Investigating a Controversial Islamic Apocalyptic Figure: The Dajjāl

ABSTRACT This article is an attempt to discuss the figure of al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl, ‘the deceiving Messiah’, as one of the ten major ‘signs of the Hour’. According to Islamic sources, his arrival will announce the approach of the Hour, or the End Times, the eschatological event which the Qur’an portrays with powerful imagery. While the Qur’an does not explicitly mention the name ‘Dajjāl’ or allude to his function before the coming of the Day of Judgement, his role as an important sign of the Hour is widely assumed and references to it are scattered throughout Islamic texts. Who is the Dajjāl? How is he presented in the Islamic tradition? This article explores both the space given to these eschatological themes in qur’anic passages and Prophetic traditions (Hadiths), and the interpretations of such events in the most influential mainstream commentaries of the Sunni tradition and in present-day scholarship.