Selected Exegesis

Dhū al-Qarnayn is a righteous servant whose affair God the Glorified deemed great and upon whom He bestowed His favour. He gave him firm power in the land and placed at his disposal the means of reaching material and spiritual resources – from intellect, knowledge, religion and good management to bodily strength and abundant wealth and troops – so that he might attain his goal. He made good use of these resources and, with the help of these means, began his journey towards the west, until he reached the place where the sun sets (the shores of Africa) and a place where he imagined the sun was sinking into muddy water; that is, he reached the shore of a sea beyond which there was no hope of reaching land, and so it appeared to him that the sun had set into the sea. What is meant by the setting-place of the sun is the last inhabited town in the western region of the earth.

Dhū al-Qarnayn saw a people in that region and gained authority over them. God the Glorified said to him: What decision will you make about them – will you punish them, or take the path of goodness? God did not delegate the matter to him so that he might act on his own opinion; rather, He said that punishing them or pardoning them, after the proof has been completed, is an alternative obligation (wājib takhyīrī) upon you.