They are extremely weak and cannot serve as proof in matters of religion. Most of these narratives suffer from defects in their chains of transmission, and at best a report may be sound only up to someone who is not infallible—whether a Companion or anyone else—so error on his part remains possible. Allah knows best.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq related: Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah told me that Abū Saʿīd said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ narrated to us at length concerning the Dajjāl. Among what he told us was this: The Dajjāl will come, and it will be forbidden for him to enter the mountain passes of Madīnah. On that day a man—who will be the best of people, or among the best—will go out to him and say, ‘I bear witness that you are the Dajjāl of whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informed us.’ The Dajjāl will say, ‘What do you think? If I kill this man and then bring him back to life, will you still doubt the matter?’ They will answer, ‘No.’ So he will kill him and then revive him. When the man is brought back to life he will declare, ‘By Allah, I now see you more clearly than ever.’ The Dajjāl will then try to kill him a second time, but he will not be given power over him.”

Maʿmar added: “It has reached me that the Dajjāl will place a sheet of copper on his throat; and it has reached me that this man is al-Khiḍr, whom the Dajjāl will kill and then bring back to life.”

This ḥadīth is recorded in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs through the narration of al-Zuhrī with this chain.

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān, the jurist who transmitted from Muslim, said: “What is correct is that this man is al-Khiḍr. The statement of Maʿmar and others, ‘It has reached me,’ is not a decisive proof.” In another wording of the ḥadīth it says: “A young man, full of vigor, will come out to him and the Dajjāl will kill him.” The phrase “whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informed us about” does not require direct hearing from the Prophet; mass-transmitted knowledge suffices.

Shaykh Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī—may Allah have mercy on him—undertook, in his book ‘Ujālat al-Muntaẓir fī Sharḥ Ḥāl al-Khiḍr, to examine the marfūʿ ḥadīths on this subject. He proved that they are fabricated, and with respect to reports from the Companions, the Followers, and those after them, he demonstrated the weakness of their chains by detailing the states of the narrators and the anonymity of some of them. He excelled in this and critiqued with precision.

As for those who hold that al-Khiḍr has died—among them al-Bukhārī, Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Munādī, and Shaykh Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī (who championed this position and wrote a book on it entitled ‘Ujālat al-Muntaẓir fī Sharḥ Ḥāl al-Khiḍr’)—they argue with many evidences. One is the Almighty’s saying: “We did not grant everlasting life to any human being before you” (al-Anbiyāʾ 34). If al-Khiḍr was a human being, he inevitably falls under this general statement, and exempting him from it would require authentic proof. The default is that no such proof exists, nor has anything been reported from an infallible source that must be accepted.

Another evidence is His words: “And [remember] when Allah took the covenant of the prophets, [saying], ‘Whatever I give you of scripture and wisdom, then a messenger comes to you confirming what you have, you must believe in him and support him.’ He said, ‘Do you affirm and accept My covenant on that?’ They said, ‘We affirm.’ He said, ‘Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses’” (Āl ʿImrān 81).