For this reason, some people were puzzled that the Prophet—may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace—said:

“He is one-eyed,”

and that he said:

“Know that none of you will see his Lord until he dies.”

Ibn al-Khatīb denied that the Prophet—may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace—had said this, because the signs that the Dajjāl had a beginning and was imperfect were too obvious to require refuting his claim by pointing out that he was one-eyed.

But when we understood the true nature of the teachings of these proponents of union and reflected on the errors into which the Christians and proponents of divine indwelling had fallen, the reason why the Prophet—may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace—directed his community to this sign became clear. He was sent as a mercy to all worlds. Since many people consider it possible for the Lord to manifest Himself in human beings, or maintain that He is Himself those human beings, pointing to the Dajjāl’s blindness in one eye provides evidence that he is not divine.

Long ago, one of the finest of our associates—who had inclined toward the doctrine of union but later repented of it—spoke to me and mentioned this hadith, and I explained its significance to him.

A man also came to us who claimed to be the Seal of the Saints. He asserted that when al-Hallāj said, “I am the Truth,” it was Allah Most High speaking through his tongue, just as a jinn speaks through the tongue of a possessed person. He further claimed that when the Companions heard the speech of Allah Most High from the Prophet—may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace—it was of this same kind.

I explained to him the falsity of this claim: if that were so, the Companions would have had the same standing as Moses son of ʿImrān, and those whom these people addressed would have been greater than Moses. For Moses heard the divine speech from the tree, whereas these people hear it from the speaking jinn.