ʿAbdān said in his book Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥābah: “Sufyān al-Thawrī related from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maysarah, from Ḥawṭ al-ʿAbdī, from Ibn Masʿūd who said: ‘The ear of the Dajjal’s donkey will cast shade over seventy thousand people.’”
Our teacher, the ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī, commented: “Ḥawṭ is unknown, and the report itself is objectionable.”
Among the descriptions also transmitted is that “kāfir” (unbeliever) will be written between his eyes—every believer will read it—and that the back of his head will look like an aṣlah (a serpent), perhaps because his skull is unusually long.
Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq said: Ḥajjāj narrated to us; Ḥammād narrated to us; from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, who said: “I entered the mosque and found the people crowding around a man. I heard him saying, ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare: “After me there will come the great lying misleader; the back of his head is ḥubuk ḥubuk.”’ A corroborating chain for this has already been cited (1).
Ḥubuk means tightly-curled, coarse hair, as in Allah’s words: ‘By the heaven endowed with hubuk’ ⦗51:7⦘.
Imam Aḥmad said: Yazīd narrated to us; al-Masʿūdī narrated to us—and Abū al-Naḍr likewise narrated to us with the same sense—from ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“I came out to you after the Night of Decree and the Antichrist of misguidance had both been shown to me. Two men were arguing at the gate of the mosque, so I went to separate them and the details slipped from my memory. Still, I shall give you a glimpse of what I was shown. Concerning the Night of Decree: seek it in the last ten nights, on the odd-numbered ones. As for the Messiah of misguidance: he is one-eyed, with a broad, prominent forehead and a wide bridge of the nose; in him there is dafaʿ (2). He resembles Qaṭan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā.”
Someone asked, “O Messenger of Allah, will his resemblance harm me?” He replied, “No. You are a Muslim man, whereas he is a disbelieving man.” Aḥmad alone recorded this report, and its chain is ḥasan (3).
Al-Ṭabarānī said: Abū Shuʿayb al-Ḥarrānī narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Mūsā narrated to us; [and] Muḥammad ibn Shuʿayb al-Aṣbahānī narrated to us; Saʿīd ibn ʿAnbasah narrated to us. They said: Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Thaqafī narrated to us; Ḥallām ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; Sulaymān ibn Shahāb al-ʿAbsī informed me: ʿAbd Allah ibn Maghnam—who had been one of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ—stayed with me and related from the Prophet ﷺ that he said:
“The Dajjal will not remain hidden. He will come from the direction of the East, call people to the truth, and they will follow him. He will stand before the people and fight them, prevailing over them. He will continue in that state until he reaches Kūfah, where he will proclaim Allah’s religion and act upon it, and the people will follow him and love him for that.
“Then he will afterwards say, ‘I am a prophet,’ and every person of sound mind will take fright and forsake him. He will linger until he finally says, ‘I am Allah,’ whereupon his right eye will wither…”