(2) This hadith—and the many others of the same tenor—refutes their objection; the Qur’an itself affirms the matter. The Almighty says: “If only you could see when the wrongdoers are in the throes of death, while the angels stretch forth their hands, saying, ‘Release your souls! Today you shall be repaid with the humiliating torment for what you used to say against Allah without right, and for your arrogance toward His signs.’” (6:93). He also says: “An evil punishment closed in upon the House of Pharaoh: the Fire, to which they are exposed morning and evening; and on the Day the Hour is established it will be said, ‘Admit the House of Pharaoh to the most severe punishment.’” (40:46). Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar discusses these two verses in Fath al-Bari (3/180–186), explains them, and comments on the hadiths al-Bukhari cited in this chapter. Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir treats the subject in detail as well; see his Tafsir (2/531–538). (1) The linguists say that fitnah means “trial” and “test.” Qadi Iyad adds that, in common usage, it denotes exposing what is disliked. This is noted in Fath al-Bari. Know that the reports concerning the advent of the dajjal (Antichrist) at the end of time are exceedingly numerous—indeed, they are mutawatir, so abundant that no intelligent, informed person can deny, reinterpret, or dismiss them; taken together, they establish his appearance beyond doubt. He will be a young man with curly hair; the Prophet ﷺ likened him to ‘Abd al-‘Uzza ibn Qatan. He will be one-eyed, with the word “kafir” (disbeliever) written between his eyes, which every believer—literate or illiterate—will read. He will emerge between Syria and Iraq, followed by seventy thousand Jews of Isfahan wearing cloaks. His stay on earth will be forty days: a day like a year, a day like a month, a day like a week, and the remainder like our ordinary days. His movement across the earth will be as swift as rain driven by the wind. No town will he leave untouched except Mecca and Madinah. He will command the sky and it will rain, and the earth and it will produce vegetation. He will appear to bring with him a semblance of Paradise and Hellfire, visible to the eye, and he will seize a man—