as for me, I shall now tell you about myself: I am al-Masīḥ (the Messiah). Very soon permission will be granted for me to depart; when I do, I will traverse the earth, leaving no town unvisited within forty nights—except Mecca and Taybah. Both of them are forbidden to me: whenever I attempt to enter either one, an angel confronts me with a drawn sword and drives me away, and at every mountain pass leading to them stand angels guarding it.’

She said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then struck the pulpit with his staff and declared, ‘This is Taybah! This is Taybah! This is Taybah!’—meaning Medina. He then asked, ‘Have I not already told you about this?’ The people replied, ‘Yes.’ He continued, ‘What pleases me about Tamīm’s account is that it confirms what I have been telling you about Medina and Mecca. Indeed, he (the Dajjāl) is in the Syrian Sea, or in the Yemeni Sea—no, rather he is in the direction of the East, in the direction of the East,’ and he pointed with his hand toward the East.

She said: I committed this to memory from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Muslim also transmitted it through the chain of Siyyār, from al-Shaʿbī, from Fāṭimah, who said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was preaching from the pulpit, and he said, “Some paternal cousins of Tamīm al-Dārī embarked upon the sea…”’—and he related the story. The ḥadīth is likewise reported through Ghaylān ibn Jarīr, from al-Shaʿbī, from her… She recounted that Tamīm al-Dārī sailed upon the sea, the ship lost its way, and it came to an island. He went ashore seeking water and met a man whose hair was trailing… She told the story to its end, in which it says: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then brought him before the people and informed them, saying, “This is Taybah, and that is the Dajjāl.”’

Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr narrated to us: al-Mughīrah—meaning al-Ḥizāmī—narrated to us, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Shaʿbī, from Fāṭimah bint Qays: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat upon the pulpit and said, ‘O people, Tamīm al-Dārī has informed me that some men of his people were at sea on their ship; it broke apart, and some of them clung to a plank from the ship until they reached an island in the sea…’—and he narrated the ḥadīth.

Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah have also recorded it through the narration of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from her, with a similar wording. Al-Tirmidhī transmitted it through Qatādah, from al-Shaʿbī, from her, and said: ‘It is ḥasan, ṣaḥīḥ, and gharib through the chain of Qatādah from al-Shaʿbī.’ Al-Nasāʾī likewise narrated it through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from al-Shaʿbī, from her, in a similar fashion. Imām Aḥmad also recorded it from ʿAffān and from Yūnus ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾaddib, each of them from Ḥammād ibn Salamah with this chain (1).

And Imām Aḥmad said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Mujālid narrated to us, from ʿĀmir, who said: ‘I came to Medina and visited Fāṭimah bint Qays. She informed me that her husband had divorced her during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had dispatched him on a military expedition. His brother said to me, “Leave the house.” I replied, “I am entitled to provision and lodging until the waiting period expires.” He said, “No.” She continued, “So I went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘So-and-so has divorced me, and his brother has evicted me and denied me lodging…’”