قرنين

Core meaning

The two acolytes: in the dual, the two kinds of beings joined to each other, humans and the Occulted. In the name ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ, "the Holder of the Two Acolytes", the one who holds these two joined troops under him.

Uses

1. ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ → "the Holder of the Two Acolytes" : the man established on the earth, whose account follows three links; the Arabic writes ذِى after "about" and ذَا after "O", the same name in the form its place in the sentence requires.

   • «وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَن ذِى ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ» — "And they ask you about the Holder of the Two Acolytes" (18:83)
   • «يَٰذَا ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ إِنَّ يَأْجُوجَ وَمَأْجُوجَ مُفْسِدُونَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ» — "O Holder of the Two Acolytes, Yajuj and Majuj are sowing corruption on the earth" (18:94)

Evidence from the text

The dual is that of قَرِين, the acolyte joined at another's side (4:38, 43:36); on the Day, "his acolyte will say", قَالَ قَرِينُهُۥ (50:27). The text names these two kinds of beings together, "of the Occulted and humans" (41:25, 46:18), and Sulayman's army is made of them, "among the Occulted, humans and birds" (27:17), with Diverters "bound together", مُقَرَّنِين (38:38).

The account brings him to the two ends of the sun's course: "having reached the setting-place of the sun" (18:86), then "having reached the rising-place of the sun" (18:90). Both journeys have the same form: he follows a link, he arrives, he finds a people. The text says nothing of his origin; it describes him by what he receives, an establishment on the earth and a link of everything (18:84), and by what he does with the peoples he finds (18:86-98).

Distinctions

• قرن — the generation, plural قُرُون; and the acolyte, قَرِين, whose dual the name takes

See also

سبب (the link) · قرن (the acolyte)