the Messenger of Allah ﷺ then set out, accompanied by Ubayy ibn Kaʿb al-Anṣārī, toward the palm-groves where Ibn Ṣayyād was. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered the grove he began shielding himself behind the trunks of the palm-trees, moving stealthily (1) so that he might hear something from Ibn Ṣayyād before the latter saw him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ spotted him lying on a couch wrapped in a thick cloak, muttering indistinctly (2). Ibn Ṣayyād’s mother noticed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as he was slipping behind the tree-trunks and called out to her son, “Yā Ṣāf!”—Ṣāf was Ibn Ṣayyād’s name—“This is Muḥammad!” Ibn Ṣayyād leapt to his feet, whereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Had she left him, the matter would have become clear.” (3)

Sālim continued: ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then stood before the people, praised Allah Most High as He deserves to be praised, and mentioned the Dajjāl, saying:

‘I am indeed warning you about him. Every prophet warned his people about him; even Noah warned his people. Yet I will tell you concerning him something no prophet ever told his people: know that he is one-eyed, whereas Allah, Exalted is He, is not one-eyed.’

Ibn Shihāb added: ʿUmar ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī told me that one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informed him that, on the day the Prophet ﷺ cautioned the people about the Dajjāl, he said:

‘Written between his eyes is “kāfir” (unbeliever); it will be read by anyone who detests his deeds, or every believer will read it.

Know that none of you will see his Lord—Exalted is He—until he dies.’

The root version of this report is in al-Bukhārī, transmitted through az-Zuhri from Sālim from his father with similar wording. (4)

Muslim likewise narrated—through ʿUbayd Allah, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while addressing the people about the Dajjāl, said:

‘Allah, Exalted is He, is not one-eyed. Truly, al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl is blind in his right eye; it is like a shriveled grape.’ (5)

Muslim also related—from Shuʿbah, from Qatādah, from Anas—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘There has never been a prophet who did not warn his nation of the one-eyed liar. Verily, he is one-eyed, and your Lord is not one-eyed; written between his eyes are the letters k f r.’ Al-Bukhārī recorded it as well through Shuʿbah with similar wording. (6)

Muslim said: Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; ʿAffān narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wārith narrated to us; from Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb; from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

‘The Dajjāl is blind in one eye; written between his eyes is “kāfir,”’—he then spelled it out: k f r—‘which every Muslim will read.’ (7)

Aḥmad said: Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us; from Dāwūd ibn ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd ibn Mālik