Dajjal Question

[Abd_Al_Hadi]

Hadith - Bukhari 9.245, Narrated Abu Said

One day Allah's Apostle narrated to us a long narration about Ad-Dajjal and among the things he narrated to us, was: "Ad-Dajjal will come, and he will be forbidden to enter the mountain passes of Medina. He will encamp in one of the salt areas neighboring Medina and there will appear to him a man who will be the best or one of the best of the people. He will say 'I testify that you are Ad-Dajjal whose story Allah's Apostle has told us.' Ad-Dajjal will say (to his audience), 'Look, if I kill this man and then give him life, will you have any doubt about my claim?' They will reply, 'No,' Then Ad-Dajjal will kill that man and then will make him alive. The man will say, 'By Allah, now I recognize you more than ever!' Ad-Dajjal will then try to kill him (again) but he will not be given the power to do so."

Does this mean that to be one of the best Muslims, one must also recognize the Dajjal?

 

[Abd_Al_Hadi]

Hadith - Bukhari 9.237, Narrated Abu Huraira

Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established

(1) till two big groups fight each other whereupon there will be a great number of casualties on both sides and they will be following one and the same religious doctrine,

(2) till about thirty Dajjals (liars) appear, and each one of them will claim that he is Allah's Apostle,

(3) till the religious knowledge is taken away (by the death of religious scholars)

(4) earthquakes will increase in number

(5) time will pass quickly,

(6) afflictions will appear,

(7) Al-Harj, (i.e., killing) will increase,

(8) till wealth will be in abundance--so abundant that a wealthy person will worry lest nobody should accept his Zakat, and whenever he will present it to someone, that person (to whom it will be offered) will say, 'I am not in need of it,'

(9) till the people compete with one another in constructing high buildings,

(10) till a man when passing by a grave of someone will say, 'Would that I were in his place,'

(11) and till the sun rises from the West.

So when the sun will rise and the people will see it (rising from the West) they will all believe (embrace Islam) but that will be the time when: (As Allah said,) 'No good will it do to a soul to believe then, if it believed not before, nor earned good (by deeds of righteousness) through its Faith.' (6.158) And the Hour will be established while two men spreading a garment in front of them but they will not be able to sell it, nor fold it up; and the Hour will be established when a man has milked his she-camel and has taken away the milk but he will not be able to drink it; and the Hour will be established before a man repairing a tank (for his livestock) is able to water (his animals) in it; and the Hour will be established when a person has raised a morsel (of food) to his mouth but will not be able to eat it."

As for #8, is that referring to the entire world or exclusively to Saudi Arabia?

 

[SonOfAdam]

"Does this mean that to be one of the best Muslims, one must also recognize the Dajjal?"

I think you misread the hadith since your question is not relevant to the context of the hadith.

The hadith of the Prophet SAW is saying that the best Muslim of that time will go out to Dajjal to confront him. Best as far as his deen and iman. This is because the Dajjal will turn even really good Muslims into kafir when they confront the Dajjal since he is full of many very hard trials and tribulations. However this person that RasullAllah SAW mentions will be so strong in deen that he will still be able to deny Dajjal. The Prophet SAW said that if you see dajjal to run and hide in the mountains, not confront him. This is another point of RasulAllah SAW saying that he will be the BEST or ONE OF THE BEST, i.e. don't try this yourself!

Issa AS will defeat the Dajjal, this is a very common teaching in the Sunnah, so yes you must believe the Dajjal will come at the end of time.

 

[SonOfAdam]

"As for #8, is that referring to the entire world or exclusively to Saudi Arabia?"

This actually already happened in the time of the Sahabah. They could not find anyone to give zakat too so they spent the money on improving the infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia is the name of a country that did not exist at the time of the Prophet, it came about after WWI. So this hadith is not tied to Saudi Arabia. In general you can assume that these types of sayings are talking about the entire ummah/world and not just tied to the Arabian Peninsula. Allah knows best, don't get stuck on these minute details (if you are).