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

{{Quote|{{Quran-range|18|83|101}}|83. They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain. Say, “I will rehearse to you something of his story.”<BR>84. Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the means to all ends.<BR>85. One (such) way he followed,<BR>86. '''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 Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness.”'''<BR>87. 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).<BR>88. “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.”<BR>89. Then followed he (another) way,<BR>90. '''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.'''<BR>91. (He left them) as they were: We completely understood what was before him.<BR>92. Then followed he (another) way,<BR>93. Until, when he reached (a tract) between two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood a word.<BR>94. They said: “O Zul-qarnain! the Gog and Magog (People) do great mischief on earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier between us and them?<BR>95. He said: “(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): Help me therefore with strength (and labour): I will erect a strong barrier between you and them:<BR>96. “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.”<BR>97. Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.<BR>98. 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.”<BR>99. On that day We shall leave them to surge like waves on one another: the trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect them all together.<BR>100. And We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers to see, all spread out,-<BR>101. (Unbelievers) whose eyes had been under a veil from remembrance of Me, and who had been unable even to hear.}}

==Part One: The destinations reached by Dhu'l Qarnayn in 18:86 and 18:90==

#The west and the east

Part one of this article surveys each of these interpretations in context. Then Part two discusses what these two verses say happened when Dhu’l Qarnayn arrived at each location and at broader questions concerning how this passage of the Qur’an was meant to be understood.

==First interpretation: He reached the west and east==

===Words used to mean the east and west in the Qur’an===

In verses 19:16; 24:35 and 28:44, gharb (from the same root as maghrib) is used in an adjectival form to mean western or of the west and sharq (from the same root as mashriq) is used in an adjectival form to mean eastern or of the east.

{{Quote|{{Muslim||52h|reference}}|…The belief is that of the Yemenites, the sagacity is that of the Yemenites, the tranquillity is among the owners of goats and sheep, and pride and conceitedness is among the uncivil owners of the camels, the people of the tents in the direction of sunrise.}}

{{Quote|{{Muslim||52i|reference}}|The belief is that of the Yemenites, the sagacity is that of the Yemenites and the summit of unbelief is towards the East.}}

{{Quote|{{Muslim||51|reference}}|It is narrated on the authority of Ibn Mas’ud that the Apostle of Allah (may peace and blessings be upon him) pointed towards Yemen with his hand and said: Verily Iman is towards this side, and harshness and callousness of the hearts is found amongst the rude owners of the camels who drive them behind their tails (to the direction) where emerge the two horns of Satan, they are the tribes of Rabi’a and Mudar.}}

Better still, critics often argue, these verses would be worded completely differently. For them, the idea that the words in 18:86 and 18:90 are just meant as a poetic description of the west and east would entail that the author had made an extraordinarily poor choice of words since early listeners reasonably and predictably understood them to be about the literal setting and rising places of the sun (see later in the article). Serious interpretative difficulties would arise throughout the Qur’an if its words commonly (and when the context suggests) mean a particular thing, but in one place mean a different concept, for which it uses a different word everywhere else.

===An extraordinary coincidence===

Thus, an extraordinary coincidence is said to be required. Under this interpretation, it just so happens that straight after the verses inform us that Dhu’l Qarnayn reached places that merely mean the west and east, but are distinctively and literally worded as the setting and rising places of the sun, the verses speak of the sun’s behaviour.

===Commentators use knowledge unknown to 7th century Arabs===

{{Quote|al-Qurtubi (died 671 AH/1273 CE) Al-Game’ Le Ahkam-el-Qur’an|It is not meant by reaching the rising or setting of the sun that he reached its body and touched it '''because it runs in the sky around the earth without touching it and it is too great to enter any spring on earth. It is so much larger than earth'''. But it is meant that he reached the end of populated land east and west, so he found it – according to his vision – setting in a spring of a murky water like we watch it in smooth land as if it enters inside the land. That is why He said, ‘he found it rising on a people for whom we had provided no covering protection against the sun.’ (Holy Qur’an 18:90) and did not mean that it touches or adheres to them; but they are the first to rise on. Probably this spring is a part of the sea and the sun sets behind, with or at it, so the proposition takes the place of an adjective and God knows best.<ref name="Azmy Juferi"></ref>}}

{{Quote|al-Razi d. 606 AH (1149-1209 CE) Tafsir al-Kabir|When Zul-Qarnayn reached the furthest west and no populated land was left, he found the sun as if it sets in a dark spring, '''but it is not in reality'''. The same when sea traveler sees the sun as if it sets in the sea if he cannot see the shore '''while in reality it sets behind the sea'''.<ref name="Azmy Juferi"></ref>}}

<BR><BR>

See also what Hoskin and Gingerich have to say:

Some observe that the commentators not only give the invented interpretation, but they also have to deny the literal setting and rising places interpretation (or for al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir, a caricature of it), thus confirming that the place where the sun sets on Earth was the interpretation that had been understood by Muslims before scientific knowledge was acquired later.

The same Arabic phrase occurs again shortly afterwards in this passage:

{{Quote||Roads were stretched out before him until he traversed the whole earth, east and west. He was given power over every land he trod on until he reached [the end of the east and the west, to] the farthest confines of creation.<ref>Guillaume op. cit. p.139. For the Arabic, see s307: [https://web.archive.org/web/20140111231304/http://sirah.al-islam.com/Page.aspx?pageid=204&TOCID=242&BookID=160&PID=337 here]</ref>}}

Incidentally, at the beginning of the same work in a section about pre-Islamic traditions<ref>Guillaume op. cit. p.12</ref>, Ibn Ishaq quotes some lines of poetic verse which say that Dhu’l Qarnayn "witnessed the setting of the sun in its resting place into a pool of black and foetid slime". See the end of the [[Dhul-Qarnayn_and_the_Sun_Setting_in_a_Muddy_Spring_-_Part_One#Hadith|section on hadith]] below for a full quote by al-Tabari of these same lines.

==Second interpretation: He reached [a place at] the time of sunset and sunrise or he reached those times==

The other version of this hadith is {{Bukhari|||5021|darussalam}}.

Sahih Muslim has the following:

Allah is said to have given Dhu’l Qarnayn a course/way/road to everything, yet does not then state anything about the physical locations of the peoples he visited that made this a remarkable achievement in the time interpretation.

A related argument is that if he just followed a way until the time when the sun sets rather than until he reached the place where the sun sets, there is no reason to then describe what he found the sun to be doing.

A highly significant contextual evidence is that verses 18:92 – 93 use exactly the same introductory phrase:

===Wording used elsewhere when the time of sunset is meant===

Similar phrases are used many times in the hadith. For example:

===Interpretation that it means he reached [a place at] the setting and rising time of the sun===

===Balagha interpreted to mean that a person reached the time of an external event===

===Other examples of balagha===

The above surveys how balagha may be used in reference to an event in time. In contrast, the time interpretation of 18:86 and 18:90 requires balagha to mean that Dhu’l Qarnayn reached the time of an external event, not a personal event. Lane’s lexicon provides further information, defining balagha thus:

To apply this argument, balagha in 18:86, which has the masculine 3rd person singular perfect tense suffix, -a, meaning he/it,<ref>[http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=18&verse=86 Word-by-Word Grammar - Verse (18:86)] - The Quranic Arabic Corpus</ref> would have to mean “it reached”(where “it” refers to the sun) rather than “he reached”, referring to Dhu’l Qarnayn mentioned earlier. This is not grammatically possible for two reasons.

===An interpretation invented in modern times===

==Third interpretation: He reached the places where the sun sets and rises==

===Similar word usage in the Qur’an===

===These words mean the setting and rising places in the hadith===

Far more significantly, the words used in 18:86 and 18:90 are also used in hadith that concern the behaviour of the sun. Proponents of this view use them simply as contemporary evidence of how Arabic words and phrases were used without assuming that these are historically accurate reports of Muhammad.

Numerous hadith relating to the end of the world use these phrases. For example:

Similarly, Sahih Muslim has the following:

The next hadith has, even more significantly:

{{Quote|{{Muslim||159a|reference}}|…Do you know where the sun goes? […] Rise up and go to the place whence you came, and it goes back and continues emerging out from its rising place […] Rise up and emerge out from the place of your setting, and it will rise from the place of its setting…}}

It describes how Bilal volunteered to stay up to make sure the dawn prayer was not missed. He faced the rising place of the sun, and they awoke when the sun shone on them. It is similar to {{Muslim||680a|reference}}.

===Balagha in this interpretation===

There are numerous examples of balagha meaning to reach a location in the Qur’an and the hadith. It is worthwhile highlighting some important examples in this context.

Immediately preceding the passage about Dhu’l Qarnayn is one about Moses:

There are at least four other examples of balagha meaning to reach a location in the Qur’an (6:19; 13:14; 16:7; 48:25;) and far more in the hadith, which contain a lot of brief historical narratives from Muhammad’s lifetime.

It is also worth mentioning that Kevin Van Bladel has written some interesting things about what may be the cosmographic meaning of this word.<ref>Van Bladel 2007a op. cit. pp.223-246.

                        

Proponents also note that mentioning that Dhu’l Qarnayn found the sun setting in a spring also makes sense if he was at the place where it sets. Otherwise it could have just said that he found a people by a spring without mentioning the sun. Similarly, mentioning the people in 18:90 only in terms of how the sun affects them fits the rising place interpretation perfectly.

====Tafsir (Commentaries on the Quran by Islamic scholars)====

{{Quote|1=[https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=67&tSoraNo=18&tAyahNo=83&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 Tafsir Muqātil ibn Sulaymān on Verses 18:83-86]|2={Until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of mud}, meaning hot and black. Ibn Abbas said: When the sun rises, it is hotter than when it sets.}}

The end of the 3^rd and 2^nd from last sentences literally say, “In other words: it sets in a spring of muddy water” and, “That is to say that it sets in a spring of hot water”. Al-Tabari does not say wajada (“he found”) in these sentences. His ensuing discussion reports the uncertainty as to which Arabic word was used to describe the spring (muddy or hot), incidentally revealing that the sun setting in some kind of spring was understood literally. These variant readings continue to be recited today, and translators take different choices between muddy, hot, or both.

And others said instead “it disappears in a hot spring”.<ref>For the Arabic see [http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=18&tAyahNo=86&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 here]</ref>}}

{{Quote||al-Farra narrated from Hibban, from al-Kalbi, from Abu Salih, from Ibn ‘Abbas "muddy". He said, "It sets in a black spring".<ref>al-Farra, Ma'ani al-Qur'an for verse 18:86 al-makhaba.org https://al-maktaba.org/book/23634/679</ref>}}

''Tafsir al-Thalabi'' (also known as ''Al-Kashf wa-l-bayān''; 11th century CE) reports the following view from Abu al-Aliya (d. 93 H) for verse 18:86:

This narration is recorded even earlier in one of the oldest hadith books, Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur (d. 227 H), hadith number 1359. Each narrator in the isnad (chain of transmission) is of very high repute among hadith scholars.<ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SqNHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT170&lpg=PT170 Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur, hadith number 1359] p.171</ref>

{{Quote||Thus, quite strikingly, almost every element of this short Qur’anic tale finds a more explicit and detailed counterpart in the Syriac Alexander Legend. In both texts the specific events are given in precisely the same order. Already earlier several cases of specific words that are exact matches between the Syriac and the Arabic were indicated. The water at the place where the sun sets is “fetid” in both texts, a perfect coincidence of two uncommon synonyms (Syraic Saryâ and Arabic hami’a).<ref>Van Bladel 2007b op. cit. p181</ref>}}

Whatever the historical relationship between these texts<ref>Van Bladel’s thesis is that the Syriac Alexander Legend is the source for the Qur’anic account, rather than the other way around (which is indeed highly unlikely due to strongly evidenced dating of the former to the 6th century, with an interpolation around 629-630 CE), and that they are not both products of a common source. The prevailing theory when van Bladel wrote was that the entire legend, not just the interpolation was composed around 629-630 CE. Academic opinion has since shifted to the 6th century (apart from an interpolated additional prophecy about 629-630 CE), especially since Tommaso Tesei’s work in 2023, ''The Syriac Legend of Alexander’s Gate: Apocalypticism at the Crossroads of Byzantium and Iran'', Oxford University Press.</ref> and whether or not Dhu’l Qarnayn is meant to be Alexander the Great, the setting and rising places interpretation of 18:86 and 18:90 was entirely compatible with contemporary beliefs in the region. Verse 18:83 moreover indicates that what follows was supposed to relate to an already known story (“They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain”).

Till on Judgement Day they shall awake at last<ref>Hāssan b. Thābit quoted in R. A. Nicholson (transl.), [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LBY0AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false A Literary History of the Arabs], p. 18, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1907</ref>}}

===Arguments against this interpretation===

====Places on the horizon behind which the sun appears to set and rise====

Critics also reject any notion that the words here could mean the apparent directions towards the horizon where the sun appears to set and rise when viewed from a particular location since they are not places (i.e. how could Dhu’l Qarnayn reach them?), and such interpretations lack supporting evidence.

{{Quote|{{Quran|36|40}}|It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).}}

If this phrase meant to say that the sun moves in a circle around the galactic center or around the Earth, then some argue that it would apparently preclude the existence of setting and rising places. Tafsir Ibn kathir comments on 36:40:

{{Quote||(They all float, each in an orbit.) means, night and day, the sun and the moon, all of them are floating, i.e., revolving, in their orbits in the heaven. This was the view of Ibn ‘Abbas, `Ikrimah, Ad-Dahhak, Al-Hasan, Qatadah and `Ata’ Al-Khurasani. Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, and others among the Salaf said, “In an orbit like the arc of a spinning wheel.”<ref name="Tafsir Ibn Kathir">[https://web.archive.org/web/20160307190536/http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1487 Among the Signs of the Might and Power of Allah are the Night and Day, and the Sun and Moon] - Tafsir Ibn Kathir</ref>}}

{{Quote||(It goes and prostrates beneath the Throne, then it seeks permission from its Lord, and soon it will be said: “Go back from whence you came.”) Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ibn ’Abbas said, “The sun is like flowing water, running in its course in the sky during the day. When it sets, it travels in its course beneath the earth until it rises in the east.” He said, “The same is true in the case of the moon.” Its chain of narration is Sahih.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210825155559/http://m.qtafsir.com/Surah-Luqman/The-Might-and-Power-of-Allah-A--- The Might and Power of Allah Allah tells us that He] - Tafsir Ibn Kathir. See [https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=31&tAyahNo=29&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1] for the Arabic.</ref>}}

{{Quote|{{Quran|14|33}}|And He hath made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses; and the night and the day hath he (also) made subject to you.}}

====Multiple setting and rising places====

Hadith were quoted above referring to “the rising place”, “the setting place”, “its rising place” and “your setting place” in the singular. Both these and the Dhu'l Qarnayn story are somewhat ambiguous as to the possibility of multiple such places as they could merely describe the place where the sun set and the place where it rose on those particular days whether one or many were imagined to exist.  

For hadith (oral traditions of the words and deeds of Muhammad, collected and written down mainly in the 8^th and 9^th centuries CE), the translation of Muhammad Muhsin Khan<ref>M. Muhsin Khan - [{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/bukhari/ Translation of Sahih Bukhari] - CRCC, University of Southern Carolina</ref> is used for Sahih Bukhari. That of Abdul Hamid Siddiqui<ref>Abdul Hamid Siddiqui - [{{Compendium-of-muslim-texts-base-url}}/hadith/muslim/ Translation of Sahih Muslim] - CRCC, University of Southern Carolina</ref> is used for Sahih Muslim.

{{refend}}

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