{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/qar02.htm","path":"isl/pro/qar02.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/qar02.htm","text":"Other Tales About Gog and Magog and What \u00d0ul-Qarnain\nFaced\nIt is attributed to the prophet (PUH) as mentioned in Al-Majma` [book's\nname] that he was asked about Gog and Magog and he said: Gog is a nation,\nand Magog is another nation, and each one of them has four hundred nations,\nand no man of them die unless he has one thousand descendants that are\nable to carry weapons, they said: O prophet of God describe them for us,\nhe said then: they are of three types, one type of them is like the cedar\ntree, they said: O prophet of God what is the cedar? He said: the tall\ntree of Shem lands [you can see this tree on the flag of Lebanon], and\nthere is another type of them that their length is the same as their width\nand no iron nor mountain can resist them (maybe this is an expression to\nshow their strength), and another type that lies on one ear and cover hisself\nwith the other, and they do not face an elephant or beast or camel or pig\nunless they eat it and whoever dies of them they eat him as well, their\nfront would be in the lands of Shem and their end would be in Khur\u00e2s\u00e2n,\nthey drink the rivers of the east and the lake of Tabariyah. In another\nversion it is added: they will go out for the people and drink the waters\nand the people will be fortified in their forts against them and then they\n(Gog and Magog) will throw their arrows into the sky and they will get\nit back and as if there were blood on them and they (Gog and Magog) would\nsay: we've conquered the people on lands and we've come higher than heavens'\ncreatures, then God will send over them bugs on their backs and will get\ninto their ears and they shall die by them.\nGod said in the chapter of Al-Kahf: They will ask thee of Dhu'l-Qarneyn.\nSay: I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him, Lo! We made him strong\nin the land and gave him unto every thing a road(Al-Kahf:83-84), and it\nis attributed to `Ali (ben Abi-T\u00e2lib)(PUH) about the interpretation\nof God's saying \"Lo! We made him strong in the land\" it means that God\ngave him the clouds to carry him and gave him many roads and gave him the\nlight so there was no difference for day and night for him..etc, and it\nis mentioned that \u00d0ul-Qarnain once passed over an old man while he\nwas praying and he did not get scared or afraid of his armies, so \u00d0ul-Qarnain\nasked him about this, and he (the old man) said to him: i was praying to\nthe One that is more powerful and has more armies and more kingdoms than\nyou do, and if I turned my face to you I would not get my request answered\nby Him. They say also that he passed over another old man that was flipping\nbetween his hands some skulls, so \u00d0ul-Qarnain said to him: O old man\nwhy are you flipping these skulls? He answered: to know the noble from\nthe poor but I couldn't know and I'm flipping these for twenty years, so\n\u00d0ul-Qarnain then moved on, and knew that this situation was a lesson\nfor him.\nWhile he was wandering he met the Wise Nation that are part of Moses'\nnation (PUH), that they guide to the truth and justice, and he found them\nas a nation that are so simple and just and divide everything to equal\nparts among them and judge with justice, and they console each other and\nhave passion for each other, so their situation is always one and their\nword is always one and their way is straight, and the graves of their dead\nis inside their house and in front of their rooms' doors, while their houses\nhave no doors and they have no rulers. They say that \u00d0ul-Qarnain was\nhit by his people on his right horn [horn here is an expression to mean\n\"side of the head\"] and God made him die for five hundred years and resurrected\nhim again, and then God sent him again to his people and they hit him on\nhis left horn and God made him die for five hundred years again, and then\nGod sent him again and made him rule the easts and wests and built the\nbarrier, and when \u00d0ul-Qarnain used to pass over some villages he would\nroar like an angry lion so then darkness starts to get over the village\nwith storms and lightnings that destroys everyone that opposes him, and\nwhen he reached the setting-place of the sun, all of the people from east\nto west, and this is mentioned in some interpretations about God's saying\n\"Lo! We made him strong in the land.\"\nThey say that \u00d0ul-Qarnain had been told about a spring that is\ncalled the spring of life, and anything that has a life would live up to\nthe doomsday time if they drink of it, so then \u00d0ul-Qarnain called Al-Khidhr\n(PUH) [Al-Khidhr, not a prophet but a faithful man. his story is well known\nwith Moses in Quran although Quran did not mention his name apparently.\nPlease refer to the chapter of Al-Kahf in Quran to read the story of Moses\nand his servant (his servant supposed to be Joshua). In the Kuwaiti island\nof Failaka they say there were footprints for Al-Khidhr and it was a subject\nfor visits and pilgrimage but they say the authorities removed the trace],\nand he was one of his best companions, and also called for three hundred\nand sixty men, and gave each one of them a fish and then he said to them:\ngo to that specific location for there are three hundred and sixty springs,\nso let every one of you cleans his fish over one spring that is not similar\nto the others' springs, so they went and found the springs and every one\nof them started to clean his fish and Al-Khidhr sat down to clean his fish,\nthen the fish slipped for his hand and went into the spring and swam and\nGod made it alive, but Al-Khidhr stayed amazed for what he saw and then\nhe said to himself: what shall I say to \u00d0ul-Qarnain? Then he took off\nhis clothes and swam after the fish but couldn't catch it, and then all\nthe men went back to \u00d0ul-Qarnain and he commanded to get all the fishes\nfrom the men, and when they came to Al-Khidhr he had nothing in his hands,\nso \u00d0ul-Qarnain called him and said to him: how is your fish? So he\ntold him about what happened, and he asked: what did you do then? He answered:\nI swam after it in the water and tried to find it but did not, so then\nhe said to him: did you drink of that water? He answered: yes I did, then\n\u00d0ul-Qarnain went to trace back the spring but couldn't find it, so\nthen he said to Al-Khidhr: you were the chosen one.\nIt is mentioned also that \u00d0ul-Qarnain reached a great island and\nhe saw there some people that wear leaves of the trees and live in the\ncaves, and he asked them about detailed matters in wisdom and religion\nand they answered him the best, then he said to them: ask your needs, they\nsaid to him: we ask for eternity in life, he said: I can't do that, then\nthey said to him: we ask for health in our bodies, he answered then: I\ncan't, they said to him then: we want to know how long are our ages, he\nsaid then: I don't know this for myself so how shall I know yours? They\nsaid then: then let us ask all of that from the One who is able to do this\nand even greater, and the people started to look at his numerous armies,\nand among them there were an old man that did not lift his head up, so\n\u00d0ul-Qarnain said to him: why don't you look to whatever the people\nare looking at? So the old man said: I wonder about the king that came\nbefore you, so \u00d0ul-Qarnain said: why so? Then the old man said: we\nhad a king and a poor man and they died in one day, and then I left them\nfor a while and came back later on and I tried to identify who is the king\nand who is the poor man but I couldn't, and then \u00d0ul-Qarnain left them\nand went on.\nSome say that \u00d0ul-Qarnain did a pilgrimage with six hundred thousand\nknights and he met with Abraham (PUH) and Abraham said to him: how did\nyou pass you life? He said: by eleven words (phrases), glorified is He\nwho remains with no doom, glorified is He who knows and never forget, glorified\nis He who keeps and never miss, glorified is He who sees with no doubt,\nglorified is He who is eternal and never sleeps, glorified is He the King\nthat never gets defeated, glorified is He the Exalted that never gets wronged,\nglorified is He who is hidden and cannot be seen, glorified is He who is\nwide with no show off, glorified is He who is active with no play, glorified\nis He who is Living with no miss. In Majma` Al-Bahrain for Al-Torayhi [notice:\nthe same name appeared in the last chapter but the author name was mentioned\nas Al-Tariji, and this difference because of some printing mistakes in\nthe book itself] it is mentioned: \u00d0ul-Qarnain is a name for Eskandar\n(Alexander) the Roman [seems the author of that book means the Greek but\nhe did not distinguish properly] and he was at the time after Jesus the\nson of Mary (PUH) and so how come he met with Abraham (PUH) and Abraham\nappeared before that time by more than two thousand years, or they might\nmet each other by a dream which is something not so propable, and in the\nsame time existed Nebuchadnezzar and ignorance (disbelieving) all over,\nbut the time of \u00d0ul-Qarnain was a time when he ruled over the east\nand west and justice spread all over the land and the word of God was the\nhighest, so how come to gather both times together and the holy quran emphasized\non the fact that he was victorious without a doubt, and maybe everything\nis possible and the truth is known by God only, and at the time of Abraham\nthere was Nimrod and the people of Lot and the pharaohs filled the land,\nand where was Alexandria at that time?\nWe do not doubt a lot about what was mentioned about \u00d0ul-Qarnain,\nand maybe this name was given to two, or maybe Eskandar (Alexander) is\ndifferent than \u00d0ul-Qarnain, and so Alexander was in a time period and\n\u00d0ul-Qarnain was at the time of Abraham (PUH), and only God knows.\nThere was much debate about his true identity, they said: he was a\nservant that was given wisdom and kingdom by God, and some said: he was\na prophet that God opened the lands by him. As attributed to `Ali (ben\nAbi-T\u00e2lib) (PUH) when he was asked about wether he (\u00d0ul-Qarnain)\nwas a prophet or a king, he (PUH) said: a faithful servant that loved God\nand God loved him, and gave adivces for the sake of God and God adviced\nhim. We've mentioned before that the world was owned by two faithful men\nand two disbelievers, and the faithful were: Solomon ben David and \u00d0ul-Qarnain,\nand the two disbelievers were: Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar. About calling\nhim \u00d0ul-Qarnain, more than what we've mentioned before, some said that\nhe was called like that because he had two braids, and some said because\nhe reached the two extreme points of earth, and some said because his father\nand mother were nobles, and some said because two main tribes of people\nwere extinct at his time, and some said because he got into the light and\ndarkness, and some said because he was given the knowledge of the apparent\nthe hidden things.","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: \u00d0ul-Qarn...","type":"page"}