The Shaykh’s response to many of today’s writers who claim that the Dajjal is the prevalence of evil, including the Dajjal Mirza Ghulam al-Qadiyani.

The Shaykh : And despite all of this, you will find many writers, both old and new, and especially today, who deny this reality which the mass-transmitted reports have agreed to establish. They say that the Dajjal is not a person, but rather a symbol of evil... which appears in the last of time. This claim was made by the 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 reports that do not accept figurative interpretation about the descent of Musa (peace be upon him) that it does not mean the descent of the person of Isa, but rather the descent of goodness and peace, and similar attributes that oppose the evil symbolized by the Dajjal. This Qadiyani Dajjal interpreted the reports of the descent of Isa as goodness and the reports of the emergence of the Dajjal as evil. Unfortunately, many of today’s Islamic writers have followed him and adhered to this interpretation. Among them may be some whom we deeply regret seeing interpret in this way, because we consider them 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 this the Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida (may Allah have mercy on him). But unfortunately, as it is said, every scholar makes a mistake and every noble horse stumbles. This is one of the stumbles of this learned man, where he interpreted the reports of the Dajjal and others along with the interpreters. It is not possible for a Muslim who is free from desire but to believe in the realities of the reports of the Dajjal, which lead to what we have previously presented to you, a summary of which is that they all end with the fact that he is a created man whom our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) causes some of the created things, such as rain and the like, to obey him so that he may test His servants with it. So it is either belief in these realities or denial of the reports from their origin, because interpretation is in reality the negation of the meaning contained in the texts. For example, they interpret the Dajjal as evil. How can evil be described as one-eyed, while your Lord is not one-eyed? And how can evil be described as not entering Makkah and al-Madinah, while we see, with great regret, that today a great evil has entered Makkah and al-Madinah in the form of licentiousness, fitnah through wealth, and the like? The reports explicitly state that the Dajjal does not enter Makkah and al-Madinah, but evil has entered these two sacred cities. Therefore, it is necessary to believe that the Dajjal will certainly emerge in the last of time, and that every weak believer will be tested by him. It has come in the authentic reports 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 ordered every worshipper to do so. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) would say The seeking of refuge of the Messenger (peace and blessings 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 affirmation of the one who informed us, who is 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 leads 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 are accustomed to the usual, so it is difficult for them to step out of it, not only in action but also in thought and belief. The coming of a man like this Great Dajjal who says to the sky, "Rain," and it rains, up to the last of the miracles we referred to earlier, is a matter not customary for all people. And therefore, their material minds do not accommodate belief in these religious reports. So we must remember that not believing in them after their establishment, either by the Book, like the rising of the sun from the west by the Book and the Sunnah, or like the emergence of the Great Dajjal, and the authentic reports have been mass-transmitted about him, not believing in these realities is proof of the loss of faith, whether in part or in whole. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said in describing His believing, pious servants, the first thing He described them with was belief in the unseen, so He said So the first condition of faith is belief in the unseen. The more the Muslim’s faith expands in what came in the Book and the Sunnah and the authentic Sunnah, the closer he is to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). And the more his horizon of thought and heart narrows from believing in the verses of his Lord and the reports of his Prophet, the closer that is 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 last of time. And among his authentic attributes is that Isa (peace and blessings be upon him) is the one who kills him, and he kills him by a means that is also extraordinary. He does not kill him with the known bullets of today, nor with hand grenades or artillery, or similar modern lethal means, but with a spear. And when he throws the spear at him, he melts as salt melts. All these things are matters extraordinary to the usual.