Beast of the Earth

The Beast of the Earth (Arabic: دابّة من الأرض, romanized: Dābbah min al-Arḍ, as mentioned in the Quran), also called "The Dabbah" is a creature mentioned in Surah An-Naml: Ayat 82 of the Quran and associated with the day of judgment. For this reason, the Beast of the Earth is often mentioned in eschatological writings as a sign of Judgement Day close to the event of the sun rising in the west. The Quran does not offer details about the nature of the Beast of the Earth, but various interpretations have linked it to monsters from Turkic mythology.

The Beast is mentioned in Surah An-Naml:

And when the Word is fulfilled against them (the unjust), we shall produce from the earth a beast to (face) them: He will speak to them, for that mankind did not believe with assurance in Our Signs.

— Quran Al-Naml (The Ant):82

In hadiths, the Beast of the Earth is further described. It is said that it will carry the Seal of Solomon and the Staff of Moses. Some argue that it will emerge from a crack in the Kaaba or the hills of Safa among others. It is described as a combination of different beasts and animals.

In the early period of Islam, descriptions of the Beast of the Earth were sparse. Only later more interpretations of the Beast emerged. One of the main features is that it will put a seal to distinguish the believers from the disbelievers, reminiscent, yet not identical, to the Bible. About a creature "worst of the beasts" ("Sharra al dawabbi شر الدواب"), due to their spiritual inability to hear and see despite their physical ability to do so, it was interpreted as the embodiment of attachment to the material world, sharing similarities with Central Asian mythological creatures (likewise composed of parts of several different animals) and symbolizes the material world.

According to the medieval Sunni theologian Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, there is nothing mentioned in hadith reports attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad about the nature of this creature, but it is mentioned in narrations circulating the time of his successors. Wahb ibn Munabbih stated that such a "beast" spoke to the people of Sodom from under the earth.

According to Abdul-Rahman al-Sa'di, several Hadiths have mentioned the creature will emerge during the end of times.