Answer: There is no doubt that every Muslim is required to do whatever strengthens his creed and faith: to increase in acts of obedience, to adhere to the sound creed, to fulfil the duties and refrain from the prohibitions. This obligation applies throughout his life; it is not confined to protection against the Antichrist. It is the religious duty that Allah has imposed on him. Whoever therefore holds fast to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ, carries out what Allah has made obligatory, and seeks refuge in Allah from the evil of trials—Allah, exalted is He, will preserve and protect him.

Question: Are there places the Messiah al-Dajjāl cannot reach?

Answer: Yes. He will not be able to enter Mecca and Medina. He will traverse the earth swiftly, but Mecca and Medina are barred to him. Yet Medina will quake, and every hypocrite will depart from it so that he falls prey to the Dajjāl’s evil—we seek Allah’s protection.

*** Matters Necessarily Known of the Religion ***

Question: What is meant by “matters necessarily known of the religion”? We hear this phrase often. Is it constant in every age, or does it change with time and place?

Answer: A matter necessarily known of the religion is one established by a definitive proof—either through mass transmission (tawātur) or by the definitive consensus of the ummah—such that whoever denies it is judged a disbeliever. Examples include: the obligation of the five daily prayers, zakah, fasting, pilgrimage, and the pillars of Islam in general; likewise the prohibition of wine, ribā (prohibited interest), and fornication. It also encompasses what is permitted and whose permissibility is necessarily known in Islam, such as the meat of properly slaughtered livestock, bread, and similar staples—anything whose ruling is necessarily established by Islam.