The Refutation of Many of Today’s Writers Who Claim That the Dajjal Is a Symbol of Evil, Not a Human Being

The Shaykh : And despite all of this, you will find many writers, both old and new, and especially today, who deny this truth which the mass-transmitted reports have agreed upon to establish. They say: “The Dajjal is not a person, but rather a symbol of the greatest evil that appears and spreads throughout the lands in the end times.” This claim was made by that aforementioned Dajjal, “Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiyani,” before these writers. He claimed that the Dajjal is evil and not a human being. He also claimed regarding the hadiths that do not accept figurative interpretation concerning the descent of ‘Isa (peace be upon him) that it does not mean the descent of the person of ‘Isa, but rather the descent of good and peace, and similar attributes that oppose the evil symbolized by the Dajjal.
And so, this Qadiyani Dajjal interpreted the hadiths of the descent of ‘Isa as meaning good, and interpreted the hadiths of the emergence of the Dajjal as meaning evil. Many of today’s Islamic writers have followed him and imitated him in this interpretation, to our great regret. Among them may be those whom we deeply, deeply regret seeing interpret in this manner, because we consider him to be among the foremost scholars, researchers, and verifiers who had a special concern for calling to the Sunnah and spreading it. I mean by that the Shaykh “Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida” (may Allah have mercy on him). But, unfortunately, the matter is as it was said: “Every scholar has a slip, and every noble horse has a stumble.” This is one of the stumbles of this learned man, where he interpreted the hadiths of the Dajjal and others along with the interpreters.
It is not possible for a Muslim who is free from desire except to believe in the truths of the hadiths of the Dajjal, which lead to what we have presented to you just now, a summary of their essence. They all end with the fact that he is a created man, and our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) subdues for him some of the creations, such as rain and the earth, and the like, so that He may test His servants with it. So it is either belief in these truths, or denial of the hadiths from their origin; because interpretation is, in reality, the negation of the meaning that the texts contain. They interpret, for example, the Dajjal as being evil. How can evil be described as one-eyed, and it is stated that your Lord is not one-eyed? And how can evil be described as not entering Makkah and al-Madinah, while we—regrettably—see today that a great deal of evil has entered Makkah and al-Madinah in the form of licentiousness, and fitnah through wealth, and the like? The hadiths explicitly state that the Dajjal does not enter Makkah and al-Madinah, but the Dajjal has entered these two sacred cities!!
Therefore, it is obligatory to believe that the Dajjal will certainly emerge in the end times, and that every weak believer will be tested by him. It has come in the authentic hadiths that whoever habitually reads the first ten verses of Surat al-Kahf will be safe from the fitnah of the Dajjal. And due to its severity, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sought refuge from it in his prayer, and he ordered every person praying to do so. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) would say: . The seeking of refuge by the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his command to seek this refuge is proof of the severity of this fitnah. Therefore, if we imagine that the Great Dajjal is far from us now, that does not justify our not believing in his emergence with our belief and verification of the one who informed us about it, namely the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
And we must remember on this occasion that interpreting the Dajjal, or the Beast, or the rising of the sun from the west, with interpretations that align with the concepts of all people, we must know that what drives people to such interpretation is their little faith or weak faith. Because these are matters of the unseen, and much of it is from the extraordinary. People have become accustomed to the customary, so it is difficult for them to step out of it, not only in action, but also in thought and belief. So the coming of a person like this Great Dajjal who says to the sky: “Rain,” and it rains, up to the last of the miracles we referred to just now; this is an unusual matter for all people. Therefore, their material minds do not accommodate belief in these religious reports. So we must remember that not believing in them after their establishment, whether by the Book like the rising of the sun from the west, which is by Book and Sunnah like this verse, or by the emergence of the Great Dajjal, where the authentic hadiths have been mass-transmitted about him; not believing in these truths is proof of the loss of faith entirely or mostly. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said in describing His believing, pious servants, the first thing He described them with was belief in the unseen. He said: . So the first condition of faith is belief in the unseen. The more the Muslim’s faith expands regarding what came in the Book and the Sunnah and the authentic Sunnah, the more he is... and closer to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). And the more his horizon of thought and heart narrows regarding believing in the verses of his Lord and the hadiths of his Prophet, the closer that is to being closer to disbelief than to faith. So we must know that among the beliefs of the Muslims is belief in the emergence of the Dajjal in the end times.
And among his authentic attributes is that ‘Isa (peace be upon him) is the one who kills him. And he kills him also by an extraordinary command. He does not kill him with the customary bullets of today, nor with hand grenades or artillery, or the like of modern deadly means, but with a spear. Then when he throws the spear at him, he melts as salt melts. All these things are matters extraordinary to the customary.