Ali Shukri Amin

On Doubts, Probabilities and Dhu al-Qarnayn — Ali Shukri Amin

By Ali Shukri Amin · May 19, 2026 · Islamic Scholarship

First published on my writing site: www.aliamin.info/2026/05/on-doubts-probabilities-and-dhu-al-qarnayn/

By Ali Shukri Amin. I first wrote this as comments on r/MuslimAcademics, in the thread “Having Serious Doubts and I Would Like Your Opinions”, copied here as written.

Comment 1

The Quran claims there was previous Revelation. If it sees Dhu al-Qarnayn as a real person, wouldn’t the Quran expect previous Revelations to have mentioned him? So why would it be a surprise that the Alexander romances have parallels?

Additionally, the dating of the Syriac romances is hotly contested, and many scholars date them after the Quran.

Regardless, this one story shouldn’t be a stumbling block to Islam. If a theory is 99% true, do you discard it because of your doubt about the 1%, or do you operate under it until you figure that 1% out?

With respect to exclusivism, as we know from social science, human nature is to be exclusivist. Islam came to perfect human nature, not change it.

Posted May 19, 2026. Read it on Reddit.

Comment 2

How are you calculating these various probabilities?

You’re saying:

  1. Dhu al-Qarnayn is Alexander
  2. The Qur’anic author had access to the Alexander myth
  3. The Syriac Alexander romances certainly pre-date the Quran
  4. The Quran & the romances are not convergently evolved but rather the Quran is a derivative
  5. What’s described in the Syriac romances is certainly untrue
  6. What’s described in the Quran is certainly untrue
  7. The Quran contains provably untrue information about Alexander
  8. The Quran cannot possibly be utilizing a myth for a spiritual end while being aware it’s a myth

Let’s say you’re evaluating this not from a faith informed paradigm but from a secular one. You will need to provide some kind of empirical evidence of each claim successively. Does that exist?

Posted May 19, 2026. Read it on Reddit.

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