signs, such as causing rain to fall, bringing the earth to life with vegetation, and other extraordinary feats.

The Dajjal was called a messiah because one of his eyes is effaced, or because he will traverse the earth in forty days (1). The first view is more likely, based on the hadith: “The Dajjal’s eye is effaced” (2).

The Meaning of “Dajjal”

The term al-Dajjal derives from the expression dajala al-ba‘īr, meaning that one coated a camel with tar and thereby covered it (3).

The root meaning of dajl is mixing. The verb dajala is used when someone disguises and misrepresents something.

The Dajjal is a deceptive liar and charlatan. The word follows the intensive morphological pattern fa‘‘āl, indicating that he lies and deceives profusely (4). Its plural is dajjālūn. Imam Mālik also gave its plural as dajājilah, which is a broken plural (5).

Al-Qurtubī stated that, in Arabic, the word dajjāl is used in ten senses (6).