Types of Blindness

Blindness is one of the worst calamities that could befall a person. Our eyes are the epitome of beauty and they are the instruments of appreciating beauty, yet a darkness veils them for a blind person. It is our eyes that are the embodiment of our personalities, yet they are shut, not by a cover but, by a functional deficiency for the visually impaired. This is all sad, but there are different types of blindness belonging to different eyes of ours!

"And you cannot guide the blind away from their error. You will only make hear those who believe in Our verses so they are Muslims [submitting to Allah ]." (27/81)

"And We gave Moses the Scripture, after We had destroyed the former generations, as insight (enlightenment/eye opener/guide) for the people and guidance and mercy that they might be reminded." (28/43)

"And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless." (7/179)

It is obvious that the eyes that do not see in these cases are not the eyes that are viewing the outside world. Perhaps, those people had a very good vision in the physical sense, but they were blind towards a truth that was to be seen with their hearts!

Wait! Do we see with our hearts?

Have they not traveled through the land? Have they no hearts to learn wisdom, or ears to hear the Truth? Certainly it is not their eyes which are blind, but it is the hearts in their breasts which are blind. (22/46)

Means of insight have now come unto you from your Sustainer [through this divine writ]. Whoever, therefore, chooses to see, does so for his own good; and whoever chooses to remain blind, does so to his own hurt. And [say unto the blind of heart]: "I am not your keeper. (6/104)

So, in the Quranic sense, we do have different kinds of eyes. And their health is essential for our well-being both in this and in the other world.

You may already be familiar with all of the above from before, but I would like to use this information to arrive at a new realization about the Antichrist:

"Allah is not one-eyed and behold that Dajjal is blind of the right eye and his eye would be like a floating grape." (Sahih Muslim, 169e)

In other hadiths about the same topic, there are different details, but overall, their consensus about the eyes of the Antichrist is that one of his eyes is blind and the other is protruding abnormally! It is possible to interpret these descriptions literally or figuratively. I am not going to delve into the literal meaning, because of the general figurative taste of the hadiths on the topic. Then, what could they mean figuratively?

Traditionally, the one-eye blindness of the Antichrist is interpreted as his ability to master the matters of this world, but his failure to see into the afterlife. Not excluding that meaning, we can rethink in the light of the above discussion the meaning of the one-eye blindness.

If total blindness is the depiction of failure to understand the signs of the All-Mighty Creator, and/or take a lesson from them, hence a total resolution in disbelief, then having single-eye blindness could mean a person who is partially invested in belief and partially in disbelief! That is a hypocrite.

The second description of the eye of the Antichrist is that it protrudes out abnormally. If you think of the daily life situations, when would a person's eyes wide open and stay like that? In case of extreme fear. In fact, constant fear and a consequent watch for every potential threat is the state of a paranoid.

One problem with being blind is that you cannot know what you don't see, until and unless someone who can see tells you. But if you are too suspicious of everyone else to trust them, you are on your own. From that point on, you may consider any intervention from outside to help as a conspiracy. The movie "A Beautiful Mind" presents a good example of this situation.

As this hysteric state unrolls, those around you may or may not side with you. If they are with you, they do so by closing their own eyes to reality so that they can believe in what you tell them. If they don't side with you, you treat them as enemies. Such is the case depicted by the prophet Muhammad:

"Hudhaifa and Abu Mas’ud got together and Hudhaifah said: I know best what the Dajjal (Antichrist) will have with him. He will have with him a sea of water and a river of fire, and what you see as fire will be water and what you sea as water will be fire. If any of you who lives up to that time and desires water, he should drink from what he sees as fire, for he will find it water. Abu Mas’ud al-Badri said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) say in this way." (Abu Dawud 4315)

Perhaps due to this complex and tragic situation, rather than a communal life (hence the herd psychology), a more individual life (hence the emphasis on the free will) is preferable. And the proper guidance for the "free will" can be found by a direct relationship with the word of God and His messenger.

God knows best.