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How can one reconcile the description of Tamim al-Dari and the Dajjal as “the greatest human being we have ever seen in creation” with the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) description of him as “short, bow-legged, curly-haired, one-eyed with a flat eye”?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Some hadiths have proven that the Dajjal is mighty in creation, such as the hadith of Tamim al-Dari, where he said: "And there he was, the mightiest human we had ever seen in creation." And the hadith: "Between the creation of Adam and the Hour, there is no creation greater than the Dajjal." Al-Qurtubi held that this greatness refers to the magnitude of his creation and body. However, another hadith describes the Dajjal as being short and having widely spaced legs (afhaj). These descriptions have been reconciled in several ways, including: that the mightiness of creation pertains to the size of the body, not height; or that the Dajjal is mighty in creation before his emergence and becomes short upon his appearance; or that he is originally short but then swells and becomes mighty, as happened with Ibn Sayyad.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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