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They ask thee
concerning Zulqarnain. Say, "I will rehearse to you something of his
story." Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways
and the means to all ends. One such way he followed, until, when he reached the
setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he
found a People: We said: "O Zulqarnain! Thou hast authority, either to
punish them, or to treat them with kindness."
He
said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back
to his Lord; and He will punish him with a punishment unheard-of before.
"But whoever believes and works righteousness,- he shall have a goodly
reward, and easy will be his task as We order it by our Command."
Then
followed he (another) way, until, when he came to the rising of the sun, he
found it rising on a people for whom We had provided no covering protection
against the sun. He left them as they were: He completely understood what was
before him.
Then
followed he another way, until, when he reached (a tract) between two
mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood a word.
They said: "O Zulqarnain! The Gog and Magog People do great mischief on
earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou might erect a
barrier between them and us?
He said:
"(The power) in which my Lord established me is better than tribute:
Help me ’Eh€f€f0f€ Wlth strength and labor: I will erect a strong barrier
between you and them: "Bring me blocks of iron." At length, when he
had filled up the space between the two steep mountain-sides‘, He said, Blow
with your bellows" Then, when he had made it red as fire, he said:
"Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten lead}: Thus were they made
powerless to scale it or to dig through it. He said: "This is a mercy from
my Lord: But when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it into
dust; and the promise of my Lord is true." On that day We shall leave them
to surgelike waves on one another: the trumpet will be blown, and We shall
collect them all together. And We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers
to see, all spread out, Unbelievers whose eyes had been under a veil from remembrance
of Me, and who had been unable even to hear.
Do
the Unbelievers think that they can take My servants as protectors besides Me?
Verily We have prepared Hell for the Unbelievers for their entertainment. Say:
"Shall we tell you of those who lose most in respect of their deeds?
"Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought
that they were acquiring good by their works?" They are those who deny the
Signs of their Lord and the fact of their having to meet Him (in the
Hereafter): vain will be their works, nor shall We, on the Day of Judgment,
give them any weight. That is their reward, Hell, because they rejected Faith,
and took My Signs and My Messengers by way of jest.
As to those
who believe and work righteous deeds, they have, for their entertainment, the
Gardens of Paradise, wherein they shall dwell for aye: no change will they wish
for from them. Say: "If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out)
the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than the words
of my Lord, even if we added another ocean like "lam but a man like
yourselves, (but) the to me, that your God is one God. Whoever would it,
for its aid.'' Say: “ I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has
come to me, that your God is one God. Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him
work righteousness, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner.
(S: 18, V: 83- 110)
A
dream of Denial has been mentioned in the Old Testament, in which he witnesses
the kingdoms of Media and Paris as a big ram with two horns. Zulqarnain
literally means lord of two qarns. Qarn may mean: a horn as in case of a ram or
bull, in a metaphorical sense, as in English, the horns of a crescent or the
horns of a kingdom or territory, two portions at opposite ends, a summit, a
lock of hair, a crest worn by eastern kings on their diadems, referring to
time, an epoch and age, a generation.
The
most popular interpretation of Zulqarnain is Alexander the Great (356—323BC).
But, according to some, it was Persian conqueror Cyrus in 549 BC, who conquered
Babylon soon after the conquest of Media (Aljabal) and Lydia (Asia Minor) His
conquests were spread from Sindh to Present Turkmenistan, Egypt and Libya and
on the other side up to Theresa and Macedonia and in the north territory of his
kingdom reached Caucasia and Khawarzam. The entire civilized world was under
his rule.
In
the west his empire was stretched up to Asia Minor and all the coasts of Syria
and in the east it extended up to Bulkh. Gog and Magog were the tribes of
Caucasian Mountains situated between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. So many
stories have become famous about Gog and Magog, which portray them as imaginary
mythological creatures. One of such stories is that at the end of the limits of
the land, on one side of the inaccessible mountains inhabited the Gog and Magog
and on the other side people of virtue and piety lived. Gog and Magog crossed
these mountains through a difficult terrain and attacked the noble people. When
Zulqamain preached monotheism to those noble people they told him about Gog and
Magog and requested him to help them. When he inquired, he was told that on one
of the mountains there lived the children of Gog and on the other one lived the
children of Magog. They were the descendants of the son of Noah, Yafs.
One
of such unbelievable story is that some of these people are very tall and some
are very dwarf. They have so big ears, which dangle on the ground. They spread
one ear on the ground and cover themselves with the other one when they sleep.
They are uncivilized and live like animals. They do not know of God nor do they
acknowledge Him as God. Upon hearing about their invasions and attacks,
Zulqarnain ordered to construct an iron wall between the two mountains making
it impossible for them to cross. To make an insurmountable wall large sheets of
iron were piled on one another in the valley between the mountains and molten
lead was poured upon them.
“Then followed he another way, until,
when he reached a tract between two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people
who scarcely understood a word. They said: "O Zulqarnain! The Gog and Magog
People do great mischief on earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order
that thou might erect a barrier between them and us?
He
said: ”The power in which my Lord has established me is better than tribute:
Help me therefore with strength and labor: I will erect a strong barrier
between you and them: "Bring me blocks of iron.” At length, when he had
filled up the space between the two steep mountain sides, He said, "Blow
with your bellows" Then, when he had made it red as fire, he said: ”Bring
me, that I may pour over it, molten lead.”
(S: 18, V:
92-96)
Some
fifty years before Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar reigned Babylon. Babylonians worshipped
idols and the Nebuchadnezzar was considered to the greatest god and this was
his right to inflict punishment upon any kingdom, which he deemed appropriate.
He attacked Jerusalem three times and treated the Palestinians like cattle.
Josephus; the Jew historian writes; Even the most cruel butcher would not treat
the sheep so mercilessly, which he takes to the slaughterhouse, as the
Nebuchadnezzar treated the Children of Israel.
The
Babylon had grown even stronger after the fall of Ashorites and no kingdom
around her had the courage or strength to face her. After the fall of
Jerusalem, King Nebuchadnezzar died and Belshazzar, who was a tyrant and
self-seeking, became the king. He was not as brave or courageous as his
predecessor. Daniel, one of the slaves from Israel, had exalted to the position
of a councilor in the Babylonian Court of the king because of his wisdom and
knowledge, tried to stop Belshazzar from his tyrannical approach many a times
and when he saw that his words had no effect he dissociated himself from the
court.
According
to the Book of Daniel of Old Testament, Belshazzar, upon instigation of the queen,
commanded to serve wine in the golden and silver vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar
had taken from the temple of Jerusalem. The feast was going on when the Belshazzar
saw a hand writing an inscription over the candlestick upon the plaster of the
wall of the king’s palace and the king saw the part of the hand and his
countenance changed and his thoughts troubled him. The mysterious hand wrote
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. The king asked the interpretation of this writing
from royal astrologers and the soothsayers and when no one could tell him the
meanings of these words. Daniel interpreting this writing said, God has
numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou are weighed in the balances and are
found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
Babylonians
were looking for a way to get rid of their tyrant ruler. Some chiefs approached
Cyrus and requested him to help them in getting rid of Belshazzar. Cyrus
invaded Babylon as promised.
In
those days no city had such a strong defenses Babylon had but the people of the
city and the governor assisted him to enter the city. He entered the city and
Belshazzar was killed, Darius, the Median, took the kingdom and the prophesy of
Daniel thus came true.
Darius
got various inscriptions engraved upon the rocks of mountains to leave his
marks upon the history and made the generations to come to know of his and his
predecessor’s achievements, method of governance and their beliefs. According
to these inscriptions Cyrus was a pious king who believed in one God unlike the
ancient Mogosh religion of Persia.
Ali
(RA) has stated that Zulqarnain was not a prophet nor was he an angel. He was a
human being who adored God and so did God adore him.
Abdullah
bin Abbas (RA) said, “Zulqarnain was a pious and kind king. God liked his deeds
and praised him in His Last Book; the holy Quran. He was indeed a great
conqueror and a successful king.
When
Cyrus conquering city after city reached, in the east, at a point where the
limits of civilized world came to an end. He came upon such a people who did
not know to erect even a tent what to say of a building and lived like wild
animals. Nobody was familiar with the language, which they spoke.
Even
the opponents and enemies had praised justice of Cyrus. Old Testament also
testifies that he was a God-fearing and helped the Israelis only to free them
from the tyrannical rule of the Babylonians and commanded the reconstruction of
the Doom of the Rocks in Jerusalem for the worship of one God only.
When
people said to him, “O Zulqarnain! The Gog and Magog do great mischief on
earth, shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou might erect a
barrier between us and them?”
He
said, “That which God has granted me is better than the tributes. As a ruler it
is my duty to serve my subjects from the enemies and to impose any tax upon you
for that would not be fair. The treasures, which God has given me, are
sufficient for this work,‘ you only extend hard work and labor to complete it.”
After the construction of the wall Zulqarnain
said, “I have constructed this wall as strong as was humanly possible for me
but it would not stand eternally and it would turn into dust when the promise
of my God is fulfilled and the promise of God is indeed true. Everything except
my Lord has to come to an end.”
This
has also been told in this story that Zulqamain whose story of greatness has
been related was not only a conqueror and ruler but was also a staunch believer
of One God and in the Hereafter. He was a man of virtuous principles, believed
in justice and was a very caring and kind to his subjects. He was not haughty
and proud like other tyrant rulers of the world.
Once
His Divine Grace Qalander Baba Auliya talking about Gog and Magog said,
“Chinese tribes are the progeny of Gog and Mogog, and a time would come when
China would ruler over the world and enjoy the supreme sovereignty. It means
that this nation would become economically so developed and strong that it
would have control all over the world and great empires would bow before her.”
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