Clarification of Dhu l-Qarnayn’s Quest for the Spring of Life

Ibn ʿAsākir relates, through the chain of Wakīʿ, from his father, from Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān, from Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir, from his father Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, a very lengthy report which states that Dhu l-Qarnayn had an angelic companion named Ranaqīl. Dhu l-Qarnayn asked him, “Do you know of a spring on earth called the Spring of Life?” The angel described its location, whereupon Dhu l-Qarnayn set out in search of it, appointing al-Khiḍr to lead the vanguard. Al-Khiḍr reached the spring in a valley within the Land of Darkness and drank from it, but Dhu l-Qarnayn was unable to find it.

The same narration mentions that Dhu l-Qarnayn met some angels in a palace in that region, and that one of them gave him a stone. When he returned to his army he asked the scholars about it. They placed the stone on one side of a balance and set a thousand stones of the same kind on the other, yet it still outweighed them. Finally he asked al-Khiḍr, who placed a single stone opposite it and then added a handful of earth; only then did the scale tip. Al-Khiḍr said, “This is a parable of the child of Adam: he is not satisfied until he is covered with earth.” The scholars thereupon prostrated to him in reverence and respect. Allah knows best.

The Exalted then recounts how He empowered Dhu l-Qarnayn in that region: “We said, ‘O Dhu l-Qarnayn, either punish them or treat them with kindness.’ He said, ‘As for one who does wrong, we shall punish him; then he will be returned to his Lord, who will punish him with a terrible punishment’ ” (Q 18:86–87). Thus he is made to suffer torment in both this world and the Hereafter, the former being mentioned first because it is a more immediate deterrent for the unbeliever. “But whoever believes and acts righteously—his shall be the best reward, and we shall address him with gentle words.” Here the passage begins with what matters most—the recompense of the Hereafter—and then adds Allah’s benevolence toward the believer. Such is true justice, knowledge, and faith.

Allah, mighty and majestic, also says: “Then he followed a course,” meaning that he took a route back from west to east. It is said that the return journey lasted twelve years. “Until, when he reached the sunrise-place, he found it rising upon a people for whom We had provided no shelter against it”—that is, they possessed neither houses nor dwellings to shield them from the sun’s heat. Many scholars say that when the heat became severe they would retreat into underground tunnels they had dug, resembling graves.

Allah, exalted is He, says: “So it was, and We encompassed in knowledge all that was with him,” meaning: We knew his circumstances, safeguarded him, and watched over him throughout that entire march from the earth’s western extremities to its eastern limits.

It is related from ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, his son ʿAbd Allāh, and others among the early generations that Dhu l-Qarnayn once performed the pilgrimage on foot; when he heard