Qur'an & Hadith

Lit., "I will convey unto you a remembrance [or "mention"] of him" - i.e., something that is worthy of remembrance and mention: which, I believe, is an allusion to the parabolic character of the subsequent story and the fact that is is confined, like the preceding parable of Moses and the unknown sage, to a few fundamental, spiritual truths.- the epithet Dhu 'l-Qarnayn signifies "the Two-Horned One" or "He of the Two Epochs", since the noun -qarn has the meaning of "horn" as well as of "generation" or "epoch" or "age" or "century". The classical commentators incline to the first of these meanings ("the Two-Horned"); and in this they appear to have been influenced by the ancient Middle-Eastern imagery of "horns" as symbols of power and greatness, although the Qur'an itself does not offer any warrant for this interpretation. In fact, the term -qarn (and its plural qurun) occurs in the Qur'an-apart from the combination Dhu 'l-Qarnayn appearing in verses {83}, {86} and {94} of this surah - twenty times: and each time it has the meaning of "generation" in the sense of people belonging to one particular epoch or civilization. However, since the allegory of Dhu 'l-Qarnayn is meant to illustrate the qualities of a powerful and just ruler, it is possible to assume that this designation is an echo of the above-mentioned ancient symbolism, which-being familiar to the Arabs from very early times-had acquired idiomatic currency in their language long before the advent of Islam. Within the context of our Qur'anic allegory, the "two horns" may be taken to denote the two sources of power with which Dhu 'l-Qarnayn is said to have been endowed: namely, the worldly might and prestige of kingship as well as the spiritual strength resulting from his faith in God. This last point is extremely important- for it is precisely the Qur'anic stress on his faith in God that makes it impossible to identify Dhu 'l-Qarnayn, as most of the commentators do, with Alexander the Great (who is represented on some of his coins with two horns on his head) or with one or another of the pre-Islamic, Himyaritic kings of Yemen. All those historic personages were pagans and worshipped a plurality of deities as a matter of course, whereas our Dhu 'l-Qarnayn is depicted as a firm believer in the One God: indeed, it is this aspect of his personality that provides the innermost reason of the Qur'anic allegory. We must, therefore, conclude that the latter has nothing to do with history or even legend, and that its sole purport is a parabolic discourse on faith and ethics, with specific reference to the problem of worldly power (see the concluding passage in the introductory note to this surah).