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 time7  and killing the Dajjal.8

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.

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7   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.

8   The Dajjal is the Antichrist, related to appear at the end of time. (Tr.)