al-Dajjal (the False Messiah)

Al-Masih al-Dajjal (the False Messiah) is the greatest trial that humanity will face before the Day of Judgment, described in extensive detail in the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ warned: 'There is no prophet between Adam and myself except that he warned his people about al-Dajjal.' He is described as a man, one-eyed (his right eye is like a floating grape, blind and discolored), with the word 'kafir' (disbeliever) written between his eyes — which every Muslim, literate or not, will be able to read. He will emerge from between Syria and Iraq (according to some narrations, from Khorasan — the east), followed initially by 70,000 Jews of Isfahan wearing Persian shawls. He will travel the entire earth in forty days (the first day like a year, the second like a month, the third like a week, then normal days). He will command rain and crops to grow, command the earth to yield its treasures, and command the sky to withhold rain — trials that will deceive many. He will claim to be the Messiah, then to be Lord. He will be given power to produce fire and apparent paradise and hell — which are actually the reverse. The Prophet ﷺ advised: 'Whoever hears of the Dajjal, let him flee from him. By Allah, a man will think he is a believer and follow him because of his confusing trials.' His only limits: he cannot enter Mecca or Medina. He will be killed by Isa ibn Maryam AS at the gate of Ludd (Lod, Israel) at the end of the battle. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'From the time of Adam until the Hour, there is no creation greater in trial than al-Dajjal.'