Zia Sheikh – Ramadan Khatira Irving Masjid 6272016
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AI: Transcript ©
We're going to be talking about a few
verses in Surah Saad which talk about two
tribulations or tests that Sulaiman a.s. was
faced with and the riwayat that are associated
with them and what conclusions we can draw
from those particular verses.
Allah a.s. prior to these verses talked
about Dawood a.s. and he was a
king in his own right.
Allah a.s. had blessed him with a
kingdom and then in these verses Allah a
.s. talks about Sulaiman a.s. and says
As a son, Sulaiman a.s. came, he
was a prophet, he also was a king.
He was a wonderful slave of ours, a
wonderful servant.
The word ni'ma in Arabic, whenever you use
that, it's a compliment to somebody.
So here, Allah a.s. is complimenting Sulaiman
a.s. and saying What a wonderful servant
he was, meaning he was obedient to Allah
a.s. and he was often in repentance.
So, he started off the story by complimenting
him in the first place and the story
itself, if we look at the different riwayat
associated with it, we'll see why Allah a
.s. complimented him in the first place, why
he was complimenting him in the first place,
so that we do not get any misunderstanding
or misinformation or we do not lose the
status of Sulaiman a.s. in our heart
by hearing the story associated with it.
So, one of the riwayat that are presented
about this situation was that Sulaiman a.s.
was blessed with, as we heard right now,
with a kingdom and in that kingdom, obviously,
he has anything that he could want and
amongst those things was beautiful horses, war horses
that were soft and gentle to the touch
and gentle to the master but when they
were pushed into battle, then they were the
most ferocious and the most hardworking of the
horses, which in Arabic is known as So,
one day what happened was that he was
looking at these horses and enjoying their company
and this is one riwayat, I'm going to
mention one riwayat and then another riwayat which
is more appropriate.
So, according to this riwayat, he was playing
with the horses, complimenting them and he was
enjoying their company for so long that he
forgot, he lost track of time and because
of that he missed his Asr prayer or
the prayer that he used to do at
Asr time he missed it and then he
realized his mistake and he had the horses
brought back and he sacrificed them all.
That's one riwayat.
Another riwayat, it suggests or another understanding of
the same verses it suggests that the horses,
basically he was spending time with them and
he forgot to compliment Allah SWT or praise
Allah SWT for all the blessings that he'd
been given and then when they were disappeared
from view, he brought them back again and
he started stroking them, started stroking them with
his hand out of love for them and
out of appreciation of the blessings that Allah
SWT had given him.
So, we'll go through the verses and translate
according to both of those riwayats.
Suleiman A.S. was presented at the time
of the evening, these wonderful horses.
So, he said that I gave priority to
the love of Al-Khair.
Al-Khair here is worldly things and remember
we've mentioned before that wealth has been mentioned
in the Quran not in derogatory terms but
in complimentary terms.
So, Al-Khair, it means goodness.
Al-Fadl is also the wealth has been
used as long as the wealth is used
for good purposes, it is Khair.
So, he said that I gave priority to
or loved or gave priority to the love
of Al-Khair from the remembrance of my
Lord until they had disappeared from view, until
the horses had disappeared from view.
He ordered, he said return them back to
me.
And he started and there are two interpretations
of this particular verse.
He started making Masah.
Masah means to basically smite their necks.
Smite their necks and their Aanaq meaning the
shins.
So, he started smiting them meaning sacrificing them,
killing them.
That's one opinion.
And then the second opinion is that he
started stroking them.
As we make Masah of the head, we
moisten our hands and we make Masah of
our head.
We stroke our heads with water, right?
So, Masah can also mean that he took
his hands and he out of love for
them he started stroking their necks and the
shins as the owners of the horses do.
He started stroking them.
So, according to this understanding, the love that
Suleiman A.S. is showing for the horses
it is out of the fact that Allah
SWT blessed me with these things and I
should show appreciation for the blessings that Allah
SWT has given me and not that he
destroyed them or killed them or sacrificed them.
So, these are two Riwayat.
So, what is the lesson we learn from
this?
The lesson we learn is that we have
all been blessed with worldly things and it's
not necessary that we are tested in a
bad way from Allah SWT to assume that
it's a test from Allah SWT.
The fact that Allah SWT blessed us with
a nice house or a nice car and
beautiful children and a wonderful wife.
This is not...
You don't have to have the kids May
Allah SWT protect our kids from fall into
an illness to realize that they're a blessing
or our wives to leave us to understand
that she was a blessing or our house
to fall down to understand that it's a
blessing but in their presence and while they're
there to appreciate them this is also a
gratitude to Allah SWT and this is something
that we should all do.
So, being tested by Allah SWT can be
in such a way that Allah blessed you
with that thing and you have it.
This is a test from Allah SWT.
As Allah says in another verse وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ
وَالخَيْرِ فِتْنًا We test you with shirk and
khayr and both are a fitna or a
trial for you.
So, the fact that Sulaiman had these horses
he brought them back again to look at
them, to stroke them, to appreciate them and
in turn be grateful for the blessing that
Allah SWT had given him.
This was how he responded to the test
from Allah SWT and it doesn't necessarily mean
that he actually sacrificed the horses.
The next few verses talk about another test
that Sulaiman had to endure and what was
that test?
Allah SWT says وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا سُلَيْمَانَ وَأَلْقَيْنَ عَلَىٰ
كُرْسِيهِ جَسَدًا ثُمَّ أَنَابْ Indeed, we tested Sulaiman
and we put on his kursi, upon his
throne جَسَدًا جَسَد It means a body without
a life.
And again, there are a few riwayat that
are mentioned about this whole story and some
of them are found in Bukhari and Muslim
that Sulaiman, one day, he vowed to have
* with his wives and he said that
I'm going to make them pregnant and after
the pregnancy, the children that are born from
these wives I'm going to make sure that
all of these children, they become mujahid fi
sabilillah They go out and they strive in
the path of Allah SWT and he forgot
to say Inshallah Now, what happened was that
none of those wives became pregnant and one
did become pregnant but she gave birth to
a malformed fetus which the wet nurse came
and put it on the throne of Sulaiman
A.S So, this was one of the
tests that one of the riwayat that suggest
that this جسد, this malformed fetus came on
the throne of Sulaiman A.S This was
a test from Allah SWT Another understanding of
this same riwayat is of this same ayat
is that Allah SWT didn't give Sulaiman A
.S children that were worthy successors of him
and it's mentioned that after Sulaiman A.S
passed away the son that took over his
throne he actually split up the whole Bani
Israel One group of ten tribes separated and
one tribe of Judah separated and this is
what is understood by the fact that Allah
SWT tested Sulaiman A.S and the body
that was put on the throne was this
body of his son that took over him
but he really had no kind of morals
or no kind of principles and he could
not lead the society as Sulaiman A.S
did So, in any case, we will go
through the translation وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا سُلِيمَانٌ Indeed, we
tested Sulaiman A.S and we put on
his throne a جسد a dead, lifeless body
ثُمَّ أَنَابْ and he repented and this again,
this lifeless body can mean this malformed fetus
or it can mean the son that took
over him took over after him after he
passed away قَالَ رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَهَبْ لِي
مُلْكًا لَا يَنْبَغِي لِي أَحَدٍ مِّن بَعْدٍ Sulaiman
A.S, he said Oh my Lord, forgive
me and give me a kingdom that is
not appropriate for anyone after me إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ
الْغُهَابُ Indeed, you are the one who gives
the most You are oft-giving So, Allah
SWT gave him a kingdom that nobody else
had before and nobody ever will have What
was that?
فَسَخَّرْنَا لَهُ الْرِيحَةَ تَجْرِي بِأَمْرِي We gave him
the wind that used to go according to
his command and he used to be able
to command the wind the fleets of ships
used to go that was sent with under
his command and they used to go with
this gentle wind that Allah SWT blessed Sulaiman
A.S. with and also it's mentioned in
Riwayat that he used to have a special
kind of platform that he used to fly
with and the winds used to control this
platform anyone who knows anything about flying in
this day and age will realize that it's
all to do with wind the speed picks
up when a plane is about to take
off the speed picks up and the wind
and the vacuum that is created underneath the
wings the shape of the wings it is
what elevates the plane in the sky and
then the speed that the plane goes with
is basically related to the wind and that
is what keeps the plane high so Allah
SWT gave that power to Sulaiman A.S.
during his kingdom that he could control the
wind what else?
تَجْرِي بِأَمْرِهِ رُخَاءً حَيْثُ أَصَال it was gentle
wherever it went this wind of Sulaiman A
.S. وَشَيَاطِينَ كُلَّ بَنَّائِمْ وَغَوَّاسْ and jinns that
used to be able to build for him
and also they used to be غوّاسْ غوّاسْ
means to actually go into the dive into
the water and bring out pearls and diamonds
and precious things and present them to Sulaiman
A.S. so they were بَنَّاءْ meaning they
used to build for him and also غوّاسْ
dive into the water to bring treasures from
the seas for Sulaiman A.S. وَآخَرِينَ مُقَرَّنِينَ
فِي الأَصْفَادِ and others that used to be
captured in chains against Sulaiman A.S. was
controlling them also هَذَا عَطَاعُنَا فَمْنُنْ أَوْ أَمْسِكْ
بِغَيْرِ حِسَابِ this is our gift Allah A
.S. is declaring فَمْنُنْ regard that as a
favor from Allah A.S. and praise him
أَوْ أَمْسِكْ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابِ and take it without
any kind of reckoning so this was the
kingdom that Sulaiman A.S. was given in
addition to that Allah A.S. has mentioned
in another place the fact that he could
understand the language of the birds the language
of the animals which king has had the
ability to do that no other king has
had that so Allah A.S. blessed this
king Sulaiman A.S. with the blessings but
at the same time those blessings were a
test for him and the lesson we learn
from this is that whenever Allah A.S.
has given us anything in this world we
should be appreciative of it and appreciation is
always to be grateful to Allah A.S.
and use those blessings in such a way
that is pleasing to Allah A.S. I
pray that Allah A.S. gives us tawfiq
to understand and practice what is being said
and heard