“The Dajjāl will emerge among my community and remain among them for forty days, or forty nights, or forty months. Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, will send Jesus son of Mary—who resembles ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd al-Thaqafī—and he will appear and kill him. People will then live for seven years after him, with no enmity between any two people. Then Allah will send a cold wind from the direction of Syria, which will take the soul of everyone whose heart contains even an atom’s weight of faith…”

It was recorded by Ahmad (2/166) and Muslim (8/201). Al-Hākim included it among the reports he believed Muslim had omitted (4/543–544 and 550–551), but this was an oversight. It was also recorded by Ibn Hibbān (7309) and Ibn Mandah (98/2).

I say: This does not contradict the hadiths cited earlier, because it contains an expression of uncertainty. This apparently comes from one of its narrators. The narrator who is uncertain does not know, whereas the others stated categorically that it was forty days. The testimony of one who knows takes precedence over that of one who does not. It is also possible that the uncertainty came from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) himself, before he received revelation concerning the duration of those days, and that this was subsequently revealed to him. This is supported by the hadith of Abū Hurayrah: “In forty days—Allah knows best how long they will be.” Ibn Hibbān adds: “Allah knows best how long they will be” (twice).

39 - This version is weak and singular, contradicting the authentic hadiths referred to above. The reliably transmitted wording in those hadiths is:

“Forty days: one day like a year, one day like a month, one day like a week, and the rest of his days like your days now.”