Antichrist (Dajjal) – The Greatest Fitnah of the World

In religion Islam there are many prophecies about the future of the world. It has been fourteen hundred years since Islam made the prophecies in the form of the ayahs of Quran and the word of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), every one of which has proven true during this course. With the successful coming to life of all the prophecies, one can easily assume that whatever else has Islam forecasted of the future in general and the end of days in particular will also come to pass, one of which is the renowned forecasting about Dajjal or the Antichrist.

The arrival of Dajjal is one of the major Islamic prophecies pertaining to the end of times. There are numerous hadiths of Prophet (PBUH) that tell about Dajjal, the time when he will arrive, the kind of destruction he will cause and the people who will stand with or against him. The lines below the arrival of Dajjal as per the hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The Greatest Fitnah:

Hazrat Imraan bin Hussain (RA) narrates one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) pertaining to Dajjal in the following way:

“I heard Rasulullah (PBUH) saying: “Since the birth of Adam (AS) till the advent of Qiyamah there is no fitnah much greater that of Dajjal.”

From this ayah it is clear that Dajjal will be the greatest ‘fitnah’ that the world has ever witnessed since the arrival of Adam (AS) and the beginning of human race. Now the word fitnah used in this hadith can be  infrred to have two connotations, the first one which refers the ‘evil’ meaning of fitnah and the second one which refers to the ‘test or trial’ meaning of fitnah. It means that Dajjal will be the greatest evil that the world has seen and will see till the end of the days and as far as the trial or test of surviing a particular situation of adversity is concerned, Dajjal will also easily top all the adversities that human race has faced. Therefore, in all its sense, the arrival of Dajjal will be the greatest fitnah faced by humanity.

Dajjal greatest fitnah

 Signs Of Arrival:

In another hadith, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave the major signs that will surface pertaining to the arrival of Dajjal. The hadith is as follows:

“There will be three hard years before the Dajjal. During them, people will be stricken by a great famine. In the first year, Allah will command the sky to without a third of its rain, and the earth to withhold a third of its produce. In the second year, Allah will command the sky to withhold two third of its rain, and the earth to withhold two third of its produce. In the third year, Allah will command the sky to withhold all of its rain, and it will not rain a single drop of rain. He will command the earth to withhold all of its produce and no plant will grow. All hoofed animals will perish except that which Allah wills”. Prophet (PBUH) was asked, “What sustains people during that time?” He said, “Tahlil, takbir, and tahmid (Saying, la ilaha ill Allah, Allahu Akbar and al-Hamdulillah) this will sustain them just as food does.”  (Jaami)

From this hadith, a variety of things become clear pertaining to arrival of Dajjal. The first thing is that before the arrival of Dajjal the time will be of famine and the whole world would have experienced a famine of three years the severity of which would increase with the passage of time and in the third year it would be at its peak with no rain and no food. The second thing that can be inferred from this ayah pertaining to Dajjal is the way he is going to rule over people and manipulate them. The way he is going to rule over people can be inferred from the cure which Prophet (PBUH) described in this hadith for keeping the body full in the time of famine.

  1. Firstly, the food is in Tahlil which means there is no god but Allah. It means that after the famine stricken years, Dajjal will come to people and would pose as a God and thus, the evil doers will resort to his lordship which will ward the effects of famine for them, whereas those who are righteous will take resort in Tahlil and will not accept his lordship and Allah will provide for them.
  2. Secondly, the righteous in the famine will resort to Takbir, which means saying Allah is the greatest. Dajjal will strike people with all his might and those who are weak in faith or do not believe will submit to him and regard him as the greatest, whereas, the righteous will know that only Allah is the greatest and there is none who could stand against Him.
  3. Thirdly, the righteous will resort to Tahmid which means praising Allah Almighty. Those who are weak in faith or do not have it at all, when they will see the menace and might of Dajjal they will grow weary of their faith and they might turn towards Dajjal and praise him to keep them safe from all the troubles and devastation. On the other hand, those who believe in Allah will stand firm against Dajjal and will consider all this a test of their faith and for this test, they will remain grateful to Allah.

Protection From The Menace:

Although the performing of Tahlil, Takbir and Tahmid will help a Muslim get through the hard days of famine upon the arrival of Dajjal, however, whilst doing that a Muslim must also constantly seek the protection and help of Allah Almighty when it comes to fighting one of the greatest evils of the world. In order to take refuge from the menace of Dajjal a Muslim must consider reciting the following Dua which is also a hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

“O Allah! I seek Your protection from the torture of hell, and I seek Your protection from the torture of the grave, and I seek refuge with You from the mischief of life and death, and I seek Your protection from the mischief of Dajjal pretending as Messiah.” (Bukhari)

Thus, like all other menaces and troubles in life, a Muslim must also remember the menace of Dajjal and seek protection of Allah Almighty from it. Dajjal is the greatest evil, therefore, there is no denying the fact that only Allah can help a person survive that period, therefore, only He should be invoked for help.

Conclusion:

In a nutshell, the arrival of Dajjal will be one of the greatest tests of humans in general and Muslims in particular. He will arrive before the end of days, therefore, those who have faith will be separate from the ones who don’t have it, where the formers will be against him and the latter will submit to him.