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Other Tales About Gog and Magog and What Ðul-Qarnain
Faced
It is attributed to the prophet (PUH) as mentioned in Al-Majma` [book's
name] that he was asked about Gog and Magog and he said: Gog is a nation,
and Magog is another nation, and each one of them has four hundred nations,
and no man of them die unless he has one thousand descendants that are
able to carry weapons, they said: O prophet of God describe them for us,
he said then: they are of three types, one type of them is like the cedar
tree, they said: O prophet of God what is the cedar? He said: the tall
tree of Shem lands [you can see this tree on the flag of Lebanon], and
there is another type of them that their length is the same as their width
and no iron nor mountain can resist them (maybe this is an expression to
show their strength), and another type that lies on one ear and cover hisself
with the other, and they do not face an elephant or beast or camel or pig
unless they eat it and whoever dies of them they eat him as well, their
front would be in the lands of Shem and their end would be in Khurâsân,
they drink the rivers of the east and the lake of Tabariyah. In another
version it is added: they will go out for the people and drink the waters
and the people will be fortified in their forts against them and then they
(Gog and Magog) will throw their arrows into the sky and they will get
it back and as if there were blood on them and they (Gog and Magog) would
say: we've conquered the people on lands and we've come higher than heavens'
creatures, then God will send over them bugs on their backs and will get
into their ears and they shall die by them.
God said in the chapter of Al-Kahf: They will ask thee of Dhu'l-Qarneyn.
Say: I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him, Lo! We made him strong
in the land and gave him unto every thing a road(Al-Kahf:83-84), and it
is attributed to `Ali (ben Abi-Tâlib)(PUH) about the interpretation
of God's saying "Lo! We made him strong in the land" it means that God
gave him the clouds to carry him and gave him many roads and gave him the
light so there was no difference for day and night for him..etc, and it
is mentioned that Ðul-Qarnain once passed over an old man while he
was praying and he did not get scared or afraid of his armies, so Ðul-Qarnain
asked him about this, and he (the old man) said to him: i was praying to
the One that is more powerful and has more armies and more kingdoms than
you do, and if I turned my face to you I would not get my request answered
by Him. They say also that he passed over another old man that was flipping
between his hands some skulls, so Ðul-Qarnain said to him: O old man
why are you flipping these skulls? He answered: to know the noble from
the poor but I couldn't know and I'm flipping these for twenty years, so
Ðul-Qarnain then moved on, and knew that this situation was a lesson
for him.
While he was wandering he met the Wise Nation that are part of Moses'
nation (PUH), that they guide to the truth and justice, and he found them
as a nation that are so simple and just and divide everything to equal
parts among them and judge with justice, and they console each other and
have passion for each other, so their situation is always one and their
word is always one and their way is straight, and the graves of their dead
is inside their house and in front of their rooms' doors, while their houses
have no doors and they have no rulers. They say that Ðul-Qarnain was
hit by his people on his right horn [horn here is an expression to mean
"side of the head"] and God made him die for five hundred years and resurrected
him again, and then God sent him again to his people and they hit him on
his left horn and God made him die for five hundred years again, and then
God sent him again and made him rule the easts and wests and built the
barrier, and when Ðul-Qarnain used to pass over some villages he would
roar like an angry lion so then darkness starts to get over the village
with storms and lightnings that destroys everyone that opposes him, and
when he reached the setting-place of the sun, all of the people from east
to west, and this is mentioned in some interpretations about God's saying
"Lo! We made him strong in the land."
They say that Ðul-Qarnain had been told about a spring that is
called the spring of life, and anything that has a life would live up to
the doomsday time if they drink of it, so then Ðul-Qarnain called Al-Khidhr
(PUH) [Al-Khidhr, not a prophet but a faithful man. his story is well known
with Moses in Quran although Quran did not mention his name apparently.
Please refer to the chapter of Al-Kahf in Quran to read the story of Moses
and his servant (his servant supposed to be Joshua). In the Kuwaiti island
of Failaka they say there were footprints for Al-Khidhr and it was a subject
for visits and pilgrimage but they say the authorities removed the trace],
and he was one of his best companions, and also called for three hundred
and sixty men, and gave each one of them a fish and then he said to them:
go to that specific location for there are three hundred and sixty springs,
so let every one of you cleans his fish over one spring that is not similar
to the others' springs, so they went and found the springs and every one
of them started to clean his fish and Al-Khidhr sat down to clean his fish,
then the fish slipped for his hand and went into the spring and swam and
God made it alive, but Al-Khidhr stayed amazed for what he saw and then
he said to himself: what shall I say to Ðul-Qarnain? Then he took off
his clothes and swam after the fish but couldn't catch it, and then all
the men went back to Ðul-Qarnain and he commanded to get all the fishes
from the men, and when they came to Al-Khidhr he had nothing in his hands,
so Ðul-Qarnain called him and said to him: how is your fish? So he
told him about what happened, and he asked: what did you do then? He answered:
I swam after it in the water and tried to find it but did not, so then
he said to him: did you drink of that water? He answered: yes I did, then
Ðul-Qarnain went to trace back the spring but couldn't find it, so
then he said to Al-Khidhr: you were the chosen one.
It is mentioned also that Ðul-Qarnain reached a great island and
he saw there some people that wear leaves of the trees and live in the
caves, and he asked them about detailed matters in wisdom and religion
and they answered him the best, then he said to them: ask your needs, they
said to him: we ask for eternity in life, he said: I can't do that, then
they said to him: we ask for health in our bodies, he answered then: I
can't, they said to him then: we want to know how long are our ages, he
said then: I don't know this for myself so how shall I know yours? They
said then: then let us ask all of that from the One who is able to do this
and even greater, and the people started to look at his numerous armies,
and among them there were an old man that did not lift his head up, so
Ðul-Qarnain said to him: why don't you look to whatever the people
are looking at? So the old man said: I wonder about the king that came
before you, so Ðul-Qarnain said: why so? Then the old man said: we
had a king and a poor man and they died in one day, and then I left them
for a while and came back later on and I tried to identify who is the king
and who is the poor man but I couldn't, and then Ðul-Qarnain left them
and went on.
Some say that Ðul-Qarnain did a pilgrimage with six hundred thousand
knights and he met with Abraham (PUH) and Abraham said to him: how did
you pass you life? He said: by eleven words (phrases), glorified is He
who remains with no doom, glorified is He who knows and never forget, glorified
is He who keeps and never miss, glorified is He who sees with no doubt,
glorified is He who is eternal and never sleeps, glorified is He the King
that never gets defeated, glorified is He the Exalted that never gets wronged,
glorified is He who is hidden and cannot be seen, glorified is He who is
wide with no show off, glorified is He who is active with no play, glorified
is He who is Living with no miss. In Majma` Al-Bahrain for Al-Torayhi [notice:
the same name appeared in the last chapter but the author name was mentioned
as Al-Tariji, and this difference because of some printing mistakes in
the book itself] it is mentioned: Ðul-Qarnain is a name for Eskandar
(Alexander) the Roman [seems the author of that book means the Greek but
he did not distinguish properly] and he was at the time after Jesus the
son of Mary (PUH) and so how come he met with Abraham (PUH) and Abraham
appeared before that time by more than two thousand years, or they might
met each other by a dream which is something not so propable, and in the
same time existed Nebuchadnezzar and ignorance (disbelieving) all over,
but the time of Ðul-Qarnain was a time when he ruled over the east
and west and justice spread all over the land and the word of God was the
highest, so how come to gather both times together and the holy quran emphasized
on the fact that he was victorious without a doubt, and maybe everything
is possible and the truth is known by God only, and at the time of Abraham
there was Nimrod and the people of Lot and the pharaohs filled the land,
and where was Alexandria at that time?
We do not doubt a lot about what was mentioned about Ðul-Qarnain,
and maybe this name was given to two, or maybe Eskandar (Alexander) is
different than Ðul-Qarnain, and so Alexander was in a time period and
Ðul-Qarnain was at the time of Abraham (PUH), and only God knows.
There was much debate about his true identity, they said: he was a
servant that was given wisdom and kingdom by God, and some said: he was
a prophet that God opened the lands by him. As attributed to `Ali (ben
Abi-Tâlib) (PUH) when he was asked about wether he (Ðul-Qarnain)
was a prophet or a king, he (PUH) said: a faithful servant that loved God
and God loved him, and gave adivces for the sake of God and God adviced
him. We've mentioned before that the world was owned by two faithful men
and two disbelievers, and the faithful were: Solomon ben David and Ðul-Qarnain,
and the two disbelievers were: Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar. About calling
him Ðul-Qarnain, more than what we've mentioned before, some said that
he was called like that because he had two braids, and some said because
he reached the two extreme points of earth, and some said because his father
and mother were nobles, and some said because two main tribes of people
were extinct at his time, and some said because he got into the light and
darkness, and some said because he was given the knowledge of the apparent
the hidden things.
Next: Alexander and Al-Khidhr Were Born in The Same Day