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Dhulqarnain

Dhulqarnain

A beautiful sign for the truthfulness of the Promised Messiah, Hazat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas is some prophecies in regards to him in Surah al Kahf. These signs will be explained in the words of the Messiah himself.

 

Ahmadas states:

 

” The Holy Qur’an is not a book of old stories. Every event mentioned in it is a prophecy, and the story of Dhulqarnain contains the prophecy about the time of the Promised Messiah. The Holy Qur’an says:

 

وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنْ ذِي الْقَرْنَيْنِ ۖ قُلْ سَأَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْهُ ذِكْرًا {84}

 

‘They enquire from thee about Dhulqarnain. Tell them that for the moment I shall relate to only you a little about him.’ Then it says:

 

إِنَّا مَكَّنَّا لَهُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَآتَيْنَاهُ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ سَبَبًا {85}

 

‘We shall establish him on earth, i.e., the Promised Messiah, who will also be known as Dhulqarnain, in such a way that no one will be able to harm him; and We shall provide him with all the means for achieving his purpose and shall make everything easy and plain for him.’Remember, the same revelation concerning me was published in the previous volumes of Brahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, in which God Almighty said:

 

‘Have We not facilitated everything for you?’ Have We not provided you with all the means for the communication and propagation of the truth? Of course, I have been provided with all the means for the propagation of the truth which were not even available at the time of any other prophet. Means of communication have opened between nations; travel has become so easy that a journey of years now takes only a few days; transmission of news is such that within minutes messages can be sent over thousands of miles; ancient texts of nations which were out of sight have begun to be published; means have become available for the delivery of everything where it is needed; difficulties in the publication of books have been removed with the introduction of the printing press, so much so that more copies of a book can be printed in ten days than was previously possible in ten years! A piece of writing can now be published throughout the world within forty days, whereas previously a man could not achieve this even in a hundred years.

 

Then Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:

 

فَأَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا {86} حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍ وَوَجَدَ عِنْدَهَا قَوْمًا ۗ قُلْنَا يَا ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ إِمَّا أَنْ تُعَذِّبَ وَإِمَّا أَنْ تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ حُسْنًا {87} قَالَ أَمَّا مَنْ ظَلَمَ فَسَوْفَ نُعَذِّبُهُ ثُمَّ يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِ فَيُعَذِّبُهُ عَذَابًا نُكْرًا {88} وَأَمَّا مَنْ آمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُ جَزَاءً الْحُسْنَىٰ ۖ وَسَنَقُولُ لَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِنَا يُسْرًا{89}

 

‘When Dhulqarnain (who is the Promised Messiah), is furnished with all the means, he will follow a certain path, (i.e., he will resolve to reform the people of the West). He will find that the sun of truth and righteousness has set in a muddy pool, near which he will find a people in the darkness. (These are the Christians of the West who will be steeped in darkness; they will have no sun to get light from, nor will they have clean water to drink, i.e., both in practice and doctrine they will be in a terrible state; they will be bereft of spiritual light and spiritual water.) Then We shall say to Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah): It is up to you either to punish them or to treat them with kindness. Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah) will say: We only desire the wrongdoers to be punished. They will be punished in this life (through our supplications), and will suffer severe torment in the hereafter. But he who does not deny the truth and does good deeds will have his reward. He will be required only to do what can be done with facility and ease.’ In short, these verses contain a prophecy that the Promised Messiah will appear at a time when the people of the West will be steeped in darkness. The sun of truth will completely disappear from their eyes and will set in a dirty, stinking pool, (i.e., instead of truth, they will be infested with foul beliefs and deeds). That will be the water they will drink. They will have no light whatsoever and will wallow in darkness. This exactly is the condition of the Christian faith today, as described by the Holy Qur’an, and the great centre of Christianity is also in the Western countries. Then God Almighty says:

 

ثُمَّ أَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا {90} حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَطْلِعَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَطْلُعُ عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ لَمْ نَجْعَلْ لَهُمْ مِنْ دُونِهَا سِتْرًا {91} كَذَٰلِكَ وَقَدْ أَحَطْنَا بِمَا لَدَيْهِ خُبْرًا {92}

 

That is, ‘Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah who will be equipped with every means) shall follow another path, (i.e., he will observe the state of the people of the East) and will discover a people at the place of the rising of the sun of truth who will be so ignorant that they will have no means of protecting themselves from the glare of the sun (i.e., they will be scorched by the heat generated by their adherence to the letter and their extremism), and they will be unaware of the truth. Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah) will have all the means of true peace and happiness of which We are aware, but the people will not accept them. They will have no shelter against the glare of their extremism—neither houses, nor shady trees nor suitable clothes to protect them from the heat. In this way the rising sun of truth will bring about their ruin.’

 

This is an instance of people who have the light of the sun of guidance available to them, and who are not like those whose sun has set, but they derive no benefit from the sun of guidance; only their skins are scorched, their complexion is darkened and they lose their eyesight. This division indicates that the Promised Messiah will encounter three kinds of people in the course of his mission. (1) First, he will encounter a people who have lost the sun of guidance and are wallowing in a muddy and dark pool. (2) His second encounter will be with a people who are sitting in the sun stark naked, i.e., they do not behave with respect, humility, courtesy and goodwill. They are worshippers of the letter, as if they want to fight the sun. Thus they too are deprived of the benefit of the sun, and all they get is their skins burnt. This refers to the Muslims among whom the Promised Messiah appeared, but they denied him and opposed him and did not behave with modesty and fairness, and consequently deprive themselves of good fortune. Then Allah Almighty further says:

 

Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah) will then follow another course and will find himself at a very critical time, which can be described as between two barriers or mountains. This means that he will find a time when people on either side will be in fear, and the powers of darkness, in collaboration with the powers of state, will present an awe-striking spectacle. Under both these powers he will find a people who will find it difficult to understand him, i.e., they will be the victims of false beliefs on account of which they will find it difficult to understand the guidance which he will present to them. But in the end they will understand him. These are the third kind of people who will benefit from the guidance of the Promised Messiah. They will say to him: ‘Dhulqarnain, Gog and Magog have filled the land with disorder. If you so please, let us collect a fund for you so that you may erect a barrier between them and us.’ He will say in reply: ‘The power God has given me is better than your funds, but if you be so inclined, you can help me according to your means so that I may erect a wall between you and your opponents (i.e., he would put forth such conclusive proofs and arguments that their enemies will not be left with any ground for criticism or objection against their religion.) He will say to them: ‘Bring me slabs of iron so that their movement can be stopped, (i.e., hold fast to my teachings and my arguments, be steadfast, and block the enemy’s onslaught like a wall of iron.) Then blow fire into the iron until it appears to be fire itself (i.e., feed the flames of love for God until you yourselves assume the Divine complexion)….

 

After these verses, God Almighty goes on to say: Then Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah) will say to the people who are afraid of Gog and Magog: ‘Bring me copper so that I may melt it and pour it over the wall. Thereafter, Gog and Magog will not have the power to scale it or to make holes in it.’ Here it should be noted that though iron assumes the qualities of fire when left in it for a long time, it does not melt easily. Copper, on the other hand, melts very quickly; and it is necessary for a seeker to melt in the path of God. This means that the Promised Messiah will need such eager hearts and mild dispositions as would melt under the influence of Divine signs. These signs have no effect on the hard-hearted. A person can only become immune to Satanic attacks when he becomes steadfast like iron and that iron becomes like fire when touched by the fire of Divine love, and then the melted heart should melt and cover the iron to secure it against disintegration and decay. These are the three conditions which, when combined, form a wall which cannot be scaled or bored through by the spirit of Satan. Then God says that all this will come about by His grace. It is His hands which will accomplish everything and human design will have no part in it. When the Day of Judgement approaches, mischief will reign supreme once again. This is the promise of God.”

 

” Then He says that at the time of Dhulqarnain (Promised Messiah) all people will rise up in support of their own religion and will attack each other like the waves of the sea. Then the trumpet will be blown in heaven, i.e., God will raise the Promised Messiah and create a third people for whom He will show great signs until all good people gather under the banner of Islam. They will respond to the call of the Promised Messiah and will run towards him; then there will be only one shepherd and one flock. Those days will be hard and God will reveal His countenance with awe-striking signs. Those who persist in disbelief will experience hell in this very world in the shape of calamities. God says: These are the people whose eyes were veiled against My Words, and their ears heeded not My commandments. Did the disbelievers imagine that they could take humble men to be God and that I should stand dismissed? We shall reveal hell in this very world as entertainment for the disbelievers, i.e., great and terrible signs will appear. All these signs will testify to the truth of the Promised Messiah. See, how the grace of the Beneficent One has bestowed all these favours on this humble one, who is labelled a disbeliever and Dajjal by his opponents!” (Brahin-e-Ahmadiyyah Part V, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 21, Pages 119-126)

 

Ahmadas then states in regards to a question he was asked:

 

” One Hakim Mirza Mahmud Irani, in his letter dated 2 September 1902, has asked me to explain the meanings of the verse:

 

حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ الشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍ

 

First of all, let it be clear that this verse holds many a hidden meaning which it is not possible to encompass, and under its apparent meanings lie hidden meanings. The meaning which God has disclosed to me is that this verse, taken together with the preceding and following verses, comprises a prophecy about the Promised Messiah and specifies the time of his appearance. The explanation is that the Promised Messiah is also Dhulqarnain, as the Arabic word qarn connotes a century and the Qur’anic verse indicates that the birth and advent of the Promised Messiah will cover two centuries. I have lived in two centuries according to every known calendar, be it Islamic, Christian or Bikramjiti. My birth and advent have not been confined to a single century, and in this sense I am Dhulqarnain. In some Ahadith too the Promised Messiah has been called Dhulqarnain in the same sense as I have just mentioned.

 

The interpretation of the rest of the verse in the context of prophecy is that there are two major peoples who have been given the glad tiding of the Coming of the Promised Messiah, and who are the primary addressees of his mission. In these verses, God Almighty describes metaphorically that the Promised Messiah, who is Dhulqarnain, will encounter two peoples in the course of his journey. He will find a people sitting in the dark by an evil smelling pool of water, which is not fit for drinking, and is so full of stinking mud that it can no longer be described as water. These are the Christians who are in the dark and who, out of their own wrongdoing, have converted the Messianic spring into a pool of stinking mud. In the course of his second journey, the Promised Messiah, who is Dhulqarnain, came upon a people sitting in the blazing sun without any shelter to protect them. They get no light from the sun, except that their bodies are scorched by its blaze and their skins become dark. These are the Muslims, who, despite being blessed with the sun of Divine Unity, have not derived real benefit from it, but to be scorched by its blaze. In other words, they have lost the true beauty and true moral qualities of faith and have instead partaken of rancour, malice, fiery temper and beastliness. In this manner, Allah the Almighty has indicated that the Promised Messiah, who is Dhulqarnain, will appear at a time when the Christians will be in darkness, and stinking mud, which is called Hama’ in Arabic, will be their lot. The Muslims for their share will have only a dry belief in the Unity of God and they will suffer from the sunburns of bigotry and beastliness and no spiritual value shall remain unstained.

 

Then the Promised Messiah, who is Dhulqarnain, will come across a people who will be suffering at the hands of Gog and Magog. These people will be deeply religious and pious by nature, and will seek the help of Dhulqarnain (the Promised Messiah) against the aggression of Gog and Magog. And he will erect a bright rampart for them, in other words, he will teach them such strong arguments in support of Islam as will finally repulse the attacks of Gog and Magog. He will wipe their tears, help them in every way and stand by them. These are the people who accept me. This is a grand prophecy which tells about my advent, my time and my Jama‘at. Blessed is he who reads these prophecies with care. Such prophecies are typical of the Holy Qur’an, whereby it tells about someone in the past, but its real purpose is to foretell the future. For instance, Surah Yusuf, which on the face of it is only a narrative, contains the hidden prophecy that as Josephas was initially looked down upon by his brothers but was made their chief in the end, the same would happen with the Quraish. They rejected the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and expelled him from Mecca. But he who was rejected came to be their leader and their chief.” (Lecture Lahore, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 20, Pages 199-200)