In His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)
Peace be upon you and God’s mercy and blessings.
My Dear and Loyal Brothers from Senirkent, İbrahim, Şükrü, Hâfız Bekir, Hâfız Hüseyin, Hâfız Receb Efendi!
The atheists have for a long time objected to the three matters you sent with Hâfız Tevfik.
The First: According to the explicit meaning of the verse, “Until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water,”(18:86) he saw the sun setting in a hot, mud spring.
The Second: Where is the barrier of Dhu’l-Qarnayn?
The Third: This is about Jesus (UWP) coming at the end of time1 and killing the Dajjal.2
The answers to these questions are lengthy, so indicating them briefly we say this: since the verses of the Qur’an express matters in accordance with the styles of Arabic, in conformity with apparent meanings, in a way everyone will understand, they frequently explain things in the form of metaphors, allegories, and comparisons. So to consider the verse, “set in a spring of murky water:” Dhu’l-Qarnayn saw the sun setting on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which appeared to be a boiling, muddy spring, or in the fiery, smoking crater of a volcano. That is, evidently the Atlantic Ocean appeared to Dhu’l-Qarnayn in the distance as the large pool of a spring surrounded by a swamp which in the intense heat of summer was steaming and vaporizing; he saw the sun’s apparent setting in a part of it. Or he saw the sun, the eye of the skies, being hidden in a new, fiery crater at the summit of a volcano which was spewing out rocks, earth, and lava.
Yes, the All-Wise Qur’an’s miraculously eloquent expression teaches many matters with this sentence. Firstly, it explains that Dhu’l-Qarnayn’s journey to the west coincided with the intense heat of summer, the area of a swamp, sunset, and the time of a volcanic eruption, and so alludes to many instructive matters, such as the complete conquest of Africa.
It is well-known that the sun’s motion is apparent, indicating the hidden movement of the earth and giving news of it. What it intends is not the actual setting of the sun. Also the spring is a metaphor. From the distance a
See, Muslim, Fitan, 110; Tirmidhi, Fitan, 59, 62; Abu Da’ud, Malahim, 14; Ibn Maja, Fitan, 33; Musnad, iii, 420; iv, 181, 226, 390; vi, 75.
The Dajjal is the Antichrist, related to appear at the end of time. (Tr.)