83 Preface وَيَسأَلونَكَ عَن ذِي القَرنَينِ ۖ قُل سَأَتلو عَلَيكُم مِنهُ ذِكرًاYusuf AliThey ask thee concerning Dhu al Qarnayn.1 Say, “I will rehearse to you something of his story.”Literally, “the Two-horned One”, the King with the Two Horns, or the Lord of the Two Epochs. Who was he? In what age, and where did he live? The Qur-ān gives us no material on which we can base a positive answer. Nor is it necessary to find an answer, as the story is treated as a Parable. Popular opinion identifies Dhu al Qarnayn with Alexander the Great. An alternative suggestion is an ancient Persian King, or a prehistoric Himyarite King. See a brief account of the controversy in Appendix 6 printed at the end of this Sūra. Dhu al Qarnayn was a most powerful king, but it was God, Who, in His universal Plan, gave him power and provided him with the ways and means for his great work. His sway extended over East and West, and over people of diverse civilisations. He was just and righteous, not selfish or grasping. He protected the weak and punished the unlawful arid the turbulent. Three of his expeditions are described in the text, each embodying a great ethical idea involved in the possession of kingship or power.