Philip Daniel
http://western-civ-here-to-stay.blogspot.com/
Islam usurps historical figures such as Alexander the Great of Macedon and claims them as its own, in direct contradiction to the facts. In this case, Alexander the Great is reshaped as a hanif and mujahid named Dhu’l-Qarnayn, slaying and enslaving kuffar who persist in the perfidy of kufr (e.g., kufrul-istihaal and kufrul-istibdaal) and shirk and fisq and fasaad and taghut and al-munkar and fitna, who reject iman and tawhid and ibadah and taqwa and siratul-mustaqeem and al-ma’ruf, whose blood and property are thus rendered mubaa’ until their “willing submission” to the absolute suzerainty of al-dawla al-islamiyya as the humiliated and oppressed under-caste of ahl al-dhimma (or, in the case of outright mushrikun, reserved for al-sayf if they steadfastly reject “reversion” to al-deenu’l-sayf).
“And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnain. Say: “I shall recite to you something of his story.” Verily, We established him in the earth, and We gave him the means of everything. So he followed a way. Until, when he reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of black muddy (or hot) water. And he found near it a people. We (Allah) said (by inspiration): “O Dhul-Qarnain! Either you punish them, or treat them with kindness.” He said: “As for him (a disbeliever in the Oneness of Allah) who does wrong, we shall punish him, and then he will be brought back unto his Lord, Who will punish him with a terrible torment (Hell).””–Qur’an 18:83-87, Translation of Muhammad Mohsin Khan
The Tafsir of the Two Jalals explains further; it casts the episode quoted above as a quintessential ghazw against the inhabitants of the dar al-harb…
“{ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ مَغْرِبَ ٱلشَّمْسِ وَجَدَهَا تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ حَمِئَةٍ وَوَجَدَ عِندَهَا قَوْماً قُلْنَا يٰذَا ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ إِمَّآ أَن تُعَذِّبَ وَإِمَّآ أَن تَتَّخِذَ فِيهِمْ حُسْناً }
Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, the place where it sets, he found it setting in a muddy spring (‘ayn hami’a: [a spring] containing ham’a, which is black clay): its setting in a spring is [described as seen] from the perspective of the eye, for otherwise it is far larger [in size] than this world; and he found by it, that is, [by] the spring, a folk, of disbelievers. We said, ‘O Dhū’l-Qarnayn — by [means of] inspiration — either chastise, the folk, by slaying [them], or treat them kindly’, by [merely] taking them captive.”–Tafsir al-Jalalayn “Surah al-Kahf [Q 18]”