The document discusses whether the figure of Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in the Quran refers to Alexander the Great. Most Islamic scholars agree that it does based on similarities between the story of Dhul-Qarnayn and accounts of Alexander, as well as Alexander fitting the interpretations of "two-horned one." However, some disagree because Alexander was an idolater, drank alcohol, and murdered someone. The document provides rebuttals for these points and arguments for why Alexander is the best candidate for being Dhul-Qarnayn referred to in the Quran.

1. ALEXANDER THE GREAT
IN THE QURAN
By: Mohammad T. Qureshi
Professor Mary Robinson
HUM 2220

2. KEEP THIS IN MIND……
Many a times, it’s not the story
that one should fear but the one
who is telling it.

3. HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER THE
GREAT
• Earliest mention of Alexander the Great is by Diodorus in the 1st Century B.C.E. Which is almost
200 years after Alexander the Great’s death.
• The sources on Alexander the Great that are considered primary aren’t firsthand accounts, as in
people who never saw or met Alexander the Great. Which are the accounts written by:
• Diodorus Siculus
• Arrian of Nicomedia
• Plutarch
• Quintus Curtius Rufus
• Justin
• All firsthand accounts on Alexander the Great are lost to history including the history written by
Callisthenes. Who was with Alexander the Great through his campaigns all the way to Asia, his
works have been absorbed in a legend called the Alexander Romance. [1]
• The Alexander Romance is a legend much like the Iliad and the Odyssey therefore nothing in the
Alexander Romance can be considered historical truth on the surface.

4. THEREFORE….
Even though they are considered primary sources,
they can still be disputed due to the fact that they
are not firsthand primary sources but almost
secondary.

5. DHUL-QARNAYN IN THE QURAN
• Dhul-Qarnayn in Arabic literally means he of the two horns. [2]
• Appears in the Quran in Surah Kahaf (surah 18) verses 83-101. [2]
• Is a friend or prophet (according to the scholar interpreting) of Allah, worships
Allah alone, very religious, and pious. [2]
• He erects a wall/gate to keep Gog and Magog away. [2]
• Has great power and will given to him by Allah to help him do almost whatever
he wants or needs to. [2]

6. SURAH KAHAF (SURAH 18) VERSES 83-101
TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH BY ABDULLAH
YUSUF ALI [2]
• 83: They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain Say, "I will rehearse to you something of
his story.“
• 84: Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the
means to all ends.
• 85: One (such) way he followed,
• 86: Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of
murky water: near it he found a people: We said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast
authority), either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness.“
• 87: He said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back
to his Lord; and He will punish him with a punishment unheard-of (before).

7. (CONTINUED)
• 88: "But whoever believes, and works righteousness, he shall have a goodly reward,
and easy will be his task as we order it by our command.“
• 89: Then followed he (another) way.
• 90: Until, when he came to the rising of the sun, he found it rising on a people for
whom We had provided no covering protection against the sun.
• 91: (He left them) as they were: We completely understood what was before him.
• 92: Then followed he (another) way.
• 93: Until, when he reached (a tract) between two mountains, he found, beneath
them, a people who scarcely understood a word.

8. (CONTINUED)
• 94: They said: "O Zul-qarnain! the Gog and Magog (people) do great mischief on
earth: shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier
between us and them?“
• 95: He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than
tribute): help me therefore with strength (and labour): I will erect a strong barrier
between you and them:
• 96: "Bring me blocks of iron." At length, when he had filled up the space between
the two steep mountain sides, he said, "Blow (with your bellows)" then, when he
had made it (red) as fire, he said: "Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten lead.“
• 97: Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.

9. (CONTINUED)
• 98: He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord: but when the promise of my Lord
comes to pass, He will make it into dust; and the promise of my Lord is true.“
• 99: On that day We shall leave them to surge like waves on one another: the
trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect them all together.
• 100: And We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers to see, all spread out,
• 101: (Unbelievers) whose eyes had been under a veil from remembrance of Me,
and who had been unable even to hear.

10. DHUL-QARNAYN IS ALEXANDER THE GREAT
• Due to the readings of the verses, most
Islamic scholars agree that Alexander the
Great is Dhul-Qarnayn. [2]
• Also because of the striking similarities
between the Alexander Romance and the
verses in Surah Kahaf. [2]
• The Alexander Romance came before the
Quran did. [2]
• They also agree Dhul-Qarnayn is Alexander
the Great because of the interpretation of
what the Quran means by Dhul-Qarnayn
(The Two-Horned One). [2] Copyright: http://www.kingofmacedon.net/colins.htm

11. INTERPRETATION OF DHUL-QARNAYN (THE
TWO-HORNED ONE)
• Most Islamic scholars have accepted the interpretation of Dhul-Qarnayn (the
Two-Horned One) to mean:
• The lord of the East and West. [2]
• The lord of two kingdoms, making him greater than an ordinary king. [2]
• The lord of more than one Epoch: one whose power and influence extend far beyond
his lifetime. [2]
Another interpretation is that he was a great king with literally two-horns on his head.
This is not widely accepted and history bears no witness about a great king with
literally two horn on his head. [2]

12. ALEXANDER THE GREAT MEETS THE
ACCEPTED INTERPRETATIONS
• Lord of East and West: He was lord of the Greek States united for the first time and all of
Western Asia, Egypt, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and some parts of the Punjab of India. [2]
• Lord of two kingdoms: He was the lord of the Greek States and of the entire Persian Dominion
which includes a lot of the territories mentioned above. [2]
• Lord of more than one Epoch: He revolutionized the history of Europe, Asia, and Africa (Egypt),
and his influence lasted for many generations after his death at the young age of 33. But his
name was one to conjure with for many centuries after him. It was not only due to his
political power, but his cultural influences. Through his conquests, Greek art gave the
impulse to Gandhara art in Central Asia and Northwest India. The city of Alexandria which he
founded in Egypt became the cultural and knowledge center for Greece and Rome and held
the supremacy until the 6th century A.C.E. [2]

13. LORD OF MORE THAN ONE EPOCH
(CONTINUED)
• To this day people in the East name their children after him, for example the
name Sikander in Urdu and Hindi is the name Alexander. [3]
• Most of the territories he conquered remember him fondly, not as a dictator or
a tyrant of some sorts.
• He is depicted with literally two horns on his head on many of his coins. [2]

14. DISAGREEMENTS
• Many Islamic scholars disagree with this because:
• Alexander was an idolater (worshipped idols). [4]
• He drunk alcohol. [4]
• He was a murderer (referring to the murder of Cleitus the Black). [4]
• He was a homosexual because of his so-called relationships with his slave and some
say with Hephaiston.
• Dhul-Qarnayn was actually Cyrus the Great

15. MY REBUTTAL TO THE DISAGREEMENTS
“Should I listen to everybody or myself?
Cause myself just told myself, "You the
{expletive deleted} man, you don't need
no help“”
-Drake All Me

16. ALEXANDER WAS AN IDOLATER
It is true, he did make sacrifices to the Greek gods as well as others [4] but this
doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a man of faith, or that he didn’t believe in one God.
Remember, his teacher was Aristotle, a man of such vast knowledge that he would
definitely put the gods in a tough position such as that in his Metaphysics [5].
According to Islam not all of Allah’s Prophets were sent to spread the word that there
is only one God, for example, the Prophet Adam was there to simply populate the
earth [2]. Most probably he made sacrifices and worship for P.R. reasons, as most of
the men that fought alongside him were pagans. Remember what happened when
Akhenaton declared there was only one God [6]? Imagine if Alexander said something
like that, what would’ve happened? Alexander called himself the son of Zeus-Ammon
[2] which would almost amount to heresy by the Greeks but did it again for P.R.
reasons. This also shows evidence that he was a man of lofty ideals, it shows that
these idols are kind of play-things.

17. ALEXANDER WAS AN IDOLATER
(CONTINUED)
When he visited the Oracle at Delphi to hear his fortune, they told him to come back
a few months later. Alexander refused this dismissal and dragged the oracle out by
her hair and told her to tell him his fortune. And she said that he was unbeatable
and asked that he let go of her hair and then Alexander said I have my answer [7]. In
Islamic tradition, the prophet Muhammad told some of his followers to go to
Abyssinia to the Christian king Negus. So that they may escape persecution and be
allowed to practice their religion with freedom. When the persecutors came to take
the followers from Abyssinia Negus refused to let them take them. When Negus died,
Allah told the prophet Muhammad that Negus had converted to Islam and they held
Islamic funeral prayers for him [8]. The whole time, all those around him thought that
he was a Christian and died as one. The same could be said for Alexander.

18. TRUE DAT…FOR ALEXANDER TOO
“Only God baby, nobody else,
nobody else. All you other [expletive
deleted] get out my business”
-2pac Only God Can Judge Me

19. ALEXANDER DRUNK ALCOHOL
Alcohol was much cleaner and safer to drink than water in ancient times. If you
drank water for the most part of your life, you would most likely die pretty early
too. In Islam, many of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions drank alcohol up
until the revelation came from Allah that alcohol is considered a major sin and
thus must be banned. In Islamic scholarship it is more or less agreed that
drinking alcohol was allowed by Allah before he told Prophet Muhammad to ban
alcohol [2].

20. DRINK AND BE MERRY ALEXANDER
“I am on a 24 hour champagne diet
spillin' while I'm sippin' I encourage you
to try it”
-Drake Money to Blow by Birdman

21. ALEXANDER WAS A MURDERER
This accusation ties not to the fact that Alexander the Great killed enemy soldiers
during war. This accusation ties into when Alexander murdered Cleitus the Black in a
drunken rage. Alexander boasted of how he had far outdone his father during a
dinner while he was drunk, Cleitus, who had once saved Alexander’s life and fought
under Alexander’s father said that he would never outdo his father. That he is what
he is all because of his father, in a drunken rage Alexander got hold of a javelin and
threw it at Cleitus which ended up killing him [4]. In Islam, Moses, saw an Egyptian
unjustly hurting and harassing a Jewish person. Out of anger Moses hit the Egyptian
and ended up killing him even though he didn’t mean to [9]. Moses did that in simple
blind-rage, Alexander killed Cleitus while he was drunk, therefore not in control of
himself. Moses is still very much revered though but Alexander is called a murderer.

22. DON’T MESS WITH ALEXANDER
“And [expletive deleted] if there's a
problem we gon' gun brawl shots
poppin 'out The AR I'm with Trigger,
I'm with Rasha, I'm with A-Raw.
Broad daylight and we gon' let them
things bark”
-Bobby Shmurda Hot [expletive
deleted]

23. ALEXANDER WAS A HOMOSEXUAL
• None of the primary accounts mentioned before say anything about him preferring men.
• There is an event in which during a sing and dance contest Alexander’s slave Bagoas won. And
Alexander kissed him on the lips [4], this doesn’t mean that he was necessarily having sex with
him. Perhaps, it was just a custom back then very much like the French had in the early part of
the 20th century. Where men would greet each other and say goodbye by kissing each other on the
cheeks.
• Hephaestion was Alexander’s childhood friend and almost like a brother to him. And according to
ancient Greek culture it very unlikely that such a relationship would’ve existed.
• Plutarch writes: “When Philoxenus, the leader of the seashore, wrote to Alexander that there was a
youth in Ionia whose beauty has yet to be seen and asked him in a letter if he (Alexander) would
like him (the boy) to be sent over, he (Alexander) responded in a strict and disgusted manner: "You
are the most hideous and malign of all men, have you ever seen me involved in such dirty (sexual)
work that you found the urge to flatter me with such hedonistic business?” [4]
• Change in the acceptance of same-sex marriage also push this impetus needlessly.

24. ALEXANDER WAS A HOMOSEXUAL
(CONTINUED)
• According to Diodorus: “Then he put on the Persian diadem and dressed himself in
the white robe and the Persian sash and everything else except the trousers and the
long-sleeved upper garment. He distributed to his companions cloaks with purple
borders and dressed the horses in Persian harness. In addition to all this, he added
concubines to his retinue in the manner of Darius, in number not less than the
days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected from all the women of Asia.
Each night these paraded about the couch of the king so that he might select the
one with whom he would lie that night. Alexander, as a matter of fact, employed
these customs rather sparingly and kept for the most part to his accustomed
routine, not wishing to offend the Macedonians” [10]

25. MORE TRUE FOR ALEXANDER…
“If having a bad [expletive deleted]
was a crime I'd be arrested (True)”
-2Chainz Drake All Me ft. 2Chainz
and Big Sean

26. DHUL-QARNAYN WAS CYRUS THE GREAT
• All the scholars that believe this: Abu-Ala-Maududi, Maulana Abul-Kalam Azad,
Israr Ahmed, and many Ayatollahs of Iran. Were or are associated with politics with
a very anti-western edge to them i.e. anger towards white people.
• Cyrus was a great man and also depicted with horns and conquered a bigger
empire than Alexander but he doesn’t fit the description of being the lord of more
than one Epoch and scarcely that of lord of two kingdoms. He conquered a lot of
regions almost like Alexander but an overwhelming majority of it is in the East [2].
• The Alexander Romance mentions of Alexander building walls to keep Gog and
Magog out far before the Quran showed the story of Dhul-Qarnayn [2].

27. SORRY CYRUS BUT……
“Ya done run 100 miles, but you still got
one to go”
-Ice Cube No Vaseline

28. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (2010). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia.
John Wiley & Sons. p.190
[2] Yusuf Ali, Abdullah, (1997). The Meaning of the Holy Quran
[3] Me, I was born in Pakistan and lived there for 5 years from teenage to adolescence.
[4] Plutarch, Life of Alexander
[5] Aristotle, Metaphysics
[6] Cunningham S., Lawrence; Reich j., John; Fichner-Rathus, Lois (2014). Culture &
Values, Vol. 1, 8th edition. Cengage Learning. p. 29

29. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[7] "Delphic Oracle - Oracle of Delphic region". delphic-oracle.info.
[8] Nomani, Shibli. The Life of the Prophet
[9] ibn Kathir, The Story of Prophet Moses and Aaron.
[10] Siculus, Diodorus. Bibliotheca historica