at’ (the muddy
spring), with the implication the community was not
necessary located immediately adjacent to the
Yellow River and may have been found a short
distance away within the Yellow River basin.
…Do you expect anything but what happened to
earlier people? You will never find any change in
35:43
God’s practice; you will never find any deviation
there.
Another clue is advanced with the pronouncement,
‘…We shall punish those who have done evil, and
A well established and wealthy community,
when they are returned to their Lord He will punish
them (even more) severely.’ Whenever God wills
punishment on a people, without exception they are
always a prosperous and well established
community, not a newly formed or emerging
therefore, is another criterion that must be met:
‘The Yellow River is called “the cradle of Chinese
civilization,” because its basin was the birthplace
of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most
prosperous region in early Chinese history.’
society. This has always been God’s practice:
[16][22][24]
14
Commencing approximately 2000BCE the first
Chinese dynasties were established along the middle
‘Xi’an, known as Chang’an in ancient times, is one
of the oldest capital cities in China. During the
to lower reaches of the Yellow River (Figure 6). [25]
Over several dynastic periods, the Yellow River
basin experienced nearly two thousand years of
settlement and expansion until ancient China
entered its most prosperous era during the Han
Dynasty (206BCE–220CE). Known as ‘the golden
age of Chinese history,’ [26] the Han Dynasty
spanned over four centuries and emerged as China’s
fifth dynasty and second imperial dynasty. [27][28]
Western Han…it was China’s political, economic,
and cultural center…as the hub of international
traffic…it ranked with Rome, and subsequently,
Istanbul, in importance…As the starting point for
the Silk Road, Xi’an played an important role in
east-west exchange.’ [29]
‘It was…a cosmopolitan metropolis…a consumer
city, a city whose existence was not primarily
predicated upon manufacturing and trade, but
rather boasted such a large population because of
its role as the political and militaristic center of
China. By 2CE the population was 246,200 in
80,000 households. This population was mostly
scholar gentry whose education was being
sponsored by their wealthy aristocratic families. In
addition to these civil servants was a larger
underclass to serve to them.’ [30]
Figure 6: Founding Dynasties of China
Along the Yellow River Basin [25]
The Han Dynasty is separated into two distinct
periods. During the Western Han period (206BCE–
9CE), Xi’an was the kingdom’s capital and seat of
power. [28] In the 1st Century BCE, the main path and
eastern terminus of the Silk Road was extended to
Xi’an, [29] which is located in the Yellow River basin
near the river’s middle reaches:
Figure 7: Geographical Region of the Yellow River;
Upper, Middle, Lower Reaches progress west to east [31]
In the Eastern Han period (25CE–220CE), the
capital was moved further east to Luoyang, [28] at the
15
trail end but still within the Yellow River’s middle
reaches (immediately west of Zhengzhou, Figure 7).
authority Zul-Qarnayn upheld justice; he punished
the bad but showed kindness to the good.
Thus, the middle reaches of the Yellow River as the
site Zul-Qarnayn first visited conforms to the
following criteria:
A number of further deductions can now be made:

By the 1st Century BCE, it was innervated by the
main corridor of the Silk Road connecting China
to the West; part of the most extensive network
of trade routes in ancient times.

It is carved by massive flows of ‘muddy water’
over long distances that appear as ‘a muddy
spring.’
It was the location of the most established and
prosperous communities of ancient China.

1. Good and evil are determined not only from
people’s actions, but also and sometimes more so,
by their speech. Hence, in order for Zul-Qarnayn to
make true judgment on individuals living within the
community – a heavy moral undertaking as it
affected each person’s fate – it was incumbent he
was fluent in their language. If Zul-Qarnayn could
not comprehend a word of what was spoken by the
community, he could not possibly pass judgment on
individuals amongst them. This is akin to Prophet
Muhammad assuming the role of a judge in the
Medinan community without understanding Arabic
and therefore unable to converse with his people,
relying instead on interpreters; a highly unrealistic
scenario.
At this point in the exegesis, there is good reason to
make the suggestion Zul-Qarnayn’s first destination
was one of the firmly established and affluent
communities that thrived along the middle reaches
of the Yellow River, accessible by the Silk Road, no
earlier than the 1st Century BCE during the reign of
the Han Dynasty. Xi’an, in particular, the cultural
center of Imperial China and the starting point of the
Silk Road, was of primary importance in ‘east-west
exchange.’ It was, moreover, the seat of political,
economic and military power; a place from which a
ranked individual would have established ‘power in
the land’ and ‘the means to achieve everything.’
In China, since dialects are far and varied, it can be
surmised Zul-Qarnayn spoke the precise or very
near dialect of the Yellow River community; with
the implication Zul-Qarnayn was a native of the Han
Empire, raised in one of the communities of the
Yellow River basin. This is consistent with the
Qur’anic teaching that God has sent many
messengers, each to their own communities:
‘Company of jinn and mankind! Did messengers
not come from among you to recite My revelations
to you and warn that you would meet this Day?’…
6:130
Upon reaching the Yellow River community, ZulQarnayn, a chosen messenger of God, was given the
ability to distinguish between those who followed
God’s guidance from those who had gone astray and
spread corruption; ‘…you may choose (which of
them) to punish or show kindness to.’ By God’s
39:71
Those who rejected the Truth will be led to Hell
in their throngs. When they arrive, its gates will
open and its keepers will say to them, ‘Were you not
sent your own messengers to recite the revelations
16
of your Lord to you and warn you that you would
meet this Day?’…
It is of value to note, as the verses punctuate, that
those who committed evil were not only punished in
this life but will also suffer the ultimate and more
humiliating punishment in the hereafter, whereas the
believers who did good deeds were treated with
kindness and will have even greater rewards in the
next life and suffer no hardship.
30:47
Before you (Muhammad), We sent messengers,
each to their own people: they brought them clear
proofs and then We punished the evildoers. We make
it Our duty to help the believers.
It is incomprehensible that one of the most
prosperous, well established, highly populated and
significant civilizations of ancient times was not
18:89He
sent messenger(s) of their own; Zul-Qarnayn was
one such messenger, sent to ancient China.
travelled on; then…
Notice the verse does not say, ‘He continued with
his travels on the same road,’ only ‘He travelled on.’
If ‘the same road’ was added, it would by necessity
limit Zul-Qarnayn’s journey to only a particular
route of the Silk Road, but since this is not the case,
other routes which may or may not be part of the
Silk Road can be explored.
2. No community would permit a lone individual to
essentially ‘walk in unannounced,’ pass judgment
and then punish whoever he chooses. Zul-Qarnayn
needed the support of substantial military forces to
exert his authority and will over the community,
especially since it was a prosperous community,
presumably with armed forces of its own. He was
18:90when
he came to the rising of the sun, he
found it rising on a people for whom We had
provided no shelter from it.
given neither the strength nor capability to dispense
punishment single-handedly (see commentary on
verse 18:95); he did not possess superhuman
strength like the Biblical figure Samson. It follows
Zul-Qarnayn either travelled with significant
military forces at his command, or held a position of
authority over regional militia.
The physical landscape that provides no shelter from
the sun is a desert. In continuation with the central
guiding principle of significant ‘scope and scale,’ it
is posited Zul-Qarnayn’s second destination was the
Gobi Desert, the largest desert in Asia that covers
3. While the Qur’an does not detail the nature of the
parts of northwestern China and southern Mongolia.
[32][33]
If Zul-Qarnayn left by the middle reaches of
the Yellow River and headed northeast, the path
would lead him to the Gobi desert (Figure 8), where
he found the sun ‘rising on a people’ who were
provided ‘no shelter from it.’
punishment, with established authority and military
forces at his command Zul-Qarnayn possessed the
means of administering whatever form of
punishment he pleased; whether physical,
economic, or both. Punishment of those who spread
corruption in the land, by one means or another, has
always been a mainstay of God’s established
practices.
17
established his power in the land, and gave him the
means to achieve everything.’ Right away, it is
implicitly understood Zul-Qarnayn did not travel
only a few miles, cross a tiny creek, and arrive at a
small desert plain. Everything is magnified to a large
scale: the Silk Road, the most extensive network of
trade routes in the ancient world; the Yellow River,
China’s second longest and the world’s muddiest
river snaking over 5,400km; [13][15] the Gobi Desert,
Asia’s largest desert covering 1,300,000 sq. km.
[32][33]
The thematic consistency of scale and the
Figure 8: Geographic Region of the Gobi Desert [34]
relative proximity of each landform support and add
credence to the journey as described. Each new
verse brings with it more implications and resultant
criteria, filtering out alternatives and narrowing the
possibilities, eventually making it impossible for all
– but the one authentic route – to meet the mounting
conditions.
The cryptic and generalized description of verse
18:90 begs the question, ‘why did God include a
narration bereft of detail?’ No information is
revealed about the community Zul-Qarnayn
encountered other than the inference they lived in a
desert. As Figure 8 highlights, however, the Gobi
Desert is the key ‘Landscape Bridge’ linking the
middle reaches of the Yellow River (Huang He) to
18:91And
the Korean Peninsula when a northeastern route is
followed. It is exceedingly difficult to decipher ZulQarnayn’s journey without identification of the
Gobi Desert – a significant, large-scale, defining
land formation in Asia. It would appear, then, these
clues are imparted – each at the appropriate level of
detail – so that mankind may unlock the identities of
Gog and Magog; and hence serve as one last
opportunity, as part of His Mercy and divine plan,
so it was: We knew all about him.
God states in the Qur’an:
6:59
He has the keys to the unseen: no one knows them
but Him. He knows all that is in the land and sea.
No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a
single grain in the darkness of the earth, or
anything, fresh or withered, that is not written in a
clear Record.
for the acceptance of the Qur’an as an authentic and
protected Scripture authored by God.
7:6-7
We shall certainly question those to whom
messengers were sent – and We shall question the
messengers themselves – and, with full knowledge,
for We were never far from them, We shall tell them
what they did.
Thematic Consistency
To stress, once again, the unifying theme running
throughout Zul-Qarnayn’s journey thus far: God
first unveiled a clue by announcing, 18:84 ‘We
18
And so, through the description of Zul-Qarnayn’s
journey, the same message is repeated here, ‘We
most mountainous peninsulas in the world – the
Korean Peninsula (Figure 9). Evidence is now
knew all about him.’ Truly God’s knowledge
encompasses all things.
presented to support this view.
18:92He
The characterization, ‘…he found beside them a
people who could barely understand him,’ is subtly
delineating and thus mandates exposition in the
context of language genealogy and associated
geographies. The implication of ‘barely understand’
is minimal mutual intelligibility rather than
mutually intelligible or mutually incomprehensible.
travelled on;
Again, as this is a general statement, and does not
mention a specific road, no restrictions are
applicable on the direction Zul-Qarnayn may have
[45][46][47][49]
travelled.
As concluded in the exegesis of verses
18:86-88, Zul-Qarnayn spoke the Chinese dialect of
the Yellow River community he visited on his first
destination. Hence, another criterion can now be
applied: the languages of the Yellow River and
highland communities (i.e. Zul-Qarnayn’s first and
third destinations respectively) must share only
minimal mutual intelligibility.
18:93then,
when he reached a place between two
mountain barriers, he found beside them a
people who could barely understand him.
This criterion rules out the possibility of a highland
community that spoke only native Korean. Korean
is a different language altogether than Chinese, and
is classified either as a ‘language isolate’ or less
commonly as part of the Altaic language family.
[36][37][38][39][40]
A ‘language isolate,’ as the name
implies, is an independently evolved language and
unrelated to any other language genealogy, while
the Altaic languages spread across a wide northern
geographical arc stretching from Eastern Europe to
Figure 9: Topographical Map of the
Korean Peninsula [35]
northeast Asia but never penetrated south into
mainland China. [41][42] The languages of China, on
the other hand, are part of the Sino-Tibetan family,
a very different family of languages. [46][49] Korean
and Chinese languages, therefore, are mutually
unintelligible. If the highland community spoke
only native Korean, they would not even ‘barely
understand’ Zul-Qarnayn. This criterion effectively
After the Gobi Desert, Zul-Qarnayn journeyed
towards his third and final destination narrated in the
Qur’an. Since ‘he reached a place between two
mountain barriers,’ and with the principle of
significant ‘scope and scale’ as a guide, it is
proposed Zul-Qarnayn travelled east to one of the
19
limits Zul-Qarnayn’s last destination to only
Chinese colonies of the Korean Peninsula or its
dialects of Mandarin and are somewhat mutually
intelligible. [45][46][47][49]
surrounding regions.
The map confirms the regions that encompass Xi’an
(i.e. in the vicinity of the Yellow River’s middle
reaches, Zul-Qarnayn’s first destination) and the
northern Korean Peninsula (near Zul-Qarnayn’s
third destination) are part of the Mandarin language
group; by far the largest language group by
geography and population. Since the regions are far
apart, the level of mutual intelligibility of their
respective Mandarin dialects is certain to be only
marginal [47] – exactly as described in the Qur’an by
the term ‘barely understand’ 1400 years ago. It is
important to note Figure 10 reflects a contemporary
distribution; Han colonies of ancient Imperial China
penetrated deep into the peninsula, implanting their
culture within their administrative territories:
‘China’s colonial policy does not seem to have been
marked by severe political repression. It appears
that the Chinese were content to exercise a certain
degree of control while permitting substantial
political freedom to the people they governed.
Nonetheless, the Chinese administration had
considerable impact on the life of the native
population and ultimately the very fabric of Old
Choson* society became eroded.’ [50]
Figure 10: Geographic distribution of
Sinitic language families [43][44][48]
Minimal mutual intelligibility is tied to the concept
of dialects. Figure 10 depicts the geographic
distribution of Sinitic language families. The
*An ancient Korean Kingdom, 2333BCE-108BCE.
To continue with the analysis, the verse clearly
implies Zul-Qarnayn visited a hillside and not a
valley community; ‘then, when he reached a place
between two mountain barriers, he found beside
them a people...’ The community is not described as
located between ‘two mountains,’ but as residing
beside ‘two mountain barriers.’ The two are very
different settings. If the community was found
classification and relationships of Chinese dialects
is complex and contentious. At a basic level,
however, the main family groups of the Sinitic
languages are generally considered mutually
unintelligible; for example, Mandarin and
Cantonese. Dialects within a region of the same
language group vary in degrees of mutual
intelligibility; Beijing and Sichuan speech are
20
between two entire mountains it must by necessity
lie in an expansive valley, but as it is situated,
plains beyond the earthen fortifications they built
on hillside plateaus. Although these small walled-
instead, alongside ‘two mountain barriers,’ the
intimation is a highland community nestled beside
two mountainsides. The two mountainsides, or
barriers, unquestionably comprise a segment of a
single larger mountain, which in turn is part of any
mountain range found in ancient Imperial China’s
occupied regions within the greater Korean
Peninsula.
town states (sometimes called tribal states) retained
a tribal character, their political structure was built
around a territorial unit that subsumed populations
other than the tribe alone. These walled-town states
were the earliest form of state structure to exist in
Korea, and thus they represent the origins of Korean
political culture.’ [51]
2. Without protection, such a community would be
an easy and attractive target for raids. As payment
of tribute was volunteered, it is a reasonable
assumption the raids were recurrent; tribute would
not be offered if the community experienced a
history of only one single raid with no threat of
future attacks. The raids, most assuredly, were of
sufficient intensity ‘to ruin the land’ by depleting
their stores of food, seizure of their wealth, damage
of their property, and abuse of their people – on an
ongoing basis – indeed nothing short of a nightmare
18:94They
said, ‘Zul-Qarnayn, Gog and Magog
are ruining this land. Will you build a barrier
between them and us if we pay you a tribute?’
This is the first mention of Gog and Magog in the
Qur’an. The verse is also the linchpin that fully
unravels their identities, and, by consequence,
verifies Zul-Qarnayn’s journey as described:
1. The highland community could not have been
under direct occupation by Gog and Magog, for if
they were, a barrier would be of no value. Since they
asked for a barrier to be erected, it can be concluded
the community was neither inclined towards warfare
nor capable of effective self-defense. The people
only wanted to be left alone in peace and carry out
their livelihood, which almost certainly consisted of
small scale agriculture and raising livestock.
scenario; and thus the analogy with the movie, ‘The
Magnificent Seven.’
In addition, payment of tribute would only be
offered – it was their idea, not Zul-Qarnayn’s – if it
was already an established custom. It can be argued
the tribute was merely a generic fee for service; a
contract any community in such jeopardy would
offer. However, this is not the case. The payment of
Consider now, the historical evolution of the hillside
agrarian communities in the Korean Peninsula,
dating back to the era of the Bronze Age (1500300BCE): [51]
tribute, or a tributary system, is peculiar to ancient
China and is reflective of China’s unique
perspective on empire and governance. The
tributary system was the method Chinese royalty
employed to establish their relationship with greater
China. [52][53][54] The offer to pay tribute is perhaps
the most important clue to validate Zul-Qarnayn’s
journey and thereby confirm the true identities of the
‘The territories ruled by Bronze Age chieftains were
not very extensive. They controlled a modest
agricultural population that farmed the narrow
21
peoples of Gog and Magog. Here is a closer look at
what a tribute is and how a tributary system is
means to control their interests, as well as a means
of providing exclusive trading priorities to those
who paid tribute from foreign regions. It was an
integral part of the Confucian philosophy and was
seen by the Chinese as equivalent to the familial
relation of younger sons looking after older parents
by devoting part of their wealth, assets, or goods to
that purpose. Political marriages also existed
between the Chinese empire and tribute states...’
organized:
‘The term tributary state refers to one of the two
main ways in which a pre-modern state might be
subordinate to a more powerful neighbour. The
heart of the relationship was that the tributary
would send a regular token of submission (tribute)
to the superior power. This token often took the form
of a substantial transfer of wealth, such as the
[55][56]
delivery of gold, produce, or slaves, so that tribute
Throughout the history of Imperial China, the
tributary system was far reaching and extended to
greater China in virtually all directions. A far from
an exhaustive list of tributaries of Imperial China
includes Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand
and Vietnam in the south; Tibet, Nepal and India in
the west and southwest; the Confederate Nomadic
Tribes across the north; Korea and Japan in the east.
[52][57][58]
There is no other empire that was known
for implementation of a tributary system at remotely
might best be seen as the payment of protection
money…
An unusually elaborate and formalized tribute
system developed in East Asia. Historically, the
Emperor of China saw himself as the emperor of the
entire civilized world. It was not possible for such
an emperor to have equal diplomatic relations with
any other power, and so all diplomatic relations in
near this scale and intrinsic to their philosophy on
culture and statecraft. [54] China’s imposed tributary
relationships, therefore, are consistent with the
central guiding principle of significant ‘scope and
scale.’ It thus follows, by corollary, the highland
community Zul-Qarnayn visited must be in a
tributary region of ancient Imperial China as a
further criterion.
the region were constructed by the Chinese as
tributary. The disdain of the state ideology of
Confucianism for trade, and the conceit that
Chinese civilization had no need of products or
technology from outside meant that trade, when it
was permitted, was also constructed as tributary.
Diplomatic missions and trading parties from nonChinese regions were interpreted in Chinese
records as being tributary, regardless of the
intention of those regions. Under this construction,
the goods received by China constituted a tributary
offering, while those that the visitors received were
interpreted as gifts that the emperor in his kindness
had bestowed upon his distant tributaries.’ [55][56]
The tributary system of Imperial China was
established by the 1st Century BCE during the Han
Dynasty and administered by means of
organizational districts called commanderies
(Figure 11). [54][59][60][61] Han commanderies
penetrated the northwest and central regions of the
Korean Peninsula, and Chinese immigrants, who
settled in the colonized territories, brought with
‘In China, the tribute system began from ancient
China period to provide both an administrative
22
them considerable inflows of Chinese culture. [62]
Amongst the host of cultural influences exerted by
406,748. It was eventually defeated by the Kingdom
of Goguryeo in 313CE. [62][63][65]
the Chinese, two particularly notable, were language
and the collection of tributes. [63] Hence, the
communities of the greater Korean Peninsula
controlled by Chinese commanderies retained
minimal comprehension of Manchurian dialects,
while at the same time were accustomed to the
tributary system; thus the Qur’anic verses, 18:93‘…he
found beside them a people who could barely
understand him,’ who volunteered, 18:94‘…Will you
3. Successful recurrent raids of the highland
community demonstrate the aggressive nature and
military character of Gog and Magog. Raids imply
speed and cannot be conducted in mountain
highlands on foot; they must be executed on
horseback. Effective raids on horseback require
skilled horsemen warriors who are not only able to
negotiate treacherous mountainous terrain, but can
build a barrier between them and us if we pay you a
tribute?’
do so with speed and agility while at the same time
wield weapons of war. Only an engaged class of
warrior horsemen have the ability to repeatedly
carry out such raids – it is not a hobby that can be
pursued part time; it is a profession that requires
commitment and continuous practice to hone a very
specialized skill set. For the profession to be
justified, a solitary village would not suffice but
require the wealth from many villages. Once raided,
villages needed time to recover and build up enough
resources – ‘to fatten up’ – for further attacks to be
worthwhile. It would seem, therefore, the
community Zul-Qarnayn rescued was not the only
community subjected to intermittent raids by Gog
and Magog, but one of many, whose resources were
exploited to support the fierce warriors.
Figure 11: Han Commanderies, 2CE [64]
The ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo (or Koguryo,
37BCE–668CE) ruled over much of the greater
Note: The Lelang Commandery (108BCE–313CE)
Korean Peninsula for over 700 years (Figures 12 and
13). [66][67] The mountainous land of Goguryeo could
not support adequate agriculture to sustain its
population. As a result, a highly skilled military
class evolved to forcibly appropriate resources from
surrounding lands. [68][69] The Goguryeo military
was robust – reputed for its aggressive cavalries of
skilled horsemen who regularly embarked on raids
penetrated the heart of the Korean Peninsula with
its capital located at present day Pyongyang. It grew
to be the principle commandery in the Korean
Peninsula and throughout the four centuries of its
establishment there was a continuous influx of
Chinese immigrants who settled in the peninsula.
Records indicated Lelang consisted of 25
prefectures, 62,812 houses, with a population of
23
– and to a large extent developed as a result of
conflict and served as a bulwark against Imperial
raiding their neighbors so they could expand their
resource base. In the time of king Taejo of Goguryeo
China’s forces in the Korean Peninsula; [70]
eventually routing the Chinese by the early fourth
century: [66]
in 53CE, five local tribes were reorganized into five
centrally ruled districts. Foreign relations and the
military were controlled by the king. Aggressive
military activities may have allowed Goguryeo to
exact tribute from their tribal neighbors and to
even dominate them politically and economically.’
[65][68]
‘Thus Koguryo came into being and proceeded to
develop in a context of conflict with the Chinese.
Accordingly Koguryo was in need of strong
military forces, and in the course of its early armed
struggles the military character of Koguryo’s
ruling elite was continuously reinforced. It would
appear that even in times of peace this warrior
aristocracy did not engage in any kind of productive
activities, but devoted itself entirely to training for
combat. For the warriors of Koguryo, in fact,
Figure 12: Goguryeo &
Proto-Three Kingdoms; 001CE [71]
warfare was the most productive activity they might
pursue, as is indicated by their consuming interest
in such spoils of war as land, populations, and
domestic animals. Only through warfare, it seems,
could they compensate for the inadequacy of the
resources within their boundaries. It is no wonder,
then…the Koguryo people gave the impression to
the Chinese of being vigorous, warlike, and fond of
attacking their neighbors.’ [69]
Figure 13: Goguryeo at Territorial Prime
and Modern Political Boundaries; 476CE [72]
‘Goguryeo developed from a league of various
Yemaek tribes to an early state and rapidly
expanded its power from their original basin of
control in the Hun river drainage. The Goguryeo
‘In the north, Koguryo, with its fast-moving cavalry
and mobile populations, became a powerful force in
the territorial struggles of northeast Asia – in
constant conflict with the Chinese states to the south
and west and the Manchurian tribes of the north.
homeland was said to be mountainous and lacked
arable land and could barely feed its own
population. Goguryeo was known for being fond of
Koguryo was an aggressive, warring state, its
forces capable of repulsing invasion attempts by
the full strength of Chinese arms and even of
24
seems more appropriate, given He is the Most
Gracious, Most Merciful, that the term ‘Gog and
harboring dreams of aggression against that
powerful western neighbour.’ [70]
Magog’ was deliberately chosen as an understated
means to help mankind unlock their identities. The
one tribe of Gog and Magog refers, therefore, to
arguably the world’s most homogeneous ethnic
group of people alive today; the divided inhabitants
of the Korean Peninsula, or present day North and
South Korea (Figure 14).
4. It is implausible that agrarian highland
communities with limited resources could survive
repeated raids by not one, but two different military
tribes (i.e. Gog and Magog). This was not a war
where allies joined forces to mount a combined
attack against a common formidable enemy. These
were recurrent raids with the intent of resource
acquisition through pillage and plunder or the
receipt of tribute through the instilment of fear.
Continuous forced transfer of wealth was the prize.
If two separate aggressive tribes partnered in
combined larger raids, or tag teamed in alternate
raids, there simply would not be enough booty to go
around, nor could the assaulted communities
recover from such severe and repeated onslaught.
The villages would be raided to extinction and the
strategy rendered counter-productive. More to the
point, two highly skilled armed tribes would no
doubt be at war with each other in competition over
potential gains. It is apparent this scenario is not
even a remote possibility.
The only credible conclusion that can be reached
is Gog and Magog are not two separate tribes, but
one single tribe. They are one people of the same
ethnic stock. God uses the term, ‘Gog and Magog,’
as a literary device to show they are one people who
Figure 14: North and South Korea [73]
Note: It is suggested that Gog denotes the
abbreviated first three letters of the ancient
Kingdom of Goguryeo, and is further discussed in
are later divided. That is why both names have
‘Gog’ in common; ‘Gog and Magog’ even sound
as if they are ‘from’ and ‘of’ each other.
chapter 2, ‘Etymology.’
18:95He
answered, ‘The power my Lord has
given me is better than any tribute, but if you
lend me your strength, I will put up a
fortification between you and them:
It does not seem reasonable that God, who is the All
Wise, the All Aware, purposefully selected the
related names ‘Gog and Magog,’ if they referenced
two separate and completely unrelated tribes. It
25
Servants of God do not accept tribute payments;
their reward is with God alone. God’s Grace is far
most probably, as protection against rust. The iron
barrier was purposefully engineered to the necessary
better than any tribute. And so, Zul-Qarnayn asked
nothing from the community other than ‘their
strength,’ or manual labour. Any notion, therefore,
that Zul-Qarnayn was some sort of ‘superman’ is
immediately dispelled for he would not require the
‘strength of people’ and be able to construct the
fortification all alone. Instead, Zul-Qarnayn was
given, above all else, the qualities of intelligence,
wisdom and faith. As part of his faith, and as a
dimensions (width, thickness and height) to
effectively seal the passageway and hence, ‘Their
enemies could not scale the barrier, nor could they
pierce it.’ The filled ‘gap between two
mountainsides’ references the very same
passageway Zul-Qarnayn first used to gain access to
the community as previously related in verse 18:93,
‘then, when he reached a place between two
mountain barriers…’ Without doubt, Zul-Qarnayn
messenger of God, Zul-Qarnayn was inspired to
oversee the design, engineering and construction of
an impenetrable and enduring fortification, and to
ensure the fortification would serve the purpose of
protection and separation of the hillside community
from the one tribe of Gog and Magog. It must again
be stressed; it does not seem at all conceivable that
a barrier was erected to keep out two different
warrior tribes: Gog and Magog is one tribe which is
later divided.
carefully surveyed and selected an appropriate
construction site along the passageway where the
gap could most easily and effectively be sealed: for
example, a narrowing where the two mountainsides
joined above to form an arched opening that could
be completely sealed off to achieve an entirely
impenetrable and non-scalable fortification.
The project, though manageable – as the
construction site was located, as distinguished
earlier, between two mountain barriers and not two
entire mountains (the latter a daunting challenge
even by today’s standards) – was nonetheless
assuredly a ‘mega-structure’ for its time and aligned
with the principle of significant ‘scope and scale.’
The technological limitations of the ancient period
entailed substantial labour requirements as attested
by Zul-Qarnayn’s request from the community to
‘…lend me your strength…’ A protracted time frame
18:96bring
me lumps of iron!’ and then, when he
had filled the gap between the two
mountainsides (he said), ‘Work your bellows!’
and then, when he had made it glow like fire, he
said, ‘Bring me molten metal to pour over it!’
97Their enemies could not scale the barrier, nor
could they pierce it.
was thus essential to complete the project, as
enormous quantities of iron ore needed to be
transported over considerable distances by horsedrawn vehicles via winding mountainous routes.
This corroborates the prior determination the
highland community faced intermittent raids over
spread intervals by the one tribe of Gog and Magog.
Given the extended timelines involved in the
By the instructions, ‘bring me lumps of iron…Work
your bellows…Bring me molten metal to pour over
it,’ it is evident Zul-Qarnayn managed the project,
allocated resources and directed work. The work is
also sequenced in a rational order: iron is first
brought in, the gap is filled, and the iron is then
heated and sealed with molten metal; functioning,
26
construction project, the alternative of more
frequent raids by two separate tribes raises the
certain prospect of a mid-construction attack by one
tribe or the other; with potentially devastating
consequences. However, the Qur’an does not
suggest, or give even the slightest hint that a battle
took place between Zul-Qarnayn’s forces and those
of Gog and Magog.
The infrastructure and supply chain necessary to
support large-scale ironworks introduces yet
another criterion: iron culture in the region must be
well advanced during Imperial China’s occupation
of the Korean Peninsula. Broadly defined, the Iron
Age in China is dated at 600-200BCE and
introduced to the Korean Peninsula in 400–60BCE.
[74][75][76][77]
The Korean Peninsula is noted for its
rich reserves of iron ore deposits that were mined as
early as the 2nd Century BCE and distributed
throughout the peninsula; particularly to the Lelang
(or Lo-lang) commandery (with ancient Pyongyang
Figure 15: The Nakdong River [78]
The ability of the Chinese, furthermore, to
‘command the labour services of the native
population they governed’ [80][81] substantiates the
Qur’anic account, ‘…lend me your strength…’ Only
the authority of a high ranked office could approve
large-scale projects, recruit labour from indigenous
populations and requisition large quantities of iron
ore and related building supplies at the very
outskirts of its administrative territories. There can
be little doubt, therefore, Zul-Qarnayn was a
respected leader of the Chinese elite with firmly
established ‘power in the land’ and ‘the means to
achieve everything.’
as its capital, Figure 15):
‘Around 300 BCE, iron technology was introduced
into Korea from China. Iron was produced locally
in the southern part of the peninsula by the second
century BCE. According to Chinese accounts, iron
from the lower Nakdong River valley in the
southeast, was valued throughout the peninsula and
Japan.’ [79]
Zul-Qarnayn’s Route
Significant evidence has now been presented to
firmly make the case Zul-Qarnayn visited an
agrarian highland community in a Chinese
administered region of the Korean Peninsula during
the colonial period (100BCE~300CE) – most
notably the principle commandery of Lelang, which
occupied the central regions and effectively
bifurcated the peninsula in two – a foreshadow,
perhaps, of a divided ‘Gog and Magog’ in centuries
‘The Chinese were able to command the labour
services of the native population they governed, for
example for the large-scale cutting of timber. It is
known, too, that iron ore from deposits in the
southeast corner of the peninsula was supplied to
Lo-lang.’ [51]
27
to follow. But is there, at this point, sufficient
information to ‘fill in the missing pieces’ and
‘Hexi Corridor, also Hexi Zoulang, which is known
as the main path of the ancient Silk Road, is a east-
finalize the specifics of Zul-Qarnayn’s route? To
gain insight on this question, it may prove useful to
re-examine verses 18:86 and 18:90:
west stretching trading route starting from the
ancient capital Xi’an and reaching Dunhuang via
oasis scattering in the long and narrow desert
between Lanzhou and the northern part of the Qilian
Mt. Range. For reasons of simple geography,
18:86
then, when he came to the setting of the sun, he
found it (seemed to be) setting into a muddy spring.
Nearby he found some people and We said, ‘ZulQarnayn, you may choose (which of them) to punish
or show kindness to.’
travellers leaving or entering China to or from
Central Asia and the West have always been
channelled through this narrow strip of land that
runs 1000km northwest of Lanzhou.’ [84]
18:90
when he came to the rising of the sun, he found
it rising on a people for whom We had provided no
shelter from it.
Throughout Zul-Qarnayn’s journey, the Qur’anic
narrative stated the obvious ‘without actually stating
the obvious.’ As a case in point, implicit in the
phrases ‘setting of the sun’ and ‘rising of the sun’ is
travels which are generally westward and eastward
Figure 16: The Silk Road; Hexi (Gansu) Corridor [85]
respectively. That is to say, Zul-Qarnayn must have
traveled west on his first destination and east on his
second. And considering, as it has been established
Zul-Qarnayn held the position of a high ranked
office – almost certainly during the reign of the Han
Dynasty – and that power and authority was seated
in the kingdom’s capital, his route can now be
traced:
Traveling west along the Hexi Corridor – the main
artery of the Silk Road developed and controlled by
the Han [9][10] – Zul-Qarnayn approached the middle
reaches of the Yellow River near Lanzhou, well into
the Loess Plateau, by which time the river had taken
on its rich ochre-yellow colour (Figure 5); where he
found the sun seemed to be ‘setting into a muddy
spring.’
The only way to approach the Yellow River in a
westerly direction is along the Hexi (Gansu)
Corridor, departing from Xi’an, the starting point of
the Silk Road, and heading towards Lanzhou
(Figure 16). [82][83] The principle of significant
‘scope and scale’ enforces that a major route of the
Silk Road be followed:
Having reached a region near Lanzhou, the second
leg of His journey is dictated by the requirement to
arrive at the Gobi Desert by way of an eastern
direction, ‘when he came to the rising of the sun,’
again leaving only one possibility; a northeastern
route looping around the top of the Yellow River,
turning eastward into the Gobi Desert (Figure 8),
28
where he found the sun ‘rising on a people for whom
We had provided no shelter from it.’
Thus, Zul-Qarnayn travelled in three different
directions; west, northeast, and east – visiting three
separate communities along the way, according to
God’s command:
His third leg of the journey is straight-forward; due
east from the Gobi Desert towards the mountainous
Korean Peninsula; 18:92‘He travelled on; 93then,
when he reached a place between two mountain
barriers, he found beside them a people who could
barely understand him.’
18:91
And so it was: We knew all about him.
29
Summary of Qur’anic Verses 18:83-97
Zul-Qarnayn was a messenger of God and held a
position of leadership and authority amongst the
aristocracy in ancient Imperial China. He travelled
to three different communities within the Chinese
Empire sometime between the 1st Century BCE and
3rd Century CE during the reign of the Han
Dynasty. On his first destination, he journeyed west
by way of the ancient Silk Road, to a community
including, and targeting specifically, the Chinese
commanderies of the Korean Peninsula. ZulQarnayn used his established ‘power in the land’
and ‘the means to achieve everything’ given to him
by God to build an iron fortification so ‘their
enemies could not scale the barrier, nor could they
pierce it.’
near the middle reaches of the Yellow River where
the sun seemed to be ‘setting into a muddy spring.’
It was an established and prosperous community,
and Zul-Qarnayn punished ‘those who had done
evil’ while those who believed and did good deeds
were treated with kindness. On his second
destination, he travelled northeast, and then turned
east into the Gobi Desert as he approached ‘the
rising of the sun’ where he encountered a people
Zul-Qarnayn’s travels as presented is not only
credible, but upon scrutiny, the only route possible.
Through inference and deduction, each verse adds
mounting conditions, principles and criteria that
forge inextricable linkages in the context of
geopolitical history and Empire, bound and
anchored by a common period and the relative
proximity of unmistakable large-scale physical land
formations which God furnished as timeless
who were ‘provided no shelter from it.’ On his third
destination, he headed due east towards the Korean
Peninsula where he found a highland people who
complained, ‘Gog and Magog are ruining this land.’
The one tribe of Gog and Magog was the ancient
Kingdom of Goguryeo: a mountainous land of
aggressive warrior horsemen in the habit of
conducting repeated raids on their neighbours,
geographic markers. With discernment and critical
review of these key ‘linkages and anchors’ (Table 1)
not only is Zul-Qarnayn’s journey unraveled and
convincingly affirmed, but by consequence, it is a
poignant reminder and undeniable evidence of the
authenticity of the Qur’an as God’s literal and
protected Word.
30
Table 1: Summary of Qur’anic Verses 18:83-97
Qur’anic Verse
Key ‘Linkage and Anchor’
Key Words in Bold
Timelines in Bold
Zul-Qarnayn
occupied
the
seat of a high ranked office with substantial
18:84
We established his power in the land, and
resources and military forces at his command;
gave him the means to achieve everything;
The central guiding principle of significant ‘scope and scale.’
The expansion of the Silk Road – the most established and extensive
18:85
He travelled on a certain road.
intercontinental trade network of ancient times – in the 1st Century
BCE to Xi’an.
The Yellow River, China’s second longest river and the most silt18:86
then, when he came to the setting of the laden in the world; termed by the Chinese as ‘the muddy flow;’
sun, he found it (seemed to be) setting into a The first leg of Zul-Qarnayn’s journey was in a westward direction
muddy spring…
along the Hexi Corridor – the main path of the ancient Silk Road –
developed and controlled by the Han Dynasty.
God’s practice of physical and/or economic punishment, at His
18:86
…Nearby he found some people and We discretion, on only well established and affluent communities;
said, ‘Zul-Qarnayn, you may choose (which of The Yellow River basin was the most prosperous region of ancient
them) to punish or show kindness to.’ 87He China and called ‘the cradle of Chinese civilization;’
answered, ‘We shall punish those who have The Han Dynasty (206BCE–220CE) is renown, in particular, as ‘the
done evil, and when they are returned to their golden age of Chinese history;’
Lord He will punish them (even more) severely.’ Zul-Qarnayn spoke the specific or closely related dialect of the
Yellow River community and was a native of the Han Empire.
The Gobi Desert, Asia’s largest desert – the key ‘Landscape Bridge’
18:90
when he came to the rising of the sun, he – linking the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin to the Korean
found it rising on a people for whom We had Peninsula;
provided no shelter from it.
The second leg of Zul-Qarnayn’s journey was in a northeastern
direction, turning east into the Gobi Desert.
18:93
then, when he reached a place between two The Korean Peninsula – one of the most mountainous peninsulas in
mountain barriers…
the world.
The concept of minimal mutual intelligibility and dialects;
18:93
…he found beside them a people who could
The geographic regions of Mandarin within the distribution of Sinitic
barely understand him.
language families.
The rise of the Kingdom of Goguryeo (37BCE–668CE) in the Korean
Peninsula – reputed for an aggressive military character with skilled
18:94
They said, ‘Zul-Qarnayn, Gog and Magog
cavalries who were ‘fond of raiding their neighbours;’
are ruining this land…
The abbreviated ‘Gog,’ common to ‘Gog and Magog’ – the one tribe
later divided.
The imposition of Imperial China’s tributary system (1st Century
18:94
…Will you build a barrier between them and
BCE) in the Korean Peninsula administered by the expansion of
us if we pay you a tribute?’ 95He answered, ‘The
Chinese commanderies;
power my Lord has given me is better than any
The principle commandery of Lelang (108BCE–313CE) established
tribute…
in the central region of the Korean Peninsula.
18:95
…but if you lend me your strength, I will put The ability to command large-scale native labour by Chinese
up a fortification between you and them:
commanderies.
18:96
bring me lumps of iron!’ and then, when he
The introduction of iron technology to an iron rich Korean Peninsula
had filled the gap between the two
(300BCE);
mountainsides (he said), ‘Work your bellows!’
Known large quantity shipments of iron ore from the Nakdong River
and then, when he had made it glow like fire, he
valley to the Lelang commandery (200BCE onwards).
said, ‘Bring me molten metal to pour over it!’
31
Exegesis of Qur’anic Verses
18:98-108 and 21:95-100
18:98and
throughout the Qur’an and repeated here, ‘But when
my Lord’s promise is fulfilled…my Lord’s promise
always comes true,’ has always been that mankind
will certainly face the Day of Judgment, and on that
Day, everyone will be resurrected and held
accountable for their faith and actions:
he said, ‘This is a mercy from my
Lord…’
The construction of an iron fortification was a mercy
from God because it put a decisive end to the
recurrent raids that were literally ‘ruining their
land.’ The alternative of a stationed Chinese
garrison or relocation of the community would not
only be cost prohibitive but ultimately ineffective as
Goguryeo eventually conquered the Chinese
commanderies and occupied most of the Korean
Peninsula and parts of Manchuria (Figure 13). The
barrier safeguarded the village and blocked the only
easily accessible alpine passageway; lengthy and
arduous alternate routes were undoubtedly an ample
37:18-21
Say, ‘Yes indeed, and you will be humiliated.’
Just one blast and – lo and behold! – they will look
and say, ‘Woe to us! This is the Day of Judgement’
(It will be said), ‘This is the Day of Decision, which
you used to deny…’
44:40-41
The Day of Decision is the time appointed for
all; a Day when no friend can take another’s place.
deterrent which rendered raids impractical. Thus,
for the ancient highland farming community the iron
fortification was truly a lasting mercy from God,
delivered through His servant Zul-Qarnayn.
‘Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate after
You have guided us. Grant us Your mercy: You are
the Ever Giving. Our Lord, You will gather all
3:8-9
people on the Day of which there is no doubt: God
never breaks His promise.’
18:98…But
when my Lord’s promise is fulfilled,
He will raze this barrier to the ground: my
Lord’s promise always comes true.’
It is to Him you shall all return – that is the true
promise from God. It was He who created (you) in
the first place, and He will do so again, so that He
10:4
Many traditional Qur’anic commentators interpret
the promise referred to in this verse as the
destruction of the iron barrier. However, this is a
misguided view. The verse does not state God’s
promise is to ‘raze this barrier to the ground.’ The
destruction of the barrier is the natural consequence
of the fulfillment of God’s promise, not the promise
itself. God’s binding promise again and again
may justly reward those who believe and do good
deeds. But the disbelievers will have a drink of
scalding water, and agonizing torment, because
they persistently disbelieved.
God further states on the Day of Judgment the
mountains will turn to dust and the earth will be
leveled flat:
32
One day We shall make the mountains move,
proper, the task of finding the iron barrier, though
potentially
accessible,
would
still
be
and you will see the earth as an open plain. We
shall gather all people together, leaving no one.
overwhelmingly daunting for reasons elucidated
above.
18:47
20:105-108
They ask you about the mountains: say,
‘(On that Day) my Lord will blast them into dust
and leave a flat plain, with no peak or trough to be
seen. On that Day, people will follow the summoner
from whom there is no escape; every voice will be
hushed for the Lord of Mercy; only whispers will be
18:99On
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.
Again, many traditional commentators assert an iron
heard...’
barrier will first be ‘razed to the ground’ and thus
‘release’ Gog and Magog upon the world. This is an
altogether outlandish interpretation, not grounded in
reality, and part of fantasy land. In this make believe
world, millions of people somehow survive and
prosper while completely secluded and hidden
behind an iron barrier undetected for millennia.
They are supposedly patiently waiting for the
destruction of the barrier and will then ‘surge’ upon
If the mountains will turn to dust when God’s
promise is fulfilled, then by consequence, so too
must the iron barrier that fills the gap between the
two mountainsides, and thus validates, ‘…when my
Lord’s promise is fulfilled, He will raze this barrier
to the ground…’
It stands to reason that since the iron barrier will
the world, which will be caught unaware. They
continually attempt but are unable to destroy this
‘magical’ iron barrier until God razes it, yet possess
the power to ‘rain down Armageddon’ and
overwhelm the entire global civilization.
remain standing until the arrival of the Final Hour,
in principle the barrier can be found. This, however,
at the current historical and geopolitical juncture, is
a virtual impossibility. After two thousand years,
not only is the barrier buried beneath layers of
sediment and vegetation, but the region is an
unending sea of densely forested mountain ranges
with unexplored and uncountable ‘dead end’
mountain passes in the most isolated and
Other commentators suggest the iron barrier is an
allegory, that the story of Zul-Qarnayn’s
construction of the fortification is some sort of
metaphor and not to be taken literally. However,
there is nothing whatsoever metaphorical about the
description of the iron barrier or Zul-Qarnayn’s
travels; the verses are clear and precise, and as has
been amply demonstrated, backed by geographic
inaccessible country in the world – the hermit state
of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(DPRK), or North Korea.
Note: If the community Zul-Qarnayn visited was in
fact situated in one of the mountain ranges of
Manchuria just northwest of the Korean Peninsula,
and not within the sovereign territory of the DPRK
and historical facts. The following is an example of
an allegorical verse from the Qur’an:
33
completely overlooked – and will now be
expounded upon in detail.
24:35
God is the Light of the heavens and earth. His
Light is like this: there is a niche, and in it a lamp,
the lamp inside a glass, a glass like a glittering star,
fuelled from a blessed olive tree from neither east
nor west, whose oil almost gives light even when no
fire touches it – light upon light – God guides
whoever He will to his Light; God draws such
comparisons for people; God has full knowledge of
everything.
There is a difference between the Day of Judgment
and the Final Hour. The Hour is a subset of events
within the Day. Hence whatever happens during the
Hour is also something that is automatically part of
the Day of Judgment, but not necessarily the other
way around. The Qur’an describes the Hour as a
horrific occurrence that will suddenly overtake
mankind:
There is an unmistakable and stark contrast in
content, articulation, and tone between verse 24:35
that describes the Light of God and the verses that
6:31
recount
Zul-Qarnayn’s
journey;
one
is
unquestionably allegorical while the others are
clearly defined and tangible.
Lost indeed are those who deny the meeting with
their Lord until, when the Hour suddenly arrives,
they say, ‘Alas for us we disregarded this!’ They will
bear their burdens on their backs. How terrible
those burdens will be!
Verse 18:99, in fact, could not be any more explicit;
Gog and Magog will not be ‘let loose’ against the
world but instead will ‘surge against each other.’
The iron barrier will be ‘razed to the ground’ upon
12:107
Are they so sure that an overwhelming
punishment from God will not fall on them, or that
the Last Hour will not come upon them suddenly
the fulfillment of God’s promise at some point after
the release of Gog and Magog, not prior to. The war
of Gog and Magog, or North and South Korea, is in
truth a mercy from God, for it is the key sign that
His binding promise – The Resurrection – is about
to be fulfilled; only then will the barrier be razed to
the ground.
when they least expect it?
22:55
The disbelievers will remain in doubt about it
until the Hour suddenly overpowers them or until
torment descends on them on a Day devoid of all
hope.
43:66
What are they waiting for but the Hour, which
will come upon them suddenly and take them
The Day and the Hour
unawares?
The verse begins, ‘On that Day, We shall let them
surge against each other…’ This implies the onset
of the Day of Judgment must be in advance of, or
The Day of Judgment is never described this way in
the Qur’an – not even once – that it will suddenly
coincide with, the commencement of the war of Gog
and Magog, and further implies the Day will begin
without mankind’s awareness. This is an absolutely
critical concept – one which Islamic scholars have
arrive without warning. As the verses above clearly
indicate however, the connotation with ‘suddenly’
and the ‘Hour’ is firmly established. This distinction
between the Day of Judgment and the Final Hour is
34
crucial; with the implication the Day of Judgment –
since it will not appear suddenly – will commence
may be considerably shorter or longer than one
another.
without mankind’s realization it has begun. Hence,
God’s promise of Resurrection will indeed be
fulfilled on the Day of Judgment but not until the
sudden arrival of the Final Hour. This is made
possible because a Day by God’s measurement is a
great breadth of time when referenced by human
standards:
In the case of the Day of Judgment, this particular
Divine Epoch, as outlined in verse 18:99, is marked
by a sequence of at least three important events.
These events do not define the entire Day of
Judgment – God knows best what constitutes its
entirety – but mark only mankind’s final time on
earth. In human terms, these events, variously
termed ‘End Times,’ ‘End of Days’ or
22:47
They will challenge you to hasten the
punishment. God will not fail in His promise – a Day
‘Eschatological’ events, may transpire over
decades, or perhaps even longer time spans covering
with your Lord is like a thousand years by your
several generations. The essential point, however, as
will now be discerned, is that the Day of Judgment
has already begun, but without mankind’s
awareness:
reckoning.
32:5
He runs everything, from the heavens to the
earth, and everything will ascend to Him in the end,
on a Day that will measure a thousand years in
your reckoning.
70:1-4
1. ‘On that Day, We shall let them surge against
each other like waves…’
A man (mockingly) demanded the punishment.
It will fall on the disbelievers – none can deflect it –
from God, the Lord of the Ways of Ascent, by which
the angels and the Spirit ascend to Him, on a Day
Since the Qur’an compares God’s Day to a thousand
or even fifty thousand human years, the message is
not that it is an exact equivalent; only that a Day is
a very long period or what can be considered a
The war of Gog and Magog, or North and South
Korea, will begin. And, in fact, this prophecy has
already been realized, over sixty years ago upon the
start of the Korean War (1950–1953). The prophecy,
however, may not yet have fully played out and may
still be unfolding, as the Korean War has technically
not ended: no peace treaty has ever been negotiated
and only a fragile truce is in place. Tensions
between the two Koreas, as of this writing, are on a
Divine Epoch – a segment of events within God’s
grand design – characterized by specific,
distinguishing features. Consequently, each Divine
Epoch, or ‘Day,’ according to God’s standard, is not
knife’s edge and open hostilities may be sparked at
any time. A resumption of the Korean War, and
another surge of Gog and Magog ‘against each
other like waves,’ is still, therefore, a distinct
discerned primarily by length of time, but by what
transpires during each period. Hence, Divine
Epochs are not necessarily of equal duration, and
possibility. The fulfillment of the prophecy,
however, is not dependent upon nor does it
necessitate a renewed armed conflict. In either case
– with or without a physical resumption of the
whose length is fifty thousand years.
35
Korean War – the prophecy of the war of Gog and
Magog has already come to pass. It further entails,
99:1-8
When the earth is shaken violently in its (last)
by definition, that by 1950 upon the onset of the war,
and possibly much earlier, the Day of Judgment had
already begun.
quaking, when the earth throws out its burdens,
when man cries, ‘What is happening to it?’, on that
Day, it will tell all because your Lord will inspire it
(to do so). On that Day, people will come forward
2. ‘…and then the Trumpet will be blown…’
in separate groups to be shown their deeds:
whoever has done an atom’s-weight of good will
see it, but whoever has done an atom’s-weight of
evil will see that.
At some point after the ‘surge’ of Gog and Magog
has commenced the Final Hour will suddenly arrive;
though only God knows exactly when. The events
The verses on Zul-Qarnayn’s journey close with the
warning that Hell is the place for disbelievers,
of the Final Hour include the Last Earthquake and
the sounding of the Trumpet:
22:1
regardless if they, in their own view, are under the
illusion and have convinced themselves they are
doing good work, whereas those who believe and do
good deeds will be given Paradise as their final
home:
People, be mindful of your Lord, for the
earthquake of the Last Hour will be a mighty
thing: on the Day you see it, every nursing mother
will think no more of her baby, every pregnant
female will miscarry, you will think people are
drunk when they are not, so severe will be God’s
torment.
18:100-102
those whose eyes were blind to My signs, those who
were unable to hear. Did they think that they could
take My servants as masters instead of Me? We have
prepared Hell as the disbelievers’ resting place.
39:68
the Trumpet will be sounded, and everyone in
the heavens and earth will fall down senseless
except those God spares. It will be sounded once
again and they will be on their feet, looking on.
18:103-108
Say, ‘Shall we tell you who has the most to
lose by their actions, whose efforts in this world are
misguided, even when they think they are doing
good work? It is those who disbelieve in their
Lord’s messages and deny that they will meet
Him.’ Their deeds come to nothing: on the Day of
Resurrection We shall give them no weight. Their
recompense for having disbelieved and made fun of
My messages and My messengers will be Hell. But
3. ‘…and We shall gather them all together.’
All generations since the time of Adam will be
Resurrected from the earth and brought before God
for judgment:
78:18-23
We shall show Hell to the disbelievers,
A Day when the Trumpet will sound and you
will come forward in crowds, when the sky will open
up like wide portals, when the mountains will vanish
like a mirage. Hell lies in wait, a home for
oppressors to stay in for a long, long time.
those who believe and do good deeds will be given
the Gardens of Paradise. There they will remain,
never wishing to leave.
36
constitution must be homogeneous to begin with.
Hence, a divided people at ‘End Times’ – who are
21:95No
community destroyed by Us can escape
its return.
arch-enemies and who share a common, preserved
genetic homogeneity throughout the millennia – is
another key identifier of the peoples of Gog and
Magog.
This verse is a prelude to the second mention of Gog
and Magog in the Qur’an; a reminder that the war of
Gog and Magog is the key event before the arrival
of the Final Hour when all generations will be
brought before God.
The Korean people are in fact considered amongst
the most homogeneous in the world:
21:96and
when the peoples of Gog and Magog
are let loose and swarm swiftly from every
‘Although a variety of different Asian peoples had
migrated to the Korean Peninsula in past centuries,
very few have remained permanently, so by 1990
highland.
both South Korea and North Korea were among
the world's most ethnically homogeneous nations.
The number of indigenous minorities was
negligible. In South Korea, people of foreign origin,
including Chinese, Japanese, Westerners, Southeast
Asians, South Asians and others were a small
percentage of the population whose residence was
generally temporary.
The characteristics of Gog and Magog at ‘End
Times’ continue to be illuminated by this
description, which affirms their identities through
the addition of yet further qualifications –
qualifications that are met, exclusively, by only the
Korean people:
1. Genetic Homogeneity
…Koreans tend to equate nationality or citizenship
God refers to the one tribe by the names, ‘Gog and
Magog,’ both during the time of the messenger ZulQarnayn (18:94) and two thousand years later at
‘End Times’ (21:96), when, as a divided people and
as mutual enemies, their war is prophesized. This is
exceedingly consequential. It implies the genetic
constitution of the peoples of ‘Gog and Magog’
with membership in a single, homogeneous ethnic
group or "race" (minjok, in Korean). Koreans view
a common language and culture as important
elements in Korean identity. The idea of multiracial
or multi-ethnic nations, like India or the United
States, strikes many Koreans as odd or even
contradictory.’ [86]
must be maintained – as a separate and distinct
ethnicity – in spite of the passage of two millennia;
otherwise they would no longer be the peoples of
‘Gog and Magog,’ but diverse, heterogeneous
people due to the subsequent blending with assorted
populations. And, in order to be the one tribe of
‘Gog and Magog’ which was originally ‘ruining
their land,’ it further necessitates the tribe’s genetic
‘…few other peoples assert such distant origins,
with a continuously distinct ethnicity and language
down to our time…few of the world’s peoples live
in a nation with no significant ethnic, racial, or
linguistic difference: Korea is indeed one of the
most homogeneous nations on earth, where
ethnicity and nationality coincide.’ [87]
37
rest of the tribes even in the bronze culture stage,
which had to retreat before each Han invasion.
The homogeneity of the Korean people was the
result of thousands of years of evolution through a
unique set of contributing factors that together
exerted their influences and can be traced back to
the peninsula’s Neolithic age commencing in
approximately 6,000BCE:
Acting as a breakwater in the north, Koguryo was
the first to emerge as an ancient state power
capable of resisting the waves of invaders from
Manchuria…because Koguryo emerged as a power
in Northeast Asia a few decades earlier than the
others, it could borrow from Chinese culture
selectively according to its own standards. And, by
avoiding a blind acceptance of Chinese culture, it
‘Neolithic culture in Korea thus experienced three
major stages of development, quite likely reflecting
three successive waves of migration down into the
could act as a cultural breakwater at the Liao River
against the expansion of Chinese culture.’ [89]
peninsula. Unlike the case of Korea’s Paleolithic
populations, the ethnic stock of these Neolithic
people is seen as continuing unbroken to form one
element of the later Korean race. It is believed,
then, that in the course of a long historical process
these Neolithic inhabitants merged with one another
and, combining with the new ethnic groups of
Korea’s bronze Age, eventually came to constitute
what we now think of as the Korean people.’ [88]
To be identified, therefore, as Gog and Magog, not
only are all the migratory, geopolitical, military and
cultural factors necessary for the evolution of
homogeneity, but the isolated mountainous region
must also be connected to a mainland that features
the specific large-scale physical land formations and
communities in a historically verifiable context – all
in relative proximity – as narrated by the verses on
Geography also played a substantial role;
surrounded by ocean on three sides and shielded by
a fortress of mountains, the peninsula was a natural
enclave for isolationism. Once the region’s tribes
‘merged with one another’ during the Neolithic
period to form one ethnic stock, the peninsula’s
terrain and geography ensured the maintenance and
propagation of the people’s homogeneity. The
mountainous peninsula, especially in the northern
Zul-Qarnayn’s travels. This is an inimitable and
virtually impossible feat: there is only one
population in the world that can and does fit the bill
to a tee – the divided people of the Korean
Peninsula.
regions, acted as an inherent fortification that
discouraged infiltration. The ‘alpine fortress’ was
heavily manned by the war-like tribe of Goguryeo,
which guarded the peninsula against invaders,
separate tribes, instead of one, first attain
homogeneity through a ‘lengthy historical process,’
then independently sustain isolation for over two
millennia, and then – even though they are isolated
repulsing even the might of the Chinese Empire:
tribes – set themselves against each other as the key
marker for the arrival of the Final Hour. Given the
factors involved in the evolution and subsequent
preservation of homogeneity, and the fact they must
Note: The requirement of genetic homogeneity
dispels the argument Gog and Magog are two
separate and distinct tribes for it would obligate two
‘Koguryo, with its long experience of fighting the
Han commanderies, distinguished itself from the
38
command to be ‘let loose’ and once again ‘surge
against each other like waves.’
be the very same tribes who were originally raiding
the ancient highland community concurrently, this
scenario is implausible at best.
Note: The prophesized release of Gog and Magog
mentioned in two separate Qur’anic verses, and its
potential significance, is further explored in chapter
4, ‘Organization of the Qur’an.’
2. An Entirely Mountainous Land
To 21:96‘…swarm swiftly from every highland’
augments the verse, 18:93’then, when he reached a
place between two mountain barriers, he found
beside them a people…;’ for it entails not only did
Zul-Qarnayn visit a highland community, but adds
to the qualification with the inference the entire
territories inhabited by the peoples of Gog and
Magog must be largely mountainous. The Korean
Peninsula is 70% alpine [90] (Figure 9) – it is
essentially an expansive highland and further
evidence of a divine and predetermined plan.
3. A Possible Second ‘Surge’ of Gog and
Magog?
Figure 17: The Korean DMZ is shown in red; [98]
Military Demarcation Line (MDL) denoted by black line
The release of Gog and Magog is mentioned twice
in the Qur’an; once in verse 18:99, and the other in
verse 21:96. Whether this foreshadows a second
‘surge,’ and a physical resumption of the Korean
War, remains unknown. It is, however, an unnerving
fact that for the past sixty years, the Korean
Peninsula has experienced directly opposing, largescale militarization on both sides of the Korean
Demilitarized Zone (Figure 17) [91] – a thin strip of
4. A Mainly Land Based War
land approximating the 38th parallel which divides
the two Koreas. [92] The Korean DMZ is the most
heavily militarized border in the world, [93] with 11.2 million troops on the north side of it, and another
applicable in the event of a resumed conflict:
500,000-600,000 troops on the south. [94][95][96] With
escalating regional tensions [97] and the DMZ
literally bulging at the seams, the two halves of the
Korean Peninsula appear to be awaiting God’s
no large-scale tank battles. The mountainous,
The Qur’an describes the war of Gog and Magog as
mainly land based, fought by infantries with fastpaced ground assaults as suggested by, ‘swarm
swiftly from every highland.’ This is a direct result
of the peninsula’s mountainous terrain; the verse
accurately depicts the nature of the Korean War
during the years 1950-1953, and is equally
‘Following the initial assault by the north, the
Korean War saw limited use of the tank and featured
forested terrain, especially in the Eastern Central
Zone, was poor tank country, limiting their
mobility. Through the last two years of the war in
39
actively resume – with nearly two million soldiers
facing each other across the Korean DMZ – [94][95][96]
Korea, UN tanks served largely as infantry support
and mobile artillery pieces.’ [99][100]
in what has become one of the most densely
militarized regions in the world, Gog and Magog
would once again immediately be ‘let loose and
swarm swiftly from every highland.’
5. A Quickly Escalating War
To be ‘let loose’ and to ‘swarm swiftly,’ as described
in verse 21:96, connotes the conflict, once begun,
will quickly escalate – an almost immediate ‘all-out
war.’ This is a precise characterization of the start of
the Korean War: on June 25th, 1950, backed by
Soviet air support, North Korea raised the stakes and
21:97when
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.’
elevated the border skirmishes to a full-scale
invasion, sweeping across the 38th parallel with
This verse can be interpreted in one of two ways:
approximately 150,000 soldiers, 280 tanks and 200
artillery pieces against an unprepared South Korean
force consisting of 98,000 soldiers, zero tanks and a
mere ‘22-piece air force.’ [99][101] The conflict,
however, rapidly escalated from an isolated civil
war into an expanded, intensely devastating proxy
war involving the full might of foreign powers –
including the U.S.-led United Nations supporting
1. Soon after Gog and Magog have been released, a
time span which can take several generations
according to God’s relative time scale, the Last
Earthquake will suddenly arrive – 56:2‘no one will be
able to deny it has come’ – though the promise of
Resurrection will not yet have been fulfilled. At this
point, through the recognition the Final Hour has
indeed arrived, and the True Promise of
Resurrection is about to be fulfilled, ‘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.’
the South, and China, with Soviet material
assistance, intervening on behalf of the North – as
each side sought to protect and enlarge their
respective spheres of influence. [102][103] As the war
progressed it eventually settled into a stalemate,
with troop strengths of over one million soldiers
deployed on either side; [99] locked in pitched battles
across a continuous front that ran the full width of
the peninsula, roughly bordering the 38th parallel,
2. The alternative, and more commonly held view,
is that after mankind has been Resurrected, ‘the
disbelievers’ eyes will stare in terror’ with the
realization God’s Promise is true, and they are about
to face Judgment.
afterwards to become the Korean DMZ, which cut
the peninsula in half. [104]
Over half a century later, with the exception they are
Regardless of whichever scenario, by then it will be
too late; acceptance of truth, after manifestation of
punishment, has never been accepted by God. This
too, has always been God’s practice:
now virtually all native Korean personnel, the
combined peninsular troop strength has reached
almost the same levels as they were at the height of
the war. There is little doubt that should the war
40
38:1-3
…By the Qur’an with its reminding…! Yet the
disbelievers are steeped in arrogance and hostility.
they will have a painful torment. They will wish to
come out of the Fire but they will be unable to do
How many generations We have destroyed before
them! They all cried out, once it was too late, for
escape.
so: theirs will be a lasting torment.
As with Zul-Qarnayn’s journey and the first
mention of Gog and Magog in chapter 18, the
second mention of Gog and Magog in chapter 21
closes with the same warning; hell is the destiny of
the disbelievers:
23:64-67
When We bring Our punishment on those
corrupted with wealth, they will cry for help: ‘Do
not cry out today: you will get no help from Us.
Time and time again My messages were recited to
you, but you turned arrogantly on your heels, and
21:98-100You
(disbelievers) and what you worship
spent the evening making fun of (the Qur’an).’
instead of God will be fuel for Hell: that is where
you will go – if these (idols) had been real gods they
5:36-37
would not have gone there – you will all stay there.
There the disbelievers will be groaning piteously,
but the (idols) will hear nothing.
If the disbelievers possessed all that is in the
earth and twice as much again and offered it to
ransom themselves from torment on the Day of
Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them –
41
Summary of Qur’anic Verses 18:98-108 and 21:95-100
Zul-Qarnayn’s journey and the construction of the
iron barrier was not only a mercy for the people of
the highland community – who, about two thousand
years ago, were saved from the scourge of recurrent
raids administered by Gog and Magog – but also a
mercy for the last generation of Adam. Through the
tale of Zul-Qarnayn’s travels and the description of
the divided tribe’s characteristics at ‘End Times’
world will overtake mankind – firmly establishing
the arrival of the Final Hour; the Day of Judgment,
however, would already have begun without any
obvious signs. The mountains along with the iron
barrier will turn to dust, the earth will be leveled and
become an open plain, the Trumpet will be sounded,
and all generations will be gathered before their
Lord to face judgment. Those who believed and did
(Table 2), God provides the means to identify the
peoples of Gog and Magog and their all-out war as
good deeds will be given the Garden of Eternity as
their own, whereas those who disbelieved and
one final opportunity for mankind to recognize and
accept the truth of the Qur’an. At some point after
the start of the Korean War (i.e. 1950), an
overwhelming Earthquake which engulfs the entire
spread corruption will be led to Hell in their throngs.
And God’s binding Promise will be fulfilled – God
never breaks His Promise.
42
Table 2: Summary of Qur’anic Verses 18:98-108 and 21:95-100
Qur’anic Verse
Key Words in Bold
Deduction
They said, ‘Zul-Qarnayn, Gog and Magog are
ruining this land…;
A ‘pure race’ of common homogeneity throughout the
millennia;
21:96
and when the peoples of Gog and Magog are let A divided people of one ethnic stock.
loose…
18:94
Gog and Magog at ‘End Times’ are not only a divided
people, but are also mutual enemies;
The land of Gog and Magog is primarily mountainous;
18:99
On that Day, We shall let them surge against
each other like waves…
Characteristics of the Gog and Magog war:
 Quickly escalating.
21:96
and when the peoples of Gog and Magog are let
 An ‘all-out war’ with wave upon wave of attacks.
loose and swarm swiftly from every highland;
 Principally a ground war, fought by infantries with
rapid waves of attack.
 A possible second ‘surge’ / resumption of an armed
conflict.
The onset of the Day of Judgment either coincides with, or
On that Day, We shall let them surge against has commenced prior to the release of Gog and Magog
each other like waves…
‘against each other’ (i.e. 1950) – but without any obvious
supernatural signs. The Hour, however, has yet to arrive.
18:99
21:97
when the True Promise draws near, the The sudden arrival of the Final Hour will be established by
disbelievers’ eyes will stare in terror…
the Last Earthquake soon after the war of Gog and Magog
has begun, which, according to God’s measurement of
18:98
…But when my Lord’s promise is fulfilled, He time, may take several generations;
will raze this barrier to the ground: my Lord’s The mountains and the iron barrier will be razed to the
ground, and the earth leveled flat. The Trumpet will be
promise always comes true.’
blown, and all mankind will be gathered before their Lord
18:99
…and then the Trumpet will be blown and We to face Judgment – thus marking the fulfillment of God’s
Promise of Resurrection.
shall gather them all together.
43
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
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17.
18.
19.
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21.
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47
CHAPTER 2
ETYMOLOGY
The conclusion that the one tribe of ‘Gog and
Magog’ is identified with the homogeneous ethnic
group of people inhabiting the divided states of the
two Koreas was reached through a meticulous
decoding of the Qur’anic verses narrating ZulQarnayn’s travels; bringing into context the
geopolitical environment of the ancient Chinese
the identities of Gog and Magog as North and South
Korea. The etymological analysis is extensive and
can be broken out according to four distinct
divisions: (1) Etymology of ‘Korea;’ (2) Etymology
of ‘Gog and Magog’ in the Old and New
Testaments; (3) Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in
Arabic (‘Ya’juj and Ma’juj’); and (4) Meaning of
Empire and its relationship to the Korean Peninsula.
This conclusion, however, is not restricted to
evidence derived solely from a geopolitical analysis:
it is also supported by an etymological analysis,
which augments the geopolitical evidence, removes
any traces of lingering doubt, and completely seals
‘Zul-Qarnayn.’ When taken together, the
etymological analyses yield attributes of Gog and
Magog that are remarkably consistent with the
characteristics and historicity of Korea, reflecting
comprehensively and conspicuously, only the
Korean paradigm.
1. Etymology of ‘Korea’
agrarian villages of the greater Korean Peninsula –
targeting in particular the Han commanderies
occupying the region. It was Goguryeo specifically,
and by extension the inhabitants of the Korean
Peninsula as a whole, that was consequently
identified as the one tribe of ‘Gog and Magog’
which was ‘ruining their land.’
The Kingdom of Goguryeo (or Koguryo,
37BCE–668CE)
The root origin of the modern name, ‘Korea,’ can
ultimately be traced back to the name, ‘Gog.’ To
establish this root linkage, it is necessary to refer
back in antiquity to the historical period when the
From an etymological perspective, the identification
geopolitical connections to the Qur’anic narrative of
Zul-Qarnayn’s
journey
were
initially
contextualized. As discussed in the previous
chapter, the ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo ruled
over much of the greater Korean Peninsula for 700
years (Figure 13, chapter 1). The Goguryeo military
was robust, with skilled cavalry renowned for
repeatedly raiding their neighbours – the hillside
of the Kingdom of Goguryeo as the one tribe of
‘Gog and Magog’ raises the glaring observation that
‘Gog’ – the English transliteration of the name
mentioned in the Old and New Testaments – just
happens to be the first three letters of Goguryeo. The
remarkable correlation, once noticed, is so patently
obvious as to make one marvel how the connection
managed to be hitherto overlooked. It is hence
48
suggested that ‘Gog,’ as originally expressed in the
Bible, is the abbreviated reference to Goguryeo, and
commentaries on verses 18:93 and 21:96, chapter 1).
Through root word origins of Goguryeo, therefore,
that the matching abbreviation is no coincidence but
rather further evidence of God’s sublime plan; as
Gog simultaneously references not only the ancient
Kingdom of Goguryeo, but through this reference,
also the modern name of the peninsula, ‘Korea,’ as
well as an intermediary kingdom historically
sandwiched between the two – the Kingdom of
Goryeo. Biblical ‘Gog,’ therefore, has been
historically affiliated with the names identified with
the noun ‘Gog’ – originally introduced in the Bible
and later contextualized in the Qur’an – is
etymologically bound with Goguryeo in both name
and meaning from the very birth of the kingdom; a
truly astonishing series of connections, as the
definition of Gog and its contextual usage remains
entirely congruent via geopolitical, historical and
Qur’anic analyses.
the Korean Peninsula, in one form or another, for the
greater part of the past two thousand years.
The Kingdom of Goryeo (or Koryo, 918-1392CE)
After the fall of Goguryeo (668CE), Gog’s
association with the Korean Peninsula remained
dormant for the next two and half centuries.
However, in 918CE, exactly 250 years after
Goguryeo’s reign came to an end, the association
was resurrected; as the first dynasty to fully unite the
peninsula paid homage to Goguryeo by adopting a
shortened form of the name and called itself the
The connection between Gog and the Korean
Peninsula, however, is deeper still and fundamental
in nature. This intrinsic relationship was forged at
the very outset of Goguryeo’s genesis. It will be
recalled that Goguryeo’s early political structure
retained a tribal character; for it was born through an
alliance of various Yemaek tribes which inhabited
the peninsula’s northern regions. The name of one
of these founding tribes, after which Goguryeo was
named, was thought to have been either Gauri
(‘center’) or possibly Guru (‘walled city’). What is
significant, however, is that the adjective ‘go,’
meaning ‘high,’ [1][2][3] was added in front to yield
the name, Goguryeo, as it has since come to be
known. Goguryeo thus means ‘high center.’ [4][5]
Kingdom of Goryeo, presiding over the peninsula
for the next 475 years. As Gog is short for
Goguryeo, and Goguryeo in turn is the progenitor of
the name, Goryeo; ergo, Gog and Goryeo are
etymologically linked. [6][7][8][9][10][11]
Here, two important linkages immediately stand out.
First, as it is posited that Gog is the contracted form
of Goguryeo; from a geopolitical/historical context,
Gog is hence associated with the same meaning, i.e.
‘high center.’ Second, and rather remarkably, the
definition of Goguryeo as ‘high center’ fits in
perfectly with the Qur’an’s description of the land
of Gog and Magog as a mountainous highland (see
zenith; [6][12] Gog, consequently, is historically
identified with the entire peninsula and not just a
portion of it: a defining attribute, for it will be
elucidated later in this chapter that ‘Magog’ only
emerged once the Korean Peninsula was divided in
the mid-20th century – when Gog was cleaved in
two.
Since Goryeo, furthermore, occupied virtually all of
the Korean Peninsula and its predecessor,
Goguryeo, occupied most of the peninsula at its
49
The Modern Name, ‘Korea’
Biblical ‘Gog’ (500BCE-150CE)*
‘Gog,’ as expressed in the Old and New
Testaments, references and is the abbreviated first
three letters/first syllable of Goguryeo
The English name for Goryeo, which came into use
as early as the 17th century, was ‘Corea.’ However,
the modern version, ‘Korea,’ as it is known today,
gradually supplanted the old spelling. This process
– of ‘Corea’ morphing into ‘Korea’ – commenced in
the late 19th century, and was the result of expanding
trade with Britain and the United States following
the forced opening of the previously insular Korean
Peninsula. ‘Korea’ gained preference because it
*Approximate canonized dates of
Biblical books mentioning Gog/Magog [14]
Kingdom of Goguryeo (37BCE–668CE)
Goguryeo = high center
‘go’ (high) + ‘Gauri’ (center)
avoided the ambiguity of the separate hard and soft
‘Cs’ existing in English vocabulary: ‘Korea’ is the
form now commonly used by both North and South
Korea in English contexts. [4][5][8][13]
Kingdom of Goryeo (918-1392CE)
Shortened form of Goguryeo
Summary
Corea
(in use beginning early 17th Century)
Figure 18 summarizes the root origin of ‘Korea;’
linking it back over 2,000 years to Biblical ‘Gog,’
common to ‘Gog and Magog’ – the very names God
English name for Goryeo
employed to identify the one tribe later divided:
Korea
(in use since late 19th Century)
Modern spelling of Corea
Figure 18: Etymology of Korea
Root origins link back to Biblical ‘Gog’
50
2. Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in the
Old and New Testaments
center;’ and (iii) the Qur’anic characterization of the
land of Gog and Magog as a ‘mountainous
highland:’
Gog and Magog are mentioned together, or
individually, on numerous occasions in five chapters
of the Old Testament (Gen 10, 1 Chron 1, 1 Chron
5, Ezek 38, Ezek 39) and once in the New Testament
(Rev 20). However, it is a pointless exercise to
conduct a detailed exegesis of the relevant Biblical
passages referencing Gog/Magog because the
Biblical account is irreconcilable with the Qur’anic


‘The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon,’
Strong 1136: the meaning of Gog (Γώγ in
Greek) is ‘mountain’ and is of Hebrew origin.
‘The NAS Old Testament ‘Hebrew Lexicon,’
Strong 1463: the meaning of Gog (‫ גוּג‬in
Hebrew) is ‘mountain’ and is of uncertain
derivation.
narrative, the geopolitical analysis of ancient
Imperial China, or the etymology of ‘Korea.’ The
Bible depicts Gog/Magog variously as individuals
in a genealogy (Gen 10:2, 1 Chron 1:5, 1 Chron 5:4),
geographic regions (Ezek 38:2, Ezek 39:6), or as
warrior tribes and/or Satan’s armies unleashed upon
and overwhelming the entire world at ‘End Times,’
culminating with a final assault on Israel (Ezek
38:14-18, Ezek 39:1-2, Rev 20:7-10). The blatant
contradistinction between the Qur’anic and Biblical
Since the meaning of Gog, ‘mountain,’ in Greek can
be traced back to the same meaning of Gog in
Hebrew, which in turn is of ‘uncertain derivation,’
ostensibly therefore, at least according to
conventional wisdom, the investigation of the root
word origin of Gog in the Old and New Testaments
terminates here. However, as this investigation is
not restricted by conventional wisdom, it is
postulated the Hebrew name, ‘Gog,’ is in fact
narratives rules out a contextual exegesis of the
verses specifically mentioning Gog and Magog by
name; confining the Biblical investigation to solely
an etymological analysis of Gog and Magog.
further derived from the Hebrew, or ‘gag’ (figure
19); [15] and in the analysis that follows evidence is
presented to support this hypothesis.
Hebrew or gag
‘Highest point of an edifice, roof or housetop’
Old Testament
I. Etymology of ‘Gog’
In addition to the obvious phonetic correlation, the
Hebrew ‫ ּגוג‬or Gog
‘Mountain’
Old Testament
premise that Gog is the abbreviated reference to
Goguryeo is further buttressed as the meaning of
Gog, in both Greek of the New Testament and
Hebrew of the Old Testament, is ‘mountain;’ an
altogether remarkable definition especially in
consideration (i) Goguryeo ruled over an entirely
mountainous land for the greater part of a
millennium; (ii) the meaning of Goguryeo, ‘high
Greek Γώγ or Gog
‘Mountain’
New Testament
Figure 19: Etymology of ‘Gog’
Root origin links back to the Hebrew, or ‘gag’
51
According to the ‘Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament’ (TWOT), gag means ‘the highest point
Gag: ‘highest point of an edifice, roof, or housetop;’
are collectively considered is the wider purport of
of an edifice,’ ‘roof’ or ‘housetop:’
the Qur’an’s description of Gog and Magog’s
habitat – a ‘mountainous highland’ – fully captured:
i.e. ‘an expansive high edifice/roof of the world’
where people carry out the full force of their lives in
‘high locales or centers:’
‘The word appears thirty times in the Old Testament
and it usually signifies the highest point of an
edifice…The roof that is referred to is flat, not
peaked. This is obvious from several passages. The
returned exiles erected booths and observed the
feast of tabernacles on the roofs of their houses
(Neh 8:16). Saul slept on the roof when, as a young
18:93
then, when he reached a place between two
mountain barriers, he found beside them a people
who could barely understand him. 94They said, ‘Zul-
lad, he visited Samuel (1 Sam 9:25-26). It was from
this vantage point that David spied Bathsheba
bathing, and lust was spawned in his imagination (II
Sam 11:2). Uriah’s house was built most likely
around a central courtyard which was left open to
the sky. David’s palace, the highest building of the
complex, would command a view of the houses
below. In the case of Samson (Jud 16:27) the roof
was large enough to support 3,000 people. Rahab
hid the spies among the stalks of flax on her roof
Qarnayn, Gog and Magog are ruining this land.
(Josh 2:6,8). Probably she had laid out the flax to
be retted by the dew.’ [gag312, TWOT]
instance, the ‘Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament’ elaborates:
As discerned above, ‘the roof that is referred to is
flat,’ with the implication people can carry out
activities; which would be completely infeasible if
the roof is peaked. In Judges 16:27, for example, the
roof accommodates large gatherings of several
thousand people. The definition/contextual
‘The roof is a place where idolatry is invoked: Isa
15:3; 22:1; Jer 19:13; 32:29; 48:38. Three times
(Ps 129:6; II Kgs 19:26; Isa 37:27) in the form of a
inference of gag as ‘the highest point of an edifice’
or ‘an expansive flat roof/housetop where people
carry out activities’ is precisely aligned with the
meaning of Goguryeo, ‘high center,’ and its implicit
connotation that people presumably gather and
conduct activities in such high locales or centers.
Moreover, it is only when the meanings of (i) Gog:
‘mountain’; (ii) Goguryeo: ‘high center;’ and (iii)
which are covered with packed earth. Having no
depth of soil to take strong root in, the grass
withers and dies (cf. Jesus’ parable of the sower in
Mt 13:3f.).’ [gag312, TWOT]
21:96
and when the peoples of Gog and Magog are let
loose and swarm swiftly from every highland.
More importantly, however, delving deeper into the
word, gag, and its contextual usage in the Old
Testament, distinct and peculiar eschatological
characteristics of Gog, derived from gag, continue
to be unveiled. On the usage of the word, gag, for
curse, appears the formula “let them be like the
grass on the ‘housetops’.” The analogy is to grass
which springs up quickly on the flat roof of homes
The meaning of gag as ‘roof’ or ‘housetop,’ the
association of roof with ‘idolatry,’ and the parable
‘let them be like the grass on the housetops,’ when
52
appraised together work in harmony to expose
eschatological characteristics of gag, or Gog, which
governments, controlled by communist
capitalist powers respectively. [16][17]
constructively contribute to the identification of
Gog as North Korea; and by consequence, Magog as
South Korea.
and
Before proceeding with the appraisal of the
contextual usage of gag in the Old Testament, it is
essential to first highlight when Gog and Magog
From an etymological perspective, what is
significant is that the division of the Korean
Peninsula into North and South Korea in the mid20th century is equated to the division of Gog into
‘Gog and Magog’ at ‘End Times’ – i.e. the one tribe
later divided. Specifically, 1945 onwards, after
peninsular division, Gog is no longer identified with
the entire peninsula and instead only with North
became distinct entities and subsequently embarked
on vastly divergent socioeconomic, political,
cultural, and religious trajectories. This distinction
is essential because up until now the etymological
analyses rendered general characteristics of Gog
which are applicable to the entire Korean Peninsula
for at least the past two millennia (up until the mid20th century). However, the characteristics of Gog
derived from the contextual use of gag are
eschatological in nature, and as will now be
Korea, and hence by default, Magog is identified
only with South Korea. The identification of Gog as
North Korea subsequent to peninsular division, and
not South Korea, is supported by two obvious facts.
First, Gog is short for the Kingdom of Goguryeo –
which spawned from the north – and even at its
height of power never ruled over the very southern
portion of the peninsula. Second, Gog in both
Hebrew and Greek of the Old and New Testaments
– means ‘mountain’ – and the Korean Peninsula is
demonstrated, apply only to the north half of the
Korean Peninsula, after Gog was cleaved in two at
‘End Times.’
more heavily mountainous in the north.
The Distinction between Gog and Magog
With the distinction between Gog and Magog thus
established, the parable of the ‘grass on the
housetops’ can now be explored, and with it,
exceptional
post-division
eschatological
characteristics of Gog, or North Korea, uncovered.
At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Korean
Peninsula was demarcated along the 38th parallel
into northern and southern halves according to two
dichotomous ideologies sponsored by two opposing
superpower blocs; the centrally controlled
The Mountainous Land of Gog is Rife with Idol
communist economies led by the Soviet Union, and
the capitalist market economies led by the United
States. The division of the Korean Peninsula was
formally sealed in 1948 when North Korea
(Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK)
and South Korea (Republic of Korea, ROK) each
gained nation state status, with two separate
Worship
The roof is a place where idolatry is invoked (Isa
15:3; 22:1; Jer 19:13; 32:29; 48:38)…
As the ‘roof is a place where idolatry is invoked,’
analogously therefore, in order to remain true to the
53
parable, the mountainous land of Gog must also be
rife with idol worship.
8. Preserve dearly the political life the Great
Leader KIM Il Sung has bestowed upon you, and
repay loyally for the Great Leader’s boundless
political trust and considerations with high
political awareness and skill.
9. Establish a strong organizational discipline so
that the entire Party, the entire people, and the
entire military will operate uniformly under the
sole leadership of the Great Leader KIM Il Sung.
North Korea is currently the only nation state on the
planet with a dynastic communist regime, where
successive leaders are deified, and where the
founder of the state, Kim Il Sung, though deceased
is still considered ‘alive in spirit,’ [18][19] holding the
office of ‘Eternal President.’ The idol worship of
the Kim lineage, for all intents and purposes, is
effectively enshrined in the DPRK Constitution, as
10. The great revolutionary accomplishments
pioneered by the Great Leader Kim Il Sung
outlined in the ‘Ten Great Principles of the Unitary
Ideology System.’ The constitution was modified in
1998, four years after Kim Il Sung’s death, with an
amendment establishing dynastic succession,
decreed in the 10th principle: [20][21]
must be succeeded and perfected by hereditary
successions until the end.
The deification and idol worship of the Kim lineage
was established in spite of communism’s traditional
distaste for the transfer of hereditary power, which
has now been twice passed down since the death of
the ‘Great Leader,’ Kim Il Sung: first to his son, the
‘Dear Leader,’ Kim Jong Il, in 1994; and then to his
grandson, the ‘Great Successor,’ Kim Jong Un, in
1. Struggle with all your life to paint the entire
society with the one color of the Great Leader
KIM Il Sung’s revolutionary thought.
2. Respect and revere highly and with loyalty the
Great Leader KIM Il Sung.
3. Make absolute the authority of the Great Leader
KIM Il Sung.
4. Accept the Great Leader KIM Il Sung’s
revolutionary thought as your belief and take the
Great Leader’s instructions as your creed.
5. Observe
absolutely
the
principle
of
unconditional execution in carrying out the
instructions of the Great Leader KIM Il Sung.
2011. [22] The remarkably successful ‘cult of
personality’ orchestrated around the late Kims, and
only just beginning to develop around the young
Kim Jong Un, is all-pervasive, embracing each
citizen’s entire life in totality:
6. Rally the unity of ideological intellect and
revolutionary solidarity around the Great
Leader KIM Il Sung.
7. Learn from the Great Leader KIM Il Sung and
master communist dignity, the methods of
revolutionary projects, and the people’s work
styles.
Korean citizens are surrounded by the allencompassing presence of the “Great Leader” and
his son, the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il. The Kim
dynasty is much more than an authoritarian
government; it also holds itself out as the ultimate
‘‘Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung’ is the first
phrase North Korean parents are instructed to teach
to their children. From cradle to grave, North
source of power, virtue, spiritual wisdom, and truth
for the North Korean people. Heterodoxy and
dissent are repressed, quickly and efficiently, with
54
punishments meted out to successive generations of
the dissident’s family.’ [23]
wholly monolithic form of idol worship that is
imposed throughout the country’s mountainous
highlands, that permeates across social, cultural,
economic, political and military spheres, that
penetrates the very fabric of society and every facet
of life, and does so at the virtual exclusion of all
other belief systems, is without precedence and
without peer: North Korea is arguably, as at least
one historian noted, ‘the most perfected example of
totalitarianism in the history of human civilization.’
‘The religious cult around the Kims touches every
individual and every province in the DPRK.
Students are required to memorize the “Ten
Principles for the Establishment of the OneIdeology System of the Party,” and every North
Korean is expected to attend one or more of an
estimated 450,000 “Kim Il Sung Revolutionary
Research Centers” at least weekly for instruction,
inspiration, and self-criticism. In Kang CholHwan’s memoir even the notorious “Yodok” prison
camp had a shrine to the Kim family where the
inmates, despite wearing only tattered rags for
clothes, were required to keep a special pair of
socks for entrance to the shrine.’ [24]
The Idolatry in the Land of Gog is an ‘End
Times’ Innovation
…Three times (Ps 129:6; II Kgs 19:26; Isa
37:27) in the form of a curse, appears the
formula “let them be like the grass on the
‘housetops’.” The analogy is to grass which
springs up quickly on the flat roof of homes
which are covered with packed earth. Having
no depth of soil to take strong root in the grass
withers and dies…
‘It is now known that every home in the country
has a portrait of the “Great Leader” Kim Il Sung
and the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il. Inspectors
visit homes to hand out fines and admonishments if
the portraits are not well kept. Every government
building and subway car displays the two portraits,
and every adult citizen wears a button of Kim Il
Sung. Movies and propaganda constantly repeat
the blessings bestowed on them by the two Kims. The
veneration required is so complete that the former
North Koreans interviewed for this report did not
believe that religious activity was permitted
Since the cursed idolatry on the roof is compared to
the ‘grass on the housetops’ which has ‘no depth of
soil to take strong root in,’ the cursed whole-scale
idolatry in the mountainous land of Gog,
correspondingly, cannot be a deeply rooted practice
seeded in antiquity. Instead, it must be a relatively
because, among other reasons, it would be
perceived as a threat to the government’s authority.’
recent, contemporary innovation with ‘shallow
roots’ and one which has ‘sprung up quickly.’
[24]
The roots of the ‘Monolithic Ideology System’ in
North Korea, also known as the ‘Juche Idea’ or
‘Kimilsungism,’ [26] can be traced back to no earlier
than 1945 – the year that marked the division of the
Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel, and with it,
Although there are numerous regions in the world
today where various forms of ‘idolatry are invoked’
by populations much larger than North Korea’s
(with approximately 24 million people), [25] the
55
the emergence of Gog and Magog, signaling the
onset of ‘End Times.’ It is hence necessary to review
Land and building assets of religious institutions
were also confiscated. To put into perspective the
the ideological transformation in North Korea, from
1945 onwards, in order to fully expose the shallow
roots of its idolatry, and the speed with which it
sprung.
extent of the persecution:
In the early to mid-20th century, the Korean
Peninsula was a vibrant mosaic of six main religions
and belief systems including Shamanism,
Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestant Christianity,
Catholic priests remained in their parishes in
North Korea…According to official DPRK figures,
presently there are only 800 Catholics in North
Korea.’ [26][28]
Confucianism/Neo-Confucianism,
and
‘an
indigenous faith called ‘Eastern Learning’
(Tonghak) or ‘the religion of the Heavenly Way’
(Chondokyo).’ [27] After the division of the peninsula
at the end of World War II, this dynamic religious
pluralism continued to propagate south of the 38th
parallel, but came to a screeching halt on the north
side.
Summary executions of Christian leaders and priests
intensified during the war years (1950-1953). With
the death of Stalin in 1953, Kim Il Sung took the
concept of a communist state to an entirely new
level as he embarked on ‘one of the most successful
and intensely coercive social engineering feats of
modern times:’ [29]
North of the 38th parallel, the Soviets oversaw the
‘Kim Il Sung went in a direction different from the
development of a Stalinist modeled communist
regime. Mirroring the templates of Eastern and
Central Europe, the formation of the communist
party, or Korean Worker’s Party (KWP), led by Kim
Il Sung, was the foundational step that paved the
way for a series of sweeping reforms that were
deemed essential for the evolution of socialism in
North Korea. These included land and labour
reforms for the establishment of a state controlled
post-Stalinist Soviet Union and instituted a series of
inter-related policies that historians have termed
“national Stalinism”. One of the elements of this
economy, along with the complete suppression of all
competing socio-political parties, which in the
North at the time, were mainly organized by
religious groups. By the time the Korean War broke
out in 1950, all religious movements were
dismantled and religious leaders were either
executed, imprisoned, fled south, or left with no
option were forced to lend their support to the KWP.
Albania).’ [30]
‘At the end of WWII, there were upwards of 52,000
Korean Catholics north of the 38th parallel…On the
eve of the Korean War, fewer than two dozen
policy was the elimination of all public religious
practice in North Korea. By the 1960s, there were
no churches, Buddhist temples, or Chondokyo
places of worship operating in North Korea, which
became one of only two countries in the world where
religion was fully prohibited (the other was
‘Resolution 149 of the North Korean Council of
Ministers initiated the forced relocation of
“unreliable elements” to remote mountains in
various parts of the country. Large scale purges
were extended to common people, in what has been
termed the “greatest witch hunt in North Korean
56
history,” when, during nine months between 1958
and 1959, more people were persecuted for political
‘We (could not) turn into a communist society
crimes than in the previous thirteen years, including
during the Korean War. This process included the
forcible transfer of religious families from
Pyongyang to industrial cities on the east coast.
Subsequently, other groups, including the families
of executed religious believers, were sent to the
Yongpyong-ri district for “total control zone”
lifetime administrative detention at forced labor
camp (gwalliso) No. 15 at Yodok.’ [31]
along with the religious people. Therefore, we
purged the key leaders above the rank of deacons in
Protestant or Catholic churches and the wicked
among the rest were put on trial. The general
religious people were…put into prison camps (and
given a chance to reform)…We learned later that
those of religion can do away with their old habits
only after they have been killed.’ [34]
The rapid and efficient replacement of all competing
ideologies and belief systems with a forced
indoctrinated idol worship of the Kim lineage, of a
population that inhabits the mountainous highlands
of North Korea, is the temporal manifestation of the
Biblical parable that compares the curse of idolatry
to the ‘grass on the housetops’ associated with the
word gag. It is an unsaid truth that any belief system
which ‘springs up quickly’ by means of repression
and persecution, stained with the blood of its people,
‘By the 1960s North Korean ideologues had
transformed communism into an apologia for the
ethnic-state. By the 1970s the adulation of Kim Il
Sung had become a civic religion without
competition. In the absence of other
religious/political foci, the cult absorbed symbolism
from Confucianism, State Shinto, and even
Christianity until Kim had become a Korean
Messiah.’ [32]
is ‘like a curse’ that has no ‘depth of soil to take
strong root in.’
‘Today, as this report shows, conditions for
religious freedom north of the 38th parallel are
strikingly different than those found to the south.
The number of people in the two Koreas officially
reported to be religious adherents also diverges
widely. Some 50 percent of the South Korean
population is identified by the Republic of Korea
government as claiming adherence to one of a large
The Nation of Gog will Spring Up Quickly and
Slowly Wither
…The analogy is to grass which springs up
quickly on the flat roof of homes which are
covered with packed earth. Having no depth of
variety of belief systems. In the North, however, the
soil to take strong root in the grass withers and
dies…
number of religious believers in the five
“permitted” religions amounts to only two-tenths
of one percent (0.2 percent) of the population,
according to the information provided by the DPRK
to the UN.’ [33]
Just as the ‘grass on the housetops’ springs up
quickly, so too, conversely, will it slowly ‘wither.’
The identification of Gog as North Korea, and its
correlation to this Biblical parable continues with
Kim Il Sung reportedly admitted:
57
astonishing precision. The idol worship of the Kim
lineage ‘sprang up’ almost immediately upon the
to the mid-1960s. [36][37] It is exceptional because
this staggering growth was not only world beating,
division of the peninsula along the 38th parallel, and
so too did the North Korean economy – the key
yardstick by which the health of a nation is
measured – gather steam and spring forward in
concert with the indoctrination of ‘Kimilsungism.’
The parable, however, is in fact a hidden Biblical
prophecy; foreshadowing the slow decay of Gog,
and thus the gradual demise of the North Korean
economy. To highlight the striking parallels with the
but was achieved in spite of the 1950-1953 war
years that devastated the peninsula as a whole, more
so especially in the North, which was left with the
enormous task of rebuilding nearly its entire
industrial framework.
parable of the ‘grass on the housetops,’ the
declining trajectory of the North Korean economy,
after its robust initial expansion, and the manner and
extent to which North Korea has since ‘withered’,
will now be examined.
the Soviets and the Chinese. The North’s communist
regime took full advantage of this ongoing
assistance, undertaking tremendous pains to rebuild
and improve upon the prewar, albeit largely
inefficient industrial infrastructure inherited from
Japan, which had led a brutally harsh colonial rule
over the peninsula during the first half of the 20th
century (1910-1945):
The North Korean economy’s rapid initial growth
was greatly facilitated by substantial reconstructive,
technological, and economic aid advanced by both
The Economy Takes Flight (1940s to mid-1960s)
Shortly after peninsular division, the North Korean
economy launched like a rocket; a somewhat
‘The result of this extraordinary effort to get the
common pattern observed with other communist
states within the Soviet orbit. This phenomenon can
be partially ascribed to the nature of centrally
controlled economies: initial efficiencies are readily
gained as the direct result of marshaling, redirecting,
and managing previously underused resources at a
nationwide scale; a task for which, generally
speaking, totalitarian states are particularly well
equipped. [35]
industrial economy functioning again was that, from
the 1940s into the mid-1960s, minus the period of
the war and recovery from it (1950-1956), North
Korea grew far more rapidly than did the South, as
rapidly perhaps as any postwar industrializing
regime.’ [38]
In short, exactly analogous to the parable of the
‘grass on the housetops,’ the idolatrous nation of
Gog, or North Korea, ‘sprang forth’ almost
immediately upon its birth, precipitated by the
forced division of the Korean Peninsula by outside
powers.
However, even within the ambit of high initial
growth patterns exhibited by some communist
economies, North Korea is an exceptional case,
registering arguably the most rapid growth of any
country during the first 20 years of the cold war:
averaging impressive gross output increases of 2025 percent per annum from the mid-1950s through
Economic Growth Begins to Decline (mid-1960s
to late-1980s)
58
The strategic emphasis on the development of its
industrial infrastructure, targeting heavy industry, as
industries. Moreover, both land and marine
transportation lacked modern equipment and
well as receipt of ‘unprecedentedly large amounts of
aid from the Soviet bloc,’ including China, markedly
contributed to the North’s economic success in its
early stages. [37] The pronounced growth achieved
over the first twenty years, however, was
unsustainable and it soon became increasingly
evident the efficiencies gained from structural
changes to the industrial base, reallocation of
underused resources, and employment of idle
infrastructure. The inability of the energy and
labour, had reached their limits. By the early 1970s,
North Korea ‘clearly had exhausted the extensive
development of its industry based on its own or
prewar Japanese or new Soviet technologies…:’ [39]
25% of its GNP), debilitating U.S. trade sanctions
enforced since the 1950s, general economic
mismanagement, and sustained drought – had
entered, what would end up being, the initial stages
of an unceasing downward spiral. In the two decades
leading up to the mid-1980s, the average per annum
industrial growth, while not insignificant, had
reduced dramatically to between 12-15%; thus
establishing the transition to decline. [37][39][41][42]
mining sectors, as well as of the transportation
network, to supply power and raw materials as
rapidly as the manufacturing plants could absorb
them began to slow industrial growth.’ [40]
The North Korean economy – additionally burdened
by sizable international debt obligations, massive
diversion of scarce resources to the military (nearly
‘Until 1960 North Korea’s economy grew faster
than that in the South. During the reconstruction
period after the Korean War, there were
opportunities for extensive economic growth. This
general pattern of initially high growth resulting in
a strong rate of capital formation was mirrored in
the other Soviet-style economies. Toward the end of
the 1950s, as reconstruction work was completed
and idle capacity began to diminish, the economy
had to shift from the extensive to the intensive stage,
where the simple discipline of marshaling
underused resources became less effective. In the
Economic Decay and Chronic Agricultural
Failure (1990s to present)
In the early 1990s, with the fall of the Soviet Union
and demise of the communist regimes in Eastern
Europe, ‘the North Korean economy saw stagnation
turning into crisis.’ [41] The gradual economic
deterioration experienced over the previous two
decades escalated into a full blown economic
new stage, inefficiency arising from emerging
bottlenecks led to diminishing returns. Further
growth could be attained only by increasing
efficiency and technological progress.
catastrophe. The collapse of the socialist bloc, North
Korea’s traditional trade partners and benefactors,
brought with it an end of unprecedented economic
assistance, concessionary prices, and favourable
trading terms. It also ended the transfer of both
Soviet and Chinese technologies, which were
instrumental for industrial and military advances in
North Korea during the years of the Cold War. [43]
Beginning in the early 1960s, a series of pervasive
and serious bottlenecks began to impede
development. Blockages generally were created by
the lack of arable land, skilled labor, energy, and
transportation and by deficiencies in the extraction
59
The rigidity, furthermore, ‘in the political and
economic systems of North Korea left the country
acknowledged “big losses in our economic
construction” and “a most complex and acute
internal and external situation” at the Twenty-first
Plenum of the Workers’ Party, in December 1993.
ill-prepared for a changing world. The North
Korean economy was undermined and its industrial
output began to decline:’ [41]
Most of the blame was attributed not to North
Korea’s ponderous socialist system but to “the
collapse of the socialist countries and the socialist
market of the world,” which “shattered” many of
Pyongyang’s trade partners and agreements.’ [44]
‘The end of the Cold War (1945–89) severely shook
North Korea. During the Cold War, North Korea
had been able to rely on extensive Soviet and
Chinese military, technological, and economic aid.
This aid had been large in absolute terms, and, more
The North Korean economy’s staggering collapse
importantly, had provided North Korea access to
more advanced technology than it could otherwise
have obtained on its own. Beginning in 1989, the
and entrenched stagnation (1990s to present), after
its initial rapid expansion (1950s-1960s) and
gradual
decline/plateau
(1970s-1980s),
is
summarized in Figure 20, which depicts the
historical GDP per capita of North Korea since the
1950s:
North Korean economy underwent a series of
shock waves. The limits to a centrally planned
economy had already begun to be reached during
the 1980s, and to compound these problems, the
Soviet Union and China abandoned North Korea
and stopped providing aid and materials at
“friendship prices”…The severe problems inherent
in a centrally planned economy had fully manifested
themselves by the mid-1980s, and the economy had
started its decline even before the Soviet Union and
China abandoned aid to the North. By 1990 North
Korea’s economy had begun to contract,
experiencing negative GDP growth rates from
1990 to 1998…’ [43]
Figure 20: the Historical GDP per Capita of
North Korea [45]
The entrenched decay of North Korea, however, is
not limited to solely economic stagnation; it is also
‘The collapse of the socialist bloc deprived
Pyongyang of major markets, leading to several
years of declining GNP in the early 1990s. South
Korean figures put these declines in the 2 to 5
percent range [per annum], and American
government analysts thought that the worst was over
for the North Korean economy by the end of 1993.
coupled with chronic agricultural failure. This
coupling is a direct result of the organizational
framework of the North’s agriculture, which is
intimately tied to the country’s industrial base.
North Korea’s agricultural system is organized as an
‘industrial-agricultural complex,’ heavily dependent
upon an intensive energy regime. Energy is needed
for the manufacture of petroleum based fertilizers,
But it was a general crisis for the leadership, to the
degree that Pyongyang for the first time publicly
60
an extensive irrigation infrastructure, operation of
agricultural machinery, and for transportation and
‘However, while these increases in fertilizer use,
irrigation, and electrification explain the past
distribution of agricultural inputs and outputs. The
‘industrial-agricultural
complex’
is
highly
productive when the economy is functioning well
because energy inputs are abundantly available, as
was the case from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
However, beginning the 1990s, with the dismantling
of the socialist bloc and the sudden cut-off in the
supply of oil, coal, and fertilizers, including the
broad-scope termination of ‘friendship pricing,’
success of North Korean agriculture, they also
explain the subsequent decline in the 1990s.
Pursuit of food self-sufficiency led to a heavy
reliance on chemicals and fertilizer. Overuse of the
arable land led to acidification and erosion of the
soil. Marginally productive areas increasingly were
converted to farmland, and this practice led to
flooding as the topsoil eroded and deforestation
occurred...According to UN agronomists, the soil
agricultural output, like the economy, collapsed in
concert: [46]
deposition into the river system raised river bottoms
to such a degree that the rivers are no longer
capable of absorbing the water from heavy rains or
spring thaw. The annual flooding that occurs thus
has become increasingly severe. Furthermore,
‘…the curious economic structure of North Korea
that bound agriculture extremely close to industry
and the energy regime, creating a domino effect
such that when the North Korean energy regime
collapsed, so did industry and then agriculture
(which depended heavily on industrial inputs). [47]
fertilizer use dropped dramatically in the 1990s as
the North lost the ability to import fertilizers at
friendship prices from China and the former Soviet
Union. For example, although North Korea had
used 319 kilograms of nitrogenous fertilizers per
‘…agriculture has been adversely affected by the
hectare in 1990, that amount had dropped to 35
kilograms per hectare by 1996.
decline in the non-agricultural part of the
economy. The two primary fertilizers used in North
Korea, urea and ammonium sulfate, are both
petroleum-based, and shortages of petroleum
feedstocks have adversely effected domestic
production of fertilizer. A shortage of coal has shut
down a coal-fired fertilizer plant. Periodic blights
have been worsened by a shortage of agricultural
As a result of these problems, by the early 1990s the
agricultural system was even less able to produce
enough grains and other foodstuffs to feed the
population. For example, in 1992 grain demand
exceeded supply by more than 1 million tons.
Initially, North Korea drew down stockpiles and
chemicals. Fuel shortages and a lack of spare parts
have impeded the use of agricultural machinery,
forcing the reintroduction of draught animals.
Electrical shortages have interfered with irrigation,
which is based heavily on electrically powered
water pumps.’ [48]
attempted other short-term measures, such as
exhorting the citizens to eat only two meals a day.
However, even before the ecological disruptions of
the mid-1990s, the system had begun to collapse.’
[49]
As if to rub salt on the wound, the systemic
economic and agricultural malaise gripping North
61
Korea was further compounded by a series of
devastating natural disasters which commenced in
‘Occurring primarily in the years 1995 through
1998, this famine was truly biblical in scope, if
the mid-1990s; including, in particular, record
floods and pronounced droughts of ‘Biblical
proportions.’ [50][51] The end result of the confluence
of these contributing factors was the onset of a
severe famine, one of the most crippling of the late
20th century, with estimates of the number of lives
claimed varying widely – from 250,000 [52] on the
lower end, to as much as 3.5 million on the upper
end of the scale: [48]
estimates of casualties running as high as 2.5
million are accepted. If this excess mortality rate is
credible, then the North Korean famine would be a
catastrophe more severe, in proportional terms,
than famines which befell China during the Great
Leap Forward (claiming anywhere between 18
million to 30 million people), or India during its last
major famine, the Great Bengal Famine of 1943,
said to have claimed anywhere between 1.5 million
deaths to double that figure.’ [54]
‘As well as can be ascertained, North Korea is now
into its eighth year of economic decline [as of 1998].
It has been facing food shortages at least since the
early 1990s, and is experiencing a famine of
unknown severity. US Congressional staffers who
visited the country concluded that from 1995 to
‘International aid agencies say they have never seen
anything quite like it. Recent visitors say it is like
watching a famine in slow motion. Everybody
seems to be getting something to eat, but rations
have been reduced to starvation levels over a long
period of time and the agencies have given warning
that millions are now at risk of malnutrition and
death.’ [55]
1998 between 900,000 and 2.4 million people had
died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses
with deaths peaking in 1997. Non-governmental
organizations, extrapolating from interviews with
refugees in China and observations on the ground,
have produced estimates of famine-related deaths
on the order of 2.8-3.5 million.’ [48]
Whereas the famine was undoubtedly the
exclamation mark underscoring agricultural failure,
the agricultural crisis, however, was not limited to
only the famine years (1995-1998). This was a
general, systemic agricultural failure, a ‘slow motion
famine,’ [56][57] in the making since at least the 1980s,
likely brought upon by ‘soil exhaustion,
overfertilization, and…surfacing shortages of
‘Since the mid-1990s, erratic weather conditions,
particularly devastating floods in 1995 followed by
a prolonged drought, have contributed to a
precipitous drop in agricultural production
(caused by serious failures of government
agricultural policies as well as poor weather,
deforestation, and soil erosion) and led to one of the
energy.’ [58] North Korea, to this day, has never
escaped its clutches, and is still woefully unable to
feed its people.
worst famines of the late twentieth century,
resulting in the death of more than 1 million North
Koreans.’ [53]
Height Trends in the Two Koreas
Chronic food shortage, fundamentally, is an issue of
supply and demand; with agricultural supply
62
insufficient to meet food demand. The North Korean
agricultural supply/demand imbalance has acutely
populations of North and South Korea subsequently
followed two distinct height trajectories: [61]
persisted since the early 1990s, and continues
unabated. While many conventional indicators can
be referenced to demonstrate chronic food shortage
(e.g. agricultural output and nutrition metrics), these
indicators, however, are wholly or largely unreliable
in a country such as North Korea, which is
frequently described as a ‘complete statistical
blackout,’ a ‘quantitative terra incognita,’ and a
‘virtual black hole.’ [59][60] In such cases, where
traditional metrics are highly questionable or
unavailable, the most reliable indicators of chronic
food shortage and associated malnutrition are
anthropometric measurements, as they are
independent indicators which effectively sum up the
net manifestations of malnutrition in the human
body:
Figure 21: Height in the Two Koreas [62]
‘Whereas a remarkable secular growth spurt of
height occurred in South Koreans, North Korean
height rather stagnated during that period, hence,
height gap between the two Koreas became more
pronounced in time.’ [61]
It should be remembered that Koreans have
remained genetically homogeneous for millennia,
‘Specifically, anthropometric measurements such
as height and weight are sensitive and reliable
and thus the emergence of the widening height gap,
which coincides with peninsular division, cannot
even remotely be attributed to genetic influences.
Consequently:
indicators for malnutrition, economic development
and social welfare of people living in historical
societies and developing countries. Making use of
these measurements is all the more important
because conventional welfare indicators for North
Korea are often absent from statistical databases.’
‘As height is a sensitive indicator for the underlying
environment in early life, it is safe to say that
[59]
nutrition, health and socioeconomic living
conditions did not become better in socialist North
Korea from the 1940s to the 1980s, yet these factors
have obviously greatly improved in market-oriented
South Korea during the same period.’ [61]
The anthropometric measurement which will now
be discussed is the height trends in the two Koreas
from the mid-1930s through to the mid-1980s
(Figure 21). The graph clearly reveals that
Northerners were slightly taller than their Southern
counterparts during the trail end of colonial era.
However, after division of the Korean Peninsula
(1945) and formation of the two dichotomous nation
states (1948), this condition began to reverse, as the
It is also significant that the height of North Koreans
began to steadily decline after peaking in the early
1970s. As this was a well-established, secular
decline, the empirical evidence strongly points to
63
competition – a ‘Monolithic Ideology System’ –
effectively enshrined in the DPRK constitution.
underlying agricultural structural issues and
resultant chronic food/nutrition deficiencies; which
were patently extant well prior to the 1990s
economic and agricultural collapse.
It was postulated the root of the Hebrew name, Gog,
stems from the Hebrew, gag, which means ‘the
highest point of an edifice,’ ‘roof’ or ‘housetop.’
2. The Idolatry in the Land of Gog is an ‘End Times’
Innovation. The deification and adulation of the
Kim dynasty is a relatively recent, contemporary
innovation, with ‘shallow roots’ and one which
‘sprung up quickly’ – dating back to no earlier than
1945 – the year that marked the division of the
Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel, and with it,
the emergence of Gog and Magog, signaling the
Apart from the obvious congruence with the
meanings of Gog, ‘mountain;’ Goguryeo, ‘high
center;’ and the Qur’anic description of the land of
Gog and Magog as a ‘mountain highland;’ the
contextual usage of gag in the Old Testament has
additional, peculiar connotations that conspicuously
and comprehensively parallel the conditions and
characteristics of one, and only one contemporary
nation state in the world: the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, or North Korea. In particular, the
onset of ‘End Times.’ The rapid and efficient
elimination of all competing ideologies – which, in
North Korea at the time, consisted of a rich mosaic
of six main belief systems – was brutally achieved
through severe coercion and a forced indoctrinated
idol worship of the Kim lineage. It is an unsaid truth
that any belief system which ‘springs up quickly’ by
means of repression and persecution, stained with
the blood of its people, is ‘like a curse’ that has no
‘depth of soil to take strong root in.’
The Parable of the ‘Grass on the Housetops:’
Summary and Context
Biblical parable of the ‘grass on the housetops’ was
decoded and contextualized according to three key
eschatological qualities, which function as
fingerprints – uniquely identifying the nation of Gog
at ‘End Times:’
3. The Nation of Gog will Spring Up Quickly and
Slowly Wither. The North Korean economy initially
launched like a rocket; the direct result of
marshaling, redirecting, and managing previously
underused resources at a nationwide scale – a task
for which, generally speaking, centrally controlled
economies are particularly well suited. After the war
(1950-1953) and recovery from it, the North
1. The Mountainous Land of Gog is Rife with Idol
Worship. North Korea is the only nation state with a
dynastic communist regime, where successive
generational leaders are deified through an allpervasive ‘cult of personality;’ sponsored,
monitored and enforced by a highly manipulative
and punitive state propaganda and police apparatus.
The deification of the Kim lineage is all
encompassing; to the extent that the idol worship of
the Kim lineage is the de facto civic religion without
achieved staggering, world beating economic
growth; averaging 20-25 percent per annum gross
output increases from the mid-1950s through to the
mid-1960s.
The rapid initial growth achieved during the first
two decades of the cold war, however, was
unsustainable as efficiencies gained from structural
64
changes to the industrial base, reallocation of
underused resources, and employment of idle
termination of ‘friendship pricing,’ agricultural
output, like the economy, collapsed in concert.
labour, had reached their limits. What’s more, the
North Korean economy was burdened by other
constraints including sizable international debt
obligations, massive diversion of scarce resources to
the military, debilitating U.S. trade sanctions, and
general economic mismanagement. From the mid1960s to the late-1980s, consequently, the average
per annum industrial growth reduced substantially
to between 12-15%; thus establishing the transition
In the mid-1990s, the secular economic and
agricultural malaise gripping North Korea
precipitated into a severe famine, one of the most
crippling of the late 20th century, triggered by
devastating floods and prolonged droughts;
resulting in surplus deaths of as many as 3.5 million
people. The famine, however, was long in the
making, as the DPRK has been incapable of
to decline.
adequately feeding its population for decades; a fact
clearly demonstrated through analysis of an
anthropometric measurement – the pronounced,
widening height gap between Northerners and
Southerners, which began immediately upon
division of the Korean Peninsula. Since Koreans are
genetically homogeneous, the divergent height
trajectories, therefore, can only be attributed to
fundamental, disparate underlying nutrition, health,
and socioeconomic living conditions in the two
In the early 1990s, the gradual decline experienced
over the previous twenty years deteriorated into a
full blown economic catastrophe. The demise of the
Soviet Union brought with it an end of
unprecedented economic assistance, concessionary
prices, favourable trading terms, and the transfer of
both Soviet and Chinese technologies, which were
instrumental for industrial and military advances in
North Korea. The rigidity in the political and
economic systems, accordingly, ‘left the country illprepared for a changing world.’ [41] From 1990
through to 1998 the North Korean economy began
to contract, experiencing sustained negative GDP
growth rates.
Koreas. This conclusion was underscored by the
marked declining height of North Koreans after
peaking in early 1970s, in contrast to the continuous
growth spurt experienced by South Koreans.
The entrenched decay of North Korea, however, is
not limited to solely economic stagnation; it is also
Notwithstanding the definitive identification of Gog
as North Korea by virtue of the profound
metaphorical comparisons elucidated above, the
parable of the ‘grass on the housetops,’ however, is
coupled with chronic agricultural failure. This
coupling is a direct result of the organizational
framework of the North’s agriculture, which is
intimately tied to the country’s industrial base and
heavily dependent upon an intensive energy regime.
Beginning the 1990s, with the dismantling of the
socialist bloc and the sudden cut-off in the supply of
oil, coal, and fertilizers, including the broad-scope
principally about faith; about the truth of the
Oneness of God; and what happens when an entire
nation, en masse, abandons that truth in favour of
falsehood – the falsehood of whole-scale idolatrous
practices. For, after all, that is what is meant by ‘the
roof is a place where idolatry is invoked.’ It is the
forced, communal indoctrination and invocation of
idolatry, which is the central issue: it is the root
65
‘curse,’ because idolatry – an uncompromising and
absolute abomination, and a hideous and
1. Entirely Mountainous Land. The parable of the
‘grass on the housetops’ dictates that idolatry is
unconditional curse – cannot, by its very definition,
and very essence, have any ‘depth of soil to take
strong root in.’ The land of Gog was ‘cursed’ from
the get go, because from the very inception of North
Korea the great lie of the divinity of the Kim lineage
was seeded, and the height of North Koreans, at that
precise moment, at the inception of that ‘curse,’
stagnated in concert. The rest – the initial ‘economic
miracle,’ the immediate ‘agricultural growth,’ the
practiced exclusively on a ‘roof,’ ‘housetop,’ or
‘high edifice.’ Large geographic regions at
continental scales, however, are not completely or
even primarily mountainous, and are invariably
comprised of diverse landscapes in significant
proportions. Due to a simple matter of geography,
therefore, it is physically impossible for idolatry –
pervasive monolithic idolatry in particular – to be
practiced exclusively at ‘high locales’ in expansive
great ‘promises of collectivism’ – like idolatry, are
nothing more than a façade and a lie which ‘sprung
up quickly.’ It was only a matter of time before the
inevitable manifestations of that grotesque and
unforgiveable lie eventually caught up with the
nation of Gog. North Korea, to this day, is an
impoverished state that has been in decay for
decades, politically and economically isolated,
bereft of modern industry and infrastructure, with a
stunted and enfeebled population, the country has
territories, because such territories inevitably
encompass populations inhabiting extensive low
lying regions. The requirement of principally an
alpine region, and by obligation, a territory of
moderate size, is further reinforced by the Qur’anic
characterization of the land of Gog and Magog as a
‘mountainous highland.’
long since been ‘withered.’
the parable is expressed in the form of a curse, the
implication is the land is ‘cursed’ because idolatry
is ubiquitous and exclusively practiced. The land of
Gog, therefore, must be entirely idolatrous with no
competing ideologies. Once again, this necessitates
the population of Gog inhabits a moderate scale,
relatively isolated, and thus ‘theologically
manageable region;’ as belief systems over
continental sized territories are difficult, if not
2. Widespread Idolatrous Practices. The ‘roof is a
place where idolatry is invoked;’ consequently, as
Other Inferences
In addition to the preceding, there are also other,
significant inferences that can be drawn from the
Biblical parable of the ‘grass on the housetops,’
which, when combined with select Qur’anic
qualifications of Gog and Magog, completely
discredit the long held view that the prophecy of the
war of Gog and Magog refers to a global level ‘End
Times’ Armageddon, as has been the presumption
by most Christian and Islamic scholars alike. These
inferences are thus a litmus test against which any
contemporary nation, region, or people, proposed as
being identified with ‘Gog’ must pass:
impossible to extensively monitor and strictly
regulate; ergo, they inevitably consist of a collage of
assorted ideologies which tend to coexist and mix
freely through vast lands with porous borders.
3. Genetically Homogeneous Population. As
previously expounded upon, the Qur’an refers to the
one tribe by the names, ‘Gog and Magog,’ both
66
during the time of the messenger Zul-Qarnayn
(18:94) and two thousand years later at ‘End Times’
According to the ‘Theological Wordbook of the Old
(21:96). Hence, the genetic constitution of the
peoples of ‘Gog and Magog’ must be maintained as
a separate and distinct ethnicity in spite of the
passage of two millennia; otherwise they would no
longer be the peoples of ‘Gog and Magog,’ but
diverse, heterogeneous people due to the subsequent
blending with assorted populations. The nation of
Gog, moreover, must not only be genetically
homogeneous, but is obliged to share this genetic
Testament’ (TWOT), min means ‘from,’ ‘out of’ or
homogeneity with the nation of Magog, with which
it must also share a common border or is within its
regional vicinity. The requirement of genetic
homogeneity, likewise, limits the nation of Gog to a
restricted and relatively isolated geographical area,
because it is virtually impossible for large,
continental scale, expansive territories to house only
one population of common genetic constitution.
1. From: ‘With verbs of motion or separation; to go
from, or to be away from, i.e. without; or away
from in relation to some other spot or direction,
therefore: on the east or beside a city.’
The above three Biblical and Qur’anic derivations,
2. Out of: ‘With other verbs, it means out of, e.g.
in short, all reinforce and drive home the same
qualifications: the land of Gog must be primarily
mountainous, of moderate scale, and of relative
isolation, and by virtue of these qualifications, a
‘theologically manageable region’ inhabited by a
population of one ethnic stock. The localized and
restricted war of Gog and Magog, therefore, is no
more than a marker – a key sign the world is about
to come to an end…as ‘the Hour draws near.’
out of Egypt. It is used for material out of which
something is made. Allied with this is the causal
force: to shake from the noise, or on account of our
transgressions.’
‘more than.’
The applicable usages and nuances of this
preposition, as defined in TWOT, are now examined
as they relate to South Korea’s (Magog) relationship
to North Korea (Gog), after division of the Korean
Peninsula: [min1212, TWOT]
South Korea is ‘separated;’ ‘away from;’ ‘without;’
in ‘some other spot;’ and on the ‘south side’ of
North Korea.
The people of the two Koreas are of ‘one ethnic
stock,’ and hence South Koreans are ‘made out of
the same genetic material’ as North Koreans. The
‘causal force’ of their separation was ‘on account of
the transgressions of foreign powers (United States
and Soviet Union),’ which prosecuted the artificial
division of the peninsula along the 38th parallel.
II. Etymology of ‘Magog’
3. The partitive min: ‘He took some of, or even,
one of. This last becomes anyone, a single hair, etc.’
In Hebrew, Magog is simply Gog with the prefix
‘mem,’ which is derived from the preposition
or
‘min.’ Min is often expressed as the singular mem.
[15]
67
Definition of ‘partitive’ in grammar: ‘Indicating
that a noun involved in a construction refers only to
These nuances of min ‘fit like a glove’ and are thus
a part or fraction of what it otherwise refers to.’ [63]
an affirmation that Magog is indeed South Korea.
While the first three usages of min apply equally to
either of the two Koreas, the fourth usage restricts
the applicability of min to only South Korea since it
is ‘too great for’ North Korea in virtually all aspects.
That the word ‘gag’ is applicable only to the North
and ‘min’ (expressed as the singular, ‘mem’) is
applicable only to the South; together, the two
Hebrew words, ‘gag and memgag,’ corroborate
South Korea ‘took some of’ Korea and is ‘only a part
or fraction of’ the entire Korea, prior to its division.
4. In comparisons: ‘Min is often used in
comparisons to mean more than, above, beyond,
etc., sometimes too much for, too great for.’
South Korea is ‘more than, above, beyond, too much
for, and too great for’ North Korea across all
categories by which the prosperity of a country and
well-being of its citizens are measured including:
industrial and technological development, gross
domestic product (about 40 times that of the North),
life expectancy, standard of living, [25][64] military
capability, [65] education, [66][67] freedom of
speech/religion, [68][69][70] health/quality of life, and
even average height. [71][72] How far ‘beyond’ the
their respective identities as North and South Korea,
while at the same time, confirm that they are the root
origins of the names, ‘Gog and Magog,’
respectively.
3. Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in
Arabic (‘Ya’juj and Ma’juj’)
The names, ‘Ya’juj’ and ‘Ma’juj,’ as they appear in
the Qur’an, are the Arabic names of Gog and
Magog, respectively. The Arabic, ‘ajuj’ (common to
both Ya’juj and Ma’juj), is derived from the Arabic
root, ‘ajij,’ which means ‘to run or walk quickly’ or
‘to burn, blaze, or flame fiercely.’ [74] Since these
characteristics apply equally to Ya’juj and Ma’juj,
they complement and hence reinforce the Qur’anic
eschatological prophecy of the war of Gog and
Magog. Over and above, the root meanings of
South currently is relative to the North, is perhaps
best captured by a single image: the night-time
satellite view of the Korean Peninsula (Figure 22).
The North, outside of a faint dot of light (at
Pyongyang) is in complete darkness; in sharp
contrast to the South, which is nearly fully lit.
Ya’juj and Ma’juj emphasize the violent and
intensely devastating nature of the Korean War, as
was indeed the case; the two Koreas were ravaged
by a virtual holocaust, with approximately 2.5
million casualties, [75] nearly the entire peninsula
was laid to waste and left to ‘to burn, blaze, or flame
fiercely.’
Figure 22: Night-Time Satellite View
of the Korean Peninsula [73]
68
It should also be noted that in Arabic, Ya’juj is the
active tense, and Ma’juj is the passive tense; [76] a
mean either ‘horn’ or ‘epoch / age / era.’ [77]
However, since the usage of the word, ‘qarn,’ in the
remarkably accurate qualifier. North Korea,
identified as Ya’juj, escalated the conflict by
launching a sudden full-scale invasion and was thus
the aggressor, or active party. South Korea, in
contrast, was invaded and was thus the defender, or
passive party. However, once the all-out war of
Ya’juj and Ma’juj commenced in earnest, the
attributes of ‘ajij’ applied equally to both Koreas
without distinction; i.e. ‘to run or walk quickly’ or
Quran is always in the context of time, the
appropriate translation of Zul-Qarnayn is ‘the twoaged one.’ [78] This meaning is exceedingly apropos
because Zul-Qarnayn’s journey is relevant and
impacts upon two different ages: (i) the age in which
he lived – as he saved the ancient highland
community from the scourge of recurrent raids
administered by ‘Gog and Magog’ through the
construction of an iron fortification; and (ii) the age
‘to burn, blaze, or flame fiercely.’
of the Last Hour – which is destined to decode ZulQarnayn’s journey, and, through the identification
of Gog and Magog, serve as a final warning to
mankind of the imminent arrival of the
Overwhelming Earthquake.
4. Meaning of ‘Zul-Qarnayn’
The literal translation of the Arabic, ‘Zul-Qarnayn,’
is ‘possessor of two ‘qarns’.’ In Arabic, ‘qarn’ can
69
Etymology – Summary
In conjunction with the Qur’anic narrative of Gog
and Magog, likewise, five additional eschatological
characteristics of Gog, through its root, ‘gag,’ were
extracted from the Biblical parable of the ‘grass on
the housetops,’ including: (i) the mountainous land
of Gog is rife with idol worship; (ii) the idolatry in
the land of Gog is an ‘End Times’ innovation; (iii)
the nation of Gog will spring up quickly and slowly
The etymological investigation was conducted in
four distinction divisions:
1. Etymology of ‘Korea.’ It was demonstrated that
the root origin of the modern name, ‘Korea,’ can
ultimately be traced back to the name, ‘Goguryeo’ –
the very kingdom identified as the one tribe of ‘Gog
and Magog,’ which was renowned for administering
repeated raids on their neighbours, targeting
specifically, the Han Commanderies of the Korean
Peninsula. It was further posited the Biblical name,
‘Gog,’ is the abbreviated reference to Goguryeo; a
premise supported by: (i) the Greek and Hebrew
meanings of Gog, ‘mountain;’ (ii) the meaning of
Goguryeo, ‘high center;’ (iii) the Qur’anic
characterization of the land of Gog and Magog as a
‘mountainous highland;’ and (iv) the Korean
Peninsula’s mountainous terrain, predominantly in
wither; (iv) the nation of Gog is not only genetically
homogeneous, but is obliged, moreover, to share
this genetic homogeneity with the nation of Magog,
with which it also shares a common border or is
within its regional vicinity; and (v) the land of Gog
is primarily mountainous, of moderate scale, and of
relative isolation, and by virtue of these
qualifications, a ‘theologically manageable region’
inhabited by a population of one ethnic stock.
the north, the birthplace of the Kingdom of
Goguryeo.
Since these five, extraordinary, defining attributes
of Gog are met precisely and exclusively by only the
contemporary nation state of North Korea, when
taken together, they therefore serve as exceptional
and resounding validations of North Korea’s
identification with Gog.
2. Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in the Old and
New Testaments. Evidence was presented that the
Biblical name, ‘Gog,’ is derived from the Hebrew,
‘gag,’ which means ‘the highest point of an edifice,’
‘roof’ or ‘housetop.’ It was further qualified that the
‘the roof that is referred to is flat,’ and hence, it is a
With the identity of Gog firmly sealed, focus was
then turned to the etymology of Magog, which is
simply Gog with the prefix ‘mem,’ derived from the
preposition ‘min.’ South Korea is unequivocally
equated with Magog because it remarkable reflects
the meaning of ‘min’ in Hebrew; i.e. it is ‘from,’ ‘out
of,’ was formerly ‘part of,’ and is currently ‘more
than’ North Korea in virtually all aspects. The stark
contrast between the North and the South is
profoundly illustrated in a single image: the night-
place where people can carry out activities. This
qualification is wholly congruent with both the
meaning of Goguryeo, ‘high center,’ and the
Qur’anic depiction of the land of Gog and Magog as
a ‘mountainous highland,’ where people live out
their entire lives in high locales.
70
time satellite view of the Korean Peninsula – the
North is nearly completely dark; whereas the South
definition, as his travels affected, or had an impact
upon, two separate ages: (i) the age in which he
is nearly completely lit.
lived, for he saved the ancient highland community
from the scourge of repeated raids administered by
Gog and Magog that were literally ‘ruining their
land;’ and (ii) the age of the Last Hour, which is
destined to decode his travels so that it may serve as
a final warning to mankind of the imminent arrival
of the Overwhelming Earthquake through the
identification of Gog and Magog.
3. Etymology of ‘Gog and Magog’ in Arabic
(‘Ya’juj and Ma’juj’). The root origin of the Arabic,
‘ajuj,’ was linked back to ‘ajij,’ which means ‘to run
or walk quickly’ or ‘to burn, blaze, or flame
fiercely.’ As ‘ajuj’ is common to both Ya’juj and
M’ajuj, its meaning, therefore, is applicable to both
North and South Korea – which is entirely apt, as
the 1950-1953 war years decimated the Korean
Peninsula as a whole, leaving both sides to ‘burn,
blaze, or flame fiercely.’ The active tense, Ya’juj,
and passive tense, Ma’juj, delineate, specifically,
their respective identities as North and South Korea,
because the North initially escalated the conflict
with a sudden, active all-out invasion, leaving the
South, by comparison, in the defensive or passive
position, at the war’s commencement.
The above four distinct divisions of etymological
investigations lend additional, irrefutable arguments
supporting the identities of Gog and Magog as North
and South Korea, and in so doing, augment the
comprehensive,
unprecedented
geopoliticalhistorical evidence already presented in the previous
chapter. Consequently, as the identities of Gog and
Magog are now categorically substantiated, the
division of the Korean Peninsula and the subsequent
1950-1953 Korean War, is a critical and defining
4. Meaning of ‘Zul-Qarnayn.’ Given the consistent
contextual usage of ‘qarn’ in the Qur’an, it was
concluded that the most appropriate meaning of
‘Zul-Qarnayn’ is ‘the two-aged one’ – a striking
moment in human history and a clear marker the
world is about to come to an end, as the Hour draws
near…
71
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74