of tasbīḥ, and between his eyes will be written: “Unbeliever.” Every believer, whether literate or illiterate, will read it. (1)

Hadith of al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah (may Allah be pleased with him)

Muslim said: Shihāb ibn ʿAbbād al-ʿAbdī narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥumayd al-Ruʾāsī narrated to us; from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid; from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim; from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said:
“No one questioned the Prophet ﷺ about the Dajjal more than I did. He said, ‘What is it that unsettles you about him? He will not harm you.’ I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, they claim he will have food and rivers with him.’ He replied, ‘He is more insignificant in Allah’s sight than that.’ ”

Surayj ibn Yūnus narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; from Ismāʿīl; from Qays; from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said:
“No one asked the Prophet ﷺ about the Dajjal more than I did. He said, ‘And what is your question?’ I said, ‘They claim he will have mountains of bread and meat, and a river of water, with him.’ He answered, ‘He is more trivial in Allah’s sight than that.’ ”

Muslim also recorded this ḥadīth in the chapter on Seeking Permission through numerous chains from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, and al-Bukhārī transmitted it through Musaddad, from Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, from Ismāʿīl with the same chain. (2)

It has already been mentioned in the ḥadīth of Ḥudhayfah and others that his water will be fire and his fire cool water; this is only an illusion to the eye.

A number of scholars—such as Ibn Ḥazm, al-Ṭaḥāwī, and others—have taken this ḥadīth as evidence that the Dajjal is a deceiving illusionist, that what he shows people in his time has no real substance, and that all of it is mere phantoms. Shaykh Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, the leading Muʿtazilī, likewise held that none of it can be real, lest the feats of a sorcerer be confused with the miracles of a prophet.

Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and others responded that the Dajjal’s claim to divinity, which contradicts his humanity, removes any objection to genuine wonders being made manifest at his hands in that condition.

Many factions among the Khārijites, the Jahmiyyah, and some Muʿtazilah have denied the appearance of the Dajjal altogether and rejected the aḥādīth concerning him. In doing so they have accomplished nothing and have placed themselves outside the circle of the scholars, for they have rejected reports that are mass-transmitted and sound from multiple routes back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, as detailed earlier. We have cited only a portion of what has come on this subject, and it is sufficient and satisfactory; Allah’s help is sought.

From the foregoing aḥādīth it is clear that Allah will test His servants through the Dajjal by granting him tangible wonders in his era. As already noted, those who respond to him he will command the sky, and it will rain for them, and he will command the earth, and it will bring forth their crops.