Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part Two: 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 Two: Dhu'l Qarnayn and the sun at his destinations in 18:86 and 18:90==

Following on from [[Dhul-Qarnayn and the Sun Setting in a Muddy Spring - Part One|part one]], this part concerns the different interpretations of the phrases:

And

==Context==

If Dhu’l Qarnayn had just traveled until the time of sunrise or to the east in 18:90, but no closer to the sun, critics also say it would be odd for the people there to be described only in terms of how the sun affects them (it rises on them and they have been given no covering protection from it).

===Spring or ocean===

Lane’s Lexicon explains that this word, which usually means an eye, is also used to mean a spring or source of water (because from the eye springs forth tears).

{{Quote|[http://www.studyQuran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume5/00000500.pdf Lane’s Lexicon: Volume 5 page 2215]|The place [or aperture] whence the water of a قَنَاة [i.e. pipe or the like,] pours forth : (K, TA:) as being likened to the organ [of sight] because of the water that is in it. (TA.) And, (K, TA,) for the same reason, (TA,) ‡ The place whence issues the water of a well. (TA.) And, (S, Msb, K, &c.,) for the same reason, as is said by Er-Rághib, (TA,) ‡ The عَيْن (S, Msb,) or source, or spring, (K, TA,) of water, (S, Wsb, K, TA,) that wells forth from the earth, or ground, and runs : (TA: [and accord. To the Msb, it app. Signifies a running spring:] of the fem. gender:}}

2:60, 7:160, 15:45, 26:57, 26:134, 26:147, 34:12, 36:34, 44:25, 44:52, 51:15, 54:12, 55:50, 55:66, 76:6, 76:18, 77:41, 83:28, 88:5, 88:12.

In 44:25 M. Asad has “water-runnels”;

In 76:18 and 83:28 M. Asad has “a source”.

{{Quote|{{Abu Dawud||3986|darussalam}}|Narrated Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas:

Another question commonly raised is what body of water could provide such an illusion, if it cannot be a sea or ocean. The horizon is approximately 5km away when viewed at sea-level by a 2m tall man.<ref>For any elevation, the horizon distance is √((R + E)² – R²) where R is the Earth’s radius and E is the elevation of the observer above sea level (imagine a right angled triangle placed on a circle with the right angle corner touching the circle and one of the other corners at the circle’s centre).</ref>

Lane’s Lexicon sheds light on this matter as detailed in the next section.

There are 2 ways of interpreting what the lexicon here tells us about wajada. Critics have argued that neither interpretation gives any reason to suppose that wajada can mean to have a perception that conflicts with objective reality (which Naik’s argument requires). More significantly, further down on the same page the lexicon describes the usage of wajada that actually occurs in 18:86 and 18:90 (this will also be discussed further below).

It is worth noting at this point a subtlety to that argument before moving on to the other interpretation. There are verses in the Qur’an where someone other than Allah is the speaker and uses the word wajada (e.g. 7:17). In such cases the quoted speaker could, in principle, be mistaken in their opinion and thus wrongly be stating that something was or will be found (as is conceivably the case in 7:17, 7:28, 18:36, 18:69), or the speaker could be deliberately misleading the listener (in 27:24-27, Solomon wonders if the hoopoe is lying when it says it found something). In those cases wajada still means to actually find even if the thing mentioned has not actually been found. It would just mean that the speakers in those verses are mistaken to use wajada or are being deliberately deceiving. It may be a safe assumption that statements in the Qur’an where Allah is the speaker, as is the case in 18:86 and 18:90, are not meant to be mistakes or deceptions.

Looking a little further down the same page of the lexicon is the description of the usage of wajada which actually occurs in 18:86 and 18:90. This is the two objective compliments, ditransitive usage of wajada mentioned in Lane’s Lexicon when wajada means to know something by direct experience:

Some critics further note that from the same root as the verb wajada is the word wujud, meaning 'being' or 'existence' (see also the next page of Lane's Lexicon following the quote earlier for the passive participle, mawjud, which means “Being, or existing”). This became a technical term in Islamic philosophy to denote the quality of existence that things have. That such a meaning is related to the verb wajada is not surprising if the latter refers to things that are objectively found to exist, according to this view, whereas wujud meaning the quality of existence would be very odd if wajada means to form a visual interpretation of something that is merely subjective and could be illusory.

===Wajada in the Qur’an===

Critics note that in none of those cases does it mean a mere perception that conflicts with an objective reality nor an opinion of what something appears like.

Most significantly, immediately after Dhu’l Qarnayn finds the sun setting in a spring, wajada is used again:

The “wa” prefix just means “and”. Critics point out that nobody would suggest that wajada means a mistaken perception here, and it is highly unlikely that the same word would have been used both in this and in the preceding phrase unless it means to say that both these things were actually found by Dhu’l Qarnayn.

The same argument is made regarding verse 18:93 where the same structure is used as in 18:86 and 18:90.

Here again, the words following wajada are a description of what Dhu'l Qarnayn is meant to have been actually found, not a mistaken perception or an opinion of what something looked like.

A third example of wajada appears in the story of Moses preceding that of Dhu’l Qarnayn.

In this verse and verses 18:86 and 18:90 respectively, the noun is the wall / sun (via the referent “it”) and the predicate is “on the point of falling down” / “setting in a muddy spring” / “rising on a people for whom We had provided no covering protection against the sun”.

The word for word translation has:

{{Quote||But those who disbelieve, their deeds (are) like a mirage in a lowland, thinks it the thirsty one (to be) water, until when he comes to it he finds it not (to be) anything, but he finds Allah before him, He will pay him in full his due…<ref>[http://corpus.Quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=24&verse=39 Word-by-Word Grammar - Verse (24:39)] - The Quranic Arabic Corpus</ref>}}

Other verses that have the ditransitive usage of wajada include 7:157 (“…the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures)…”), 12:65 (“they found their stock-in-trade had been returned to them…”), 27:24 (“And I found her and her people prostrating to the sun…”), and 58:22 (“Thou wilt not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day…”).

Critics argue that there isn’t the slightest indication in any of these verses or any other verse in the Qur’an that wajada can mean a false perception, but rather, it is clear that it always means actually finding.

===Wording used in the Quran to mean a mere perception===

Examples of such usage accurs in the two verses below:

Another example of such usage occurs in the following verse:

==Interpretation that the things found are described figuratively==

Critics have responded in a number of ways. Regarding 18:90, even if the phrase in this verse could be regarded as a figure of speech in the limited sense that the sun was not exactly overhead during the period when it is described as “rising on a people”, they argue that the context of the surrounding words ("he reached the rising place of the sun" and their lack of shelter from it) strongly imply that the people must at least have been unusually close to the sun as it rose above them.

If “setting in a muddy spring” in 18:86 communicated a figurative meaning, critics ask why this does not seem to have occurred to anyone for a few centuries, but rather there is plentiful evidence that it was understood literally until educated Muslim scholars learned that the literal interpretation was astronomically impossible.

===Argument that 18:83 means it is just Dhu’l Qarnayn’s recollection of the events===

{{Quote|{{Quran|18|83}}|They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnayn. Say, ‘I will rehearse to you something of his story.’}}

{{Quote|{{Quran-range|10|16|17}}|Say: ‘If Allah had so willed, I should not have rehearsed it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. A whole life-time before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand? Who doth more wrong than such as forge a lie against Allah, or deny His Signs?’}}

Two more historical narratives are introduced with talawa (translated “rehearse” and “Recite”):

Two highly relevant examples of its usage in the Qur’an occur in Sura al-Kahf. Immediately preceding the passage about Dhu’l Qarnayn is one about Moses and a servant of Allah, whom Moses follows.

{{Quote|{{Quran|18|70}}|The other said: ‘If then thou wouldst follow me, ask me no questions about anything until I myself speak to thee concerning it.’}}

===Verse 91 could not be from Dhu’l Qarnayn’s recollection===

Even more importantly, say critics, in between the second and third journeys, Allah remarks:

The word-for-word translation says, “Thus. And verily we encompassed of what (was) with him (of the) information”.<ref>[http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=18&verse=91 Word-by-Word Grammar - Verse (18:91)] - The Quranic Arabic Corpus</ref>

The word-for-word translation says, “And how can you have patience for what not you encompass of it any knowledge.”<ref>[http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=18&verse=68 Word-by-Word Grammar - Verse (18:68)] - The Quranic Arabic Corpus</ref>

It is occasionally argued that the entire account was intended to be understood as a fictional fable from which lessons could be learnt but not an historical narrative.

Another point raised is that in verse 18:84, Allah is said to have empowered Dhu’l Qarnayn (“Verily We established his power on earth…”). As this verse can only be understood as a claim about true history, it conflicts with the proposed fable intention.

It has also been pointed out that an intended true account fits with the recorded context for this Sura (Questions suggested by Jews to test Muhammad, though academic scholars note that the questioners were more likely Christian as with the other stories in surah al-Kahf). According to this tradition it was recited in response to the expectation of the questioners that Muhammad would have no knowledge of “the mighty traveller”.

{{Quote|{{Quran|8|31}}|When Our Signs are rehearsed to them, they say: ‘We have heard this (before): if we wished, we could say (words) like these: these are nothing but tales of the ancients.’ }}

{{Quote|{{Quran|18|13}}|We relate to thee their story in truth: they were youths who believed in their Lord, and We advanced them in guidance}}

The verse below follows a story about Moses:

Finally, as noted above, 18:91 has Allah saying that the reminder which he is asking Muhammad to recite is how history actually happened. It seems likely to critics that the purpose of this verse was to emphasise that the story so far had already shown that Allah could answer the testing question alluded to in verse 83. The meaning would be that like that part of the story, Allah knows everything else there is to know about Dhu’l Qarnayn.

{{Quote||The same course is followed by the moon in its rising, its running on the horizon of the heaven, its setting, its rising to the highest, seventh heaven, its being held underneath the Throne, its prostration, and its asking for permission.<ref>Al-Tabari History of al-Tabari, op. cit. p.232</ref>}}

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}}

http://www.sunnah.com/

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