QUESTION:
- Why was al-Masih called by this name?
- And what’s al-Masih al-Dajjal, is he a person at the time of the reappearance of al-Imam al-Mahdi or a name that other people have who are tools of Satan?
ANSWER:
In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful.
May Allah bless Muhammad and his Family and damn their enemies.
- The word “al-Masīḥ” has more than one meaning, as was mentioned in Maqāyīs al-Lugha by Ibn Fāris:
(Masaḥa), the mīm sīn and ḥa’ are of correct origin – and it’s the passing of something on something by extending [the hand] – “I performed masḥ (wiping) on it with my hand extensively.” Or they use it as a metaphor by saying, “he performed masḥ on her,” as in, he had intercourse with her. And al-Masīḥ is the one whose one of the two sides of his face is mamsūḥ (erased)—he has neither an eye nor an eyebrow. And from it, al-Dajjāl was named a Masīḥ, because his eye is mamsūḥa. And “on so-and-so is a masḥa of beauty,” meaning it’s as if his face was wiped with beauty, and for that al-Masīḥ (peace be upon him) was named a Masīḥ, because it’s as if he had a masḥa of beauty, and they say there was on him a masḥa of kingship.”
2. He (al-Dajjāl) will emerge after the establishment of the state of our Imam (peace be upon him), and the nawāṣib would gather around him and believe in him, and they by their belief in him would be just like the Jews. So the Imam (peace be upon him) would fight him, defeat him, and kill him, purifying the land from him and his followers.
The Office of Sheikh al-Habib
