The narration is not to be understood as predicting that Madinah will be laid utterly waste before the appearance of the Dajjal; complete desolation will only occur at the very end of time, as the sound reports will shortly make clear. Rather, the revitalisation of Bayt al-Maqdis will itself become a cause of the Prophet’s city falling into decline, for people will migrate from Madinah to al-Sham in search of fertile countryside and cheaper living.

Authentic ḥadiths affirm that the Dajjal will never enter Madinah; angels stationed at its mountain passes, their unsheathed swords in hand, will bar his way.

In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari, in the tradition of Mālik, from Nuʿaym al-Mujmir, from Abū Hurayrah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Neither plague nor the Dajjal shall enter Madinah.” (1)

Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhi also relates that when the Messiah, son of Mary—may Allah have mercy upon them—dies, he will be buried in the Prophetic Chamber. (2)

Muslim recorded: ʿAmr al-Nāqid told me, al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir narrated to us, Zuhayr narrated to us, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The dwellings will reach Ihāb”—or “Yihāb.” Zuhayr said, “I asked Suhayl, ‘How far is that from Madinah?’” He replied, “Such-and-such miles.” (3)

This expansion may precede the restoration of Bayt al-Maqdis, or it may come long afterward; afterwards Madinah will be deserted completely, as the ḥadiths we shall soon cite indicate.

Al-Qurṭubī transmits through al-Walīd ibn Muslim, from Ibn Lahīʿah, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, who said that he heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) proclaim from the minbar: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘The people of Madinah will depart from it; then they will return and populate it until it is full. They will leave it once again and will never come back to it.’” (4)

A similar report is raised by Abū Saʿīd, with the additional words: “They will abandon it while it is at its best and most secure.” It was asked, “Who will consume its produce then?” He replied, “The birds and the wild beasts.” (5)

And in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ: “They will leave Madinah when it is in its finest state; no one will inhabit it except the roaming beasts,”—meaning the wild beasts and birds—“then two shepherds of Muzaynah will set out …”