Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 21326 — he asked Fatimah bint Qays, the sister

Amir bin Sharahil al-Sha'bi, of Sha'b Hamdan, narrates that he asked Fatimah bint Qays (may Allah be pleased with her), the sister of al-Dahhak bin Qays, who was among the first women emigrants: Narrate to me a hadith that you heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and do not attribute it to anyone other than yourself. She said: If you wish, I will certainly do so. He said to her: Yes, tell me. She said: I heard the call of the caller of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) calling out: The prayer in congregation (is about to begin)! So I went out to the mosque and prayed with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and I was in the row of women which was next to the backs of the people. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had finished his prayer, he sat on the pulpit, smiling, and said: "Let every person stay at his place of prayer." Then he said: "Do you know why I have gathered you?" The people said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "By Allah! I have not gathered you for something to hope for nor for something to fear; rather, I have gathered you because Tamim al-Dari was a Christian man; he came, gave the pledge of allegiance and became a Muslim, and he narrated to me an account which agrees with what I used to tell you about al-Masih al-Dajjal. He told me that he boarded a sea-going ship with thirty men from Lakhm and Judham, and the waves tossed them about in the sea for a month; then they reached the island in the sea where the sun sets. They sat in the ship's small boat and entered the island, and there they met a beast with a great deal of hair; because of the abundance of hair they could not tell where its front was and where its back was. They said: Woe to you, what are you? It said: I am al-Jassasah. They said: What is al-Jassasah? It said: O people! Go to this man in the monastery, for he is intensely eager for your news. He said: When it named a man to us, we became afraid of it, lest it be a female devil. So we went quickly until we entered the monastery, and there we saw the biggest human being in build that we had ever seen, and the most tightly bound; both his hands were tied to his neck, and from his knees to his ankles he was bound in iron. We said: Woe to you, what are you? He said: You have obtained my news; now tell me, what are you? They said: We are some people of the Arabs. We boarded a sea-going ship, and the sea met us at a time when it had become stormy, and the waves tossed us about for a month; then they cast us onto this island of yours. We sat in its small boat and entered the island, and we met a beast with a great deal of hair; because of the abundance of hair we could not tell where its front was and where its back was. We said: Woe to you, what are you? It said: I am al-Jassasah. We said: What is al-Jassasah? It said: Go to this man, for he is intensely eager for your news. So we came to you quickly, and we were frightened of it, and we were not sure that it was not a female devil. He said: Tell me about the date palms of Baysan. We said: What do you want to know about them? He said: I am asking you about their fruit: do they bear fruit? We said to him: Yes. He said: Soon they will stop bearing fruit. He said: Tell me about the lake of Tiberias. We said: What do you want to know about it? He said: Is there water in it? We said: It is full of water. He said: Tell me about the spring of Zughar. They said: What do you want to know about it? He said: Is there water in the spring, and do its people farm with the water of the spring? We said: Yes, it is full of water, and its people farm with its water. He said: Tell me about the unlettered Prophet: what has he done? They said: He came out of Makkah and settled in Yathrib. He said: Did the Arabs fight him? We said: Yes. He said: What did he do with them? So we told him that he had prevailed over the Arabs around him and they had obeyed him. He said to them: Did that really happen? We said: Yes. He said: It was better for them to obey him. I will tell you about myself: I am al-Masih al-Dajjal, and soon I will be given permission to come out. Then I will come out and travel through the earth, and I will not leave any town without descending upon it within forty days, except Makkah and Taybah; both of them are forbidden to me. Whenever I want to enter either of them, an angel with a drawn sword in his hand will confront me and bar me from it, and on every pass into it there will be angels guarding it." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), striking the pulpit with his staff, said: "This is Taybah, this is Taybah, this is Taybah", meaning Madinah, "Had I not told you this before?" The people said: Yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Tamim al-Dari's account pleased me because it agrees with what I used to tell you about him, and about Madinah and Makkah. Listen! He is in the sea of Syria or the sea of Yemen. No, rather he is towards the east; he is towards the east; he is towards the east; he is towards the east." And he (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed with his hand towards the east. Fatimah said: I preserved this from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).