Recognition of Imam Part III - Key 14 Dhu'l-Qarnayn
Key 14 Dhu'l-Qarnayn
Tags: Hazrat Dhu'l-Qarnayn, Hazrat `Ali
Who was Dhu'l-Qarnayn? Was he a world-conquering king, or a Messenger or an Imām of his time? A correct answer cannot be given to this question until those Qur'ānic realities, which are in the story of Dhu'l-Qarnayn, are discovered.
So in verses (18:83-85), God, may He be exalted says: “(O Muhammad!) they ask you about Dhu'l-Qarnayn. Say: I shall recite unto you an account of him. Indeed, We gave him power in the earth [of spirituality] and gave him unto everything a path. And he followed a path.”
This blessed speech of God, may He be exalted, invites the wise mu'mins to ponder on it, through which they should reach the depths of its meaning and attain its realities. Thus, the real meaning of “And gave him unto everything a path” is that God, may He be exalted, provided Hazrat-i Dhu'l-Qarnayn(`a) the means of everything of the heavens and the earth and of the zahir (physical world) and the batin (spiritual world). Thus for real mu'mins, the meaning of this Divine speech is exactly the same as that of “And We have encompassed everything in the manifest Imām”.
Just as in all the essays of this book, those Qur'anic verses are discussed in which the word “kull” (whole, universal, everything) is mentioned, and those verses which are among the “universals” (kulliyyat) are presented so as to establish that whatever is mentioned in them is about all kinds of physical and spiritual things, similarly in the above-mentioned verse too, by “everything” is meant all spiritual and physical things.
Here, another example of the same reality from the wise Qur'ān is mentioned: “Or is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them theirs? Then let them ascend by the stairs” (38:10).
It should be known that this example, both in the exoteric and esoteric senses, has the dual meaning of possibility and impossibility. The possibility is that God, may He be exalted, grants the spiritual kingdom of the heavens and the earth to whomsoever He pleases, and the means or ways through which the spiritual kingdom of the universe can be obtained are like the keys to the heavens and the earth, as the Creator, may He be exalted says: “And His are the keys of the heavens and the earth, and those who disbelieve the signs of God, such are they who are the losers” (39:63). It should be noted that a house has a door, a lock and a key for the reason that the owner may let in the one whom he wishes and not let in the one whom he does not wish.
Thus, in the holy Qur'ān in verse (6:75), it is said: “And thus did We show Ibrāhīm the kingdom of the heavens and the earth that he may be of those possessing certitude”. This verse shows that God, may He be exalted had given keys to Hazrat-i Ibrāhīm(`a) to see the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; or it may be said that God had taught him the means or paths of all the things in the heavens and the earth. The same is true of Hazrat-i Dhu'l-Qarnayn(`a) also, that he was taught the spiritual paths of everything in the heavens and the earth, because he was the Imām of his time.
The short story of Hazrat-i Dhu'l-Qarnayn(`a) in the holy Qur'an in fact needs ta'wil. For example, the ta'wīl of “He reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring” (18:86), is that this was not the material and worldly sun, rather it was the spiritual and religious sun, which in other words is called the light of tawhīd. By the “muddy spring” are meant two physical hudūd, who are the two spiritual wests, namely natiq and asas. With regard to the creation of Ādam [the first natiq], it is said: “And verily We created Ādam from sounding clay, from mud moulded into shape” (15:26). The ta'wīl of the “easts” is the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul, from where the light of tawhid rises and sets in the natiq and asas.
In the book al-Imamatu fi'l-Islam (p. 148), it is written that Hazrat-i Dhū'l-Qarnayn(`a) was from the lineage of the permanent Imāms of the cycle of Hazrat-i Nūh(`a), whose genealogy is: Dhu'l-Qarnayn(`a), son of `Ābir(`a), son of Shālikh(`a), son of Qaynān(`a), son of Arfakshād(`a), son of Sām(`a), son of Nūh(`a); which means that he is the seventh in the line of succession from Hazrat-i Nūh(`a).
From the above facts, it is evident that Hazrat-i Dhu'l-Qarnayn(`a) was the Imām of his time and the entire story of his journey of the east and west is a spiritual and ta'wīli story.
It is also proven from a blessed hadith of the holy Prophet that, Hazrat-i Dhu'l-Qarnayn(`a) was an Imām. The holy Prophet said to Mawlānā `Alī(`a): “O Alī there is a [special] house for you in Paradise and you are the Dhu'l-Qarnayn of this ummat”. God be hallowed! How exalted is the position of the meaning of the Prophet's hadīth! It contains all the secrets of the recognition of the Imām. One of them is that, if `Alī is like Dhu'l-Qarnayn, then Dhu'l-Qarnayn is also like `Alī. Further, if `Alī is Imām, then Dhu'l-Qarnayn was also an Imām in his time. The second [secret] is that in the ta'wīlī story of the Qur'ān, the praise and glory which are related to Dhu'l-Qarnayn also relate to `Alī, as `Alī and Dhu'l-Qarnayn have the same attributes. The third [secret] is that, so long as the ummat of the holy Prophet is in the world, `Alī is also there, present and living with the attributes mentioned above. For, the holy Prophet in the above hadith has made the blessed existence of a Dhu'l-Qarnayn indispensable amidst his ummat.
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