Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

The Warning Against Dajjal and the Importance of Staying Connected to Sunnah

The Prophet ﷺ is mentioned in a hadith. The gist of that hadith is: Whosoever hears about Dajjal, then he should stay away from him as much as he can. Whosoever hears from amongst you of the appearance of Dajjal, he should try his best to stay away from him as much as he can.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, narrated by Imran ibn Husayn)

For indeed a man will come to him thinking that he is a believer about himself, that I'm a strong believer. I can meet him, I can speak with him, I can engage him. He will stay with him until he will begin to follow him. In those things, Dajjal will stir up with regards to doubts about Deen. Doubts about Deen.

The Prophet ﷺ in this hadith narrated by Imran bin Hussain رضي الله عنه and mentioned by Imam Abu Dawud in his Sunan, that an individual towards the end of times, when the greatest trial that man has ever seen, Masih al-Dajjal will appear. A person will think of himself to be strong enough to engage him, and will have trust in his faith, trust in his knowledge, and will say, let me take a look at what this guy has to present. And then a person when he will come into his presence, will be exposed to so many things that will stir up doubt in his mind through the various types of sihr, and apparently miracle looking like things, which are all against the norm. And Allah will allow him to do that through the assistance of Shayateen.

For example, bringing an apparently dead person back to life, splitting someone, bringing them back to life, taking a town that has absolutely lost all resources, and bringing those resources back immediately. Whether it's the rain, whether it's the plentifulness of the livestock, as well as the vegetation, and the opposite of it for those who don't believe in him. The Prophet ﷺ is saying, that whoever looks at that, he will end up unknowingly fall into this trap, and become a follower of Shaytan and Dajjal.

Dajjal's Preparation and the Role of Sunnah

This hadith, beloved brothers, the reason why I've shared this today, is that Dajjal is not gonna appear in a vacuum all of a sudden. There are years, decades, centuries of effort that will be made by Shaytan prior to his coming. And if he were to come during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, he would not have the effect, that he would have the effect much later. Because the companions and Rasulullah ﷺ said, وَأَنَا فِيكُمْ If he comes out while I'm present, فَأَنَا حَجِيجُهُ Then I will protect you from him.

Because you have the Prophet ﷺ himself there, with his spirituality and his greatness, to protect the ummah from the evil of this creation of Allah. But he said, if he comes out after I leave, which obviously was gonna happen, then Allah will take care of every believer. Every man has to turn to Allah individually.

Brothers and sisters, I was saying the fact that there will be many things happening prior to his arrival. And it will definitely be the distance from the ummah, the distancing of the ummah from the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. What is he saying? If he comes while I'm present, I will take care of you. You could understand that as, if Dajjal appears not only during the time of the blessed Rasulullah ﷺ, but as long as the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ is alive within an individual, inshaAllah to the barakah of that sunnah person will be saved.

The Greatest Martyr and the Power of Knowledge

For example, the last person that he will kill, Rasulullah ﷺ said he is the most virtuous shaheed. You may have heard this hadith before. Is a man that he will say that, do you believe in me as God? And he will say, absolutely not. And he said, just watch what I'll do. And he will split him in half. And then he will put him at a far distance. Two pieces of his body at a very far distance. The distance between a person who is shooting an arrow and his target. Targets are far. 100 meters, 200 meters or more. So this is the distance that's going to be from both body parts. And he will put him back together and he will stand up alive.

And then he will say, now tell me, am I God? And he will say, مَا ازْدَدْتُ إِلَّا يَقِينًا أَنَّكَ الدَّجَّالُ الْكَذَّابُ الْأَعْوَرُ I've only increased in my yaqeen that you are the one-eyed false imposter liar. Why is that? Because my Nabi ﷺ had already informed me that a time will come when dajjal will come and do tricks, exactly the trick that you just did. And he will, in some narrations mentioned that he will be the last person that he will be able to do this to, after which Allah will seal his fate at the hands of Isa ﷺ.

So the ulama mentioned a beautiful point. That this individual who will be able to look into him, into his eye, and to say, you just split my body, separated me and brought me back to life. And to look at him in the eye and say, you're a liar. I've only become a stronger believer that you're a liar. How would he been able to do that had he not known the hadith? How would he be able to say that had he not known the words of the Prophet ﷺ? How would he be able to say that if he was not connected with the Prophet ﷺ?

What saved him? It was that connection with the statements of Rasulullah ﷺ. It was that connection with the words of Rasulullah ﷺ. It was that connection with the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ that will save him and will make him amongst the greatest martyrs alive at that time. Because martyrs don't pass away. Ahya. Allahu Akbar.

The Dajjali Era and Materialism

So this day and age, as we are in what we call a Dajjali era prior to his arrival, we're already definitely seeing a huge shift in people's understanding of what's permissible and what's not. And Dajjal is about re-presenting religion. By taking people's belief away from God, more on materialism, materialism, materialism, until you create a super vacuum where there is no belief in a supreme being, only on material things. And then pop up on the stage and say, guess what? I'm the one who's been flipping the switch all along on your material things. I am your God.

So people will be who are so materialistic and who have been worshipping materialistic things for so many years. When they see the appearance of this man who claims to be the guy who's flipping the switch on it, and he's got more amazing miracles to show, materialistic amazing miracles, people will fall for it. But where did it start from? It started from people drifting away from the sunnah, and people's confusion about what's right and what's wrong.

Signs of the Hour and Moral Confusion

If you look at the hadith about the signs of the hour, any chapter in which we should revisit this every month, read a section of the signs of the hour every month, listen to a lecture on it every month, to help us recalibrate our own internal compass, to help us focus on the things you and I need to be focusing on, to help us understand the reality of things that we're surrounded by. What are those signs? Those signs are about halal being made haram. Haram being made halal. Or rather I should say, things that used to be regarded as good, being regarded as wrong. Things that used to be regarded as wrong, being regarded as good. And that's the direction.

Musical instruments being common. Singing girls being hired. Wine being drunk openly. Silk being worn. All these major sins that were not found during the time of the Prophet ﷺ at a level that not even a tenth or a thousandth of the level we see today, in the earliest generations, not only have they become common, but they have been accepted in society. To say, come on, this is not even an issue. This is not even an issue, what are you talking about?

Beloved brothers and sisters, when that happens, then people will become more accepting of anything that comes their way. As long as it matches their desires. And the desires constantly keep on changing. I heard an interview of a professor who was talking about his college life in the 60s, just this week. Amazing. Just talking about what high school and college was in the 50s and the 60s. For a non-Muslim. Completely, completely different than anything it is today in this country.

He just said that. We didn't think about drugs and XYZ, all the other stuff. This interview took place when? In 89. He's talking about what 50s was. He said, we don't have these options. We didn't think about these things. We just thought, we had fun, and we all thought we had to go to college, we got to make life better for ourselves, live a more comfortable life than our parents. That was about it. We didn't have all these options. We didn't have all these different things to think about. And now you have different lifestyle options. I would be lying if I told you. All the shaytani things. So many people are being bombarded with.

To choose this, choose that. You have 5th graders now being asked to choose. You have 1st graders being asked to choose. Amongst things that were never given as options in the history of mankind. And so this moral compass continues to move away. And where do we find ourselves? If the barometer, if the mercury itself in the thermometer is messed up, if it's leaking, if it's been polluted, what do you expect? The temperature that it will show in the room is absolutely incorrect. The body temperature that it will give you is incorrect. Because the internal mechanism itself is messed up.

So when the internal imani compass within human beings, within the Muslim ummah, becomes corrupted, we will not be able to recognize right as right, and wrong as wrong. What was absolutely wrong, will be regarded as right today. And this reminds me of the statement of Muawiyah رضي الله عنه. He says that:

The good of today was the evil of the bygone era. That the evil of today will be regarded as the virtue of tomorrow. Whatever we regard today as good, used to be regarded as sinful a century ago, half a century ago. And what we regard today as sinful, unfortunately, will be regarded as even virtue down the line. You can understand this so true depiction of what's happening today.

Our Response: Holding Fast to the Unchanging Principles

Brothers and sisters, where does that keep us? What should we do? We have to make sure that we attach ourselves with thawabit. Attach ourselves with things that don't change. Mountains that don't change. That are principled. We all have to become people of principle. Our principle is Qur'an and Sunnah. As understood by the sahaba and the earliest generation of ulama.