The story of an incident that happened to the Shaykh with some of the Dajjals in the past.

The Shaykh : As for me, I will tell you about a case that happened to me personally. I was in Dayr 'Atiyyah, a village on the road to Aleppo, thirty or forty years ago. I was there keeping the night awake, when we heard a knock on the window, not the door. The host, the owner of the house, went out to see who was knocking. We heard him making a great fuss and exaggerating in his welcome to the man who had come, saying, "Welcome, Abu So-and-so." Naturally, I and the gathering wanted to see who this noble guest was. It was a surprise to me and to him, because two opposites had come together. I know the man, and perhaps some of those present now share my acquaintance with him; he is from the 'Amara district. This guest who entered used to sit constantly and always by the southwestern corner of the al-Juzah Mosque, in the square in front of my shop. In Ramadan, he would smoke openly. His clothes were tattered, his eyes bulging and red, God knows from smoking hashish and tobacco. This man, when the owner of the house believed in his sainthood, welcomed him with great honor. When the man entered and was surprised to see me, he pretended to be a fool, or a madman, or possessed, as they say. He began to bow and prostrate without awareness, and he recited words that, as the grammarians say, were incomplete sentences, but strange words like "eggs and eggplants" and such words. Eggs and eggplants, but what did he eat... No, he did not mention anything, but he just mixed up his words. At that point, I began my speech by saying—may He be Exalted—: , who are they? . I commented on the words "faith and righteousness," and you do not need such a comment.
So, the summary is that the wali (close friend of Allah) of Allah—Mighty and Majestic—is the one who believes in Allah with firm faith in what came in the Book and the authentic Sunnah, and acts according to the rulings of the Shari'ah, both in obedience and avoidance. Without a doubt, I did not begin my speech with such things except to reach our guest and tell him that there are people who pretend to have sainthood, and they may bring about matters that are extraordinary, which some people think are karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person), but they are actually insults. I spoke at length on this matter, then I was silent, so I was surprised by the words of the host, a sane man, who said: "By Allah, Professor, we used to believe in this, just as you say; that karamah and sainthood are acting according to the Book and the Sunnah. The point is not here; the point is in what this man is telling us about how he developed his correct belief into a false belief by the coming of a man who was from the people of the village, and lived in al-Azhar al-Sharif for twenty years or so. He returns to them and teaches them the opposite of Islam, that these 'muhaybil' are these; these are the awliya (close friends of Allah), and the stone that you do not like will explode you." He said: "We used to believe that this is faith and this is Islam, as I mentioned, until this shaykh came to us. He began to tell us stories and tales that summarize that Allah—Mighty and Majestic—has people in whom He keeps His secret. If you look at them, you will not like their deeds, their words, or their actions, but these are from the great awliya. You will see them here leaving off the prayer, but the five prayers reach them in al-Masjid al-Haram; that is a karamah for them. You will see them breaking their fast, eating in Ramadan, but the truth is that they are fasting; you see them breaking their fast like this. These are from these absurdities and lies. But the important thing is the following story that the shaykh from al-Azhar told the group, and it turned the people of the village into people like these, who believe in superstitions and falsehoods that contradict the Shari'ah. What is the story?"
The shaykh from al-Azhar said to the people of the village in his gatherings: "There was, in the past, a man who was a noble scholar, and he was one who enjoined good and forbade evil. He would seek reward; he would go down to the market and enjoin good and forbid evil. Until one day he stopped at a perfumer who was selling the forbidden narcotic hashish, so he rebuked him, as was his custom in forbidding evil. The shaykh from al-Azhar said to his companions: 'Barely had the shaykh rebuked the seller of hashish when his mind was taken from him, and he returned as if he were a beast that understands nothing. His followers and students were around him, so they took him to his house while he was unaware of anything, like an animal. But they were concerned about the matter and began to ask: What is the cure? Whom do we ask? Whom do we seek to treat him? And so on.' He said: 'They were directed to a man with two wings, and this is a disaster of two disasters. "With two wings" means he knows the Shari'ah and the Haqiqah; that is, the knowledge of the apparent and the knowledge of the hidden. And this is from the deceptions that were introduced into Islam to allow the enemies of Islam to destroy Islam in the name of Islam.'"
What is this, my brother? This is the Haqiqah; the Haqiqah is one thing, and the Shari'ah is another.
What is this? This is from the knowledge of the hidden; the knowledge of the hidden is one thing, and the knowledge of the apparent is another.
So they were directed to a man with two wings, they claimed. They went to him and told him the story of their scholar. He quickly said to them—and here is the lesson—that the hashish seller is a man of the great awliya (close friends of Allah); and therefore your scholar was afflicted because of his objection to that wali (close friend of Allah). I am the one who combines the contradictions in his description, between the wali (close friend of Allah) and the hashish seller, the seller of hashish. This is the reality of his case: he is a wali (close friend of Allah) and he is a hashish seller. This hashish-selling wali (close friend of Allah) is one of the great awliya (close friends of Allah) in the eyes of these people. Therefore, the man with two wings advised the scholar's students to take him, to lead him, for they are still like a beast, to that wali (close friend of Allah), to that hashish-selling wali (close friend of Allah). Yes, indeed, and to ask him for pardon and forgiveness for their scholar, and to apologize on his behalf until he returns to his senses. And so they did. It was not long before the heart of the hashish-selling wali (close friend of Allah) softened toward the scholar who acted according to his knowledge, and it was like a person who was sleeping and woke up. Then the scholar, of course, realized his affliction, and he, in turn, apologized to the hashish-selling wali (close friend of Allah). The owner of the house told me this story from his Shaykh, the Shaykh of the village, and that such stories made the village believe in such catastrophes and such nonsense.
So, in summary: believing in such catastrophes and misguidances comes from people who do evil, but this is only in appearance. This opens the door for such people that if the Dajjal is sent among them, they will believe in him. Why?
Because he will bring them, in their claim, miracles like those they narrated about one of their awliya (close friends of Allah). He says to the sky: "Rain!" and it rains. What greater miracle do you want? We do not call it a karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person); this is an extraordinary event. But when we saw this man claiming lordship, what came from him among the extraordinary events was proof that these are not karamat (miracles granted to a righteous person), but rather deceptions and delusions by him upon the people. So, the decisive ruling between a karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person) and an extraordinary event that is a trial for people is that we look at the source. If the source is a righteous wali (close friend of Allah), then we believe in his karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person). There are authentic and established karamat (miracles granted to a righteous person) from some of the Companions and some of the Salaf (the earliest generations), and we never deny them. But we deny such karamat (miracles granted to a righteous person) which are in reality insults. As for the essence of the karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person), we believe in it, and it is a chapter of the extraordinary events, the extraordinary events in which the righteous and the wicked share. The distinguishing factor is righteous action. So, whoever has righteous action, then what comes from him among the extraordinary events is a karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person). And whoever has wicked action, then what comes from him among the extraordinary events is not a karamah (a miracle granted to a righteous person), but rather an insult. And sufficient for you as proof of this is what we mentioned to you of the extraordinary events that Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He—performs through the hands of the Dajjal.