Dhul Qarnain

[Visionary]

Salaam upon my people,

There are statements that suggest Dhul Qarnain was Alexander the Great, how consistent is this with Quranic narratives?

Regards,

[chadiga]

dear visionary
I have just read the Tafsir of our brother 'muhammad asad an enlightening fact, namely


http://www.archive.org/stream/TafsirUlAsad/Tafsir-ul-asadTheMessageOfTheQuranMohammedAsad#page/n617/mode/2up

what you think about it? salam your sister

[Doc]

Wiki has an interesting bit on this.

Might be interesting to check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhul-Qarnayn


Differences Between Alexander the Great and Dhul-Qarnayn

The suggestion that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great is supported by some of the Quranic commentaries (Tafsir) and Islamic scholars such as Allameh Tabatabaei (in his Tafsir al-Mizan),[10] Allameh Tehrani,[8] Syed Ahmed Khan (known interpreter of the Quran), Abul Kalam Azad (Minister of Culture, India, in Majma' al-Bayan), and Dr. Baha-ed-Din Khorramshahi. Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi the historian, also deny that Dhul-Qarnayn was Alexander the Great.[11] They tend to suspect that Dhul-Qarnayn was Cyrus the Great, the King and founder of Achaemenid empire. They provide strong evidence, including artifacts, stone carving palaces and graves. Some of their reasons are:

In the carved stone that can still be seen up to now show Cyrus with his crown with two horns.[11]

According to the Quran, God's grace be with him and with it, Cyrus was the first king (several hundred years before Alexander the Great) who conquered most of Europe and Asia.[11]

Cyrus (as Dhul-Qarnayn) was a monotheist and worshipped the God, but Alexander the Great had many gods.[11]

In the Quran, Dhul-Qarnayn noted that the journey begins to the west and then to the east before the road to the other (the North), which coincided with the start the expedition of Cyrus the Persian conquest in the West to Lydia in Asia Minor and then turned to the east until the Makran and Sistan (Scythian) prior to capturing the Northeast Europe near the Balkan.[11]

Expedition of Cyrus proceeded with the conquest of Lycia, Cilicia and Phoenicia, and they used the techniques of wall construction which was not used anymore by the Greeks at that time.[11]

In accordance to story in Quran, more chances of it being Cyrus, as he ended his expeditions in 542 BC, before returning to Persia, while Alexander was still in war mission when he died.[11]

Alexander didn't built dams, there are just some fictional stories about this but there's not any historical document about it.[11] (Look at Strabo's Geography for more information)[10]

Besides, Alexander also said to be as generous as it is said Alexander drinking alcohol and partying often, and also had a man, Hephaestion, as a lover.[10][11][12]

Azad also rejected what it already belongs to Qahtaan Arabic Yemen, on the basis that the question of the Jews by the Prophet was with a view to embarrass him, even if the Arabs of Quraish were aware of it and asked what was miraculous.[10][11][12]

Azad builds his theory on the basis that the origin of the name "Dhul-Qarnayn" comes from the name stated in the Torah is "Haqqərānayim" which is launched by the name of the Jews to Cyrus, to show tolerance to them when his predecessors had been unjust to them.[11][12][13]



In Old Testament

Main article: Daniel 7

In Arabic translations of the Old Testament, the word "Dhul Qarnayn" (Hebrew: Ba'al Haqqərānayim בעל הקרנים) appears once in the Old Testament, in the Book of Daniel 8:20:
أَمَّا الْكَبْشُ الَّذِي رَأَيْتَهُ ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ فَهُوَ مُلُوكُ مَادِي وَفَارِسَ
הָאַיִל אֲשֶׁר-רָאִיתָ, בַּעַל הַקְּרָנָיִם--מַלְכֵי, מָדַי וּפָרָס

Translation:
(New International Version): The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. Daniel 8:20
(JPS 1917 Hebrew Bible in English): The ram which thou sawest having the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. Daniel 8.

[Visionary]

Thank you for the info )

[Peaceful]

Yeah... Dhul Qarnayn is Cyrus the Persian without much doubt. I find it interesting that the Jews consider him a Messiah for freeing Israel from Babylonian captivity, even though he was not an Israelite himself. Yet they refuse to accept Jesus as a Messiah.

[miracle114]

Does brother Joseph have writings about dhul qarnayn on his website?
If YES would someone please share?

[Joseph Islam]

Dear Miracle114,

As-salamu alaykum

As no doubt you will be aware, my own approach is to confine my interpretations to the Quranic verses and the immediate context driven by the narratives, as much as possible.

I have allowed a paper by Imran Faruqui on this website [1] which I find is an interesting assessment of the Quranic data pertaining to Zul-Qarnayn’s Journey to the Land of Gog and Magog. Albeit, you may find the whole paper of interest, he also does posit some specific suggestions of the nature of Dhul-Qurnain and the context in which his mission bore fruition. (Please kindly see pages 11ff)

Please kindly note that by sharing this paper this is not my tacit endorsement of brother Imran Faruqui's views / claims in general. Some examples of our differences can be read on this forum as well [2]. No doubt, there will be others too.

However, in as much as Mr. Faruqui has attempted to remain as loyal to the Quranic data as possible to derive possible interpretations with regards the topic of Zul-Qarnayn’s Journey to the Land of Gog and Magog, I have found his writings in this regards very interesting.

I hope this helps, God willing
Joseph


REFERENCES:

[1] FARUQUI, I. QUR’ANIC ODYSSEY
http://quransmessage.com/files/Gog%20&%20Magog%20-%20M.%20Imran%20Faruqui.pdf
[2] Imran Faruqui
http://quransmessage.com/forum/index.php?topic=1545.0
[3] Topic: Yajuj wa Majuj (Gog and Magog)
http://quransmessage.com/forum/index.php?topic=313.0

[Aijaz]

Thanks, very nice articles.

[Imran Faruqui]

Peace Ajaz,

Not sure if you caught it or not in the threads brother Joseph referenced above, but the latest version of Qur'anic Odyssey, which includes the second chapter, can be found here:

http://quransmessage.com/files/Quranic%20Odyssey%20Ch1-2%20v2.37.pdf

Imran

[Aijaz]

Thanks a lot again Imran, a very immaculately researched article.
I will take a detailed look. What is the major revision from the first version?

Did you research the possibility of Gog and Magog be some thing like Mongols and Tartars tribes. Some accounts of them such as being fast paced invaders seems to match and also the area of Gobi desert which you indicated in the path of Dual Qarnain used to be their domain.

Thanks
Aijaz

[Imran Faruqui]

The second revision, Aijaz, includes the second chapter; the first release only includes the first chapter. The second chapter, as can be gleaned from the table of contents, deals primarily with the etymologies of key words and how these etymologies lend support to the identification of Gog and Magog as present day North and South Korea, respectively. The etymologies explored consist of:

1. Etymology of Korea
2. Etymology of Gog and Magog in the Old and New Testaments
3. Etymology of Magog in Hebrew
4. Etymology of Gog and Magog in Arabic (Yajuj and Majuj)
5. Etymology of Zul-Qarnayn

Comprehensive analyses of each of the five sections above, yield a growing list of attributes which must all be met, and which any land/peoples identified as potential candidates for Gog and Magog, must therefore also meet. If any one of these attributes, which essentially act as filters, are not met, then the potential candidate is disqualified. When these attributes are taken collectively, it becomes abundantly clear that there is only one region and people in the world which not only meet all these criteria, but qualify perfectly – the divided inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula. The Mongols and Tartars you mention do not meet all the criteria/filters elucidated in the second chapter; hence they cannot be the peoples of Gog and Magog. This will become clear as you go through the second chapter and apply each revealed criterion/filter. In fact, one can go through every region and every people of the world – none will meet all the criteria/filters – none, that is, except North and South Korea; and they do so resoundingly.

Hope you enjoy the second chapter as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.

Imran

[Aijaz]

Peace Ajaz,

Not sure if you caught it or not in the threads brother Joseph referenced above, but the latest version of Qur'anic Odyssey, which includes the second chapter, can be found here:

http://quransmessage.com/files/Quranic%20Odyssey%20Ch1-2%20v2.37.pdf

Imran

Salam Imran
The link has 74 pages. Could you please send me the link for the remaining pages. Index shows more topics. I am interested to read chapter 6 as well.
Thanks again

Aijaz

[Imran Faruqui]

Peace Aijaz,

Thanks for your continued interest in my work. While I've completed the first draft of the entire book quite some time ago, considerable work is still required to bring the draft up to scholarship level, including comprehensive referencing. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to provide an approximate date of when you can expect the next chapter, which includes the decoding of three additional eschatological prophecies, as noted in the table of contents. Rest assured, however, when the next revision is released, God willing, I will request brother Joseph to kindly provide a link to the update as he deems fit.

Imran