Shaikh Imran is one of my teachers. I’ve also had the pleasure to film him on quite a few occasions.
you’ll be surprised to know some things which he doesn’t put into videos.
that’s why it’s better to read the books he publishes.
EDIT: On a side note, I bought this recently. Published by Brill. It's written by non Muslims about the barrier of Dhul Qarnayn. They attempt to chart the journey which Sallam al Tarjumani undertook to locate hte barrier. A task given to him by Khaliph Al Watiq who dreamt the barrier had fallen and was worried that Ya'juj and Ma'juj were a very real threat at that time. He died within a few years of tasking Sallam to locate the barrier.
Some of you may well know that I have been studying surah al Kahf and surah al Anbiyah’s verses about Dhul Qarnayn and yajuj majuj (gog magog) since 2001. That’s an on and off study of 20 years. My reason for studying this is largely down to the fact that it remains one of the historical mysteries which is spoken of in the Quran and it has peaked my curiosity especially in light of eschatology (end times prophecy regarding gog magog in particular). With so much propaganda from the Christian missionary camps, so much secrecy from the Jewish quarter and so little scholarship on the verses from the Muslim sphere, I felt compelled in attempting to find the truth behind a story spanning (in my opinion) since the 6th century BCE. That’s almost 2 and a half millennia. I’ve gone through a lot of reading material. My bookshelf is literally full of books on this topic, from ibn fadhlan’s fantastical adventures all the way thru to Hamdi bin Hamza al Sureiseri al Johani’s confuddled but genius works and more or less everything in between. In the process of reading peer reviews on this topic, such as the journal of Central Asia studies, I found I had to also learn some geological basics in order to read the language of academia and get a better grasp on possible locations for an iron barrier in the old world.
This book is unique. I’ve read the online pdf version which is heavily abridged, and with large chunks omitted including cartographical data and images. Still, it provided a step by step follow through of Sallam the interpreters mission (given to him by Khaliph Al Watiq after he dreamt of the barrier) to locate the barrier which Dhul Qarnayn built, and the fantastical adventure he embarked upon risking life and limb in search of it. Of the 50 or so men he left with, only a handful returned and the story they came back with... well, dare I say, sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
This book attempts to trace every step of Sallam’s journey and is a modern masterpiece on this topic. The reason for its costly purchase is that it is a very specialist book published in limited quantity by one of the most reputable publishing houses in the academic world, “Brill”. Truth be told I have been wanting to purchase this book since 2014 which is when my attention was first drawn to it - but I wasn’t able to justify the expense at that time as I was unemployed. Alhamdulillah, a few weeks ago I was talking to my wife about this book and she told me to get it - may Allah bless her Ameen - and so, by the will of God very soon my collection of books relating to this topic will be greatly embellished with this amazing new addition in shaa Allah.
What's worthy of note here is that the book is
"dedicated to the unjustly enclosed"... that should raise a few eyebrows. Andrea Schmidt and Emery Van Donzel did a great job giving us an insight into the region which Gog and Magog inhabited on earth and further, the variant locations of the barrier as well. And not just from Sallam's journey but multiple accounts of eye witnesses through history.
So why are you guys attempting to explain the story as something out of a sci-fi novel? Prehistoric, alien, etc? didn't you know, the truth is stranger than fiction?
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