Alright! A year ago, I wrote an article called “The Dajjal vs. deepfake: is AI the beast?” The core argument was simple: if you are looking for the great deceiver described in Islamic eschatology — the one-eyed figure who distorts truth so completely that believers cannot tell real from false — you do not need to search the desert. You just need to open your phone. “He won’t come with horns,” I wrote. “He’ll come with a blue checkmark.”
That was August 2025. A lot has changed in a year. The deepfakes got better. The algorithms got smarter. The blue checkmarks got cheaper — literally, you can buy them now. And the blurring of truth and falsehood that I described as a future threat is now just… Tuesday. The deceiver did not arrive in a single dramatic moment. He arrived in a thousand small uploads, each one slightly more convincing than the last, until we stopped being able to tell the difference — and then, crucially, stopped caring about the difference. That last part is the one that scares me most.
This is a follow-up. A status check. One year later: how is the Dajjal doing? Spoiler: better than any of us. Let me explain.
The one-eyed beast got an upgrade
In 2025, I wrote that the Dajjal’s “one eye” was a metaphor made literal by AI — the camera lens, the ring light, the CCTV. Always watching. Never understanding. All-seeing, soul-blind. In 2026, that lens has multiplied. It is no longer just the camera. It is the microphone. The location tracker. The recommendation engine. The entire surveillance apparatus of your smartphone, now enhanced with AI that can generate as fluently as it can observe.
Last year, you could still look at a deepfake and think: “something is off.” The blinking was wrong. The skin texture was too smooth. There was a subtle uncanny valley effect that your brain registered even if you could not articulate it. This year? That gap closed. The uncanny valley got paved over. You can no longer trust your eyes. You can barely trust your intuition. And the people who benefit from your confusion — religious authorities, political leaders, anyone whose power depends on controlling what you believe — have never been happier.
Followers, not disciples — the 2026 edition
Last year, I made a distinction that I still stand by: religions want disciples. The Dajjal wants subscribers. He does not care about your soul. He cares about your engagement metrics. His religion is relatability. His scripture is the comment section. His miracles are viral moments engineered by an algorithm that knows your fears better than your own family does.
In 2026, this has evolved into something even more insidious. It is not just that deepfakes can make anyone say anything. It is that they can now do it in real time. Live streams. Video calls. An AI-generated religious figure addressing you by name, referencing your specific life circumstances because the data broker that sold your profile to this “spiritual platform” knew exactly which doubts you have been Googling at 2 AM. This is not mass deception anymore. This is personalised deception. And personalised deception is almost impossible to resist because it feels like it was meant for you. It was.
The people who benefit from the confusion
Here is where I need to be clear — and this is something I have been saying across many articles now. The religions themselves are not the problem. Islam. Christianity. Buddhism. Hinduism. The core teachings — be decent, help the weak, do not be a jerk — are remarkably consistent across traditions. The problem is the people running the institutions. The ones who interpret the words to suit their own version of the teaching. The ones who implement rules by force — sometimes by violence — because it benefits their interests. The ones who claim to speak for God while building earthly empires.
Deepfakes are the sharpest weapon these people have ever been handed. A doctored video of a rival religious leader saying something blasphemous. An AI-generated “miracle” that goes viral and brings millions of followers to the person who “witnessed” it. A fake sermon delivered in the voice of a beloved scholar, subtly shifting doctrine in a direction that consolidates power for a specific faction. The technology does not care who uses it. The technology just works. And the people who benefit from working it — the gatekeepers, the power brokers, the ones who have spent centuries perfecting the art of controlling narratives — are not going to stop. Why would they? The tool is too good.
Religions separate, not unite. I said it before deepfakes became mainstream. I am saying it louder now that they have. Not because the faiths themselves are divisive. Because the humans who administer them always find a way to weaponise whatever tool becomes available. The printing press. Radio. Television. Social media. And now AI. The medium changes. The playbook stays the same.
The beast does not need to win — it just needs you to stop caring
Here is the part that I did not fully grasp in 2025. The Dajjal does not need to deceive everyone. He does not need to win every argument or convince every believer. His goal is simpler and more devastating: he just needs enough people to stop caring about the difference between truth and falsehood. Once you reach the point where you shrug and say “who even knows what’s real anymore?” — he has already won. You do not need to believe the lie. You just need to stop fighting for the truth.
And in 2026, honestly? A lot of people have stopped fighting. Not because they are weak. Because they are tired. Every week brings a new viral controversy, a new debunked video, a new “experts are divided” headline. The sheer volume of deception is exhausting. And exhaustion is the Dajjal’s favourite weapon. A tired mind does not verify. A tired mind scrolls past. A tired mind clicks “share” because the headline made them feel something and they did not have the energy to check if it was true.
Last year I asked: is AI the beast? This year, I have a different answer. AI is not the beast. AI is the beast’s render engine. The beast itself is the same thing it has always been — the human capacity for deception, amplified by whatever technology is available. The Dajjal did not arrive with a software update. He was already here. We just gave him a better graphics card.
So what do we do? Pay attention. Verify before you share. Teach the people you love — especially the older ones, the ones who did not grow up with the internet and cannot instinctively tell a deepfake from a real video — to pause before forwarding. The beast feeds on speed. Starve it of speed. Take an extra five seconds. Ask: who benefits from me believing this? That question alone, applied consistently, will protect you from more deception than any fact-checking tool ever could.
I will check in again next year. I hope the update is better than this one. I am not optimistic. But I am still paying attention. And that, in 2026, might be the most radical thing you can do. XAXAXA!
