Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part Two: Difference between revisions

However, this passage is an account about Dhu’l Qarnayn, so we should expect each statement to be phrased in a way that makes clear how it relates in some way to him and what he did (in this case finding the thing that was the objective of his journey). And to state the obvious, one cannot find the sun setting in a muddy spring if it didn't set in a muddy spring. We saw above various early commentaries giving reports of people explicitly stating that it was understood to mean that the sun actually sets in a spring.  

Another way of supporting the claim that the entire story is the point of view of Dhu’l Qarnayn ''(it is worth noting here that apologists are not proposing any other story of prophets in the Qur'an are from someone's imperfect perspective rather than Allah telling us their real historical account)'' is to use the last two Arabic words of verse 18:83 to suggest that this is meant to be merely how Dhu’l Qarnayn remembered it:<ref>[http://www.faithfreedom.com/anti_islamic_claims/zulqarnain.html The polemics, and not Zul-Qarnain, are in murky waters!] - Faithfreedom (''not to be confused with the [http://www.faithfreedom.org/ original FaithFreedom] site by Dr. Ali Sina'')</ref>  

Given the fact that the story is actually meant to be understood as being told by Allah from Allah’s point of view, and the fact that wajadaha cannot mean he incorrectly thought or it falsely appeared as such to him, and that the things found are described literally, verse 18:86 means that according to Allah, Dhu’l Qarnayn reached the place where the sun sets and actually found the sun setting in a spring. Verse 18:86 would have had to include in the statement some words (some options were examined above) to indicate that this was just Dhu’l Qarnayn mistakenly thinking he had found it or his opinion of what it looked like if that is all it was from Allah’s point of view because this is supposed to be Allah’s account of the incident.