The story of Al-Jassasah and the dajjal

‘Aamir ibn Sharaaheel Al-Sha’bi Sha’b Hamdaan narrated that he asked Faatimah bint Qays, The sister of Al-Dahhaak ibn Qays, who was the earliest Muhaajir women, “Relate to me a Hadeeth that you heard directly from the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him)”

She said,”If you wish, I will do that. “He said to her, “Yes, tell me.” She said:

 “I heard the voice of the caller of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) saying: Al-salaatu jaami’ah (prayer is about to begin), so I went out to the mosque and I prayed with the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him). I was in the women’s row that was closest to the people. When the Messenger of Allah had finished his prayer, he sat on the Minbar and he was smiling. He said, “Let each person stay in the place where he just prayed, “Then he said, “Do you know why I called you together?” They said, “Allah and his Messenger (Peace be upon him) know best.” He said, “By Allah, I did not call you together for something good or for some alarming news. I have called you together because Tameem Al-Daari was a Christian and he came and swore allegiance and became Muslim, and told me something which agrees with what I was telling you about the Dajjal (false messiah).

He told me that he sailed in a ship with thirty men of Lakhm and Judhaam and they were tossed by the waves of the sea for a month. They came to an island at sunset. They sat in a small rowing-boat and landed on that island. They were met by a beast with a great deal of hair and they could not distinguish his face from his back because he was so hairy. They said: “woe to you, what are you?” It said Al-Jassaasah. “They said: “what is Al-Jassasah?” It said, “people, go to this man in the monastery for he is keen to know about you,”’’

He the narrator said, when it named a man for us we were afraid of it lest it be a devil. Then we set off, rushing , until we came to that monastery, where we found the hugest man we has ever seen, bound strongly in chains with his hands tied to his neck and his legs bound from the knees to the ankles with iron shackles. We said, “woe to you, who are you?” He said , “you will soon find out about me ; tell  me who you are,” They said , “we are people from Arabia who embarked on a ship, but the sea became wild and the waves tossed us about for one month, then it brought us to this island of yours. We took to the rowing boats and landed on this island. We were met by a beast with a great deal of hair and we could not tell his front from his back. We said: “woe to you, what are you?” It said I am Al-Jassaasah. “We said: “what is Al-Jassasah?” It said, “, go to this man in the monastery for he is keen to know about you,”’

So we came rushing to you and we fled from it because we could not be sure that it was a devil.

He (that chained person) said: “Tell me about the date palm trees of Baysaan(1). We said “What do you want to know about them?” He said, “I am asking you whether those trees bear fruits” We said “Yes”. He said, “Soon they will not bear fruit.” He said, “Tell me about the Tiberias(2)” we said, “ what do you want to know about it” He said “Is there water in it” They said, “There is a great deal of water in it.” He said, “Soon it will dry up.” Then he said, “Tell me about the spring of Zughar(3). We said “What do you want to know about it?” He said, “Is there water in the spring and does the people grow crops with the water of the spring?” We said to him, “Yes there is plenty of water in it and the people grow crops with its water” he said, “Tell me about the Prophet of the unlettered; what has he done?” we said “He has left Makkah and has settled in Yathrib (Madeenah).” He said, “Do the Arabs fight against him” We said “Yes” He said “How did he deal with them” We told him that he had prevailed over the Arabs in his vicinity and they shown obedience to him. He said to us” Has it really happened” We said “Yes”

He said “if it is so that is better for them that they show obedience to him. Now I will tell you about myself. I am the dajjal and soon I will be given permission to emerge., So I will come out an travel in the land, and will not spare any town but I will stay for forty nights, except Makkah and Taybah (Madeenah). They are both forbidden to me, Every time I try to enter one of them, I will be met by an angel with a sword in his hand, who will bar my way, and on every route there will be angels guarding it”.

She said, Then the Messenger (Peace be upon him) struck the Minbar with his staff and said “This is Taybah, this is Taybah, this is Taybah, meaning Madeenah. Did I not tell you this before?” The people said “Yes” (The prophet (Peace be upon him) “I liked the story of Tameem because it agrees with what I used to tell you about him and about Makkah and Madeenah. But he is in Syrian Sea (Mediterranean) or the Yemeni Sea (Arabian Sea). No rather he is in the east, he is in the east, he is in the east. “ And he pointed towards the east with his hand. She said, “I memorized this from the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him). “

(1)     Baysaan: a city on the western side of the Jordon basin,south west of Tiberias.

(2)     Tiberias: Between Jordon and Palestine.

(3)     Zughar: A village in Syria on the banks of the Dead Sea (the sea of Zughar), Ibn Al-Atheer said: Zughar is a spring in Syria, in the area of Al-Balqa’. 


Souce: The end of the world by Dr. Muhammad al-'Areefi

Who is dajjal

By Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid

The false messiah (al-maseeh al-dajjaal) is the liar who leads people astray, the messiah of misguidance who will tempt people by means of the signs that he is given, such as bringing down rain, reviving the earth to bring forth vegetation, and other “miracles.”

So Allaah has created two messiahs, who are opposites of one another.

The scholars said that the reason why the Dajjaal is called maseeh (a “messiah”) is because one of his eyes is mamsooh (lit. “wiped”; smooth or abraded, i.e., he will be blind or defective in one eye). Or it was said that it is because he will survey or travel throughout the earth (yamsah) in forty days… The former view is more correct, because of what was said in the hadeeth narrated by Muslim (no. 5221) from Anas ibn Maalik, who said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘The Dajjaal will be blind (mamsooh) in one eye, and between his eyes will be written ‘kaafir’…’”.

Meaning of the word Dajjaal

The word Dajjaal is taken from the expression “Dajjala al-ba’eer (he smeared the camel)”, referring to when they covered it with tar.

The root dajala means to mix. The word dajala is used to mean deliberately confusing matters and being vague and ambiguous, The Dajjaal is the one who speaks in vagaries, who tells many lies and deceives many people.

The word “Dajjaal” became a title given to the lying, one-eyed, false messiah. The Dajjaal is so called because he will conceal his kufr from the people by lying to them, deceiving them and confusing them.

Description of the Dajjaal, and the ahaadeeth narrated concerning him

The Dajjaal will be a man from among the sons of Adam. He will have many attributes which were described in the ahaadeeth to acquaint people with him and to warn them of his evil. So when he comes, the believers will know him and will not be misled by him; they will know his features which the Truthful One (the Prophet) (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) has told us about. These features will distinguish him from other people, so that no one will be deceived by him except those who are ignorant and whose doom has already been decreed. We ask Allaah to keep us safe and sound.

Among these attributes are:

He will be a young man with a ruddy complexion, short, with thick curly hair, a wide forehead, and broad upper chest, blind or defective (mamsooh) in the right eye. This eye will be neither prominent nor sunken, and will look like a floating grape.

His left eye will be covered with a thick piece of flesh growing at the edge of his eye. Written between his eyes will be “Kaaf faa’ raa’ (K-F-R)”, in separate (Arabic) letters, or “kaafir”, with the letters joined. This will be read by every Muslim, literate or illiterate.

Another of his characteristics will be that he will be sterile, with no children born to him.

There follow some of the saheeh ahaadeeth in which the above attributes are mentioned. These ahaadeeth form part of the evidence (daleel) concerning the emergence of the Dajjaal:

From ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him), who said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Whilst I was sleeping, I saw myself performing Tawaaf around the Ka’bah, when I saw a dark man with straight hair, standing between two other men, with water dripping from his head. I asked, “Who is this?” They said, “The son of Maryam.” Then I turned and saw a ruddy-complexioned man, well built, with curly hair, blind in his right eye, with his eye looking like a floating grape. I asked, “Who is this?” They said, “This is the Dajjaal.” The person who looks most like him is Ibnu Qatan.’” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, no. 6508; Ibn Qatan was a man from Banu Mustalaq from Khuzaa’ah).