—days like those we normally experience. Yet Allah, exalted is He, made the Companions alert to the issue, so they asked, “Messenger of Allah, that day which is as long as a year—would a single set of prayers be enough for us?” In other words, would the five daily prayers performed once suffice for the entire span? He replied, “No. Calculate its duration,” meaning: perform within that single day the full complement of prayers for an entire year. Some scholars have therefore deduced that a person could, in principle, become liable for the prayers of a whole year in just one day. On the same basis it has been said that a person’s zakah may also fall due all at once on such a day. Likewise, they reason that fasting the month of Ramadan would amount to fasting a portion of that day—one-twelfth of it—because thirty days are one twelfth of three hundred and sixty.
This is the Dajjāl’s day. Glory be to Allah, the All-Wise! Before the death of the Master of the Messengers ﷺ He perfected the religion for us and inspired the Companions to ask whether one prayer would suffice on that extraordinary day or not. Even now there are regions of the earth—within the polar circle—where daylight lasts six months and night another six: for six consecutive months the sun never sets, and for the next six they do not see it at all. How, then, should those people pray? Do they perform only one normal day-and-night cycle, or must they calculate the times? We say: they must calculate the times, exactly as will be done on the Dajjāl’s day.
The second of the Dajjāl’s days will be like a month; the prayers for that day will be the prayers of a month. The third will be like a week; its prayers will be those of a week. The fourth and all the remaining days will be like our ordinary days.
The Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—next asked about the Dajjāl’s movement across the earth: would it be at the usual speed of camels or of people on foot? He ﷺ replied, “He will travel like rain driven by the wind.” Allah alone knows the nature of that speed—whether He will provide him with machinery, aircraft, or something else. We cannot be certain, but the Prophet ﷺ informed us that he will sweep through the earth like rain for a year, a month, and forty-four days, after which Jesus son of Mary will descend and kill him. Allah is the One who grants success.
Continuing the previous narration, the author—may Allah have mercy on him—in the chapter on scattered reports, the minor portents of the Hour, and similar matters, cites the ḥadīth of al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān (may Allah be pleased with him) concerning certain signs of the Hour, among them the Dajjāl. We have already mentioned that the word “Dajjāl” stems from dajl: deception, falsehood, and delusion; that he is a disbeliever; and that he will emerge at a pass between Greater Syria and Iraq, by a route that comes from the direction of Iran. Seventy thousand Jews of Isfahan will follow him; it is as though—Allah knows best—they will gather there expressly to join him, for the Jews are a people famed for deception, lying, treachery, and betrayal and do not believe. We have also noted that he will come to a people and invite them: those who answer him will enjoy justice and prosperity, while those who refuse will experience the contrary—and so on