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Some Conditions of Ðul-Qarnain
Ðul-Qarnain, and his name is `Ayyâsh, he was man from Alexandria
as been said, and his mother was an old woman from the population of that
city and she had no other son but him and he was called Exkandarus (Alexandros).
As attributed to Al-Fakhr Al-Râzi [famous Islamic scholar and scientist]
he said: he is Eskandar ben Faylaqus [maybe Faylaqus means Philip, and
maybe for this name the Kuwaiti island Failaka was named] the greek, and
he is the one that reached the east and west and north and built Alexandria
and got back then after to Khurâsân and built many cities and
then got back to Iraq and got sick in Shahrzur and died there. They said
his mother is a human and his father is one of the angels as in Majma`
Al-Bahrain for Al-Tariji. I really did not understand the essence of this
ancestry, and yes, maybe his situation is like Jesus the son of Mary (PUH),
and it is not that far for his high place to God, and maybe this matter
is famous, and only God knows. He had good manners since his childhood,
and then when he came to be a man he saw a dream that as if he was reaching
the sun and holding its horns from the east and west, so then when he told
his people about his dream they called him Ðul-Qarnain [meaning: Ðul-Qarnain
in Arabic means "he who has two horns"], and after viewing this dream his
will increased and his place among his people got higher, and the first
thing he decided to do is to think about the creation of heavens, earth,
mountains, seas, trees, plants, animals, human and its mind and thinking,
sending messangers, revealing of holy books and the messangers' commandments
and such just rules, then he thought about all of this for one hour and
he believed in God and His messangers, and then called people to the faith
and obeying God and refusing anything else, and so they answered him for
they were afraid of his power.
Then he ordered them to build a mosque [maybe the author means here
a temple, but I will keep calling it a mosque], and they answered his request,
and he ordered its length to be four hundred cubits and its width to be
two hundred cubits, and its height to the sky to be one hundred cubits,
and the thickness of the wall to be twenty two cubits, and they said to
him: O Ðul-Qarnain, how you will get woods that reaches between the
two walls? He said: you fill it with sand (the mosque) until it reaches
the top of the walls, and then you order every faithful man to give some
amount of gold and silver according to his wealth and then you cut it into
pieces just as nails and mix it with that sand, and then get some copper
and melt it down and then you cover up the top of the walls and the mosque
and you are able to work on a smooth land, and when you finish that you
call the poor people to move this sand and they will do it in a hurry for
the gold and silver it contains. They built the mosque as he ordered and
the poor people got out all the sand, and so the roof was fixed and the
poor people fixed their conditions.
Then he made four armies, every army had ten thousand men and spread
them all over the lands, and then he thought of going on and then the people
gathered around him and said to him: we ask you by God that you don't prefer
others to us for we have the right to see you and serve you more than others
and you were born among us and these are our riches and selves and you
are the ruler for us, and this is your old mother and she is the greatest
of God's creation that has rights upon you so do not refuse her requests.
Then he said to them: it is as you said but I am in a place of someone
that his heart and ears and eyes are taken, and pushed from the back to
some where he does not know where, but come on my people and get into this
mosque and believe in God all of you, and let none keep away or he will
be doomed, and let none refuse me or he will be destroyed [the man here
does not mean to spread terror or to warn his people against his wrath,
but against the wrath of God].
Then he called the nobles of Alexandria and said to them: keep my mosque
busy with worshipping, and console my mother instead of me for she is always
crying and extremely sad for she knows that I will die in my destination
and I will go on no matter what, and when the nobles that were invited
by Eskandar to console his mother saw how afraid she was and how long her
cry was and they did not find any use for talking to her, they made a trick
to console her and to get her to understand what troubles affected the
people before and after her, so they made up some food and invited to it
only those who did not face any troubles, so when the people heard of this
invitation they did not come at all and they said: there is none that did
not face any troubles or lost a dear one, and then Ðul-Qarnain's mother
heard of that and was surprised and did not know yet what was the purpose
for this, and then they did the opposite and invited people that faced
troubles, and so all people came and none was left behind for they invited
all people and said: those who did not face any troubles in their lives
have no goodness, and when all people gathered together and none left behind
for there were none that did not face any troubles in their lives, some
of them who invited them and gathered them started a speech and said: I
did not gather you for the purpose of the invitation, but to talk to you
about Ðul-Qarnain and about our trouble for losing him without a return,
and it is a great loss that has no meeting again after then at all, so
take sermons and think and console yourselves and know clearly that all
people on earth die, and creatures of heavens do not stay and everything
is to be doomed except Him, and remember Adam that God created with His
hands and breathed in him with His spirit and made the angels prostrate
befoer him and made him live in His paradise and then God tested him with
a great trouble which was to let him out of it, and then tested Abraham
with the great fire, and tested his son Ishmael with slaying, and tested
Jacob with sadness and crying, and tested Joseph with slavery, and tested
Job with sickness, and tested Yahyâ (John) with slaying, and Zakariyâ
(Zacharias) with killing, and tested Jesus with captivity, and how many
faithful viceroys He did test so hard and none can count their number except
of He and He is the Exalted One, and when he finished his speech he said
to them: let us go and console the mother of Eskandarus and let us see
how patient she is for losing her son, so when they arrived at her place
they said to her: did you attend the gathering and heard everything? She
said to them: nothing of your matter was hidden from me, and none of you
has a trouble greater than I do with Eskandarus, and God made me patient
and satisfied me, so when they saw her nice answer they left.
Then Eskandar said the farewell for his mother and asked for her prays
for him and then said the farewell to his relatives and his friends and
he left then wandering towards the west and his army made of the poor people,
then God inspired unto him: O Ðul-Qarnain you are the leader all over
the creation between the two destinations, from the place of sunrise to
the place of its sunset, and this is the interpretation of your dream,
then said Ðul-Qarnain: O Lord, You chose me for something great that
no one can do except of You, so tell me about these nations, how shall
I fight them, with how many men shall I defeat them, with what trick shall
I trick them, by which tongue shall I speak to them and how shall I know
their tongues? God then inspired unto him: I will dilate your bosom so
you will hear everything and dilate your mind so you will understand everything,
and save you so nothing can be hidden from you, and support you so nothing
can make you afraid, and make darkness and light within your armies so
that light guides you and darkness surround you and protect you from other
nations from behind. Then Ðul-Qarnain went along with the message of
his Lord and passed over the sunset place of the sun, and he did not pass
over one nation unless he called them to God, so if they answered he leaves
them and if not he would send the darkness to darken their cities and villages
and their forts and homes and it would go into their eyes and mouths and
noses and stay like that until they answer his calls, and when he reached
the setting-place of the sun he found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn!
Either punish or show them kindness(Al-Kahf:86), so he did with them as
he did to the others before them until he finished whatever was there between
his land and the west, and then he wandered in the darnkess for eight days
and eight nights and his folks with him until he reached a mountain that
surrounds the earth and saw there and angel holding the mountain while
he is sanctifying God, then Ðul-Qarnain fell prostrating to God for
His gifts to him, and when he raised his head the angel said to him: how
come you've been able O Adam's child to reach this position and none reached
it before? Then Ðul-Qarnain said: the One that made you able to hold
this mountain while is surrounding the whole earth made me able to do so.
The angel said then: true, without this mountain the earth would be inclined
with its people and there is no mountain on earth that is greater than
this one, and it is the first mountain that God created and its top reaches
the sky of earth and its base in the seventh ground and it surrounds earth
and there is no city on this earth that does not has a vein to this mountain,
so if God wanted to send an earthquake to a city on earth, He inspires
to me to move that vein that connects to that city and so whatever God
desires happens.
Next: Getting Back From West to The East