Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 83 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:83

وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَن ذِى ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ ۖ قُلْ سَأَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْكُم مِّنْهُ ذِكْرًا

“And they ask you, [O Muḥammad], about Dhul-Qarnayn. Say, "I will recite to you about him a report."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The root of his title is the rope that couples two ploughing bulls, so that neither can go its own way.

A reflection

He is never given a name

Most readers arrive with a man in mind, usually a famous conqueror.

The verse supplies a title and nothing else. The one of the two horns.

No name, no nation, no century. And the commentaries do not supply them either. They offer several reasons for the title and agree on none.

One says the two sides of his head were of copper. Some of the People of the Book said it was because he ruled two empires. Others said there was something like two horns on his head. One early authority said he reached the east and the west, where the sun's own horn rises and sets.

And a Companion is recorded giving a different account altogether. He was a servant who gave sincere counsel to Allah and called his people, and was struck on the side of the head for it.

So five explanations of the title, and no agreement.

In one village a man was known for forty years only as the Ferryman. People knew his habits, his hours, and what he would and would not do. After he died, somebody looking for his grave discovered that almost nobody in the village could produce his surname.

That is roughly the state of the record here, and it is deliberate.

The second half of the verse makes it explicit. The Prophet is told to say he will recite of him a remembrance.

Of him. A portion.

So what is promised is not a life, a reign or a dossier. It is a piece of an account, and the piece is the whole of what anybody has.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.