Salam,

Thank you for your question. I find it a little unusual, to be honest, however, I will do my best to show how different the two are. First of all, if we’re going to compare a Christian belief with an Islamic teaching, they should be on the same topic.

The concept of the anti-Christ in Christianity could be compared to the person of the Dajjal in Islamic teachings, but it is not appropriate to compare the anti-Christ with a concept that does not exist in Christianity, the person of the Mahdi.

So for the purposes of continuity, I’ll explore a comparison of the Dajjal, of whom Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (PBUH) warned us, with the Mahdi, of whom we expect great goodness and justice upon his appearance and leadership.

I am not a scholar of Christianity and have only limited knowledge of the opinions of Christian scholars so forgive me for not being able to make an honest or accurate comparison of the anti-Christ and the Mahdi.

The Dajjal, from the Islamic perspective, is not merely an anti-Christ, he is anti-God, and when he makes his appearance at some point in the future, his main goal will be to lead people away from the worship of God, and to have all of mankind accept him as God and worship him.

The word “dajjal” in Arabic literally means “imposter”. He is a man of lies, deception, and trickery. He will present many things to try to fool people to think that he is God with what will appear to be miracles. To convince people of his divinity, he will bring Jinns to appear to them in the forms of deceased loved ones who will encourage them to believe in the Dajjal and follow his commands. To everyday people, this will be a very difficult deception to identify.

Only the strongest of believers, who know about the Dajjal in advance from the warnings of prophet Muhammad, (PBUH), will be able to recognize the Dajjal’s lies and tricks and refuse to follow him or worship him.

The Dajjal will take these true believers and appear to cast them into Hell before the eyes of others. But again, only true believers who know about the Dajjal’s lies and tricks will know that what appears to be Hell, is actually Paradise, and vice versa. Prophet Muhammad, (PBUH), told us that the Dajjal will be the most serious trial that mankind has ever, or will ever face due to his high level of deception. All Muslims should study Prophet Muhammad’s teachings about the Dajjal as much as they can so that they can be prepared to identify him for what he truly is, a liar.

As for the Mahdi, Muslims look forward to his appearance to unite us under his leadership: