"Beast of the Earth"
Compiled by Ansaris from
The Savior Website
Beast of the Earth, called Daabbat-ul-Ard
in Arabic: a creature that will come out
and which is considered as one of the
signs of the Appearance of Al-Mahdi. It
will distinguish between believers and
non-believers at the end of times by
drawing a line on the forehead of every
believer whose face will become bright
and luminous and with the ring of
Solomon, it will seal the nose of every
non-believer whose entire face will
become black. Such creature will also
speak to people.
Before the Appearance, a Beast will come
out from the earth to mark and
distinguish the believers from the nonbelievers. This will occur before the
Appearance of Al-Qai’m and not
afterwards. The minor Appearance is the
rise of Imam Al-Mahdi (AS) with the
sword and the Beast of the earth is none
other than the Commander of the Faithful
(AS) himself, as mentioned in the
following narration:
On the authority of Abu Abdullah AlJadali, he said: "When I visited Ali Bin
Abi Talib he told me the following:
"There are three things you should know
before someone comes in, would you like
to know of them?" I replied, "Yes, I
would." He then said, "I am the servant
of Allah and I am the Beast of the earth,
it's Truth, Justice and brother of it's
Prophet. Would you like to know about
the nose and eyes of Al-Mahdi?" I
replied, "Yes I would." He hit his chest
and answered, "It is me[2]."
Hence, will the Commander of the
Faithful (AS) come forth at the time of
Al-Qai’m, or will it be a man from his
progeny? Who is the Beast of the earth
that will distinguish between Truth and
Falsehood and mark people as believers
or non-believers in Al-Qai’m?
On the authority of the Commander of
the Faithful (AS), he said: "…he will
distinguish between Truth and Falsehood
by sending the Beast of the earth. Then
Romans will march to a coastal village
and reach the cave of the young men, but
Allah will send those young men out of
their cave to them…"[3]
That Beast is the forerunner who will
distinguish between believers and nonbelievers in Imam Al-Mahdi (AS), at the
time of his appearance. As for the march
of the Romans, it is a reference to the
forces of occupation that came in from
Kuwait (the coastal side), as the cave of
the young men is a reference to Basra,
from which the first supporters of AlQai’m (AS) will come out, according to
the Commander of the Faithful.
believers, thus confirming what he said
about himself, "all people are nonbelievers apart from me". As for the
other person mentioned in the Hadith (…
and him), he is the first of the Mahdis, for
he is the first believer in Imam Al-Mahdi
(AS), as mentioned in the testament[6].
The expression (…and him) cannot refer
to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH); it
refers to the Beast of the earth about
which Abu At-Tufayl enquired.
Moreover, Abu At-Tufayl was reported
saying: "O Commander of the Faithful,
you once cited the saying of Allah
Almighty:
Narrated by Ali Bin Ibrahim, he said:
"My father told me on the authority of
Ibn Abi ’Umayr, on the authority of Abu
Basir, on the authority of Abu Abdullah
(AS) that the Messenger of Allah
(PBUH) came upon the Commander of
the Faithful (AS) while he was sleeping
at the Mosque resting his head on the
sand he had assembled. He (PBUH)
shook him by the leg then said (to him):
"Wake up, O Beast of the earth." Then
one of his companions asked: "Shall we
refer to each other with this agnomen, O
Messenger of Allah (PBUH)?" The
Prophet replied: "No, by Allah! This
agnomen is Ali’s only, especially that this
Beast or creature was mentioned by Allah