I have read in some ahaadeeth about a strange person who appeared at the
time of the Prophet 
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). His
name was Ibn Sayyaad or Ibn Saa’id. Who was this man and what was he?
Praise be to Allaah.
Ibn
Sayyaad’s name was Saafi, or ‘Abd-Allaah, ibn (the son of) Sayyaad or
Saa’id.
He was
one of the Jews of Madeenah, and it was said that he was one of the
Ansaar. He was a child at the time when the Prophet
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) came to Madeenah. It was also said that
he became Muslim.
Ibn
Sayyaad was a dajjaal (a liar), and he used to tell fortunes, sometimes
what he said came true, and sometimes it did not. He became famous among
the people, and it was rumoured that he was the Dajjaal. The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) wanted to find out about him,
so he used to go to him secretly, without revealing his identity to him,
hoping to hear something from him. He also asked him some questions
directly, to find out what he really was. He outlived the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), then he was lost on the day
of al-Harrah. [comment deleted]
The
story of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and
Ibn Sayyaad
‘Abdaan
told us, ‘Abd-Allaah informed us, from Yoonus from al-Zuhri, who said,
Saalim ibn ‘Abd-Allaah informed me that Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be
pleased with him) informed him that ‘Umar set out with the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to look for Ibn Sayyaad, and
they found him playing with some boys near the battlement of Banu
Maghaalah. At that time Ibn Sayyaad was on the threshhold of adolescence.
He did not notice anything until the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) struck him on the back with his hand.
Then he said to Ibn Sayyaad, “Do you bear witness that I am the
Messenger of Allaah?” Ibn Sayyaad looked at him and said, “I bear
witness that you are the Messenger of the unlettered.” Ibn Sayyaad said
to the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “Do you
bear witness that I am the messenger of Allaah?” He ignored that and
said, “I believe in Allaah and His Messengers.” Then he asked him,
“What do you see?” Ibn Sayyaad said, “(Sometimes) a truthful one
comes to me and (sometimes) a liar comes.” The Prophet
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “You have been confounded.”
Then the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to
him, “I am concealing something from you.” Ibn Sayyaad said, “It is
al-dukh.” [Referring to Soorat al-Dukhaan]. The Prophet
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to him, “Be off with you! You will
never go beyond your rank.” ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him)
said, “Permit me to strike his neck (kill him), O Messenger of
Allaah.” The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said, “If he is he (the Dajjaal), then you will not be able to overpower
him, and if he is not (the Dajjaal), then your killing him will not do any
good.” Saalim said, I heard
Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) say: After that the Messenger
of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and Ubayy ibn
Ka’b set off to go to some date-palm trees where Ibn Sayyaad was. The
Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) concealed himself
in order to hear something from Ibn Sayyaad before Ibn Sayyaad saw him.
The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) saw him lying
on his bed with a blanket around him from which was coming a murmuring
sound. The mother of Ibn Sayyaad saw the Messenger of Allaah
(peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) hiding behind the trunk of the
palm-tree and said, “O Saaf!” – which was his name – “Here is
Muhammad
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)!” Then Ibn
Sayyaad jumped up and the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) said, “If she had left him alone, things would have been made
clear.” (Narrated
by al-Bukhaari, 1355).
“Battlement”
refers to a structure like a fortress.
Maghaalah was
a tribe of the Ansaar.
The
Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) wanted to talk to
Ibn Sayyaad without him realizing who he was.
“from
which was coming a murmuring sound” means, a low voice, or moving the
lips as in speech, or speaking in an indistinct manner.
See
Fath al-Baari for the
commentary on the above hadeeth in Kitaab
al-Janaa’iz of Saheeh
al-Bukhaari.
·
Was Ibn Sayyaad
the great Dajjaal?
The
hadeeth quoted above – which describes some of the features of Ibn
Saayaad and how the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) examined him – indicates that the Prophet
(peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) did not pass judgement on the matter of Ibn
Sayyaad, because it was not revealed to him (by Wahy)
whether he was the Dajjaal or not.
Many of
the Sahaabah thought that Ibn Sayyaad was the Dajjaal. ‘Umar ibn
al-Khattaab (may Allaah be pleased with him) swore that he was the Dajjaal
in the presence of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) and the Sahaabah, and the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him) did not disapprove of that. Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir said,
“I saw Jaabir ibn ‘Abd-Allaah swear by Allaah that Ibn al-Saa’id was
the Dajjaal. I said, ‘Do you swear by Allaah?’ He said, ‘I heard
‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab swear to that effect in the presence of the
Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not disapprove of
that.’” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 6808).
Ibn
‘Umar told a strange story about Ibn Sayyaad which was narrated in Saheeh
Muslim from Naafi’, who said: Ibn ‘Umar met Ibn Sayyaad on
one of the paths of Madeenah, and said to him something which made him so
angry that he swelled up and filled the road. Ibn ‘Umar went to Hafsah
and told her about this. She said, “May Allaah have mercy upon you! Why
did you upset Ibn Sayyaad? Don’t you know that the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that he (the
Dajjaal) will emerge when something makes him very angry?” (Saheeh
Muslim, 2932)
In
spite of that, when Ibn Sayyaad grew up, he
tried to defend himself and said that he was not the Dajjaal; he
was apparently upset by this accusation, and he quoted as evidence
the fact that the attributes of the Dajjaal described by the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not apply to him.
Abu
Sa’eed al-Khudri said: “We went out for Hajj or ‘Umrah, and Ibn
Saa’id was with us. We stopped at a place to camp, and the people
separated and I was left with him (Ibn Saa’id). I felt very nervous and
afraid of him, because of what had been said about him. He brought his
luggage and put it with mine. I said, ‘It is very hot – why don’t
you put your things under that tree?’ So he did that. Then some sheep
appeared before us, and he went and brought a large vessel (of milk) and
said, ‘Drink, O Abu Sa’eed.’ I said, ‘It is too hot, and the milk
is hot.’ In fact (the only thing wrong was) that I did not want to drink
from his hand, or take anything from his hand. He said, ‘Abu Sa’eed, I
have been thinking that I should take a rope and suspend it from a tree,
and hang myself, because of what people are saying about me. O Abu
Sa’eed, does anyone know more about hadeeth than you Ansaar? Are you not
one of the most knowledgeable of people about the hadeeth of the Messenger
of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)? Didn’t the
Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say
that the Dajjaal is a kaafir, and I am a Muslim? Didn’t the Messenger of
Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say that he would
be sterile, with no children, and I have left my child behind in Madeenah?
Didn’t the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) say that he will never enter Madeenah or Makkah, but I have left
Madeenah and am headed for Makkah?’ … I was about to accept his
excuses, then he said, ‘But, by Allaah, I know who the Dajjaal is, where
he was born and where he is now.’ I said to him, ‘May you perish for
the rest of the day!’” (Narrated by Muslim, no. 5211).
According
to another report, Ibn Sayyaad said: “By Allaah, I know where he is now
and I know his father and mother.” It was said to him, “Would you not
be happy to be that man?” He said, “If it were offered to me, I would
not refuse.” (Narrated by Muslim, 521)
The
scholars were confused by the reports about Ibn Sayyaad. Some scholars
said that he was the Dajjaal, and others said that he was not. Both groups
had evidence (daleel) for what they said, and their views conflicted a
great deal. Ibn Hajar tried to reconcile the two views by saying: the best
way in which we may reconcile what is said in the hadeeth of Tameem
al-Daari and the view that Ibn Sayyaad was the Dajjaal is to say that the
Dajjaal is the exact same person whom Tameem al-Daari saw chained up, and
that Ibn Sayyaad was a shaytaan (a devil) who appeared in the image of the
Dajjaal at that time, until he went to Isfahaan, where he hid with his qareen,
until the appointed time comes when Allaah will decree that he should
emerge. Because the matter is so confusing, al-Bukhaari, instead of
attempting a reconciliation, narrated the hadeeth of Jaabir from ‘Umar,
believing it to be more saheeh, and did not narrate the hadeeth of
Faatimah bint Qays about the story of Tameem. (Fath
al-Baari, 13/328)
It was said
that Ibn Sayyaad was one of the dajjaals or liars, but he was not the
greater Dajjaal. And Allaah knows best.
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