from Abu Hurayrah, who reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “At the mountain passes of Madinah there are angels; neither plague nor the Dajjal will enter it.” (1)

Al-Bukhari also said: ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abd Allah related to us; Ibrahim ibn Sa‘d narrated to me from his father [from his grandfather] from Abu Bakrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

“The terror of the Messiah al-Dajjal will not enter Madinah. On that day it will have seven gates, and at each gate there will be two angels.” (2)

A number of Companions transmitted this report—among them Abu Hurayrah, Anas ibn Malik, Salamah ibn al-Akwah, and Mihjan ibn al-Adra‘—as mentioned earlier.

Al-Tirmidhi said: ‘Abdah ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Khuza‘i narrated to us; Yazid ibn Harun narrated to us; Shu‘bah narrated to us from Qatadah, from Anas, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

“The Dajjal will come to Madinah and will find angels guarding it; neither plague nor the Dajjal will enter it, if Allah Most High so wills.”

Al-Bukhari likewise recorded it through Yahya ibn Musa and Ishaq ibn Abi ‘Isa, both from Yazid ibn Harun with this chain. Al-Tirmidhi then remarked, “This hadith is sound.” Further corroborating narrations come from Abu Hurayrah, Fatimah bint Qays, Mihjan, Usamah, and Samurah ibn Jundub—may Allah be pleased with them all. (3)

It is also established in the Sahih collections that the Dajjal will enter neither Mecca nor Madinah; the angels bar him, in honor of these two sanctuaries, which are safe protected precincts. However, when he encamps at the salt flats outside Madinah, the city will quake with its inhabitants three times—whether in a physical sense or a figurative one, according to two scholarly views—whereupon every hypocrite, male and female, will go out to him. (4) On that day Madinah will expel its impurities and its goodness will shine forth, as noted earlier.

A concise account of the Dajjal—may Allah curse him

He is a man from the descendants of Adam. Allah created him as a trial and test for the people at the end of time: through him many will go astray and many will be guided, yet none are led astray by him except the defiantly sinful.

Al-Hafiz Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Abbar narrated in his History, through Mujalid from al-Sha‘bi, that he said: “The Dajjal’s kunya (teknonym) is Abu Yusuf.”

It has also been reported from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, Abu Dharr, Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah, and other Companions—as mentioned earlier—that he is Ibn Sayyad.

Imam Ahmad said: Yazid narrated to us; Hammad ibn Salamah narrated to us from ‘Ali ibn Zayd, from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakrah, from his father, who reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The parents of the Dajjal will remain for thirty years without a child being born to them, then …”