Surah Saba 34:12-21 - Quran Translation Commentary

12. And to Sulaiman (We subdued) the wind, traveling a month’s course in the morning, and a month’s course in the evening, ²³ and We caused a spring of copper to flow for him, ²⁴ and (We gave him) certain jinns who served worked for him by permission of his Lords.²⁵ And those of them who deviated from Our command, We caused them to taste the punishment of devastating Fire.²⁶

13. They made for him what he disired: structures,²⁷ pictures,²⁸ basins as large as watring-throughs, and fixed cauldrons.²⁹ O People of Dawood! act (righteously) and be thankful.³⁰ And few of My slaves are thankful.³¹

14. And when We had decreed his death, nothing showed them that he was dead until they saw that a worm was eating away his staff. And when he fell down the jinns realised that if they had known the Unseen, they would not have been in shameful torment.³²

15. There indeed was sign for Sheba ³³ in their dwelling place, ³⁴ two gardens on the right and on the left sides. ³⁵ Eat of the provision of your Lord and render thanks to Him. A good land and Forgiving Lord ! ³⁶

16. But they turned away. ³⁷ So We sent against, them the flood of the Dam ³⁸ and replaced their gardens by two other gardens bearing bitter fruit, tamarisks and a few nettle shrubs.³⁹

17. Thus We punished them for their ingratitude. ⁴⁰ Do We punish any but the ungrateful?

18. And We placed between them and the towns We have blessed, towns easy to be seen and made travel therein in convenient stages: ⁴¹ Travel through them safely by night and day.⁴²

19. But they said: “Our Lord! ⁴³ make the stages between our journeys longer.⁴⁴” They wronged themselves,⁴⁵ so We made them a byword ⁴⁶ and scattered ⁴⁷ throughout the land. Verily there is a sign in this for every steadfast, thankful man. ⁴⁸

20. And Iblis (Satan) proved his conjecture true⁴⁹concerning them; they all followed him except a group of the people of faith.⁵⁰

21. He had no authority ⁵¹ over them except that We wanted to know who believed in the Hereafter from him who is in doubt about it.⁵² Your Lord watches over all things.

Commentary

23. For Prophet Sulaiman (Solomon) the wind was subdued in such a way that on his bidding it used to blow so swiftly but softly that it was possible to traverse the distance of one month’s journey in a few hours in the morning. Similarly in the evening also the same distance could be traversed in a few hours. According to the Bible the kingdom of Prophet Sulaiman was spread from Palestine to the river Euphrates, therefore, there is no wonder that he was able to travel this long journey in the morning or evening. For further explanation, please see Surah Anbia Note No. 109.

24. Copper is found in mines, but for Prophet Sulaiman, Allah caused molten copper to be flown in a spring. This was an extraordinary thing, which was the result of his special favour, so that without going through the difficult processes of mining and melting, Prophet Sulaiman could establish grand Islamic kingdom. As is stated further he made huge vessels of copper.

25. For explanation please see Surah Anbia Note No.110 and Surah Naml Note No. 25.

26. The view that Prophet Sulaiman had himself subjugated the jinns is not correct, but as stated in the ayah further Allah, by His command, had subdued the jinns for him that he may take whatever service he might like. And if any jinn disobeyed this command, Allah would punish him by subjecting him to fire.

27. Prophet Sulaiman made these jinns construct lofty edifices. To shift huge blocks of stones from one place to another in those days when there were no cranes was not easy, but with the help of jinns this work became easy.

28. In the ayah the word ‘tamatheel’ has been used, which is the plural of timthal, which in Arabic is also used for statue. It is used for picture also. The reliable Arabic dictionary, Lisanul Arab.

“states that timthal means image”

and the shadow of everything is its image (picture).

“And timthal is the name of that artificial thing which is made like any thing that is created by Allah.” (Lisanul Arab, Vol. 11 page 613).

“And timthal is a pictured thing.” (Mufarridate- Raghib-P. 478).

Sulaiman was a prophet and was a follower of the Shariah of Prophet Moosa. Therefore, we do not think that he would have made pictures or statues of the living beings; in the Torah making pictures of living thing is forbidden (haram):

“You shall not make for yourself a graven , image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or there is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Deut 5:8)

Those commentators who have said that in the past shariah making pictures of living things was lawful, have made a wrong statement. This hadith of the Prophet negates this statement:

“Ayesha (R) narrates that Umme Habiba (R) and Umme Salma (R)mentioned before the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, about a church which they had seen in Abyssinia, in which there were pictures. The Prophet said that if there used to be a righteous person among them and when he died, they used to make a worshipping place over his grave, and on that they made that kind of pictures; those people will be the worst creatures in front of Allah on the Day of Resurrection.”- (Muslim, Kitab -ul- Masajid).

This hadith is quite clear on this point that in the past Shariahs also it was not lawful to make pictures of living things.

Therefore, Prophet Sulaiman must have made pictures of non living things or inanimate objects, which are not forbidden in the Shariah. These pictures can be the images of flowers, leaves, trees and natural scenes. As for the statement in the books “Kings” and “Chronicles” of Bible that Prophet Sulaiman had made pictures of living things, then that is not reliable, because as stated by the commentator of the Bible, these books were written centuries after the time of Prophet Sulaiman, in which hearsay stories and tales have found their way. (See Interpreter’s one Volume Commentary on the Bible P.181 ).And in the Bible Prophet Sulaiman has been shown to be practicing polytheism and idolatry. Therefore, in this matter argument on the basis of what is stated in the Bible is not right. The correct and the best sense of this ayah can only be what is in consonance with the Shariah commands and which does not present a prophet in a wrong and bad light. In this connection a few points needs must be kept in mind:

The first point is this that the work of constructing lofty edifices decorated with pictures was taken from the jinns as is clearly stated in the ayah. They used to bring heavy stones and used to draw and paint pictures and decorations on them. For this work they were neither paid anything nor this expenditure had any adverse effect on the state’s treasury. Therefore, it would not be termed as wastefulness.

The second point is that in the acts of Prophet Sulaiman the divine miraculous element had a very big share. Flowing of the copper spring and the working of the jinns for him were things of this nature only. He had not undertaken construction of buildings and pictures or statue making as pieces of art or culture in his nation.

The third point is that these beautiful buildings decorated with pictures were not made as manifestations of his pride and exhibition of greatness but as an expression of Allah’s special favour on him, to show that Allah had blessed His prophet. Allah had provided for him such extraordinary resources that these majestic and gigantic works were performed by him without in any way affecting the state’s treasures. This helped in leaving an awe-inspiring impression on the non-Islamic governments and secondly it confirmed the fact that Sulaiman was the prophet of Allah. Accordingly the impression created on the Queen of Sheba, when she saw the glass palace of Prophet Sulaiman has been mentioned in Surah Naml.

The fourth point is that Allah wanted to establish a grand Islamic state by a prophet for Bani Israil, which would be a reward of an extraordinary nature for them and it would also impress the world that such an Islamic state has been established which is unique in its splendor and seeing its grandeur people remember Allah, and this government has been very successfully conducted with full justice and efficiency by a prophet. After understanding these points the grandeur and majesticity of Prophet Sulaiman’s palaces cannot be presented as arguments in favour of the Muslim kings and emperors’ wasteful and ostentatious buildings and palaces. The Diwan-e-Khas of Lal Quila, (Red Fort) Delhi, whose walls are not merely decorated with paintings but had also precious jewels affixed into them, are the best examples of wasteful expenditure. The Mogul kings had constructed lofty and beautiful palaces for pleasure and the inimitable Taj which they had built and which has no equal in grandeur is merely a manifestation of pride and self-exhibition.

With the problem of picture, the question of lawfulness or otherwise of the photograph also arises. But here this discussion will be lengthy, because photo is invention of the modern times, and from this angle it is a matter of Ijtihad. Here we do not want to enter into this discussion, and therefore, we would rest content with these lines only.

29. In the big vessels (cauldrons) food was cooked, and it used to be taken out in big basins, so that many people could partake of it at one and the same time. The big army which Prophet Sulaiman had, it appears, used these vessels for their feeding arrangements.

The big basins and the cauldrons of stones, which could not be moved from one place to another ordinarily, were prepared by the jinns. As stated in the ayah all this work was done by the jinns.

30. By Aal-e-Dawood is meant the children of Dawood as also the followers of Dawood. And acting with thanks means be thankful to Allah in such a way that it should be manifested in your practical life, that is such acts as are consonant with thanksgiving. It is learnt that for thanks giving merely uttering words with the mouth is not sufficient but that it should be expressed by acts also.

31. Precious things are found in less quantity in the world. Gold compared to iron, diamonds and jewels compared to coal and stones, beautiful and fragrant flowers compared to wild shrubbery, twigs, etc., Saffron compared to grass, and similarly Allah’s thankful slaves compared to thankless slaves are found much less in number, but these scarcely found commodities are the very cream and the most valuable jewels of humanity.

32. The death of prophet Sulaiman had also occurred in a miraculous way. He was standing, reclining a little on his staff, supervising the work of jinns. The death seized him in this position but Allah did not let his dead body fall on the ground, it was resting on his staff so that the jinns might think that Sulaiman was still alive, and they might continue to do their work. They continued to work till Allah desired to disclose his death the white ants ate away his staff, Prophet Sulaiman fell down on the ground. At that time the jinns realised that Sulaiman’s death had occurred much earlier, and that his dead body was standing by the support of his staff, and they felt that had they known the Unseen they would have been relieved of the work which they were doing, being subservient to him, for they were appointed to work for him alone.

The special aspect to which attention is intended to be diverted is that the jinns do not know the Unseen and it is wrong to seek help from them as some people do, and indulge in evil practices (magic). This is mere superstition, but even today many people evoke jinns because of weakness of their belief. A person afflicted by a mental illness is sometimes supposed to be possessed by a jinn, and is beaten mercilessly, in the belief that they are beating the jinn, and that the jinn will speak out the answer to their question. On such occasions Satan goes on deceiving them and their wrong belief hurls them into lowliness and disgrace.

It may be noted that Quran did not say how long after death Prophet Sulaiman stood by the support of the staff. In some narratives it is stated that for one year he stood like that and some commentators have quoted them, but all these are not reliable. No authentic narrative in this respect is available. ‘Therefore, it is not necessary to presume a long period. It is likely that he might have remained in this condition for a short time only a few days, and even this period was sufficient to make the jinns realise that they could not know of his death on time. As for the question that if the jinns could not get the news of his death, then did the humans get the news of his death on time, and if they had got the news then why did they allow the dead body to remain without shroud and without being buried for a long time? But in this connection it should be kept in view that the Quran has stated that only jinn did not know about his death for some time, it has not mentioned that humans did not know about his death. Sulaiman’s death was brought to their notice by the insect of the earth. The pronoun appearing in the sentence refers to jinns only, because in this ayah the jinns have been mentioned, and in the ayah before this the craftsmanship of the jinns was mentioned. In the context there is nothing which refers to humans. Therefore, we think that Prophet Sulaiman on getting an indication from Allah might have informed his family and subordinates that they should leave his dead body alone till it fell down on the ground, and they might have obeyed this order of Sulaiman, or they might have thought that even after his death his dead body did not fall on the ground, it might be a divine miracle, therefore, unless something transpired they should not interfere with it. Since the dead body was in a standing position they might have thought that it was a divine miracle and the body would be in a preserved condition. His burial etc. would have been taken in hand only after his body fell down on the ground. And Allah might have placed such obstructions between humans and the jinns that were working that they did not know about Prophet Sulaiman’s death. In our opinion after this explanation no doubts will remain in the reader’s mind, and the real position is known to Allah alone.

33. Saba (Sheba) is the name of a community which lived in the region of Yemen, and its capital was Maarib, which is situated at a distance of 193 kilometers in the east of Sanaa. In Surah Naml the event of the Queen of Sheba presenting herself before Prophet Sulaiman and embracing Islam has been narrated. In those days generally the governed people followed the religion of their rulers. Therefore, when the Queen of Sheba might have returned to her country after accepting Islam, her people might have also embraced Islam. Therefore, Islam had reached the country of Sheba in the time of Prophet Sulaiman. The community of Sheba ruled there for centuries and lived happily. It was a great civilised state of Arabia. But later on when they adopted the attitude of unthankfulness towards God, all favours were withdrawn from them. This adverse consequence of an ungrateful community is presented here by way of a lesson for others.

34.The region in which they lived was fertile and it was the means of the people of the land being happy all this was a clear sign of the fact that these blessings and favours were bestowed on them by Allah, and for these favours it was their duty to express their gratitude to the giver of blessings, and that if He will He can withdraw these favours, therefore, they should live their lives fearing Him.

35. That is: A series of gardens was on the right side and another series of gardens on the left side of the city, in which were trees of luscious and tasty fruits, farms yielding plentiful corns and fragrant plants. All these beautiful and excellent gifts were so plenty that the whole area had become a veritable garden.

36. This abundance of food and provision was the favour and kindness of their Lord only. As if this blissful board invited the people to partake of Allah’s favours in the words: Eat the provision of your Lord and render thanks to Him. And the nature itself was saying as if the land was excellent and the Lord was Forgiving and Indulgent.

37. Instead of thanking their Lord, they adopted an attitude of aversion, and when they turned away from Allah, their indulging in polytheism and materialism was inevitable.

38. “Sailul ‘Arim” means that flood which broke the Dam and entered the gardens and the farms, inundating everything. This Dam is known as ‘Sadd-e-Maarib’. This Dam was built by the community of Sheba in their capital Maarib between two hills, whose name is Ablaq, so that the water from the rainfall and the springs might be stored therein. They had built canals from this stored water. The technique of constructing dams is not the invention of the modern times, but it is older than two thousand years. The community of Sheba had shown great expertise in this technique. (For the details of this dam please see the Urdu book , Arzul Quran by Sayed Sulaiman Nadvi, chapter: Sadd-e-Maarib Vol.1 p. 254). This event of breaking of the Dam is likely to have taken place in the second century before Christ.

The ruins of this Dam are still found in Maarib, and provide a lesson for the onlookers. We are giving their photos, in the coming pages. (For the details of these ruins please see Dr. Abdul Aleem Abdur Rehman Khizr’s book ‘Mafaheem Jughrafia Fil Qasasil Qurani, printed at Darushshurooq, Jeddah, pages 195 to 206).

39. The result of the devastation of the flood was that the fruit trees, plants and gardens, all were destroyed, and in their place fruits of bitter taste and wild shrubs and twigs came to be grown. The only eatable fruits that remained were berries and that too in very small number.

It seems that the flood had brought with it sand and such material that when they spread over the farming land nothing worth while could be grown over there. It destroyed the fertility of the land.

40. The punishment of ingratitude which the community of Sheba received was so devastating that all their pleasure became a thing of the past and their happiness was converted into a sad and hopeless life.

It has become clear that when Allah wants to punish the ungrateful people He first withdraws His blessings and favours from it, and ruins its economy. It comes to pass only when that nation does not appreciate the blessings and favours of Allah and turns away from its Lord. At another place in the Quran this tradition of Allah has been stated:

“Verily Allah does not change the condition of a people until they (first) change what is with themselves.” -(Surah Ar-Ra’d-11).

From this event in the history of Sheba it has also become clear that good or bad economic conditions are in the power of Allah only. There is no existence of gods and goddesses nor is there any other being who has power to give provision or food. Truth is Tawheed only and polytheism is totally wrong.

41. This was another blessing which was bestowed on Sheba. For them traveling was made very convenient and comfortable. They used to undertake commercial journeys to Syria and Palestine. Allah had made this highway which ran from Yemen to Baitul Maqdis and Damascus so much populated that traveling through that route had become very safe. The stages made on the highway were very convenient for the travelers. These towns and colonies were situated on the sides of the highway and were easily discernible. Traveling through the route was safe and comfortable.

By the towns that We have blessed are meant the region of Palestine and Syria. This is Quran’s well known term for this region. For explanation please see Surah Bani Israil, Note No. 1.

42. This was as if nature was speaking in its own language.

43. It is learnt that the community of Sheba considered Allah as their Lord, but they were ungrateful.

44. Sheba also did not appreciate this blessing of Allah. They said that the traveling which did not cause inconvenience was not worth the name. Their prayer to make the stages between their journeys longer shows this mentality of man which is referred to at another place in the Quran:

“And man prays for evil as he prays for good.”-(Surah Bani Israil -11 )

And the polytheists of Makkah had also prayed for evil consequences for themselves:

“O Allah! If this indeed is the truth from You, then rain down stones on us, or bring down some other painful punishment.” -(Surah Al-Anfal-32).

45. That is: By doing this they had committed excess on themselves only. By being ungrateful to Allah, we do not cause Allah to lose or miss anything, but we ourselves become liable for receiving His punishment.

46.’That is: Where that rise of Sheba and where this fall that they have become a forgotten part of history.

47. By the breaking of the Dam and the destruction of their farms and gardens their trade and commerce was affected. The trade caravans which used to carry fragrant masala to Syria, etc. This trade was also adversely affected, with the result that the various tribes of Sheba were forced to leave their native place, and settled in Tahama, Syria and different other regions. Thus the community of Sheba was weakened and their people scattered.

Some commentators have written that a few prophets were also sent down to Sheba, but it is neither mentioned in the Quran nor in any authentic hadith, and from the punishment that they received it appears that no prophet was sent directly to them, for the consequence of belying messenger of Allah is that the nation in question is simply obliterated from the earth. But here only Sheba’s economy was ruined and the people were scattered. This punishment is different from the punishment which is meted out to the communities who belie the prophets. As for the conveying of Allah’s message to them convincingly, this work was done by Prophet Sulaiman, and it might have been done by other prophets of Bani Israil, because in those days the holy land was made the centre of the Islamic dawah so that the Islamic message might reach others through Bani Israil.

48. In this historical event of Sheba there is sufficient material for guidance, for example: the good economic conditions of a nation are the result of the favours of Allah, and when that nation does not appreciate it and turns away from God, then Allah converts their wealth into penury; secondly the rise and fall of the nations do not take place on the apparent causes, but behind them are operative Allah’s wisdom and His law of justice; thirdly by punishing Sheba for their ungratefulness He has presented an example as a lesson to others, which has passed into history as a permanent record; fourthly the world is not for living in pleasures only but for fulfilling responsibilities, and that man’s prosperity depends on fulfilling his responsibilities.

But only those people take advantage and reap benefits from these signs which guide to Allah and the Hereafter, who have the attributes of patience, steadfastness and gratitude to Allah.

49. Hints at the statement which Iblees had made:

“And will mislead every one of them all, except such of them as are your chosen slaves.” -(Al-Hijr -39-40).

“And you shall not find most of them grateful.” -(A’raf 17).

And Sheba provided Iblees with the opportunity of proving it.

50. It is elicited that in Sheba there was a group of people of faith who did not follow Satan and did not become ungrateful to God.

51. That is: Satan had not compelled the people to follow him, he had merely induced them, So those who followed him are themselves responsible for what they did.

52. That is: Allah had placed the community of Sheba under trial by first making them well off and later turning them into paupers to see whether they believe in the Hereafter or not. Those who believe in the Hereafter should be distinct from those who do not and are still in doubt.

It has become clear that in reality thankfulness is that which is accompanied by a belief in the Hereafter.