Was Zulqurnain a Prophet

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[Abdulhujjah]

No he was a Good man but not a Prophet, a bit like Talut (ra)

[Raja_Shareef]

Well, the whole story and mentioning of Zul-Qarnain in Quran is as under. We can see from here that what Zul-Qarnain was? A prophet, a pious person or whatever?

The Holy Qur'an. Surah:18. Al-Kahf. Ayah 83-99

83.They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain. Say, "I will rehearse to you something of his story."

84.Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the means to all ends.

85.One (such) way he followed,

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."

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).

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."

89.Then followed he (another) way,

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.

91.(He left them) as they were: We completely understood what was before him.

92.Then followed he (another) way,

93.Until, when he reached (a tract) between two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood a word.

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?

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:

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."

97.Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.

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."

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.

From above ayahs; things that are clear is that, Zul-Qarnain was a guided person and was close to Allah. It seems that he also had some sort of contact with Allah [from ayah 18:86 We said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness." It seems that Allah was communicating with him]. This is also confirmed from ayah 18:98 that also can tell us that he was predicting about future from knowledge from Allah [18:98. 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."].

Anyhow, things what we know of prophets are that, they are not just guided people OR were victorious generals OR that they were pious in behaviour OR that they had lofty characters; but they were special people sent to misguided people calling them towards guidance. From the above ayahs, we cannot say that anything is mentioned about that aspect of Zul-Qarnain life in this world (that he was sent to guide people).

Regardless, from all what is there in above ayahs, one can say that most likely, he was a prophet of Allah (wallah-Allam) but still, there is some uncertainty. Since there is no requirement in Islam to consider a person 'prophet' even if there is any ambiguity about them (as long as we believe that Allah sent many prophets and we believe on all of them) in my opinion, the best vote (if one really wants to participate in voting) would be ‘do-not-know’.

[sayedzeeshan]

Zul qarnain means

Two Horns and those two horns were of

1. Knowledge

2. Bravery

[Link]

thalqarnain (as) is abdan salih and Luqman (as) is abdan salih, they are awliya and are not prophets

[Submitter]

Zul qarnain means

Two Horns and those two horns were of

1. Knowledge

2. Bravery

Actually, the word "qarn" (wether in singular, or plural form) appears more than a dozen times in the Quran, and not once does it mean "horn". But I believe I may have an idea as to where this interpretation came from.

Let's read some of the verses , while leaving the word untranslated.

وكم أهلكنا قبلهم من قرن هل تحس منهم من أحد أو تسمع لهم ركزا

{And how many "qarn" have We destroyed before them? Do you perceive any of them or hear from them a sound?}

19:98

ثم أنشأنا من بعدهم قرنا ءاخرين

{Then We raised after them a different "qarn" }

23:31

وكم أهلكنا قبلهم من قرن هم أشد منهم بطشا فنقبوا في البلد هل من محيص

{And how many a "qarn" before them have We destroyed? They were stronger in power, and they had dominated the land. Did they find any sanctity?}

50:36

ولقد ءاتينا موسى الكتب من بعد ما أهلكنا القرون الأولى بصائر للناس وهدى ورحمة لعلهم يتذكرون

{We had given Moses the Scripture after We had destroyed the earlier "qouroun"; as an example for the people and a guidance and mercy, perhaps they will take heed.}

28:43

So as you can see, translating the word "qarn" to mean "horn" makes no sense in the context of the verses. By reffering to the classical Arabic lexicons ( since the Quran was revealed in classical Arabic, and not in the gibberish language we use today), I was able to deduce that the word "qarn" actually means "nations" or "peoples".

Now, try reading the above verses, and substituting the word "horn" or "horns" for "nations" or "peoples" and you will see that it makes perfect sense.

God is talking about the previous NATIONS or PEOPLES that HE had destroyed as a result of their wickedness.

It has nothing to do with "horns".

Therefore, we can deduce that the title of "ZHULQARNAYN" actually means " KING OR LEADER OF TWO NATIONS".

The verses 83-99 of chapter 18 ( which you call "al-Kahf") , are dealing with a question asked by the People of the Book as some kind of test for Muhammad, to see what he knew about this "ZHULQARNAYN".

They wanted to see if Muhammad really was a prophet, and what could he reveal to them about "ZHULQARNAYN".

This means that ZHULQARNAYN must have been a historical figure of great significance and importance to the Jews, and must have been mentioned in their books.

In the Old Testament, there is mention of the Persian King CYRUS THE GREAT, as the benevolent king who liberated the Jews from their exile in Babylon and permitted them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. The rise to power of King Cyrus was actually seen in a vision/dream by the prophet Daniel, who described, in his dream, a vison of a great ram with 2 horns.

Doing a bit of historical research, we find that CYRUS was actually the founder of the first empire known in history, and was a decendant of Cambeses I, of the Achamenid Dynasty of ancient Persia. The Achamenid kings were actually holders of a dual throne: Persia and Media.

Hence Cyrus was called "THE KING OF TWO NATIONS OR PEOPLES" because he was the King of the Persians and the Medes.

Historians concider Cyrus to be the greatest and most benevolent ruler that history has ever known. He was the one who issued the

first ever "Declaration of the Rights of Man", ( 25 centuries before the United Nations!!). The famous Declaration can be found on a stone cylinder in a museum somewhere in England.

And yes, I believe he was a prophet.

Peace...

Edited February 2, 2007 by Submitter

[al-Zalzala]

A very dear brother has written a long essay about Dhu-l-Qarnain, which is mainly based on the teachings of an Iraqi scholar called Subait an-Nili. Possibly someone has heard of this scholar. But the essay is only in German language avaible, unfortunately.

I think, if Dhu-l-Qarnain is a prophet or not, should be proofed trough Hadith (lastly). Perhaps you have found one hadith.

Wa Salaam

Edited February 24, 2007 by al-Zalzala

[bin bashir]

A very dear brother has written a long essay about Dhu-l-Qarnain, which is mainly based on the teachings of an Iraqi scholar called Subait an-Nili. Possibly someone has heard of this scholar. But the essay is only in German language avaible, unfortunately.

I think, if Dhu-l-Qarnain is a prophet or not, should be proofed trough Hadith (lastly). Perhaps you have found one hadith.

Wa Salaam

(salam)

according to Hayat al-Qulub by `Allamah al-Majlisi, he may or may not have been a Prophet, but in any case 'he was an honourable personality who was guided by the Almighty'. (al-Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir. Hayat al-Qulub. Qum: Ansariyan. Vol. 1, p. 215)

I agree with the above brother, these issues are fine to talk about, but you should not come to conclusions about any issue without researching the sources first. Consider this stream of knowledge like any other.

You would not speculate and suppose the nature of:

molecular forms;

or development of a language;

or the stages of post-traumatic stress disorder,

without researching all the scientific, or available resources available and the scholarly opinions regarding these issues?

I don't know why people believe they can satisfy themselves without research and based on speculation.

Knowledge is knowledge. It has a path to itself, and its been outlined as a necessity to obtain it and be logical and rational in its acceptance.

Please keep this in mind when furthering discussions that bear no impact on your belief. And may God help anyone who speculates and conjectures their belief and doesn't use the God-given faculties of the mind to investigate and derive logical and rational conclusions for their accepted notions.

Munkar and Nakir are a reality, and they will not be satisfied with suppositions and speculation.

please make du`a

(salam)

[Mahdiyah]

Salaam.

Hadrat Dhu al-Qarnayn (Alexander), like Hadrat Luqman, was Abd-Saalih. Not a Prophet.

[ZulfiqarAbdullah]

Salaam.

Hadrat Dhu al-Qarnayn (Alexander), like Hadrat Luqman, was Abd-Saalih. Not a Prophet.

Salaam Alaykum

Zulqarnayn (ra) was NOT Alexander. Alexander was a cruel, heartless man who ruled with an iron fist. He is far from "Great". He was the Mu'awiyah (la) of his time.