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.