{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/qar00.htm","path":"isl/pro/qar00.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/qar00.htm","text":"\u00d0ul-Qarnain, and his name is `Ayy\u00e2sh, he was man from Alexandria\nas been said, and his mother was an old woman from the population of that\ncity and she had no other son but him and he was called Exkandarus (Alexandros).\nAs attributed to Al-Fakhr Al-R\u00e2zi [famous Islamic scholar and scientist]\nhe said: he is Eskandar ben Faylaqus [maybe Faylaqus means Philip, and\nmaybe for this name the Kuwaiti island Failaka was named] the greek, and\nhe is the one that reached the east and west and north and built Alexandria\nand got back then after to Khur\u00e2s\u00e2n and built many cities and\nthen got back to Iraq and got sick in Shahrzur and died there. They said\nhis mother is a human and his father is one of the angels as in Majma`\nAl-Bahrain for Al-Tariji. I really did not understand the essence of this\nancestry, and yes, maybe his situation is like Jesus the son of Mary (PUH),\nand it is not that far for his high place to God, and maybe this matter\nis famous, and only God knows. He had good manners since his childhood,\nand then when he came to be a man he saw a dream that as if he was reaching\nthe sun and holding its horns from the east and west, so then when he told\nhis people about his dream they called him \u00d0ul-Qarnain [meaning: \u00d0ul-Qarnain\nin Arabic means \"he who has two horns\"], and after viewing this dream his\nwill increased and his place among his people got higher, and the first\nthing he decided to do is to think about the creation of heavens, earth,\nmountains, seas, trees, plants, animals, human and its mind and thinking,\nsending messangers, revealing of holy books and the messangers' commandments\nand such just rules, then he thought about all of this for one hour and\nhe believed in God and His messangers, and then called people to the faith\nand obeying God and refusing anything else, and so they answered him for\nthey were afraid of his power.\nThen he ordered them to build a mosque [maybe the author means here\na temple, but I will keep calling it a mosque], and they answered his request,\nand he ordered its length to be four hundred cubits and its width to be\ntwo hundred cubits, and its height to the sky to be one hundred cubits,\nand the thickness of the wall to be twenty two cubits, and they said to\nhim: O \u00d0ul-Qarnain, how you will get woods that reaches between the\ntwo walls? He said: you fill it with sand (the mosque) until it reaches\nthe top of the walls, and then you order every faithful man to give some\namount of gold and silver according to his wealth and then you cut it into\npieces just as nails and mix it with that sand, and then get some copper\nand melt it down and then you cover up the top of the walls and the mosque\nand you are able to work on a smooth land, and when you finish that you\ncall the poor people to move this sand and they will do it in a hurry for\nthe gold and silver it contains. They built the mosque as he ordered and\nthe poor people got out all the sand, and so the roof was fixed and the\npoor people fixed their conditions.\nThen he made four armies, every army had ten thousand men and spread\nthem all over the lands, and then he thought of going on and then the people\ngathered around him and said to him: we ask you by God that you don't prefer\nothers to us for we have the right to see you and serve you more than others\nand you were born among us and these are our riches and selves and you\nare the ruler for us, and this is your old mother and she is the greatest\nof God's creation that has rights upon you so do not refuse her requests.\nThen he said to them: it is as you said but I am in a place of someone\nthat his heart and ears and eyes are taken, and pushed from the back to\nsome where he does not know where, but come on my people and get into this\nmosque and believe in God all of you, and let none keep away or he will\nbe doomed, and let none refuse me or he will be destroyed [the man here\ndoes not mean to spread terror or to warn his people against his wrath,\nbut against the wrath of God].\nThen he called the nobles of Alexandria and said to them: keep my mosque\nbusy with worshipping, and console my mother instead of me for she is always\ncrying and extremely sad for she knows that I will die in my destination\nand I will go on no matter what, and when the nobles that were invited\nby Eskandar to console his mother saw how afraid she was and how long her\ncry was and they did not find any use for talking to her, they made a trick\nto console her and to get her to understand what troubles affected the\npeople before and after her, so they made up some food and invited to it\nonly those who did not face any troubles, so when the people heard of this\ninvitation they did not come at all and they said: there is none that did\nnot face any troubles or lost a dear one, and then \u00d0ul-Qarnain's mother\nheard of that and was surprised and did not know yet what was the purpose\nfor this, and then they did the opposite and invited people that faced\ntroubles, and so all people came and none was left behind for they invited\nall people and said: those who did not face any troubles in their lives\nhave no goodness, and when all people gathered together and none left behind\nfor there were none that did not face any troubles in their lives, some\nof them who invited them and gathered them started a speech and said: I\ndid not gather you for the purpose of the invitation, but to talk to you\nabout \u00d0ul-Qarnain and about our trouble for losing him without a return,\nand it is a great loss that has no meeting again after then at all, so\ntake sermons and think and console yourselves and know clearly that all\npeople on earth die, and creatures of heavens do not stay and everything\nis to be doomed except Him, and remember Adam that God created with His\nhands and breathed in him with His spirit and made the angels prostrate\nbefoer him and made him live in His paradise and then God tested him with\na great trouble which was to let him out of it, and then tested Abraham\nwith the great fire, and tested his son Ishmael with slaying, and tested\nJacob with sadness and crying, and tested Joseph with slavery, and tested\nJob with sickness, and tested Yahy\u00e2 (John) with slaying, and Zakariy\u00e2\n(Zacharias) with killing, and tested Jesus with captivity, and how many\nfaithful viceroys He did test so hard and none can count their number except\nof He and He is the Exalted One, and when he finished his speech he said\nto them: let us go and console the mother of Eskandarus and let us see\nhow patient she is for losing her son, so when they arrived at her place\nthey said to her: did you attend the gathering and heard everything? She\nsaid to them: nothing of your matter was hidden from me, and none of you\nhas a trouble greater than I do with Eskandarus, and God made me patient\nand satisfied me, so when they saw her nice answer they left.\nThen Eskandar said the farewell for his mother and asked for her prays\nfor him and then said the farewell to his relatives and his friends and\nhe left then wandering towards the west and his army made of the poor people,\nthen God inspired unto him: O \u00d0ul-Qarnain you are the leader all over\nthe creation between the two destinations, from the place of sunrise to\nthe place of its sunset, and this is the interpretation of your dream,\nthen said \u00d0ul-Qarnain: O Lord, You chose me for something great that\nno one can do except of You, so tell me about these nations, how shall\nI fight them, with how many men shall I defeat them, with what trick shall\nI trick them, by which tongue shall I speak to them and how shall I know\ntheir tongues? God then inspired unto him: I will dilate your bosom so\nyou will hear everything and dilate your mind so you will understand everything,\nand save you so nothing can be hidden from you, and support you so nothing\ncan make you afraid, and make darkness and light within your armies so\nthat light guides you and darkness surround you and protect you from other\nnations from behind. Then \u00d0ul-Qarnain went along with the message of\nhis Lord and passed over the sunset place of the sun, and he did not pass\nover one nation unless he called them to God, so if they answered he leaves\nthem and if not he would send the darkness to darken their cities and villages\nand their forts and homes and it would go into their eyes and mouths and\nnoses and stay like that until they answer his calls, and when he reached\nthe setting-place of the sun he found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn!\nEither punish or show them kindness(Al-Kahf:86), so he did with them as\nhe did to the others before them until he finished whatever was there between\nhis land and the west, and then he wandered in the darnkess for eight days\nand eight nights and his folks with him until he reached a mountain that\nsurrounds the earth and saw there and angel holding the mountain while\nhe is sanctifying God, then \u00d0ul-Qarnain fell prostrating to God for\nHis gifts to him, and when he raised his head the angel said to him: how\ncome you've been able O Adam's child to reach this position and none reached\nit before? Then \u00d0ul-Qarnain said: the One that made you able to hold\nthis mountain while is surrounding the whole earth made me able to do so.\nThe angel said then: true, without this mountain the earth would be inclined\nwith its people and there is no mountain on earth that is greater than\nthis one, and it is the first mountain that God created and its top reaches\nthe sky of earth and its base in the seventh ground and it surrounds earth\nand there is no city on this earth that does not has a vein to this mountain,\nso if God wanted to send an earthquake to a city on earth, He inspires\nto me to move that vein that connects to that city and so whatever God\ndesires happens.","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: \u00d0ul-Qarn...","type":"page"}