Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 12535

Sayyidah Asma' bint Yazid (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates that she heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), while among his Companions, saying: "I am urging you to beware of the Dajjal and I am warning you about him. Every prophet urged his people to beware of him, and, O Ummah, he will appear among you. I will describe to you something of his features that the other prophets did not describe to their peoples. Before he emerges there will be five years of drought, until every (hoofed) animal perishes." A man called out to him in a loud voice: "O Messenger of Allah! Then how will the believers survive?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "By that (i.e. the remembrance of Allah) by which the angels live. The Dajjal will be one-eyed, and Allah Almighty is not one-eyed. Between the Dajjal's two eyes will be written 'Kafir' (disbeliever), which every believer will be able to read, whether he is literate or not. Most of the Dajjal's followers will be Jews, women and Bedouins. You will see the sky as though it is sending down rain, when no rain is falling, and you will see the earth as though it is growing vegetation, when it is not growing vegetation. The Dajjal will say to the Bedouins: 'What do you want from me? Have I not sent down torrential rain upon you from the sky? Have I not brought your livestock back to life for you, so that they have become healthy and their milk has increased?' Then some devils will be sent with the Dajjal in the form of people's dead forefathers, brothers and acquaintances. One of them will come to his relative and say: 'Are you not so-and-so? Do you not recognize me? This is your Lord, so follow him.' The Dajjal will live for forty years, in which a year will be like a month, a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour, and an hour like the burning of a palm frond in fire. He will reach every watering place except the two mosques." Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) got up and began to perform ablution. He heard the sound of the people weeping and sobbing, so he came back and stood among the people and said: "Take this good news: if he emerges while I am among you, then Allah and His Messenger will suffice you, and if he emerges after me, then Allah Almighty will be the guardian of every Muslim after me."
Al-Tabarani recorded it. Its chain contains Shahr bin Hawshab; his contradicting the sahih (authentic) hadiths cannot be accepted, for they state that he will remain on earth for forty days, while this one states that he will remain for forty years. The rest of its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).