Island of Dajjal

بسم الله الرحمـن الرحيم

والصلاة والسلام على نبينا محمد

وعلى آله واصحابه اجمعين

والعاقبة للمتقين

 

Island of Dajjal

 

Dajjal, or the False Messiah, will emerge from the East. There are several Ahadith established from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to this effect. One of them even explicitly mentions the country of Khorasan, which is a region divided between modern-day Iran and Afghanistan. In a previous entry I quoted that Hadith, and shall cite it again here:

 

عَنْ أَبِي بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيقِ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏الدَّجَّالُ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ أَرْضٍ بِالْمَشْرِقِ يُقَالُ لَهَا خُرَاسَانُ يَتْبَعُهُ أَقْوَامٌ كَأَنَّ وُجُوهَهُمُ الْمَجَانُّ الْمُطْرَقَةُ ‏‏

Abu Bakr As-Siddiq^RA said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ narrated to us, saying: “The Dajjal shall emerge from a land in the east called Khurasan. He is followed by a people whom appear as if their faces are shields coated with leather.” (Jami’ al-Tirmidhi: Isnaduhu Hasan)

 

According to another Hadith narrated by Abu Huraira^RA, the Prophet ﷺ said:

 

يَخْرُجُ الدَّجَّالُ مِنْ هَاهُنَا ، وَأَشَارَ نَحْوَ الْمَشْرِقِ

 

“The Dajjal shall emerge from there” and he pointed in the direction of the East

(Sahih Ibn Hibban)

 

In explanation of this narration, Imam Ibn Hibban states:

 

وَأَشَارَ نَحْوَ الْمَشْرِقِ ، أَرَادَ بِهِ الْبَحْرَيْنِ ، لأَنَّ الْبَحْرَيْنِ مَشْرِقُ الْمَدِينَةِ ، وَخُرُوجُ الدَّجَّالِ يَكُونُ مِنْ جَزِيرَةٍ مِنْ جَزَائِرِهَا ، لا مِنْ خُرَاسَانَ ، وَالدَّلِيلُ عَلَى صِحَّةِ هَذَا أَنَّهُ مُوثَقٌ فِي جَزِيرَةٍ مِنْ جَزَائِرِ الْبَحْرِ ، عَلَى مَا أَخْبَرَ تَمِيمٌ الدَّارِيُّ ، وَلَيْسَ بِخُرَاسَانَ بَحْرٌ وَلا جَزِيرَةٌ

 

“And pointing to the East, he intended by that Bahrain, because Bahrain is east of Medina. The Dajjal shall emerge from an island from among its islands, and not from Khorasan. And the evidence for this being correct is the corroboration of him [Dajjal] being in an island from among the islands of the sea in what has been reported from Tamim al-Dari^RA. And Khorasan is neither (in the) sea nor an island.” (ibid)

 

Abu Huraira^RA is referring here to a Hadith narrated by sayyidina Tamim al-Dari, a Christian who converted to Islam at the hands of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that:

 

أَنَّهُ رَكِبَ فِي سَفِينَةٍ بَحْرِيَّةٍ مَعَ ثَلاَثِينَ رَجُلاً مِنْ لَخْمٍ وَجُذَامَ فَلَعِبَ بِهِمُ الْمَوْجُ شَهْرًا فِي الْبَحْرِ ثُمَّ أَرْفَئُوا إِلَى جَزِيرَةٍ فِي الْبَحْرِ حَتَّى مَغْرِبِ الشَّمْسِ فَجَلَسُوا فِي أَقْرُبِ السَّفِينَةِ فَدَخَلُوا الْجَزِيرَةَ

 

“He had sailed in a ship along with thirty men of Lakhm and Judham and had been tossed by waves in the ocean for a month. Then these (waves) took them (near) the land within the ocean (island) at the time of sunset. They sat in a small side-boat and entered that island.” (Sahih Muslim)

 

The Hadith goes on to narrate Tamim al-Dari and his companions’ encounter with the Dajjal, shackled in an abandoned monastery on that island.

 

It is clear from this Hadith and from the explanation of Abu Huraira^RA that the island upon which Tamim al-Dari^RA was shipwrecked must have been in the Persian Gulf, in the broader region known as Bahrain. There is a clue to this in the fact that Tamim al-Dari, a former Christian, set out with Lakhmids, an Arab Christian tribe and kingdom in the pre-Islamic period that was established in modern-day southern Iraq, close to the northwestern coast of the Persian Gulf.

 

The Prophet ﷺ went on to say:

 

إِنَّهُ فِي بَحْرِ الشَّامِ أَوْ بَحْرِ الْيَمَنِ لاَ بَلْ مِنْ قِبَلِ الْمَشْرِقِ ما هُوَ مِنْ قِبَلِ الْمَشْرِقِ مَا هُوَ مِنْ قِبَلِ الْمَشْرِقِ مَا هُوَ ‏.‏ وَأَوْمَأَ بِيَدِهِ إِلَى الْمَشْرِقِ

 

“Behold he (Dajjal) is in the Syrian sea (Mediterranean) or the Yemen sea (Arabian sea). Nay, on the contrary, he is in the east, he is in the east, he is in the east, and he pointed with his hand towards the east.” (ibid)

 

Regarding the island upon which Tamim al-Dari encounted Dajjal, the Dajjal himself informed him:

 

وَهَذِهِ الْجَزِيرَةُ لَمْ يَصِلُ إِلَيْهَا آدَمِيٌّ مُذْ خَرَجْتُ إِلَيْهَا

 

“No man has ever landed on this island since I came out to it.” (Mu’jam al-Kabir)

 

This proves that the island of Dajjal was an isolated one and at the time the Dajjal entered into it, it was uninhabited. This rules out the island being Britain, which is the wild theory of Imran Hosein, an ignorant storyteller.

 

In the same Hadith, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said:

 

بَلْ هُوَ فِي بَحْرِ الْعِرَاقِ إِنْ يَخْرُجُ حِينَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ بَلْدَةٍ يُقَالُ لَهَا أَصْبَهَانُ

 

“Rather, he (Dajjal) is in the sea of Iraq (Persian Gulf). If he were to emerge he would emerge from a land that is called Asbahan.” (ibid)

 

This statement of the Prophet ﷺ is what reconciles the two apparently contradictory narrations that the Dajjal is on an island somewhere in the Persian Gulf and the narration that he shall emerge from the East in the land of Khorasan. In other words, the Dajjal is on an island in the Persian Gulf, but when he makes his appearance before the public, it will be first in the land of Asbahan, a region in Iran, or likewise from Khorasan. Isbahan is mentioned as a metropolis with a sizable Jewish population: “The city of Isbahan is distant seven days journey, it is the metropolis and residence, being twelve miles in extent and containing about fifteen thousand Jews. Sar Shalom, the Rabbi of this city and of all other towns of the Persian Empire, has been promoted to the dignity by the Prince of the captivity.” (The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela; v.1 p.128)

 

To be continued…ان شاء الله