“There will be among you people from this community who deny stoning, deny the Dajjāl, deny the sun’s rising from the west, deny the punishment of the grave, deny intercession, and deny that people will emerge from the Fire after they have been charred. If I live to see them, I will surely slay them as ‘Ād and Thamūd were slain.”

Recorded by al-Dānī in al-Fitan (fol. 23/2), and by Ahmad (1/23) in abridged form. Its chain of transmission is good.

The second consideration that encouraged me to write this treatise is that people in general—common people and the elite alike, with such exceptions as Allah wills—no longer speak of the appearance of the Dajjāl and the descent of Jesus (peace be upon him). This bears out the report in Zawā’id Musnad Ahmad (4/72), from Rāshid ibn Sa‘d, who said:

When Istakhr was conquered, a herald proclaimed, “Listen! The Dajjāl has appeared!”

He continued: Al-Sa‘b ibn Jaththāma then met them and said, “Were it not for what you are saying, I would tell you that I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say:

‘The Dajjāl will not appear until people become heedless of mentioning him and the imams cease mentioning him from the pulpits.’” (1).