A senior Iranian cleric thinks Trump is the Muslim Antichrist. Who is this figure, al-Dajjāl?
- Written by Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
Many in the Iranian leadership believe the war launched by Israel and the United States in February is the war of the end times: the final showdown with the US – the Great Satan – and al-Dajjāl – Donald Trump.
Iranian senior cleric Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Ameli declared Donald Trump “al-Dajjāl” – the Muslim equivalent of the Antichrist, in a sermon.
Trump “is completely one-eyed, and this is a sign of the end times,” he said. (Being one-eyed is a key marker of the Dajjāl.) And Trump “sees the world through a material lens” and “covets wealth wherever it exists – whether it’s Middle Eastern Oil, Syrian oil, or Ukraine’s minerals”.
Ameli is a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body with the power to appoint, oversee and fire the Supreme Leader of Iran. It selected the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after his father was killed in US–Israeli air strikes. Ameli represents the Ardabil province, in northwest Iran.
Recent reports from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation suggest some US military commanders are also viewing the war between the US and Iran through a religious lens – and even as the start of the final apocalyptic battle of Armageddon.
One non-commissioned officer reported that his commander declared: “President Trump had been appointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to earth.” Jesus is a key player on both sides of this particular war.
The Muslim Antichrist
The Dajjāl, or “the Deceiver”, is an evil figure, a false messiah who will emerge in the End Times.
He will promise power and prosperity, before being ultimately defeated by a righteous leader. Appearing during a period of great tribulation, he will be followed by the Jews and will claim to be God in Jerusalem. He will work false miracles, and most people will be deceived.
Christian tradition tells us the Antichrist will be a world emperor – and his coming will signal the end of the world. His army will ultimately be defeated by the army of God. The world will end when God comes in judgement to reward the righteous in heaven and punish the wicked in hell.
Judaism and Islam adopted the idea of the Antichrist from Christianity. The Jewish Antichrist is known as Armilus. Both versions are king-like messiahs.
The Dajjāl does not appear in the Quran. He was created in the Hadith – the record of the sayings and actions of Muhammad. His appearance was one of the ten signs of the end of the world: along with smoke, the beast from the earth, the rising of the sun from the West, the descent of Jesus, general turmoil and the deaths of many.
The Dajjāl appears regularly in the Prayer of Refuge:
O Allah! I seek refuge with You from the evil of the affliction of Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal.
He is described as large and stout, of a red complexion. He is also blind in one eye (perhaps only metaphorically). He will have big, curly hair. While the Christian Antichrist is predicted to appear with his name, or the number 666, on his forehead, the Dajjāl will have the letters of the word “kafir” – or “disbeliever” – on his.
Defeat of the Dajjal
According to one account, when the Dajjāl appears, God will send Jesus Christ from heaven, his hands resting on the shoulders of two angels, to the white minaret on the eastern side of Damascus in Syria. (Jesus, known as Isa in the Quran, is believed by Muslims to be a prophet, messenger of God and the messiah.) Every non-believer who smells the breath of Christ will perish.
Jesus will then search for the Dajjāl – and will capture and kill him at the gate of the city of Ludd (Lydda) in Palestine (now a part of Israel). In some later traditions, Jesus is helped by the Mahdi – an apocalyptic redeemer who will usher in a short golden age of seven, nine, or 19 years before the end of the world.
In some accounts, it is the Mahdi who kills the Dajjāl, or helps Jesus do it.
According to Islam, there will be a final battle between good and evil known as Al-Malhama Al-Kubra (“The Greatest Battle”) – the Islamic equivalent of Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil within the Christian tradition. The defeat of the Dajjāl will then be followed by the resurrection of the dead and the final judgement of the wicked, who will be condemned to the flames of hell and of the righteous to the joys of heaven.
The doctrine of “the Deceiver”, who would come at the end of the world, had become part of the creed of Islam by the ninth century. It remains a vibrant part of the Muslim tradition: both Sunni and Shiite.
In the early ninth century, Sunni Muslim scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal described the belief:
that the False Messiah will rise up, with the word “unbeliever” written between his eyes, and [belief] in the hadiths that have come about this. And faith that this shall really be so, and that Jesus will descend from Heaven and slay him at the Lydda gate.
US military and Armageddon
On March 20, secretary of war Pete Hegseth asked Americans to pray for the troops “every day on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ”.
Despite this, the US generally views its conflict with Iran as a matter of politics more than theology. But Western analysts of this particular war need to realise, for many in Iran, this is not a matter of geopolitics: it’s theopolitics, or the politics of religion.
The Iranian leadership is less interested in negotiating, compromising, or capitulating than in doing God’s work to destroy the evil ranged against it. The Quran holds that those who die in a holy war (jihad) gain immediate entrance into paradise.
Authors: Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
