Note: comes from the root word which means to walk using legs. So the former means something that walks using legs, it does not necessarily refer to an animal.
The Beast is mentioned in Surah An-Naml:
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.[1] [2] Some argue that it will emerge from a crack in the Kaaba or the hills of Safa among others.[2] It is described as a combination of different beasts and animals.[2]
In the early period of Islam, descriptions of the Beast of the Earth were sparse. Only later more interpretations of the Beast emerged.[2] One of the main features is that it will put a seal to distinguish the believers from the disbelievers,[2] reminiscent, yet not identical, to the Bible.[3] 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 Asia mythological creatures, likewise composed of several parts of animals and symbolizes the material world.[4]
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.[5]
According to Abdul-Rahman al-Sa'di, several Hadiths have mentioned the creature will emerge during the end of times.[6]
The majority of contemporary Islamic scholars accept the traditional exegesis of the Beast of the Earth, the Dābbat al-Arḍ as a literal creature who will appear in the end times. Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar viewed that the creature will appear after another extraordinary event occurred during the end of times, which is the sun rising from the west, by quoting Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri traditional exegesis.[7]
However, another interpretation, backed by Muhammad Ali, holds that this Beast is related to materialistic tendencies, and thus the Dābbat does not appear at the end of the world, but rather will doom a given nation or society.[8] According to Omar Ahmad it is a person emerging from worldly pursuits who will lay the foundation of Islam in the West as he will speak to people and that means he is a human saint-like entity and Islam will spread with his sword which is a pen to him [9] Yet another interpretation, promoted by United Submitters International, is that the Creature of the Earth is the computer, as the materials that are used are of synthetic earthly origin.[10] A related idea, based on the rise of artificial intelligence, suggests that an AI might be able to warn and remind humans, telling them how far they have come from righteousness and the belief of a creator.[11]