King Solomon 3

(34:15-19)(21:79-82)(27:15-19/ 36-44)(38:36)

King Solomon 3

Another memorable event in King Solomon’s life was his encounter with Queen Sheba.  One day his horses were marching in front of him for inspection; he ordered the military officer to bring the disappearing array of horses back so he could pat them.  While he was looking at their manes, his heart swelled with gratitude for God, who had bestowed such a marvelous army upon him.  In those times, the army of swift horses was a terror for enemies.  The mere name of Solomon’s horse- battalion struck terror in the hearts of the enemies; they used to disperse in the wilderness and never dared to face him on the battlefield.  Furthermore, King Solomon proclaimed that he loved his horses because they helped him to work for God. 

During the inspection, King Solomon noticed that a high-ranking officer, Hoopoe, was absent during the parade.  Not to be present at the time of the king’s inspection was a great breach of discipline; it infuriated King Solomon.  He declared that there was no place for such an irresponsible individual in his army.  He further added that if Hoopoe would not be able to give a justifiable cause for his absence he would have to face dire consequences.

But Hoopoe came with an amazing story.  He told King Solomon that a woman was ruling a neighboring territory.  Her name was Sheba.  She was a very wise ruler with an up-to-date means of irrigation.  The people of her country had built a dam to store water and many canals to irrigate the land.  Sheba had concentrated on commerce and the capital city was a hub for the merchants from all over the world, especially Indians who brought merchandise to be sent to Africa and other parts of the Arabian Peninsula.  International trade brought a lot of wealth into the country, and the queen along with her countrymen multiplied it by investing it in agricultural products of fertile land.

The wise Queen Sheba and her nation were very proud of their gods.  They worshipped the sun god and were unwilling to take cognizance of Allah, the mighty creator of the universe. The prosperity and wealth made them very proud and selfish; they discouraged competition and wanted to restrict the international trade to themselves only.

          King Solomon listened to the statement of Hoopoe with great interest and sent his other agents to verify it.  After verification, he sent a messenger to Queen Sheba’s court with a letter, telling her to mend her ways and not to disobey his mandate.

         Queen Sheba gathered all her ministers in the court and said, “I have received a polite letter from King Solomon; in it he writes about acting on the program of Rabubiyyat, which would make the means of livelihood available to all the people in the land.  If I reject his proposal and do not join his court, it may result in war with the powerful armies of King Solomon, so give me your advice because I would not take any step without consulting you.”                              The courtiers replied, “Act as you think is proper for us and our land; if King Solomon has a great army, you need not fear it because we are neither cowards nor afraid of fighting.  We will fight till death for our land and queen.”  The queen was delighted with the ardent reply from her courtiers and smilingly replied, “I knew that you would not hesitate to fight, but when war comes to a country it completely changes the structure of its society. The nobles become lowly and the spineless folks emerge as the nobles; I would like to take a step of diplomacy before declaring war against King Solomon.  I am going to send a messenger with rich presents to gage the depth and sincerity of his program.”

          All the courtiers agreed with the proposal of the queen and an ambassador with rich presents was sent to his court.   When King Solomon saw pearls, diamonds, silk, incense, precious stones, and other expensive items, he said, “Do you people want to bribe me with wealth?  What God has already given me is much superior to yours.”  After this conversation, the messenger failed to reach a compromise and the mission was aborted.

King Solomon 2

(38:34-36) (21-79-82)(27-15-17)(2-102)

King Solomon 2

King Solomon’s kingdom was a living example of human achievement through hard work, under the guidance of God‘s laws.  King Solomon and his father King David both were given wisdom, great power of judgment, and knowledge.  They used all their abilities for the betterment of humanity and produced wonderful results in the form of a prosperous kingdom, which was considered the number one power on land and at sea.

King Solomon’s successor was devoid of all the good qualities which his father and grandfather possessed.  He sat on the throne because he was the son of King Solomon, although he had none of his father’s talents and abilities.  As inevitably happens in all such unfortunate cases of inheritance, the system broke; the country was divided and sank into abject poverty.  The new rulers were asked, “Why do you not govern us as King Solomon did?  He brought so much prosperity and wealth to the country; you are ruling the same land and we have nothing except misery and disaster.”

The Jewish leaders did not want to give a straight and true answer, so in order to hide their lack of good judgment and knowledge they coined a mysterious and unverifiable term.  They declared that what had happened in the kingdom of King Solomon was not the result of his talent, but was due to magic. A lot of stories were invented to show that King Solomon had supernatural workers (jinns).  They had worked all these wonders for him.

  One story suggested that two angels, Harut and Marut, came from the heavens to teach magic to the people.  Both these angels taught magic to the people, but they also frankly told them that learning magic was not good for them.  The people, after knowing the reality, deliberately learned the magic because they wanted to bring discord between man and wife. This story was a well thought-out device that gave divine approval to the institution of magic.

Three thousand years ago, the wicked people were deliberately covering the personality of King Solomon in the shroud of superstition, magic, and mystery.  They presented him as a symbol of supernatural powers and workers who were interfering in the lives of ordinary human beings, etc.  These stories provided fuel for imaginative and romantic thinking in the absence of scientific means to verify the truth of magic.  Nobody knew exactly what magic was or how it operated.  The only thing sorcerers did was chant meaningless words, light fires, and draw circles around them.  During this period, they sang songs and danced to please or force the deities to yield favorable results.

Another invention to undermine the worth of Solomon’s work was a story of a ring with Ism-i-Azam.  According to the story, all the extraordinary qualities of his work were due to this ring.  One of his ministers stole the ring, disguised himself as Solomon, and occupied the throne.  The real King Solomon was powerless without the ring, so he ran away from the capital city and wondered aimlessly in the region.  The impostor king sent many spies to trace and kill the real king.  In order to escape the calamity, the real King Solomon became a cook and hid himself in the palace of another king.  The king’s daughter fell in love with Solomon.  This incident infuriated the royal family and they turned both of them out into a jungle.  One day a fisherman was passing by; the princess bought a fish from him.  As Solomon was cleaning the fish he found his lost ring in its stomach.  Beside himself with happiness, he put the ring on and reclaimed his kingdom from the impostor.

Nearly fifteen hundred years ago, without any scientific research, the Quran declared that King Solomon had nothing to do with magic. His achievements were the result of God’s blessings, his undaunted constant work for the betterment of humanity, and his following the laws of God revealed to him.  These stories attributed to him did not have any trace of truth in them.