Zulqarnain and place
of Sunrise and Sunset!
By:
Shahid Bin Waheed شاهد
بن وحيد
بسم الله الرحمن
الرحيم
الحمدلله
رب العالمين والصلوة
والسلام على اشرف
الانبياء وسيدالمرسلين
نبينا محمد صل
ا لله عليه وعلى
آله واصحابه وازواجه
اجمعين - امابعد
All the praises and thanks
be to Allaah, Sustainer of the Universe, and blessing and salutation to be the
most distinguish of the Messengers and foremost among the Prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of
Allaah be on him and on his wives, children and Companions.
Before we talk about
Zulqarnain, we must explore that why the Glorious Qur’aan took up this subject?
Glorious Qur’aan didn’t raise it on as its own, but answered someone’s
question. What had prompted the questioner/s to put forth that question and who
is the person asking the question is discussed in this treatise. Let us begin
where Glorious Qur’aan takes up the subject beginning with Ayaat آيات 83-85,
وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ
عَنْ ذِي الْقَرْنَيْنِ
قُلْ سَأَتْلُو
عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْهُ
ذِكْرًا (83) إِنَّا
مَكَّنَّا لَهُ
فِي الْأَرْضِ
وَآتَيْنَاهُ
مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
سَبَبًا (84) فَأَتْبَعَ
سَبَبًا (85)
And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnain. Say: "I
shall recite to you something of his story." Verily, We established him in
the earth, and We gave him the means of everything. So he followed a way.
Background
and type of question regarding Zulqarnain!
Muhammad
Ibn Ishaaque has said on the authority of Ibn Abbas (RA) that Quraysh of Makkah
مكه sent Nadr bin Harith and Uqbah bin Abu Muayt to the religious
scholars of the Jews. They conveyed the Quraysh’ s message to these Jewish
scholars,
{“You
are people of the Book and you claim to have knowledge of the earlier
Messengers which we do not have. So tell us what we may ask Muhammad (SAW)
about a sign in your Books confirming his Messengership”}
The
men of Quraysh made known the purpose of their mission when they arrived at
Yathrib. The Jewish Rabbis asked them not to probe much but ask him (Muhammad صلی الله عليه
وسلم)
three questions and,
“If he gives the correct
answers then he is true in his claim and he is a true Prophet. You must then
obey him. If he does not give the correct answers then he is a liar, and you
may do with him as you choose.”
The
questions that Jewish Rabbis suggested are:
(1)
Tell us about him whose
conquests continued from the east to the west.
(2)
How did those few young
men fare who hid themselves in a mountainous cave from fear of their King?
(3)
Tell us about Rooh روح (The spirit or soul).
At
this point I must emphasize that Jewish Rabbis never asked the following
questions:
This tells us that Jews themselves took such questions to be unnecessary
and redundant. Therefore, in this treatise, I would also ignore exploring such
questions.
It was the response to
these questions that Surah Al-Kahf سورة
كهف (Chapter
18) was revealed to Prophet Muhammad صلی
الله عليه وسلم. By the way Zulqarnain is also (once)
mentioned in Torah, that is why Jewish Rabbis asked the question about him.
Surah Al-Kahf 86
حَتَّى
إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ
الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا
تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ
حَمِئَةٍ وَوَجَدَ
عِنْدَهَا قَوْمًا
قُلْنَا يَا ذَا
الْقَرْنَيْنِ
إِمَّا أَنْ تُعَذِّبَ
وَإِمَّا أَنْ
تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ
حُسْنًا
Until, when he reached the
setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of black muddy (or
hot) water. And he found near it a people. We (Allâh) said (by inspiration):
"O Dhul-Qarnain! Either you punish them, or treat them with
kindness."
حَتَّى
إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ
الشَّمْسِ
{H.ATTAA
'IDHAA BALAGHA MAGHRIB ASH- SHAMS}
Until,
when he reached the setting place of the sun,
Means,
he followed a route until he reached the furtherest point that could be reached
in the direction of the sun’s setting, which is the west of the earth. As for
the idea of his reaching the place in the sky where sun sets, this is something
impossible, and the tales told by storytellers that he traveled so far to the west
that the sun set behind him are not true at all. Most of those stories come
from the myths of the people of the Book and the fabrications and lies of their
heretics.
وَجَدَهَا
تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ
حَمِئَةٍ
{WAJADA
-HAA TAGHRUB FE cAYN H.AMI'AH}
he
found it setting in a spring of Hami’ah
Meaning,
he saw the sun as if it were setting in the ocean. This is something which
everyone who goes to the coast/beach can see: it looks as if the sun is setting
into sea but in fact it never leaves it path in which it is fixed. Hami’ah is,
according to one of the two views, derived from the word Hama’ah, which means,
“mud.” This is like Ayah (verse 15:28):
Surah Al-Hijr 28
And (remember) when your
Lord said to the angels: "I am going to create a man (Adam) from dried
(sounding) clay of altered mud.
{…
'INNI -Y KHAALIQ BASHAR (AN) MIN S.ALS.AAL MIN H.AMA' MASNON}
I am going
to create a man (Adam) from the dried clay of altered Hama’h (mud).
Which
means smooth mud, as I have discussed above.
وَوَجَدَ
عِنْدَهَا قَوْمًا
{WA- WAJADA cINDA -HAA QAWM(AN)}
And he
found near it a people.
Meaning,
a nation. They mentioned that they were a great nation from among the sons of
Adam.
قُلْنَا يَا
ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ
إِمَّا أَنْ تُعَذِّبَ
وَإِمَّا أَنْ
تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ
حُسْنًا
{QULNAA
YAA DHAA AL- QARNAIN 'IMMAA 'AN TUcADHDHIB WA- 'IMMAA 'AN TATTAKHIDH FE -HIM
H.USN (AN)}
We (Allah)
said (by inspiration): "O Dhul-Qarnain! Either you punish them, or treat
them with kindness."
Means,
Allaah gave him power over them and gave him the choice: if he wanted to, he
could kill the men and take the women and children captive, or if he wanted to
he could set them free, with or without a ransom. His justice and faith become
apparent in the ruling he pronounced as we read in verse 87:
Surah Al-Kahf 87
He said: "As for him
(a disbeliever in the Oneness of Allâh) who does wrong, we shall punish him,
and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with a
terrible torment (Hell).
Zulqarnain
advanced very far off to the west and found the ocean before him. The ocean
facing him was miry and black (dark) while sun was setting. It SEEMED to Zulqaranyn
that it was setting or going down into the black miry water.
Thus, the Ayaah آيه 18:86 is expressing the thought of Zulqarnain,
for what he perceived.
To
further simplify the Ayaah آيه 18:86,
following must be understood:
Until
when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he perceived it setting in a miry
spring, and he found beside it a nation. We said: Zulqarnain! either
chastise them or take in respect of them the way of kindness.
Sun = i.e. western point where the expedition terminated. MAGHRIB مغرب and Al- MAGHRIB المغرب both signify West.
Setting
= Arabic word WAJAD وجد has
two distinct meanings: one, he found it, lighted on it, attained it,
having an objectivity, a correspondence with fact; the other is, he
perceived it, became sensible of it, having only a subjective import. Here
it is used in the latter sense, and the phrase means, ‘it
appeared to him that the sun was setting.’
Nation
= (of infidels) The reference
may well be to Lake Ochaida to the west of the town of the same name of south
Serbia (Yugoslavia). It is about 50 miles west of Monastia, 2260 feet. Above the
sea level in a mountainous limestone region. ‘Its water are supplied by
subterranean streams. Its chief outlet is the River Black
Drin, on the north.’ (Encyclopedia
Britannica XIX. P. 989 11th Ed.). ‘The water is so dark that the river which forms the outlet
of the lake to the north is called the Black Drin.
Looking at the sunset from the town, the observer would see the sun setting in
a pool of murky water.’
Said = (by inspiration)
Kindness = (and unite them
to the true faith) The choice between the two alternatives tested with the
invader king.
{Tafeer-e-Majidi تفسير ماجدی: Volume III, Page 58-59}
GIST
In the Ayaah آيه
18:86, Glorious Qur’aan is neither claiming nor suggesting that sun sets in
the murky water or in a spring or in dark water etc. In fact the Qur’aan is
mentioning a past event that took place before the advent of Islaam. The Jewish
Rabbis and Quraysh of Makkah مكه asked the questions, to verify the Prophethood
of Muhammad صلی الله
عليه وسلم.
THE SUN ROTATES ACCORDING TO GLORIOUS QUR’AAN!
Surah Al-Anbiyaa 33
وَهُوَ
الَّذِي خَلَقَ
اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ
وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ
كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ
يَسْبَحُونَ
And He it is Who has
created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each in an orbit
floating.
Surah Ya-Sin 38
And the sun runs on its
fixed course for a term (appointed). That is the Decree of the All-Mighty, the
All-Knowing.
Surah Ya-Sin 40
لَا الشَّمْسُ
يَنْبَغِي لَهَا
أَنْ تُدْرِكَ
الْقَمَرَ وَلَا
اللَّيْلُ سَابِقُ
النَّهَارِ وَكُلٌّ
فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ
It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the
night outstrip the day. They all float, each in an orbit.
Also read:
Wednesday, November 03, 2004