and a similar version was recorded by al-Hākim and the others mentioned earlier (p. 63), through ʿAtiyyah, from him.

The other is from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, who reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said concerning the Dajjāl:

“Whatever may confuse you about him, Allah is not one-eyed. He will emerge and remain on earth for forty mornings, coming to every watering place except the Kaʿbah, Jerusalem and Medina. A month will be like a week, and a week like a day. He will have with him a garden and a fire, but his fire will be a garden and his garden a fire. He will have with him a mountain of bread and a river of water.

“He will summon a man, and Allah will give him power over that man alone. He will ask, ‘What do you say about me?’ The man will reply, ‘You are the enemy of Allah, and you are the lying Dajjāl.’ He will call for a saw, position it at his head, and saw him in two until he falls to the ground. Then he will bring him back to life and ask, ‘What do you say?’ The man will reply, ‘By Allah, I have never been more certain about you than I am now. You are the enemy of Allah, the Dajjāl about whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, told us.’”

He continued: “Then he will swing his sword at him but be unable to harm him, and will say, ‘Take him away from me.’”

Al-Haythamī said (7/350):

“Recorded by al-Tabarānī; its chain includes narrators whom I do not know.”

For this reason, al-Dhahabī regarded it as a singular report, as al-Hāfiz Ibn Kathīr related from him in al-Nihāyah (1/134).

(Note): These two hadiths state that the Dajjāl will saw the believing man in two, whereas the earlier hadith of al-Nawwās states that he “strikes him with a sword and cuts him into two pieces.”

Al-Hāfiz (13/87) quoted Ibn al-ʿArabī as saying: