By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never described Isa as having a ruddy complexion. Rather, he said, "While I was sleeping, I saw myself circumambulating the Kaabah, and there was a man with a brown complexion and straight hair, walking supported between two men, with water dripping from his head."I asked, "Who is this?"They said, "This is the son of Maryam."He continued, "Then I turned to look, and there was a ruddy-complexioned man, heavily built, with curly hair and blind in his right eye, his eye looking like a floating grape."I asked, "Who is this?"They replied, "This is the Dajjal."The closest person in resemblance to him I have seen is Ibn Qatan.Ibn Shihab said, "He was a man from Khuza, from the Mustaliq tribe, who died in the pre-Islamic era."
حدثنا أبو كامل حدثنا إبراهيم بن سعد حدثنا ابن شهاب قال فحدثني سالم أن
والله ما قال رسول الله ﷺ لعيسى عليه السلام أحمر قط ولكنه قال بينا أنا نائم رأيتني أطوف بالكعبة فإذا رجل آدم سبط الشعر يهادى بين رجلين ينطف رأسه أو يهراق فقلت من هذا قالوا هذا ابن مريم قال فذهبت ألتفت فإذا رجل أحمر جسيم جعد الرأس أعور العين اليمنى كأن عينه عنبة طافية قلت من هذا قالوا هذا الدجال أقرب من رأيت به شبها ابن قطن قال ابن شهاب رجل من خزاعة من بالمصطلق مات في الجاهلية
Its chain of transmission is sahih. It has already appeared several times, at length and in summary, through many pathways, the first being 4743, and among them 6099 and 6144. As for the version given here, Bukhari related it, 6:351-353, from Ahmad bin Muhammad Makki, from Ibrahim bin Saad, from Zuhri, with this same chain, similarly.Ibn Umar's statement, "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah never once called Isa red," is meant as a rebuttal of what Ibn Abbas and Abu Hurairah related in describing him as red. This has already appeared in the Musnad of Ibn Abbas (3179), describing him as of medium height, red and white in complexion, and something similar appears in 2197, 2198, and 2347.Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari, 6:350, "Among the Arabs, ahmar (red) refers to someone of intense whiteness combined with redness, while adam refers to someone of brown complexion. It is possible to reconcile the two descriptions by saying that his color became reddish due to some cause, such as fatigue, while his original complexion was brown. Abu Hurairah agreed that Isa was red. It thus appears that Ibn Umar denied something that someone else had correctly retained."He also said, on page 351, "The lam in his statement 'li Isa' carries the meaning of 'an' (concerning), just as in the Almighty's statement, "Those who disbelieved said about those who believed, if it had been something good they would not have beaten us to it" [Ahqaf 46:11]." An explanation has already been given for reconciling what Ibn Umar denied with what others affirmed.This narration also shows the permissibility of swearing an oath based on strong likelihood, for Ibn Umar assumed that the description had become confused for the narrator, and that the one truly described as red was Dajjal, not Isa. What made this plausible is that each of the two is called al-Masih, this being a term of praise for Isa and a term of condemnation for Dajjal, as mentioned before. Ibn Umar had heard with definite certainty a description of Isa as being of brown complexion, so it was permissible for him to swear an oath on that, since he was strongly convinced that whoever described him as red was mistaken.His statement "yuhada bayna rajulayn" means he walked between two men, leaning on them for support, and anyone who does this while supporting someone is said to yuhadihi (guide/support him)."Yantifu," with the ta pronounced either with a short i or short u, means it drips.Hafiz said, "His statement 'aw yuharaqu' (or it pours down) reflects the narrator's uncertainty."His statement "min bil-Mustaliq" means from Banu Mustaliq, who were a tribe from Khuza, and in one manuscript it reads "min Bani Mustaliq."