Prophet Sulaiman and the Queen of Sheba | Story Night 01 | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi | EPIC Masjid

Given that it is the summer months and most of our youth are not doing much at home, I decided to start a mini series. Today will be the first part and insha'Allah we'll continue - not the next Wednesday, but the Wednesday after that insha'Allah. We're going to continue for a few series insha'Allah and do something that will be of benefit even for the youth and for the adults insha'Allah. That will be going over a tafsir of the story of Sulaiman (alayhis salam) as it is mentioned in Surat An-Naml.

So if you have a copy of the Quran on your iPhone or for translation, it will be nice if you can pull it out and we're going to be going over this selection to benefit from the story of Sulaiman and the Queen of Sheba and the story of the jinn and the chair - all of this insha'Allah just to have some benefit from a very profound story full of moral lessons and benefits.

So we begin with verse 15 and this will go for a number of lessons as we said insha'Allah ta'ala. We'll go for maybe until like half an hour and then insha'Allah continue in our next lesson insha'Allah ta'ala. This is the longest section of the whole Quran that deals with Sulaiman (alayhis salam). This is the longest section of the Quran that deals with Sulaiman and it has a unique story that is not repeated anywhere else in the Quran. This is the only time it is mentioned in the Quran.

The Beginning: Knowledge as the Source of Power

In verse number 15, Allah begins:

"We granted Dawood and Sulaiman knowledge. The both of them said: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ (Alhamdulillah) - who has favoured us over so many other of his servants."

The Humble Origins of Dawood

Dawood (alayhis salam) was from a very humble background - his story is mentioned in Surat Al-Baqarah and we'll come to that another time insha'Allah ta'ala. Dawood (alayhis salam) was born the son of a shepherd. He had no idea who he would become. He was from a very poor family, very mediocre family. They didn't have nobility, they didn't have wealth.

In his time there was the Prophet Samuel. The Prophet Samuel, because if you know from our sharia, from our seerah, from our hadith, the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said the children of Israel - Allah blessed them to always have a prophet one after another. Every time a prophet died, another would come in his place. This is unique to the children of Israel. No other nation was given this, and this is the favour that Allah says multiple times in the Quran: that I have favoured you over all other nations.

We also affirm this favour, and the other group - the Jewish people - say the favour still lasts. We say no. What was the favour? Continuity of prophets. When the continuity of prophets stopped, the favour stops as well. This is what we believe.

So the first of their prophets was of course Ibrahim, and then Ishaq, and the last of their prophets was Yahya and then Isa (alayhis salam). So from Ishaq and then onwards to Ya'qub - of course technically Ya'qub is their father. Bani Israel - Israel is Ya'qub, but still we say Ibrahim, Ishaq, then Ya'qub. Ya'qub's 12 sons are the Bani Israel.

So they have their founder is a prophet - that's Ya'qub - and his father and his father were prophets. And then throughout all of history they had prophets, prophets, prophets until finally Yahya comes and says: "Now we'll have the biggest of all prophets. You must believe in him." And Yahya said that is Isa ibn Maryam. And you know what happened - they rejected him.

The Rise of Dawood Through Knowledge

Now around 900 BC - this is 3,000 years ago - Allah blessed the Bani Israel with their greatest political prophet. Not their greatest prophet, because Ibrahim and Isa are Ulul Azam and Musa is Ulul Azam, but there was a prophet who was a king as well, and this is Dawood.

But when Dawood was born, he didn't know he would become a prophet or a king. He had neither on his agenda. In fact, when Dawood (alayhis salam) was born, the children of Israel did not have power or a kingdom. They only had piety and religiosity and a prophet. They were persecuted, they were attacked, and so they begged their prophet Samuel - they begged him: "Give us a king! We don't just want a prophet, we want power, we want izzah, we want an army to fight so we can defend ourselves."

And as you know, Surah Baqarah - Allah (Azza wa Jal) says to them on the tongue of Samuel: "Are you sure you're able to live up to it? What if the king said to you to fight and you didn't fight? This would be a calamity from Allah." And you know that story that happened.

So Allah (Azza wa Jal) appointed Talut as their king - not their prophet. The king Samuel was the prophet, Talut was their king. And Talut attacked Goliath (Jalut), and in that battle he wasn't able to fight Goliath. Goliath was gonna fight back, and a young 17-year-old teenager by the name of Dawood says: "Give me a chance."

"Who are you? You're not a warrior, you're not a fighter, you haven't trained. How can we allow you?"

He said: "No, give me a chance." And as you know the story, that he used his slingshot and successfully managed to get rid of Jalut. And from this, the ascent of Dawood the simple shepherd began. Nobody knew - Allah knew.

And Allah says: Not through wealth, not through physical power - how did they rise up? Through ilm. So through ilm, Dawood began to rise up, up, up until finally Allah chose him to be a prophet-king - the first, the first and one of the only, because his son Sulaiman is also a prophet-king.

The Exception of Prophet-Kings

Dawood and Sulaiman were exceptions to the rule. Generally, kingship and prophethood are combined or separate? What are they? Separate. In the hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"Jibreel came to me and said: Allah is giving you a choice. Do you want to be a king as well, or are you content being an abd and not a king?" And the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said: "I want to be an abd rasool. I don't want to be a king. I want to be an abd rasool. I don't want to become a king."

So he was given the privilege and he said: "I don't want it. I would - I'm happy where I am." Therefore, of the exceptions to the rule: Dawood and Sulaiman.

When Dawood became older, he married the daughter of Talut, and so when Talut died, then Dawood became the king and he had already become the Prophet - Samuel appointed Dawood to be the prophet as well. So he then founded the original kingdom of Israel that is mentioned in the Old Testament, and we also believe this. We believe this as well - there was an original ancient kingdom and that was called the Kingdom of Israel, and it lasted only two, three centuries. Then it fizzled out, broke up into two. It's a small time frame, and Dawood and Sulaiman was the pinnacle of this kingdom.

So Dawood founded the kingdom and he began the construction of the temple, and Sulaiman finished the construction of the temple.

Gratitude as a Mark of Humility

So Allah says: "We gave Dawood and Sulaiman knowledge. Through knowledge they rose their ranks." And the both of them said: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ (Alhamdulillah) - "who has blessed us and favored us over so many other of his servants."

This is a sentiment that all of us should feel - not because of arrogance, but because of humility. Every one of us should feel a sense of gratefulness: Allah has blessed me, Allah has given me so much, Allah has given me more than so many other people - not out of arrogance, but out of humility, out of shukr to Allah.

The True Inheritance of Sulaiman

Sulaiman inherited Dawood. Inherited what? Wealth? No - the kingdom and the prophethood. As for wealth, Dawood had 19 sons or 17 sons - Dawood had a lot of sons. And according to our sharia, the prophets do not leave inheritance. All prophets - when a prophet dies, all of them, their inheritance is given to the fuqara and the bayt al-mal.

So when Allah is saying Sulaiman inherited from Dawood, inherited what? Not the money - he inherited the kingdom and the prophethood. The role that Dawood had, Sulaiman now had.

The Unique Gifts of Sulaiman

And Sulaiman said - so this story is about Sulaiman. Dawood is mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah and in other surahs. Sulaiman said:

"Oh people, we have been taught the communication of the birds, and we have been given a little bit of everything. We have been given a little bit of everything - whatever you can imagine and think of, Allah has given me what I need. This is a great blessing from Allah."

Now this was a unique gift that Allah gave to the Prophet Sulaiman. Even the Prophet Dawood did not have it. The Prophet Dawood had other gifts. Sulaiman had the gift of controlling the creation of Allah. He could control the wind, he could control the jinn, he could control the animals. So this was a unique privilege that Allah gave only to Sulaiman.

And because of this, even our Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), out of modesty, refused to accept this gift. Again, hadith in Sahih Bukhari: that Shaitan came to the Prophet Sulaiman in salah, and the Prophet Sulaiman was able to catch and capture him. And he said: "If I wanted to..." Shaitan came to waswasa, Shaitan came to break the concentration - so Iblis, Iblis himself.

So the Prophet said: "I grabbed onto him and I was going to tie him to the pillar so that all of you could have seen Shaitan, but I remembered that Allah had gifted Sulaiman the control of the jinn, so I didn't take that privilege."

In other words, he had it. He could have taken it if he wanted to. He could have had it as well, but just like with Dawood, he said: "I don't want it. I have something better." So he refused also to have the control of the jinn, even though if he wanted to, he could have controlled the jinn as well.

The Language of the Birds

So Sulaiman says: "We have been taught the language of the birds." Why only the birds? Wasn't he taught the language of the horses, the language of all the animals? Why did he mention birds?

It is said the reason he mentioned birds: Number one, the voice of the birds is the most melodious. The chirping of the birds - there is no animal whose voice is more pleasing to our ear. It's not like the braying of the donkey, it's not like any other animal. The chirping of the birds, Allah has blessed us to love it like no other sound of the animals. And so by saying "I can understand even the chirping of the birds," then obviously that which is lesser than this can be understood.

Another reason why only birds are mentioned, even though he has the knowledge of all of them, is that birds are the ones that are least in our control. They're the least domesticated, they're the ones flying away. And Sulaiman says: "I can understand them." So by pointing to the birds, it's understood everything else has been given to him as well.

And once again, this was a gift also given to our Prophet (ﷺ), but he didn't take advantage of it out of respect for Sulaiman. Again, all of these gifts the Prophet (ﷺ) could also have them, and he communicated with the animals multiple times - multiple times in the seerah he communicated with animals.

Of them is a famous incident reported in many books of shama'il and seerah and sunnah: that once the Prophet (ﷺ) entered a garden, and immediately a camel came rushing to him and put his face on the Prophet's (ﷺ) shoulder and began making the noises of camels and crying, crying. The Prophet (ﷺ) hugged the camel, patted the camel, and then said: "Where is the owner of this?"

So the man said: "Here." He said: "Your camel has complained to me that you are beating it and not feeding it well and overworking it. So fear Allah with regards to these animals who cannot communicate, because Allah will ask you about them on the Day of Judgment. The animals cannot communicate to men - they can communicate to the Prophets, to Sulaiman and to Prophet (ﷺ). Fear Allah - you have to answer to Allah for this."

And in the hadith in Abu Dawood, the Prophet (ﷺ) was going on an expedition, and when he was away or maybe in...

At the back of the army, some of the sahaba they found a nest and they got some of the baby birds, the chicks of the nest, and they began playing with them. And the mother bird came and began chirping, and the Prophet ﷺ was in the front. He said, "Where are the people that have taken the babies of this bird? It is complaining to me that its babies have been taken away." سبحان الله, right? So the Prophet ﷺ was also given this gift, but he didn't constantly take advantage of it like Sulaiman did. Out of, again, as he said, "Sulaiman wanted it, let him have it." Again, this was his modesty, this was his كرم, his generosity, that this was a gift Allah gave to Sulaiman. "Let him have it." Only once in a while when he needed it, or when Allah wanted him to, then he took advantage of this. Otherwise, as a rule, Sulaiman could understand all the animals all the time.

So Sulaiman ﷺ says, "Allah has blessed me with so many things. I understand the animals and everything I want I have been given something of it. Indeed, this is a great blessing."

And all of the armies of Sulaiman were gathered in front of him. This must have been a day of parade, a day of the military. Sulaiman was a king, he was a military general, so he is inspecting his troops. So all of the جن and the إنس and the طير - once again, the birds are mentioned. Why aren't the other animals mentioned? Because if you can gather the birds, then you can gather the domestic animals. If the birds are in front of you, then definitely the horses and the mules and the camels are in front of you as well. So all of these animals gathered in front of him.

And of course, we know for a fact that Sulaiman - Allah blessed him to control the جن in a way that once again no other prophet was given and taken advantage of. And what this means is that Allah subjugated the جن to the command of Sulaiman.