Tamim al-Dari (ra)

A Christian of a northern tribe who embraced Islam in the Year of Delegations, famous as the narrator of the al-Jassasah / al-Dajjal account that the Prophet ﷺ himself related from the minbar.

One-line: the convert whose sea-story of the chained Dajjal the Prophet ﷺ confirmed — “this is Taybah, this is Taybah.”

Identity & lineage

Of the Christian Banu al-Dar (from up north); converted in 9 AH.

Role in the Seerah

• The hadith of al-Jassasah (Sahih Muslim, narrated by Fatima bint Qays): the Prophet ﷺ gathered the people and recounted Tamim’s tale — shipwrecked on an island, met by a huge hairy beast (al- Jassasah) who directed them to a giant chained in a monastery, al-Masih al-Dajjal, who questioned them about Baysan’s palms, the Lake of Tiberias, the spring of Zughar, and “the unlettered prophet.” The Prophet ﷺ struck the minbar: “This is Taybah, this is Taybah” (Madinah), “he is in the east.”
• The account agreed with what the Prophet ﷺ had long taught of the Dajjal, Makkah and Madinah — his reason for prizing it.

Character & lessons

An example of the one-time delegates who narrated cornerstone hadith. The report is also a reliability case study (see below).

Reliability note (schema §5)

Though in Sahih Muslim, the hadith is unique in several details — a giant, chained, two-eyed Dajjal alive now — which clash with more authentic reports (a short, one-eyed, future Dajjal; “none alive today will remain in 100 years”) and with the Ibn Sayyad controversy (Umar’s lifelong suspicion). A minority — Rashid Rida, Ibn al-Uthaymeen — voiced doubts despite its being in Muslim; one narrator (al-Sha’bi) is said to have taken from storytellers. Recorded, not resolved; a hadith is judged by evidence, not by whether it “makes sense” to us.

Death

Died c. 40 AH; settled in al-Sham.

Cross-references

The Year of Delegations · Muhammad ﷺ

Sources

• S012 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 094. Sahih Muslim (the hadith of al-Jassasah, via Fatima bint Qays).