Al-Kahf(Dhu’l-Qarnayn)18:85,18:89-90,18:94.Pl check

Al-Kahf(Dhu’l-Qarnayn)18:85,18:89-90,18:94

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One such way he (Dhu’l-Qarnayn) followed. (Al-Kahf 18:85)

فَأَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا

One such way he (Dhu’l-Qarnayn) followed. (Al-Kahf 18:85)

Dhu’l-Qarnayn was granted both the power and ability of accomplish-ment and the power and ability to surmount hardships with consummate ease. He was favored with all the means and possibilities to overcome easily the hardships and obstacles invented and caused by his opponents.

As it is understood from the Qur’anic verses about Dhu’l-Qarnayn, he was one who represented Islam in the world power-balance, interfered with any disorder and confusion to arise in any part of the world he could march to with his armies, reinstated peace and order, and built barriers before anarchy and dissension to ensure or preserve safety and security. In order that he could fulfill his duties or mission perfectly, God Almighty equipped him with whatever was necessary. The verse, “We surely estab-lished him with power in the land, and for everything (that he rightly pur-posed), We granted him a way (the just means appropriate to just ends)” (Al-Kahf 18:84), confirms this.

In short, Dhu’l-Qarnayn was a hero who committed himself to a lofty ideal and used whatever God granted him to carry out whatever God willed and for the sake of world peace and with an awareness of why God had equipped him with the power of accomplishment and the power of ease.

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Then he (Dhu’l-Qarnayn) followed another way until... (Al-Kahf 18:89-90)

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَطْلِعَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَطْلُعُ عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ لَّمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُم مِّن دُونِهَا سِتْرًا

Then he (Dhu’l-Qarnayn) followed another way until, when he reached the rising-place of the sun and found it rising on a people for whom We had provided no shelter against it. (Al-Kahf 18:89–90)

Dhu’l-Qarnayn went in the direction of east and reached a point where he found a people who had no houses to live in and were even unaware of covering the body, deprived of even the smallest signs of civilization.

The verse may also suggest the following: In his campaign towards the east, Dhu’l-Qarnayn reached such a place with neither a mountain or a hill nor even a tree to shade them from the heat of the sun. Because of this, when the sun rose every day, the people came face to face with the sun and its heat. Or they did not have clothes to be protected from the heat of the sun. They were almost naked, as people around the Equator and in hot deserts are today. They had neither natural covers, nor buildings, nor did they have clothes. They lived in primitive conditions.

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They (a people who lived in a place before two mountain-barriers) said... (Al-Kahf 18:94)

قَالُوا يَا ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ إِنَّ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ مُفْسِدُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَهَلْ نَجْعَلُ لَكَ خَرْجًا عَلَىٰ أَن تَجْعَلَ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَهُمْ سَدًّا

They (a people who lived in a place before two mountain-barriers) said: “O Dhu’l-Qarnayn! Gog and Magog are causing disorder in this land. May we pay you a tribute so that you set a barrier between us and them.” (Al-Kahf 18:94)

This “barrier” could be the Chinese Wall or Demirkapi in the Caucasus or in any other place. However, considering the descriptions in the verses to follow, it is very difficult to identify it exactly. It would require hard, serious research to do so. For this reason, we need to pay attention more to the people before the barrier than the barrier itself. Indeed, as long as the people for whom Dhu’l-Qarnayn built a barrier to separate them from Gog and Magog are able to remain spiritually firm and powerful, the disorder and seditions that Gog and Magog may cause can be prevented or at least rendered harmless.

In my opinion, certain general meanings or rules are to be searched for in the Qur’anic narrative of Dhu’l-Qarnayn. We should study it from the perspective of the characteristics of a just, powerful state; a just, righteous, and powerful ruler or government; and the imperatives for the maintenance of such a state and government. Otherwise, we would be relating only a story from the depths of history, and our benefit from the Qur’ān would therefore be either very limited or none at all.

Another point in the verse worth discussing is the fact that Dhu’l-Qarnayn, who was the representative of justice and righteousness in the world, supported the weak and downtrodden, who could not even express themselves. Those who were suppressed or downtrodden at that time were some oppressed peoples. Those who oppressed them were Gog and Magog, who caused disorder in the region. During one of their wild and crazy insurgencies, Dhu’l-Qarnayn was able to stop those two tyrannical tribes who did not care about honor, religion, and morality and whose true lineage and identity was unknown. Later on, they will be prevented by the just and righteous “inheritors of the earth” every time they attempt a new insurgency or cause great havoc, destruction, and corruption in the world, and this will continue until what is indicated by the following verse occurs:

Eventually, a day will come when Gog and Magog will be let loose, and they will rush down from every mound. (Al-Anbiyā’ 21:96)

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Written by Fethullah Gülen.