Ahadith about the Dajjal
| ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar said, “‘Umar ibn al-Khattab went along with the Prophet and a group of people to Ibn Sayyad, and found him playing with some children near the battlement of Banu Maghalah. At that time Ibn Sayyad was on the threshold of adolescence; he did not realise that anybody was near until the Prophet struck him on the back. The Prophet (S) said to him: ‘Do you bear witness than I am the Messenger of Allah?’ Ibn Sayyad looked at him and said, ‘I bear witness that you are the Prophet of the unlettered.’ Then Ibn Sayyad said to the Prophet, ‘Do you bear witness that I am the Messenger of Allah?’ The Prophet dismissed this and said, ‘I believe in Allah and His Messengers.’ Then the Prophet asked him, ‘What do you see?’ Ibn Sayyad said, ‘Sometimes a truthful person comes to me, and sometimes a liar.’ The Prophet said to him, ‘You are confused’, then he said, ‘I am hiding something from you.’ Ibn Sayyad said, ‘It is Dukh.’ The Prophet said, ‘Silence! You will not be able to go beyond your rank.’ ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, shall I cut off his head?’ The Prophet said, ‘If he is (the Dajjal) you will not be able to overpower him, and if he is not, then killing will not do you any good.'”
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Salim ibn ‘Abd Allah said, “I heard ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Omar say, ‘After that, the Prophet and Ubayy ibn Ka’b went along to the palm trees where Ibn Sayyad was. The Prophet started to hide behind a tree, with the intention of hearing something from Ibn Sayyad before Ibn Sayyad saw him. The Prophet saw him lying on a bed, murmuring beneath a blanket. Ibn Sayyad’s mother saw the Prophet hiding behind a tree, and said to her son, “O Saf (Ibn Sayyad’s first name), here is Mohammad!” Ibn Sayyad jumped up, and the Prophet said, “If you had left him alone, he would have explained himself.” Salim said, “Abd Allah ibn ‘Omar said, The Prophet stood up to address the people. He praised Allah as He deserved to be praised, then he spoke about the Dajjal: ‘I warn you against him; there is no Prophet who has not warned his people against him ? even Noah warned his people against him. But I will tell you something which no other Prophet has told his people. You must know that the Dajjal is one-eyed, and Allah is not one-eyed.'” Ibn Shihab said: “‘Omar ibn Thabit al-Ansari told me that some of the Companions of the Prophet told him that on the day when he warned the people about the Dajjal, the Prophet said: “There will be written between his eyes the word Kafir (unbeliever). Everyone who resents his bad deeds – or every believer- will be able to read it.” He also said, “You must know that no one of you will be able to see his Lord until he dies.'” (Muslim, Bukhari). Ibn ‘Omar said, “The Prophet mentioned the Dajjal to the people. He said, “Allah is not one-eyed, but the Dajjal is blind in his right eye, and his eye is like a floating grape.'” (Muslim) Anas ibn Malik said, “The Prophet said, ‘there has never been a Prophet who did not warn his people against that one-eyed liar. Verily he is one-eyed and your Lord is not one-eyed. On his forehead will be written the letter Kaf, Fa, Ra (Kafir).'” (Muslim, Bukhari) Hudhayfah said, “The Prophet said, ‘I know more about the powers which the Dajjal will have than he will know himself. He will have two flowing rivers: one will appear to be pure water, and the other will appear to be flaming fire. Whosoever lives to see that, let him choose the river which seems to be fire, then let him close his eyes, lower his head and drink from it, for it will be cold water. The Dajjal will be one-eyed; the place where one eye should be will be covered by a piece of skin. On his forehead will be written the word Kafir, and every believer, whether literate or illiterate, will be able to read it.'” (Muslim) Abu Hurayrah said, “The Prophet said, ‘Shall I tell you something about the Dajjal which no Prophet has ever told his people before me? The Dajjal is one-eyed and will bring with him something which will resemble Paradise and Hell; but that which he calls Paradise will in fact be Hell. I warn you against him as Noah warned his people against him.'” (Bukhari, Muslim) |
| Mohammad ibn Munkadir said: “I saw Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah swearing by Allah that Ibn Sayyad was the Dajjal, so I asked him, ‘Do you swear by Allah?’ He said, ‘I heard ‘Omar swear to that effect in the presence of the Prophet, and the Prophet did not disapprove of it.'” |
Some ‘ulama’ (scholars) say that some of the Sahabah (Companions of the Prophet) believed Ibn Sayyad to be the greater Dajjal, but that is not the case: Ibn Sayyad was a lesser dajjal.
Ibn Sayyad travelled between Makkah and Madinah with Abu Sa’id, and complained to him about the way that people were saying that he was the Dajjal. Then he said to Abu Sa’id,
| “Did not the Prophet say that the Dajjal would not enter Madinah? I was born there. Did not he say that he would not have any children? – I have children. Did not he say that he would be a Kafir? – I have embraced Islam. Of all the people, I know the most about him: I know where he is now. If I were given the opportunity to be in his place, I would not resent it.'” (Bukhari, Muslim) |
There are many Ahadith about Ibn Sayyad, some of which are not clear as to whether he was the Dajjal or not. We shall see Ahadith which indicates that the Dajjal is not Ibn Sayyad, as in the Hadith of Fatimah Bint Qays al-Fahriyyah, although this does not mean that he was not one of the lesser Dajjal; but Allah knows best.
The Hadith of Fatimah bint Qays:
| Amir ibn Sharahil Sha’bi Sha’b Hamdan reported that he asked Fatimah bint Qays, the sister of Dahhak ibn Qays, who was one of the first Muhajirat, “Tell me a Hadith which you heard directly from the Prophet with no narrator in between.” She said, “I can tell you if you like.” He said, ‘Yes, please tell me,” she said, “I married Ibn al-Mughirah, who was one of the best of the youth of Quraysh in those days. But he fell in the first Jihad on the side of the Prophet.
“When I became a widow, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, one of the companions of the Prophet sent me a proposal of marriage. The Prophet also sent me a proposal of marriage on behalf of his freedman Usamah ibn Zayd. I had been told that the Prophet had said, ‘He who loves me should also love Usamah.’ When the Prophet spoke to me, I said, ‘It is up to you: marry me to whomever you wish.’
“The Prophet said, ‘Go and stay with Umm Sharik.’ Umm Sharik was a rich Ansari (Muslim originally from Madinah) woman, who spent much in the way of Allah and entertained many guests. I said, ‘I will do as you wish.’ Then he said, ‘Don’t go. Umm Sharik has many guests, and I would not like
“So I went to stay with him, and when I had completed my ‘Iddah (period of waiting), I heard the Prophet’s announcer calling for congregational prayer. I went out to the mosque, and prayed behind the Prophet. I was in the women’s row, which was at the back of the congregation. When the
He said, ‘By Allah, I have not gathered you here to give you an exhortation or a warning. I have kept you here because Tamim al-Dari, a Christian man who has come and embraced Islam, told me something which agrees with that which I have told you about the Dajjal. He told me that he had sailed in a ship with 30 men from Banu Lakhm and Banu Judham. The waves had tossed them about for a month, then they were brought near to an island, at the time of sunset. They landed on the island, and were met by a beast who was so hairy that they could not tell its front from its back.
Tamim said, ‘We quickly went to the monastery. There we found a huge man with his hands tied up to his neck and with iron shackles between his legs up to the ankles. We said, “Woe to you, who are you?” He said, “You will soon know about me. Tell me who you are.” We said, “We are people from The man said, Tell me about the date-palms of Baysan.’ We said, ‘What do you want to know about them? He said, ‘I want to know whether these trees bear fruit or not.’ We said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Soon they will not bear fruit.’ Then he said, Tell me about the lake of al-Tabariyyah [Tiberias, in Palestine].’ We said, ‘What do you want to know about it?” He asked, ‘Is there water in it?’ We said, ‘There is plenty of water in it.’ He said, ‘Soon it will become dry.’ Then he said, ‘Tell me about the spring of Zughar.’ We said, ‘What do you want to know about it?’ He said, ‘Is there water in it, and does it irrigate the land?” We said, ‘Yes, there is plenty of water in it, and the people use it to irrigate the land.’ Then he said, “Tell me about the unlettered Prophet, what has he done?’ We said, ‘He has left Makkah and settled in Yathrib.’ He asked, ‘Do the Arabs fight against him?’ We said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘How does he deal with them?’ So we told him that the Prophet had overcome the Arabs around him and that they had followed him. He asked, ‘Has it really happened?’ We said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘It is better for them if they follow him. Now I will tell you about myself. I am the Dajjal. I will soon be permitted to leave this place: I will emerge and travel about the earth. In 40 nights I will pass through every town, except Makkah and Madinah, for these have been forbidden to me. Every time I try to enter either of them, I will be met by an angel bearing an unsheathed sword, who will prevent me from entering. There will be angels guarding them at every passage leading to them.’ Fatimah said, “The Prophet striking the pulpit with his staff, said: ‘This is Tayyibah, this is Tayyibah, this is Tayyibah, [ie Madinah]. Have I not told you something like this?’ The people said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘I liked the account given to me by Tamim because it agrees with that which I have told you about the Dajjal, and about Makkah and Madinah. Indeed he is in the Syrian sea or the Yemen sea. No, on the contrary, he is in the East, he is in the East, he is in the East’ and he pointed towards the East. Fatimah said: I memorised this from the Prophet.” (Muslim). ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar said, “The Prophet (S) said, ‘While I was asleep, I saw myself a dream performing Tawaf (circumambulation) around the Ka’bah. I saw a ruddy man with lank hair and water dripping from his head. I said, ‘Who is he?” and they said, “The son of Mary.” Then I turned around and saw another man with a huge body, red complexion, curly hair and one eye. His other eye looked like a floating grape. They said, “This is the Dajjal.” The one who most resembles him is Ibn Qatan, a man from the tribe of al-Khuza’ah’.” (Bukhari, Muslim).
Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah said, “The Prophet said, ‘The Dajjal will appear at the end of time, when religion is taken lightly. He will have 40 days in which to travel throughout the earth. One of these days will be like a year, another will be like a month, a third will be like a week, and the rest will be like normal days. He will be riding a donkey; the width between its ears will be 40 cubits. He will say to the people: “I am your lord.” He is one-eyed, but your Lord is not one-eyed. On his forehead will be written the word Kafir, and every believer, literate or illiterate, will be able to read it. He will go everywhere except Makkah and Madinah, which Allah has forbidden to him; angels stand at their gates. He will have a mountain of bread, and the people will face hardship, except for those who follow him. He will have two rivers, and I know what is in them. He will call one Paradise and one Hell. Whoever enters the one he calls Paradise will find that it is Hell, and whoever enters the one he calls |
Warnings against the Dajjal
The Hadith of Al-Nuwas ibn Sam’an Al-Kilabi:
| Al-Nuwas ibn Saman said, “One morning the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) spoke about the Dajjal. Sometimes he described him as insignificant, and sometimes he described him as so dangerous that we thought he was in the clump of date-palms nearby. When we went to him later on, he noticed that fear in our faces, and asked, ‘What is the matter with you? We said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, this morning you spoke of the Dajjal; sometimes you described him as insignificant, and sometimes you described him as being so dangerous that we thought he was in the clump of date-palms nearby.
The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said, ‘I fear for you in other matters besides the Dajjal. If he appears whilst I am among you, I will contend with him on your behalf. But if he appears while I am not among you, then each man must contend with him on his own behalf, and Allah will take care of every Muslim on my behalf. The Dajjal will be a young man, with short, curly hair, and one eye floating. I would liken him to ‘Abd al-Uzza ibn Qatan. Whoever amongst you lives to see him should recite the opening Ayat of Surat al-Kahf. He will appear on the way between Syria and Iraq, and will create disaster left and right. O servants of Allah, adhere to the Path of Truth. We said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, for the day which is like a year, will one days prayers be sufficient? He said, ‘No, you must make an estimate of the time, and then observe the prayers.
We asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, how quickly will he walk upon the earth? He said, ‘Like a cloud driven by the wind. He will come to the people and call them (to a false religion), and they will believe in him and respond to him. He will issue a command to the sky, and it will rain; and to the earth, and it will produce crops. After grazing on these crops, their animals will return with their udders full of milk and their flanks stretched. Then he will come to another people and will call them (to a false religion), but they will reject his call. He will depart from them; they will suffer famine and will possess nothing in the form of wealth. Then he will pass through the wasteland and will say, ‘Bring forth your At that point, Allah will send the Messiah, son of Mary, and he will descend to the white minaret in the east of Damascus, wearing two garments dyed with saffron, placing his hands on the wings of two angels. When he lowers his head, beads of perspiration will fall from it, and when he raises his head, beads like pearls will scatter from it. Every Kafir who smells his fragrance will die, and his breath will reach as far as he can see. He will search for the Dajjal until he finds him at the gate of Ludd[1], where he will kill him. Then a people whom Allah has protected will come to Jesus son of Mary, and he will wipe their faces (i.e. wipe the traces of hardship from their faces) and tell them of their status in Paradise. At that time Allah will reveal to Jesus: “I have brought forth some of My servants whom no-one will be able to fight. Take My servants safely to al-Tur.” Then Allah will send Gog and Magog, and they will swarm down from every slope. The first of them will pass by the Lake of Tiberias, and will drink some of its water; the last of them will pass by it and say, “There used to be water here.” Jesus, the Prophet of Allah, and his Companions will be besieged until a bull’s head will be dearer to them than one hundred dinars are to you nowadays.
Then Jesus and his Companions will pray to Allah, and He will send insects who will bite the people of Gog and Magog on their necks, so that in the morning they will all perish as one. Then Jesus and his Companions will come down and will not find any nook or cranny on earth which is free from their putrid stench. Jesus and his Companions will again pray to Allah, Who will send birds like the necks of camels; they will seize the bodies of Gog and Magog and throw them wherever Allah wills. Then Allah |
A Hadith Narrated From Abu Umamah Al-Bahili
| Abu Umamah al-Bahili said, “The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) delivered a speech to us, most of which dealt with the Dajjal and warned us against him. He said, ‘No tribulation on earth since the creation of Adam will be worse than the tribulation of the Dajjal. Allah has never sent a Prophet who did not warn his Ummah against the Dajjal. I am the last of the Prophets, and you are the last Ummah. The Dajjal is emerging among you and it is inevitable. If he appears while I am still among you, I will contend with him on behalf of every Muslim. But if he appears after I am gone, then every person must contend with him on his own behalf. He will appear on the way between Syria and Iraq, and will spread disaster right and left. O servants of Allah adhere to the path of Truth. I shall describe him for you in a way that no Prophet has ever done before.
He will start by saying that he is a Prophet, but there will be no Prophet after me. Then he will say, “I am your Lord,” but you will never see your Lord until you die. The Dajjal is one-eyed, but your Lord, glorified be He, is not one-eyed. On his forehead will be written the word Kafir, which every Muslim, literate or illiterate, will be able to read. Among the tr he will bring will be the Paradise and Hell he will offer; but that which he calls Hell will be Paradise, and that which he calls Paradise will be Hell. Whoever enters his Hell, let him seek refuge with Allah and recite the opening Ayat of Surat al-Kahf, and it will become cool and peaceful for him, as the fire became cool and peaceful for Abraham. He will say to a Bedouin, What do you think if I bring your father and mother back to life for you? Will you bear witness that I am your lord? The Bedouin will say Yes, so two devils will assume the appearance of his father and mother, and will say, “O my son, follow him for he is your lord.” He will be given power over one person, whom he will kill and cut in two with a saw. Then he will say, ‘Look at this slave of mine, now I will resurrect him, but he will still claim that he has a Lord other than me. Allah will resurrect him, and this evil man (the Dajjal) will say to him, ‘Who is your Lord? The man will answer, ‘My Lord is Allah, and you are the enemy of Allah. You are the Dajjal. By Allah, I have never been more sure of this than I am today. Abu Said said, “The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said, ‘That man will have the highest status among my Ummah in Paradise.” Abu Said said, “By Allah, we never thought that that man would be any other than ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, until he passed away.”
Al-Muharibi said: “Then we referred to the Hadith of Abu Rafii, which said, ‘Part of his Fitnah will be the fact that he will pass through an area whose people will deny him, and none of their livestock will remain alive. Then he will pass through a second area whose people will believen him; he will order the sky to rain and the earth to bring forth crops, and their flocks will return from grazing fatter than they have ever been, with their flanks stretched, their udders full. He will pass through every
Umm Sharik bint Abil-Akr said, “O Messenger of Allah, where will the Arabs be at that time?” He said, “At that time they will be few; most of them will be in Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), and their Imam will be a righteous man. Whilst their Imam is going forward to lead the people in praying Salat al-Subh (the morning prayer), Jesus son of Mary will descend. The Imam will step back, to let Jesus lead the people in prayer, but Jesus will place his hand between the mans shoulders and say, ‘Go forward and Jesus will say, ‘You will remain alive until I strike you with my sword. He will catch up with him at the eastern gate of Ludd[1] and will kill him. The Jews will be deflated with the help of Allah. There will be no place for them to hide; they will not be able to hide behind any stone, wall, animal or tree – except the boxthorn (al-Gharqarah) – without saying, ‘O Muslim servant of Allah! here is a Jew, come and kill him!”
The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said, “The time of the Dajjal will be forty years; one year like half a year, one year like a month, and one month like a week. The rest of his days will pass so quickly that if one of you were at one of the gates of Madinah, he would not reach the other gate Someone asked, “O Messenger of Allah, how will we pray in those shorter days?” He said, “Work out the times of prayer in the same way that you do in these longer days, and then pray.” The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said, “Jesus son of Mary will be a just administrator and leader of my Ummah. He will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizyah (tax on non-Muslims). He will not collect the Sadaqah,[2] so he will not collect sheep and camels. Mutual enmity and hatred will disappear. Every harmful animal will be made harmless, so that a small boy will be able to put his hand into a snakes mouth without being harmed, a small girl will be able to make a lion run away from her, and a wolf will go among sheep as if he were a sheepdog. The earth will be filled with peace as a container is filled with water. People will be in complete agreement, and only Allah will be worshipped. Wars will cease, and the authority of Quraysh will be taken away. The earth will be like a silver basin, and will produce fruits so abundantly that a group of people will gather to eat a bunch of grapes or one pomegranate and will be satisfied. A bull will be worth so much money, but a horse will be worth only a few dirhams.” Someone asked, “O Messenger of Allah, why will a horse be so cheap?” He said, “Because it will never be ridden in war.” He was asked, “Why will the bull be so expensive?” He said, “Because it will plough the earth. For three years before the Dajjal emerges, the people will suffer severe hunger. In the first year, Allah will order the sky to withhold a third of its rain, and the earth to withhold two-thirds of its fruits. In the third year, He will order the sky to withhold all of its rain, and the earth to withhold all of its fruits, so that nothing green will grow. Every cloven-hoofed creature will die except for whatever Allah wills.” Someone asked, “How will the people live at that time?” He said, “By saying La ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Subhan Allah and Al-Hamdu-lillah. This will be like food for them.”
The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said, “The Dajjal will come forth, and one of the Believers will go towards him. The armed men of the Dajjal will ask him, ‘Where are you going? He will say, ‘I am going to this one who has come forth. They will say, ‘Kill him! Then some of them will say to the others, ‘Hasnt your lord [ie the Dajjal] forbidden you to kill anyone without his permission? So they will take him to the Dajjal, and when the Believer sees him, he will say, ‘O People, this is the Dajjal |
Footnotes:
1 Ludd: the biblical Lydda, now known as Lod, site of the zionist states major airport.
2 “He will break the cross and kill pigs”, i.e. Christianity will be annulled.
“He will not collect the Sadaqah (i.e. Zakat) – because there will be so much wealth, and no-one will be in need of Sadaqah.
(NOTE: If you want to build a strong and powerful relationship with Allah, check out Islamia TV, where you can watch Islamic speakers from across the globe deliver inspiring and motivational courses. Learn more at www.islamia.tv.)
