—and he will say, ‘I testify that you are the Dajjāl of whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, told us.’ The Dajjāl will say, ‘Tell me: if I kill this man and then bring him back to life, will you have any doubts?’ They will say, ‘No.’ So he will kill him and then bring him back to life. Upon being brought back to life, the man will say, ‘By Allah, I have never been more certain about you than I am now!’ He said: ‘The Dajjāl will then try to kill him a second time, but he will not be given power over him.’”

It was related by ʿAbd al-Razzāq (20824): Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUtbah informed me that Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said—then he related the report and added:

“Maʿmar said: ‘I have been told that a copper plate will be placed over his throat. I have also been told that the man whom the Dajjāl kills and then brings back to life is al-Khidr.’”

Ibn Hibbān (6763) also related it through ʿAbd al-Razzāq.

Ahmad (3/36) likewise related it from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, without Maʿmar’s aforementioned statement.

Al-Bukhārī (13/86–88), Muslim (8/199), and Ibn Mandah (95/1) also related it through other chains from al-Zuhrī. Muslim added:

“Abū Ishāq said: ‘It is said that this man is al-Khidr, peace be upon him.’”

I say: This Abū Ishāq is none other than Ibrāhīm ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyān, the ascetic, who transmitted Sahīh Muslim from its author, as al-Hāfiz explicitly affirmed (13/88–89), following ʿIyād, al-Nawawī, and others.

I say: His precedent for this is the previously mentioned report that reached Maʿmar. It provides no proof, however, since it is a report whose original speaker is unknown. Even if he were known, it would still be only a later narrator’s statement. And al-Khidr had died before the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him