The evidence that this barrier still exists and has not been leveled is the report narrated from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning the barrier. He said: “They dig at it every day until, when they are about to pierce it, their leader says, ‘Go back; you will pierce it tomorrow.’ He said: Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, restores it as solid as ever. This continues until their appointed time comes and Allah Most High wills to unleash them upon the people. Their leader then says, ‘Go back; you will pierce it tomorrow, if Allah Most High wills,’ thus making the exception. He said: They return and find it just as they left it. They then pierce it and emerge against the people; they drink up the waters, and the people flee from them.” (1).

As mentioned earlier, the hadith found in the two Sahih collections states that a small opening was made in it, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was alarmed by this.

Professor Sayyid Qutb (may Allah have mercy on him) held—as a matter of probability, not certainty—that Allah’s promise to level the barrier had already been fulfilled and that Gog and Magog had already emerged, identifying them as the Tatars who appeared in the seventh century AH, destroyed the Islamic realms, and spread corruption throughout the land (2).

Regarding these Tatars, al-Qurtubī says: “From among them—that is, the Turks—there have emerged in this age peoples whom none but Allah Most High can count and whom none but Allah Most High can repel from the Muslims, until it is as though they are Gog and Magog or their vanguard.” (3).

These Tatars appeared during al-Qurtubī’s lifetime, and he heard reports of their