Dhulqarneyn, from him a remembrance

[Aladin_Azra]

The story about Dhulqarneyn in the Qur'an is in 18th sura el-Kehf (The Cave), and it starts from 1883. This name consists of dhoo (nominative) expressed only as genitive (dhee) and accusative/vocative (dhaa) in the Qur'an, and el-qarneyn, dual noun from qarn. Dhoo (or dhee, dhaa) describes somebody posses an attribute which comes after dhoo, in genitive case. In this case, this name means that this person had "two qarn(s)", was their owner. Qarn itself is an attribute of banding, bounding and, in relation to animals, it can be used for horns. Qarn is also used for a band of people, and then it's translated as "a generation". For one person, banded by the other(s), an adjective qareen is used. This is not just "a friend" or "a companion", but one who's banded in making decisions, ie. judging. In all of the cases it's about judging (using logic).

There's a word in many language which comes from qarn, and it's in a form of crown, coronet, krone, kruna, etc. All these words are used for an identification of a person banded by it with an authority to judge. So, my understanding for indentifying Dhulqarneyn is in searching for a person who was the owner of two crowns. That can be only one person, who was crowned in Memphis, Egypt and in Babylon, and that person is Alexander the Great (or Macedonian).

وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَن ذِي الْقَرْنَيْنِ ۖ قُلْ سَأَتْلُو عَلَيْكُم مِّنْهُ ذِكْرًا
And, they're asking you about Dhulqarneyn. Say "I'll continue telling on you from him a remembrance."

It wasn't said "They asked you" because they're (some people) asking continuously about him, which means that he was important to know about. There're two ways to express a future tense, one is by adding a word seyfe before imperfect which means "will...", and the other is by adding a prefix se-, which means "will continue to...". The difference is that a prefix se- expresses a verb which is already happening and it will continue to happen, and seyfe expresses a verb which is not happening but will happen in the future. Questioning and the answer are telling that both are continuous.

What is told in the Qur'an about him is (what remained as) a remembrance from him. In his story there's no personal details, no physical description and other things we can find in stories about the great people from the past, only things by which he was remembered, his heroic deeds, as we'll see.

إِنَّا مَكَّنَّا لَهُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَآتَيْنَاهُ مِن كُلِّ شَيْءٍ سَبَبًا
We gave him a secure position in the land and gave him from every thing what can provoke.

When so-called "royal We" is used it's because Allah is acting by several of His names, for example as el-Hakiim, el-'Aleem, el-'AZeem, and He's making something or somebody by them, in this case wise, knowing and mighty/great. If we don't know who Dhulqarneyn is this would be difficult to understand. The Greco-Persian war was at its full strength, but Macedonia was a secure place to live. He could live a softy life, but there were provocations from every direction. He was a well educated man, his teacher was Aristotle, and he as a young person knew what's happening in the world. A verb yesubbu is used twice in 6102 for insulting, so sebeb and its plural esbaab can mean provocation(s), insult(s). Sebeb can also be understood as "a cause", but cause is provoking effects also.

فَأَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا
So, he followed a provocation.

As we saw earlier, he had a secure place to live in, but he couldn't sit and watch injustice all over the (known) world by Persians. He stood and went to what is provoking him. What we know from the history is that he gathered Greek and other tribes and made an army to wage war against Persians.

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍ وَوَجَدَ عِندَهَا قَوْمًا ۗ قُلْنَا يَا ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ إِمَّا أَن تُعَذِّبَ وَإِمَّا أَن تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ حُسْنًا
Until, after he reached (place/time of) the sunset he found it (the Sun) setting in a spring of oil and found near it (spring or the Sun) a community. We said "O, Dhulqarneyn, either to punish or either to take (what is) in them good/nice."

قَالَ أَمَّا مَن ظَلَمَ فَسَوْفَ نُعَذِّبُهُ ثُمَّ يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِ فَيُعَذِّبُهُ عَذَابًا نُّكْرًا
He said "Who done Zulm (injustice) then I'll punish him, just after he is returning to his rabb then he'll punish him (by) a death punishment.

وَأَمَّا مَنْ آمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُ جَزَاءً الْحُسْنَىٰ ۖ وَسَنَقُولُ لَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِنَا يُسْرًا
And, as for one who was trustworthy and done correct, then for him is a good/nice reward, and we'll continue speaking to him from our command easily."

This is the first stopping told in Dhulqarneyn's chasing what provokes him. The word Hami'et is mostly translated as "dark mud", but if we know the history we can be sure that this dark mud is oil near the river Issus in nowadays south Turkey. This is the place of a very important battle. It's important for that it was the first battle with Persian king present that Persians lost in their history. Even Alexander fought Persians over Asia Minor earlier, this is the starting point of the story, because this place is a part of Levant. All of his story is from his battles in Levant, which was important for the people who asked about him. This can only be a remembrance of him, because other fights he fought (Egypt, Babylon, Persia...) can't be something people of Levant remember.

Word for the Sun, eš-šems, can also mean aggression, so Dhulqarneyn saw how aggression loses its strength (setting) in where this spring of oil is. Anyways, he found a community living near this spring or near the place where the battle finished. He knew that there were mercenaries in Persian army, and even some of them were Greeks. So, he "got on his mind" that among these people there could be ones who've done injustice (Zulm) with Persians, and maybe some of them were good/nice.

There's a misunderstanding about "rabb" here. It is not about Allah, but about a leader of Persian army, one that person was under his command. Dhulqarneyn is saying that he'll punish those people (individually) and he'll return them to Persians and then their rabb will punish then by deadly punishment, they'll be killed. We know that Persian soldiers were called "immortals" because they fight till death, similar as kamikaze in WWII in Japanese army, and it's their death sentence if they are captured, because they stop fighting. Obviously their punishment in Persian army is death. We have same word nukr in 658, and in this same surah in 1874 when Musa thought that punishment for killing a boy is death (nukr). From this word we have greek "nekros" for death, and prefix necro- in many words.

For those people who were trustworthy, since they were allied with Greeks and done correct, they will get a reward from Dhulqarneyn's army and they will be recruited.

ثُمَّ أَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا
Just after, he followed a provocation.

We saw earlier that word "fe" was used, meaning "then". Now, "thumme" is used, and the difference is that an action with "thumme" is just after something, and action with "fe" have some delay in space/time. Thumme is also used for enumeration/listing, as if we say First, I'll do that, then, I'll do that, then... This is the case if more "thumme" is used, when first of them means "first" in enumeration, and others mean "then" in enumeration.

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَطْلِعَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَطْلُعُ عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ لَّمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُم مِّن دُونِهَا سِتْرًا
Until, after he reached the rising place/time of the Sun, and found it rising on a community, we haven't made for them, besides it, cover.

كَذَٰلِكَ وَقَدْ أَحَطْنَا بِمَا لَدَيْهِ خُبْرًا
So, that was, and we already caught information by what was with him.

This is giving more evidence that "the Sun" is an aggression, because the Sun is not rising on ('alaa) people, but over, above (fewqa) them. The other proof is that a phrase "min dooni" means "besides", but due to misunderstanding it was translated as "against" here. This means that this community had no cover besides one which rose an agression, which means that their protectors fought Dhulqarneyn and left them uncovered.

ثُمَّ أَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا
Just after, he followed a provocation.

When he conquered Tyre, mainland, he wanted to take an island 1km from the mainland, because it was the main port Persians used to attack Greeks from the Mediterranian. Since they didn't want to let Alexander take an island under his control, he was provoked. But he was unable to attack from the sea, since Phoenicians had fast ship and his navy was far from Tyre. He built a causeway 1km long through the sea and conquered the island. This is no more island but peninsula.

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ وَجَدَ مِن دُونِهِمَا قَوْمًا لَّا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ قَوْلًا
Until, after he reached between the two hills, found besides it/them a community, almost don't understand talk.

"Under the direction of Heracles the founders of Tyre sailed out from the mainland in the first ship ever made and seized and sacrificed th eagle, whereupon the rocks became fixed as two hills on which Tyre was built." (Lectures on the Religion of Semites, William Robertson Smith)

There're legends about the hills of Tyre, but the two hills are what was Tyre known about. Again we have "min dooni" which is "besides" and -haa refers to something feminine. This is a pronoun pointing to "the Sun" again, or the aggression against Dhulqarneyn by Persian or an allied army. Besides the aggressors there was another community. This community was of people who almost don't understand talk. This doesn't mean that they spoke some foreign language, since we'll have a dialogue between them and Dhulqarneyn, but they don't understand what words mean.

قَالُوا يَا ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ إِنَّ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ مُفْسِدُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَهَلْ نَجْعَلُ لَكَ خَرْجًا عَلَىٰ أَن تَجْعَلَ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَهُمْ سَدًّا
They said "O, Dhulqarneyn, also, Ye'jooj and Me'jooj (Gog and Magog) are corrupters in the land. So, could we make a expenditure for you on that you make between us and them a hill?"

Word sedd is a hill made by sedimentation. They had a material which they wanted to use to close between to hills and to stop pirates from the sea to plunder them. These corrupters were called Ye'jooj and Me'jooj, which refers to residents and foreigners, which Alexander sold into slavery later, 30.000 of them.

قَالَ مَا مَكَّنِّي فِيهِ رَبِّي خَيْرٌ فَأَعِينُونِي بِقُوَّةٍ أَجْعَلْ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُمْ رَدْمًا
He said "In what my Rabb (Teacher) secured me is better. So, hand me by strength. I'll make between you and them a backfill.

He said the them that they won't be secured if they done so, that pile of material as hill won't stop pirats for a long time. He had a better solution, he needed their strength to move material and make a backfill, a mole through the sea to connect an island with mainland. This Rabb taught he so.

آتُونِي زُبَرَ الْحَدِيدِ ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا سَاوَىٰ بَيْنَ الصَّدَفَيْنِ قَالَ انفُخُوا ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَعَلَهُ نَارًا قَالَ آتُونِي أُفْرِغْ عَلَيْهِ قِطْرًا
Give me blocks of a hard material." Until he leveled between the two inner spaces (ends of the mole). He said "Blast! (Fire!)" Until, after he made it (backfill) fire (burning), said "Let me empty on it a liquid petroleum."

فَمَا اسْطَاعُوا أَن يَظْهَرُوهُ وَمَا اسْتَطَاعُوا لَهُ نَقْبًا
So they wasn't able to walk it and they wasn't able for it to make a burrow.

قَالَ هَٰذَا رَحْمَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّي ۖ فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ رَبِّي جَعَلَهُ دَكَّاءَ ۖ وَكَانَ وَعْدُ رَبِّي حَقًّا
He said "This is a help from my Rabb, so after a promise from my Rabb came He made it crushed. A promise from my Rabb is real."

What is important here is that Allah's telling us a remembrance, but only what is known as the two battles in Levant. This is why these people who were asking about Dhulqarneyn lived in Levant. Important is oil in both of the events, ones as a spring of "durk mud", and as "a liquid petroleum" (qiTr), which is mentioned with Suleymaan also, he had a spring of it.