Travelogue I — The Journey to the Hot Eye

Reader’s Note

The purpose of this series is to revisit the journeys of Dhul Qarnayn with fresh eyes.

Rather than reading traditional commentary or even modern science into the Qur’an, I am asking a different question.

Has Allah allowed humanity to observe aspects of His creation that help us visualize descriptions that have been present in the Qur’an since the day these verses were first revealed?

Every generation inherits the Qur’an from those before it. None of us begins with a blank page. We build upon the work of scholars who preserved the Arabic language, transmitted the sayings of the Companions, documented the canonical recitations, and devoted their lives to understanding the Book of Allah. These travelogues are written in that same spirit. My purpose is not to replace their foundation, but to continue the journey they began by revisiting some of their observations in light of questions and perspectives available to us today.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of Furqan Qureshi. Although my conclusions regarding the journeys of Dhul Qarnayn differ from his, his work challenged me to look at familiar verses from a different angle. For that, I am sincerely grateful.

Throughout this series I will distinguish between three things: what the Qur’an explicitly states, what has been transmitted from the earliest generations of Muslims, and where I draw my own conclusions.

I ask only one thing of the reader.

Walk the entire journey before deciding where you stand.

If my reasoning is flawed, I sincerely hope someone will show me where it fails. But if these travelogues encourage even one reader to return to the Qur’an with greater curiosity, deeper reflection, and renewed awe at the signs of Allah, they will have achieved their purpose.

Three Questions

Not every story in the Qur’an carries the same weight.
Some are presented to teach a moral lesson.
Others preserve the history of nations long forgotten.
A few, however, occupy a very different place.

The story of Dhul Qarnayn is one of them.

When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ began calling the people of Makkah to Islam, the Quraysh sought a way to test his claim of prophethood. They consulted the Jewish scholars of Arabia, who were people of scripture and possessed knowledge that the Quraysh themselves did not.

Three questions were chosen.

One concerned the young men who disappeared into a cave.
Another concerned the nature of the Rūḥ (the Spirit).
The third concerned a ruler known as Dhul Qarnayn.

The agreement was simple.

If Muhammad ﷺ answered these questions correctly, it would be evidence that his knowledge came from revelation. If he failed, his claim would be exposed.

Pause for a moment and think about what that means.

Of all the questions that could have been asked…
Of all the kings who have ruled…
Of all the events preserved in history…

Why Dhul Qarnayn?

Why was this story considered a suitable test of prophethood?

Surely there had to be something about it that lay far beyond ordinary human knowledge.

Yet today, many of us read these verses in a matter of minutes.

We picture a righteous king travelling east and west across the earth, meeting different peoples before continuing his journey.

Interesting.

But hardly extraordinary.

I could never reconcile those two realities.

On one hand, this journey was chosen as a test of prophethood.

On the other, it is often understood as the account of a righteous king travelling across the earth.

The more I reflected on these verses, the more convinced I became that I was missing something.

Not because the Qur’an was unclear.

But because I had become accustomed to reading these verses through assumptions I had never stopped to examine.

This travelogue is an invitation to examine those assumptions with me.

I am not asking you to accept my conclusions.

Not yet.

For now, I ask only that we begin where every serious investigation should begin:

With the Qur’an itself.

The Journey Begins

Before we attempt to understand where Dhul Qarnayn travelled, it is worth paying attention to how Allah introduces him.

The Qur’an says:

إِنَّا مَكَّنَّا لَهُۥ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَءَاتَيْنَـٰهُ مِن كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ سَبَبًۭا ۝

“Indeed, We established him in the land and gave him, from everything, a sabab.” (Surah al-Kahf 18:84)

The Qur’an tells us almost nothing about Dhul Qarnayn himself.

We are not told where he lived.

We are not told how large his kingdom was.

We are not told the size of his army or the extent of his wealth.

Instead, Allah immediately draws our attention to two gifts.

First:

“We established him in the land.”

Whatever authority, knowledge, resources, or capability Dhul Qarnayn possessed came from Allah. Before revealing the journey, the Qur’an first reminds us of the One who made it possible.

Then comes the second gift.

“…and We gave him, from everything, a sabab.”

The Arabic word sabab appears throughout the Qur’an. Depending on the context, it can refer to a means, a cause, a connection, or a path by which something is reached.

For now, let us simply remember the word.

Because Allah repeats it immediately.

فَأَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا۝

“Then he followed a sabab.” (18:85)

It is the repetition that first caught my attention.

Allah could simply have said,

“So he set out.”

Or,

“So he travelled.”

Or,

“So he went toward the west.”

Instead, He repeats the same word.

First, Allah grants Dhul Qarnayn a sabab from everything.

Then, Dhul Qarnayn follows one of those asabab.

Many translations render the first sabab as “means” or “resources,” while translating the second as “road,” “way,” or “path.”

For now, I am not asking you to choose between those meanings.

I ask only that you notice what the Qur’an emphasizes.

Whatever a sabab could have been, Allah gave it to Dhul Qarnayn.

And out of all of those asbaab, Dhul Qarnayn followed one.

The Qur’an has not yet described the journey.

It has not yet revealed the destination.

Yet before either of those things, Allah repeats one word twice.

That is rarely accidental.

That is where our journey begins.

The First Destination

The next verse is perhaps the most discussed verse in the account of Dhul Qarnayn.

Before we examine how it has been understood, let us do something simpler.

Let us read it.

Then let us observe it.

حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ ٱلشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِى عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍۢ وَوَجَدَ عِندَهَا قَوْمًۭا ۗ قُلْنَا يَـٰذَا ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ إِمَّآ أَن تُعَذِّبَ وَإِمَّآ أَن تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ حُسْنًۭا۝

Until, when he reached the place of the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a hot/murky eye/spring and he found near it people, We said O’ Dhul Qarnayn either punish them or treat them kindly.

As I reflected on this verse, I found myself asking a different question.

What does the verse actually tell me before I begin interpreting it?

The Qur’an first tells us that Dhul Qarnayn reached a destination.

This is not a symbolic journey. Whatever the destination was, the Qur’an presents it as a real place that he reached.

The verse then tells us what he found.

Allah does not begin by describing the place itself.

He first tells us what confronted the traveller upon his arrival.

The perspective also matters.

The scene is described through the eyes of Dhul Qarnayn.

We are not yet being told how that place functioned.

We are being shown what he witnessed.

He saw a disappearing sun.

The verse then introduces something that is often overshadowed by the description of the sun.

There were people there.

Real people.

People with whom Dhul Qarnayn would soon speak.

People over whom Allah would soon give him authority.

Now look at how Qur’an draws our attention to the description that has fascinated readers for centuries.

Notice how carefully the scene has been constructed.

A journey.

An arrival.

A remarkable sight.

And a people waiting there.

All of these details belong to a single scene.

Yet for centuries, one description has drawn more attention than all the others.

The place where Dhul Qarnayn found the sun setting.

Before asking what that description means, let us first ask a simpler question.

What exactly did Dhul Qarnayn see?

Looking Again

There is one description in this journey that has drawn more attention than any other.

It is the place where Dhul Qarnayn found the sun setting.

For many readers, the discussion begins there and ends there.

For our journey, I would like to begin somewhere else.

Not by asking what the verse means.

But by asking what it actually says.

That distinction matters.

The Qur’an first records what Dhul Qarnayn witnessed.

Only afterward do we begin asking what that experience meant.

I believe that order deserves to be preserved.

As I reflected on this passage, I realized that I had been reading it through conclusions I had inherited rather than through the words that were actually on the page.

So I invite you to do something simple.

For the next few minutes, set those conclusions aside.

Not because they were necessarily wrong.

But because I want us to experience the verse again before asking what it means.

Read it.

Observe it.

Allow the Qur’an to speak before anyone else does.

Only then should we ask how the earliest generations understood what they had inherited.

Looking More Closely

As I returned to the verse, one word held my attention.

وجد

“He found.”

Allah does not begin by explaining the place.

He begins by telling us what Dhul Qarnayn found when he arrived.

The journey is unfolding through the eyes of its traveller.

Then another word demanded the same attention.

عین

Like many words in the Qur’an, it carries more than one established meaning.

It can refer to a spring.

It can also refer to an eye.

At this stage, I was not trying to decide between them.

I simply wanted to notice the word Allah chose.

I still did not know what that picture was.

But I knew I wanted to understand it before trying to explain it.

Then another detail demanded attention.

For this single word, Allah preserved two authentic recitations.

Both deserve to be heard.

Two Readings, One Revelation

One recitation describes the ʿayn as ḥāmiyah—hot.

The other describes it as ḥami’ah—dark or muddy.

For a long time I assumed they were competing descriptions.

The more I reflected, the less convincing that assumption became.

Both readings have reached us through authentic transmission.

Both have been preserved as part of the Qur’an.

If Allah had willed for only one description to remain, only one would have been preserved.

Instead, both reached us.

Perhaps they are not competing.

Perhaps they are complementary.

One draws our attention toward intense heat.

The other toward darkness.

Neither removes the other.

Together they preserve a richer picture than either one alone.

I found myself returning once again to the earliest narrations.

Listening to the Earliest Voices

Having observed the journey as the Qur’an presents it, let us now listen to those who stood closest to its language.

If these verses contain an unusual image, they deserve to be heard before our own reflections begin.

Ibn ʿAbbās (رضي الله عنهما) said regarding Dhul Qarnayn’s journey:

اتبع الأسباب التي يسّرها الله له

“He followed the paths which Allah made easy for him.”

His words naturally connect the two consecutive verses.

Allah granted Dhul Qarnayn a sabab.

Dhul Qarnayn followed a sabab.

When Ibn ʿAbbās described what Dhul Qarnayn witnessed, he said:

وجد الشمس تغرب في عين حامية، وهي سوداء

“He found the sun setting in a hot eye, and it was black.”

Another narration from him preserves the image even more simply.

عين سوداء

“A black eye.”

Mujāhid, one of Ibn ʿAbbās’s foremost students, transmitted the same description.

عين سوداء

“A black eye.”

Al-Suddī described it as:

عين حمئة سوداء

“A black, muddy eye.”

These reports come from different authorities, yet they preserve a remarkably consistent image.

Not an explanation.

A hot eye.

A black eye.

A black, muddy eye.

The Qur’an.

The earliest generations.

Together they were inviting me to see something.

An image. Before asking what that image represents, let us first allow ourselves to see it.

Do You See It?

At this point, I would like to ask you to pause.

Take a breath and look at the image below.

Now look at it again.

Do not ask whether it proves anything.

Simply look.

Notice the darkness.

Notice the brilliant light surrounding it.

Notice how the light bends around what appears to be an empty darkness.

Then remember the descriptions we have just encountered.

A hot eye.

A black eye.

A dark eye.

A black, muddy eye.

Do you see the resemblance?

When I first reached this point in my own study, I did.

For the first time, the descriptions preserved by Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid and Al-Suddī became something I could visualize rather than merely read.

The picture that had remained hidden from me for years suddenly became remarkably vivid.

If you see it too, then let us keep following Dhul Qarnayn.

Because the Qur’an is not finished drawing this picture.

There is another passage that, in my view, belongs beside this one.

Allah says in Surah Al-Wāqiʿah:

فَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِمَوَاقِعِ النُّجُومِ ۝ وَإِنَّهُ لَقَسَمٌ لَّوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عَظِيمٌ۝

“Then I swear by the places where the stars fall (or set). And indeed, if only you knew, it is a tremendous oath.” (56:75–76)

The first thing that caught my attention was not the expression, “the places where the stars fall.”

It was what came immediately afterward.

“…if only you knew, it is a tremendous oath.”

Allah swears by many signs throughout the Qur’an.

The dawn.

The night.

The sun.

The moon.

Time.

But here He does something different.

He not only swears by the places where stars fall, He tells us that this is a tremendous oath.

That alone deserves our attention.

Just as we have done throughout this journey, let us resist the urge to rush toward an explanation.

Let us first observe the words. Because I believe they illuminate the next stage of Dhul Qarnayn’s journey.

Bringing the Pictures Together

At this point, let us place the two passages beside one another.

In Surah Al-Wāqiʿah, Allah swears by the places where the stars fall (or set), then immediately says:

“…and indeed, if only you knew, it is a tremendous oath.”

The Qur’an does not explain the image. It simply tells us that whatever these places are, they belong among the great signs worthy of reflection.

Earlier, in Surah Al-Kahf, we followed Dhul Qarnayn on the first of his journeys.

He reached a destination.

He found the sun setting in an ʿayn.

The earliest generations consistently preserved that ʿayn as hot, dark, and black.

Until now, we have considered these passages separately.

Now let us simply allow them to stand together.

One draws our attention to the places where stars fall.

The other presents us with the image of a hot, dark eye.

For most of human history, those descriptions remained just that—descriptions. No one could compare them with anything visible in creation.

Today, that is no longer true.

Allah has allowed humanity to observe realities that earlier generations could never have witnessed. Among the most remarkable are black holes.

Modern astronomy describes them as regions where gravity becomes so intense that even light cannot escape. Under the right conditions, they draw nearby stars toward themselves, tearing them apart and consuming them. For the first time in history, humanity has also been able to image one.

The image you have just seen is Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our own galaxy.

My observation is simple.

When I place these Qur’anic descriptions beside what Allah has now allowed us to witness in His creation, I find myself looking at remarkably similar imagery.

A place associated with stars.

A tremendous sign.

A dark center.

Brilliant light surrounding it.

A hot, dark eye.

Whether that resemblance is meaningful or merely coincidental is for each reader to decide.

I ask only whether it deserves to be considered.

A Picture Begins to Emerge

Until this point, I have deliberately resisted drawing conclusions.

Instead, I have tried to let the Qur’an determine the order of the discussion.

We followed Dhul Qarnayn’s journey.

We listened to the earliest generations.

We examined the two authentic recitations.

We reflected upon Allah’s oath by the places where the stars fall.

Only then did we pause to look at the image.

Now I will tell you where that journey has led me.

A black hole is among the most extraordinary creations Allah has allowed humanity to observe.

Its gravity is so immense that when a star wanders too close, the star is torn apart and eventually consumed.

This is no longer theoretical.

It is something we observe within Allah’s creation.

Now return to the image.

Imagine standing on a world whose sun has begun that final journey.

Every sunrise may be your last.

Every sunset reminds you that your world is dying.

The sun is no longer merely setting.

It is being consumed.

Its light bends around an object that cannot itself be seen.

Darkness surrounded by light.

A hot eye.

A dark eye.

A black eye.

Read Ibn ʿAbbās again.

Read Mujāhid.

Read Al-Suddī.

Then look at the image below.

I believe this is what Dhul Qarnayn witnessed.

A star being consumed by a black hole while the people of that world watched it unfold before their eyes.

For me, every observation we have gathered now begins to converge.

The hot eye.

The dark eye.

The black eye.

The tremendous oath by the places where stars fall.

They no longer appear as separate descriptions.

They appear as different glimpses of the same reality.

The People at the End of Their World

If this understanding is correct, then the center of the story shifts.

The black hole is not the focus.

The people are.

Imagine living on a world whose sun has begun to disappear.

You know there will be no future.

No harvest.

No tomorrow.

No generation after yours.

Everything your civilization has built is approaching its end.

It is at that moment that Allah introduces Dhul Qarnayn.

Remarkably, the Qur’an does not begin by describing fear.

It begins by describing authority.

قُلْنَا يَا ذَا الْقَرْنَيْنِ إِمَّا أَنْ تُعَذِّبَ وَإِمَّا أَنْ تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ حُسْنًا

“We said, ‘O Dhul Qarnayn, either punish them or treat them with goodness.'”

The authority entrusted to him is extraordinary.

He is not merely visiting these people.

He is entrusted with judging them.

His response follows the same pattern we encounter throughout the Qur’an.

Belief.

Righteous deeds.

Punishment.

Return to Allah.

The language is unmistakable.

It is the language of accountability.

The language of resurrection.

Yet here it appears within the account of a historical journey.

I do not believe that is accidental.

Nothing in the Qur’an is.

I believe Allah is allowing us to witness a historical event that reflects, on a smaller scale, the realities every soul will one day face.

A moment when the future of a people had already been decided.

A moment when judgment became immediate.

A moment when mercy remained for some, while others had reached the consequences of the lives they had chosen.

If that understanding is correct, another implication follows naturally.

Dhul Qarnayn did not arrive alone.

Authority of this magnitude is not exercised by a solitary traveler.

He came with whatever means Allah had granted him to carry out that responsibility.

He came with his armada.

Earlier, Allah told us that He had given Dhul Qarnayn a sabab from everything.

Here, for the first time, we begin to glimpse one of those asbāb in action.

The Promise of Ease

The more I reflected on Dhul Qarnayn’s response, the more one statement held my attention.

Speaking of those who believed and did righteous deeds, he says:

قَالَ أَمَّا مَن ظَلَمَ فَسَوْفَ نُعَذِّبُهُۥ ثُمَّ يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِۦ فَيُعَذِّبُهُۥ عَذَابًۭا نُّكْرًۭا ۝ وَأَمَّا مَنْ ءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًۭا فَلَهُۥ جَزَآءً ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۖ وَسَنَقُولُ لَهُۥ مِنْ أَمْرِنَا يُسْرًۭا۝

“He said, whoever has done wrong, we shall punish him. Then he will be returned to his Lord, and He will punish him with a terrible punishment. But whoever believes and does righteous deeds shall have the finest reward, and we shall speak to him from our command with ease.”

If these people were living ordinary lives, these words could simply describe the speech of a just ruler.

But I no longer believe they were.

I believe they were witnessing the end of their world.

If that is true, then the promise of ease cannot consist merely of comforting words.

Words do not remove the terror of a dying world.

Words do not rescue families from certain destruction.

Words do not restore hope when tomorrow no longer exists.

The ease promised by Dhul Qarnayn had to correspond to the reality before them.

It had to change their condition.

For that reason, I believe the believers were not merely comforted.

They were rescued.

The Qur’an does not tell us how.

It simply records the promise and moves forward.

Not every detail is revealed.

But enough is revealed for the picture to continue taking shape.

Dhul Qarnayn arrived with enough force and authority to govern the people, the whole population, and rule over them with absolute power.

Those Who Were Left Behind

The other half of Dhul Qarnayn’s judgment deserves equal attention.

He says:

قَالَ أَمَّا مَن ظَلَمَ فَسَوْفَ نُعَذِّبُهُ ثُمَّ يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِ فَيُعَذِّبُهُ عَذَابًا نُّكْرًا۝

“He said, whoever has done wrong, we shall punish him. Then he will be returned to his Lord, and He will punish him with a terrible punishment.”

As I reflected on these words, I found myself considering two possibilities.

The first is that the wrongdoers were rescued together with everyone else, punished under Dhul Qarnayn’s authority, and later returned to Allah for their final judgment.

The second is that they never left that world.

I find the second understanding more persuasive.

The verse contains no invitation to repent.

No negotiation.

No postponement.

Only judgment.

Throughout the Qur’an there are moments when Allah’s decree reaches a point beyond which the opportunity to change course has passed.

If my understanding is correct, then these people had reached such a moment.

The believers were given ease and rescued.

The wrongdoers faced punishment and were left behind before returning to their Lord.

This conclusion goes beyond what the verse states explicitly, and I recognize that.

It is an attempt to understand why Allah presents the account in this way.

Like every human conclusion, it remains subject to correction by the Qur’an itself.

The Journey Is Far Greater Than I Ever Imagined

For most of my life, I read this passage as many of us have.

A righteous king.

A long journey.

A people he encountered.

A judgment he delivered.

A remarkable story.

Today, I cannot read it that way anymore.

I began this investigation believing I was following the travels of a great ruler.

I now believe I have been following one of the most extraordinary journeys preserved in the Qur’an.

A man whom Allah equipped with every necessary sabab and opened pathways for him across the worlds.

A journey beyond the familiar world.

A civilization watching its sun disappear.

A hot, dark eye as a star was consumed.

A people standing at the edge of their world’s final moments.

Authority granted by Allah.

Judgment according to belief and righteousness.

Mercy for one group.

Punishment for another.

Seen individually, these are striking details.

Seen together, they form a single picture.

What once appeared to be a journey across the earth now appears, to me, as a journey across Allah’s creation.

What once seemed to describe an unusual sunset now resembles the death of a star.

What once looked like the judgment of a distant people now mirrors, on a smaller stage, the reality every soul will one day face.

If this understanding is correct, then the Qur’an has quietly preserved an account of astonishing magnitude.

Not merely the travels of a king.

But the rescue of a people standing at the edge of extinction.

Not merely political authority.

But authority exercised at the final moments of an entire civilization.

Not merely another historical account.

But one of the great signs of Allah’s power, justice, and mercy.

Perhaps what amazes me most is not the conclusion itself.

It is the patience of the Qur’an.

For more than fourteen centuries, the words remained exactly as they were revealed.

The imagery never changed.

Only our ability to observe similar realities within Allah’s creation changed.

Perhaps the picture was never hidden.

Perhaps humanity simply had not yet learned how to see it.

I do not expect every reader to reach the same conclusion I have reached.

That has never been my purpose.

My hope is simpler than that.

That we return to these verses with fresh eyes.

That we allow the Qur’an to speak before our assumptions do.

That we never mistake the limits of our imagination for the limits of Allah’s creation.

And if, after completing this journey, your first reaction is,

“This cannot be right.”

Then I ask only one question.

Why?

Is that conclusion coming from the Qur’an?

Or is it coming from assumptions we have inherited without ever realizing they were there?

This was only the first journey.

The second still awaits us.

If the first has expanded our sense of what may be possible within Allah’s creation, perhaps the second will expand it further still.

And Allah knows best.