to write this treatise, but when Allah—Exalted is He—wills something, He brings about the means to accomplish it. In early Jumādā al-Ūlā (1393 AH), my critical examination of “al-Fath al-Kabīr fī Damm al-Ziyāda ilā al-Jāmi‘ al-Saghīr”—and its division into two books, “Sahīh al-Jāmi‘ al-Saghīr …” and “Da‘īf al-Jāmi‘ al-Saghīr …”—brought me to the hadith of Abū Umāma al-Bāhilī (may Allah be pleased with him). It concerns how the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) warned his nation against the Dajjāl, how he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) described him as no prophet before him had done, and how Jesus (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would kill him at (Ludd) in Palestine, along with other facts concerning the Messiah of guidance and the messiah of misguidance. The critical method I had followed in the two aforementioned books required me to study and examine this hadith’s chain of transmission. I found it weak and therefore insufficient to rely upon on its own, especially in such matters of firmly established belief. Yet from my very first glance at its text, I could see that much of it was authentic and attested in the two Sahīh collections and other works of the Sunnah.

It was self-evident that such a cursory glance could not enable me to judge the entire hadith authentic and consequently include it in the first of the two books mentioned above, “Sahīh al-Jāmi‘ …”. Rather, it was essential to scrutinize all its passages—indeed, its individual words—and trace them throughout the works of the Sunnah and the various hadiths they contain that have any close or distant bearing on Jesus (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), the great Dajjāl—may Allah Most High curse him—and matters relating to them. Their chains of transmission also needed to be examined through an extensive critical study, following the approach we adopted in our two books, “Silsilat al-Ahādīth al-Sahīha” and “Silsilat al-Ahādīth al-Da‘īfa”;