He said: "That wherein my Lord hath established me is better (than your tribute). So may we pay thee tribute on condition that thou set a barrier between us and them?" They said: "O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Lo! Gog and Magog are spoiling the land. Till, when he came between the two mountains, he found upon their hither side a folk that scarce could understand a saying. Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom. "But as for him who believeth and doeth right, good will be his reward, and We shall speak unto him a mild command." He said: "As for him who doeth wrong, we shall punish him, and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with awful punishment!" We said: "O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness." Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. Lo! We made him strong in the land and gave him unto every thing a road. Say: "I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him." The verses of the chapter reproduced below show Dhu al-Qarnayn traveling first to the Western edge of the world where he sees the sun set in a muddy spring, then to the furthest East where he sees it rise from the ocean, and finally northward to a place in the mountains where he finds a people oppressed by Gog and Magog: "If he tells you about these things, then he is a prophet, so follow him, but if he does not tell you, then he is a man who is making things up, so deal with him as you see fit." (Verses 18:83-98). The rabbis told them to ask Muhammad about three things, one of them "about a man who travelled and reached the east and the west of the earth, what was his story". The story of Dhu al-Qarnayn is related in Surah 18 of the Quran, al-Kahf (" The Cave") revealed to Muhammad when his tribe, Quraysh, sent two men to discover whether the Jews, with their superior knowledge of the scriptures, could advise them on whether Muhammad was a true prophet of God. Quran 18:83-101 The Caspian Gates in Derbent, Russia, part of the defence systems built by the Sassanid Persians, often identified with the Gates of Alexander. Although some favor identification of Dhu al-Qarnayn with Cyrus the Great, the majority of modern scholars and Islamic commentators still identify him with Alexander the Great. Some modern scholars have argued that the origin of the Quranic story may be found in the Syriac Alexander Legend, but others disagree. Įarly Muslim commentators and historians variously identified Dhu al-Qarnayn, most notably as Alexander the Great and as the South-Arabian Himyarite king al-Ṣaʿb bin Dhī Marāthid. Other apocalyptic writings predict that their destruction by God in a single night will usher in the Day of Resurrection ( Yawm al-Qiyāmah). Elsewhere the Quran tells how the end of the world will be signaled by the release of Gog and Magog from behind the barrier. "He of the Two Horns") appears in the Quran, Surah Al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83–101 as one who travels to east and west and sets up a barrier between a certain people and Ya'juj and Ma'juj. Persian miniature from a book of Falnama copied for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I ( r. 1524–1576), currently preserved in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.ĭhu al-Qarnayn, ( Arabic: ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْن, romanized: Ḏū l-Qarnayn, IPA: lit. For the footballer, see Zulkarnain (footballer).ĭhu al-Qarnayn building a wall with the help of Jinn to keep away Gog and Magog.
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