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ALL ABOUT DAJJAAL (THE “ANTICHRIST”) OR THE FALSE MESSIAH [PART 1]
One of the major signs of the hour I.e., Saa’ah kubraa (the greater Hour) and extraordinary events that will appear shortly before the Day of Judgement will be the emergence of AD-DAJJAL [The “Antichrist, The False Messiah…]. And it is such an important matter that every believer should be aware and bearing in mind!
▪ Who is the Dajjal?
▪ what are his attributes?
▪ Where will the Dajjal emerge from?
These are some of the likely questions you will want to know as a believer in the “part 1” of this article which is in accordance with the authentic proves from the narrations/ahadeeth of our Noble Prophet [sollallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam].
Some of the saheeh [authentic] ahadeeth that form part of the evidence (dalil) concerning the emergence of the Dajjal is as follows:
a) Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), reported, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “No Prophet was sent but he warned his people about the one-eyed liar. He is one-eyed, but your Lord is not one-eyed, and between his eyes will be written ‘kafir.’” (Al-Bukhari,6598). According to another report: “Written between his eyes will be ‘kaf fa ra.’” (Muslim,5219) According to a report narrated by Hudhayfah, “This will be read by every believer, literate or illiterate.” (Muslim,5223).
b) From ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Whilst I was sleeping, I saw myself performing Tawaf around the Ka’bah, when I saw a dark man with straight hair, standing between two other men, with water dripping from his head. I asked, “Who is this?” They said, “The son of Maryam.” Then I turned and saw a ruddy-complexioned man, well built, with curly hair, blind in his right eye, with his eye looking like a floating grape. I asked, “Who is this?” They said, “This is the Dajjal.” The person who looks most like him is Ibnu Qatan.’” ( Al-Bukhaari,6508; Ibn Qatan was a man from Banu Mustalaq from Khuza’ah).
Who is the Dajjal?
Firstly, Dajjal is also known as “The false messiah (al-Masih al-Dajjal)”. Meanwhile, the word Masih (Messiah) according to over fifty scholarly comments on the meaning said that this word is applied both to the Truthful One [True Messiah, i.e., ‘Isa (Jesus)] and to the misleading liar [the “antichrist” or Dajjal].
The True Messiah is the Truthful One, ‘Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary), the Messiah of guidance, who healed those who were born blind and lepers, and brought the dead to life by Allah’s Leave(Mercy).
The false messiah (al-Masih al-Dajjal) is the liar who leads people astray, the messiah of misguidance who will tempt people by means of the signs that he is given, such as bringing down rain, reviving the earth to bring forth vegetation, and other “miracles.”
So, Allah has created two messiahs, who are opposites of one another.
Why the Dajjal is called Masih?
The most correct view of the scholars is that the reason why the Dajjal is called masih (a “messiah”) is because one of his eyes is mamsuh (lit. “wiped”; smooth or abraded, i.e., he will be blind or defective in one eye).
It was narrated from Anas ibn Malik, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The Dajjal will be blind (mamsuh) in one eye, and between his eyes will be written ‘kafir’…’”. Muslim (no. 5221)
Meaning of the word Dajjal
The word “Dajjal” became a title given to the lying, one-eyed, false messiah. The Dajjal is so called because he will conceal his kufr from the people by lying to them, deceiving them, and confusing them.
Attributes of the Dajjal
Among the attributes of the Dajjaal are:
He will be a young man with a ruddy complexion, short, with thick curly hair, a wide forehead, and broad upper chest, blind or defective (mamsuh) in the right eye. This eye will be neither prominent nor sunken and will look like a floating grape.
His left eye will be covered with a thick piece of flesh growing at the edge of his eye. Written between his eyes will be “Kaf fa ra (K-F-R)”, in separate (Arabic) letters, or “kafir”, with the letters joined. This will be read by every Muslim, literate or illiterate.
Another of his characteristics will be that he will be sterile, with no children born to him. The Dajjal will not have any children, as stated in the hadith of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), who described what happened between him and Ibn Sayyad, who said to him: “Did you not hear the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say that he will have no children? …” Abu Sa’id said, ‘I said, ‘Yes…’” (NMuslim, 5209).
We have seen some these attributes in the aforementioned ahadeeth and here are other hadiths which stated other characteristics of him:
c) Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘… as for the false messiah, he will be one-eyed, with a wide forehead and broad upper chest, and he will be hunchbacked…’” (Narrated by Ahmad, no. 7564).
d) Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The Dajjal will be one-eyed, blind, or defective in his left eye, with thick hair. He will have with him a paradise and a hell, but his hell will be a paradise and his paradise will be a hell.’” (Narrated by Muslim, no. 5222).
Where will the Dajjal emerge from?
The Dajjal will emerge from the direction of the east, from Khurasan, from among the Jews of Isfahan. Then he will travel throughout the earth and will leave no city without entering it, apart from Makkah and Madinah , which he will not be able to enter because the angels are guarding them.
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) told us: “The Dajjal will emerge from a land in the east called Khurasan.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, no. 2163. Classed as sahih by al-Albani, Sahih al-Jami’ al-Saghir, hadith 3398).
Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
“The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The Dajjal will emerge from among the Jews of Isfahan, and with him will be seventy thousand Jews, wearing crowns.’” (Narrated by Ahmad, no. 12865).
In-Shaa-Allaah, we shall continue in the part 2 on:
▪ The followers of the Dajjal?
▪ The fitnah of the Dajjal ?
▪ Protection against the fitnah of the Dajjal?
▪ Prophetic guidelines on how to protect yourself from the fitnah of the Dajjal?
▪ Who will kill the Dajjal?
▪ Hadiths about the death of the Dajjal
We ask Allah to keep us safe and sound.