Lecture No.2
( This is a transcription of a lecture by Sayyed Usama Alattar. You ca listen to it from here:http://www.4shared.com/audio/0S4Seo8z/soleimanpart2.html
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Prophet Solomon(as) prayed to Allah to grant him a kingdom that he did not want anyone else to have because he wanted to show himself as a prophet of Allah who will establish justice on earth. Unlike those tyrants before him like Pharaoh who used to oppress people. He wanted to spread justice without any misconception.
What did Allah(SWT) give him to build this kingdom?1- Allah gave him the power to control the wind. He could order the wind to carry him and the wind did whatever he wished.An interesting thing here: Prophet Solomon(as) used to travel in seconds or minutes a journey which usually takes months. This is to establish communication because he is a king and he has a big kingdom which he must take care of. One of the important things to establish justice all across the whole kingdom is to have good communication with every part in that kingdom. To have this kind of communication , Allah(SWT) gave him the ability to command the wind. So, if anything happens at any part of the world, he just can order the wind to take him to that part and immediately he would be carried to it.
It is said that one day, Solomon(as) was sitting down and next to him was his minister. A person came and entered into his setting and sat down. He was staring at the minister and the minister got upset. Then, this person got up and said:" Assalam alaikum" and left. The minister asked prophet Solomon(as) " Who was this person?"
- " This was the angel of death."
- " The angel of death?!"
- " Yes."
- " Why was he staring at me?"
- " I do not know."
The minister was scary and said" Solomon, please, get me out of here. Take me to India." Solomon(as) ordered the wind to carry the minister all the way to India. The next day, the angel of death came to visit prophet Solomon(as) again and prophet Solomon(as) asked him " Why were you staring at that man? You scared him."
- " I was surprised." replied the angel.
- " What was surprising you?"
- " God ordered me to go to India and take the life of that person there. That was where he was going to die, but he was sitting next to you. Few moments later, I had to go to India. I was surprised how I was going to see him in India while he was sitting next to you. Anyway, I had to leave to do my job. So. I went to India.. I was waiting for the moment.. and at the exact time, I found him coming to me carried by the wind.. and that was where I took his life and now he is buried in India."
(The lesson: You cannot escape from death. Even prophet Solomon(as) could not escape from death and he had an interesting story with the angel of death. We will come to it later.)One day, prophet Solomon(as) took his army( 300000 men on his right hand side, and 300000 gins on his left hand side) and he commanded the wind to raise everybody and he commanded the birds to shade them from the sun. The wind carried them across the lands and the waters to a degree that they can touch the water. (What exciting life they had!). Some people around him started to wonder what a great kingdom prophet Solomon(as) had. When prophet Solomon(as) heard this, he said to them
" لتسبيحة واحدة خير من ملكي هذا كله " which means "Praising Allah once is much better than the entire kingdom of mine". This is because this materialistic kingdom is not going to be eternal but when you praise Allah and pray to Him with sincerity, this prayer is kept for eternity in your book of records.
2- The second thing Allah(SWT) gave prophet Solomon(as) was the ability to capture the devils. They started working for him.(The devils could be either human beings or jinns as well. Some people are worse than devils. They murder and kill millions of people and they do not care. They do not have any mercy. They are worthless.. There are some people who work with their friends and tell them always to do evil things.)
It is said that prophet Moses(as) came to the Pharaoh one day and said to him" Pharaoh, believe in Allah and my message and I guarantee you will keep your kingdom. You will stay as the king. In addition, you will enter paradise.. You will not lose anything" Pharaoh said" Let me think about this serious offer. Give me some time to think about it"
He went and consulted one of his ministers called Haman. Haman said" Are you crazy? Moses is trying to fool you.. Right now, you are the lord.. People pray to you and worship you.. Moses wants you to worship his lord.. Then, you will be humiliated by Moses.. Why will you submit to Moses' wishes?"
Look at this kind of friends and be careful. Because of Haman, Pharaoh rejected the offer. Otherwise, he was considering it. And what happened was that both of them were punished and drowned.
What jobs did the devils do for prophet Solomon(as)?- " و الشياطين كل بناء و غواص" Some of them were building things for him. The others were swimming under the oceans and the seas digging pearls. That is because a big kingdom requires a lot of money to be generated.
- "و آخرين مقرنين في الأصفاد"The devils who did not want to work for prophet Solomon(as) will be jailed. So, no evil in that society anymore.
3- The third thing Allah(SWT) gave prophet Solomon(as) :" هذا عطاؤنا فامنن أو أمسك بغير حساب"Allah says "This is what we are giving you, Solomon. You can give as much as you want, or you can take back. What we have given you is limitless. As long as you establish justice, give money and do not worry about it.
4- Fourthly,
" و إن له عندنا لزلفى و حسن مآب(40)" ص = Indeed, when he comes back to us, he would be given a great place. He was a good man.
5- Fifthly," و لقد آتينا داود و سليمان علماً و قالا الحمد لله الذي فضلنا على كثير من عباده المؤمنين(15) " سورة النمل= We have given both David and Solomon knowledge and they said Thank you, Allah, the one who favoured us amongst many of his believers servants.
David and Solomon(as) prayed to Allah for giving them the knowledge which they were really happy for it and remembered to thank Allah for it because knowledge is power. Solomon(as) must have knowledge to be a great leader to establish the society he wishes. To know about economics, politics, military and leadership in addition to the knowledge of the religious affairs.
A lot of people forget about Allah if they are given a blessing or anything they ask for. A lot of scientists think that they are the ones who come up with the ideas. They are independent and they are inventing and discovering. Allah says " علم الإنسان ما لم يعلم" which means you are just a means to this knowledge. Allah taught the human beings things they did not know of or think about. God is the teacher and people are the users of this knowledge.
6- The sixth thing Allah gave to prophet Solomon(as) :"و ورث سليمان داود و قال يا أيها الناس عُلِّمنا منطق الطير و أوتينا من كل شيء إن هذا لهو الفضل المبين(16) "سورة النملSolomon inherited David and became the next caliph. In this verse, Solomon said " we have been taught the language of the birds and we have been given of everything. Allah made the entire world at our disposal" Indeed, this is the great blessing of Allah. He admits that this is Allah's blessing to him.
" و حُشِر لسليمان جنوده من الجن و الإنس و الطير فهم يوزعون(17)" سورة النملThe army of Solomon(as) consisted of jinns, human beings, and birds. It was so large. This indicates the greatness of this kingdom.
So, Solomon(as) knows the language of different animals. Whenever birds speak, he can understand their language and communicate with them. What is interesting here is that birds have language and they can converse like us.
" و ما من دابة في الأرض و لا طائر يطير بجناحيه إلا أمم أمثالكم(38)" سورة الأنعام = "There is no animal on the land, nor bird flies in the skies with its wings except they are nations like you." In another verse, Allah says that everything praises Allah but we do not understand them.
One day, a draught( not much rain) came. Solomon (as) said" Let us go and pray to Allah to send some rain for us" When he wanted to pray, he heard an ant saying" O' Allah, do not punish us with some of the sins of the children of Adam. Bless us with your mercy and shower us with your rain." ( إلهي لا تأخذنا بذنوب ابن أدم)
When Solomon heard this, he said to his men" We do not have to do the prayer anymore. God made something else to pray for us. Let us go back." God accepted the prayer of that little ant and shower them with rain. That is how merciful Allah is.
One day, Solomon(as) picked up an ant and asked the ant" How much do you eat per year?" That ant said" Three grains of rice." Solomon(as) took the ant and put it in a jar and provided it with three grains of rice and closed the jar and said" I will see you next year, ant." He went. Then, came back after a year. He found it eating just one and a half grains of rice. Solomon(as) was upset and said" Ant, did you lie to me? I asked you how much you eat, you said three grains of rice a year.. I came and found you eating just one and a half!" The ant was very smart. She said " You asked how much I eat when I am out there in the wild. In the wild, Allah never forgets me.. He always gives me what I need.. I need three grains of rice per year, and I am sure and certain that God will provide me with three grains of rice every year.. You took me and put me in a jar that has no any escape out and put three grains of rice with me.. What if you forgot me?! I am going to die.. so, I thought about this and I thought of going in a diet. So, if you forgot about me, I would not die.. At least I have enough food to keep me for another year and I was hopeful that Allah makes you remember me."" حتى إذا أتوا على واد النمل قالت نملة يا أيها النمل ادخلوا مساكنكم لا يحطمنكم سليمان و جنوده و هم لا يشعرون(18) فتبسم ضاحكاً من قولها و قال رب أوزعني أن أشكر نعمتك التي أنعمت علي و على والدي و أن أعمل صالحاً ترضاه و أدخلني برحمتك في عبادك الصالحين(19)"
When Solomon(as) and his huge army was looking for some place or valley, the leader of the ants witnessed his coming and said" O' ants, Danger is coming. Go into your homes. I am afraid Solomon(as) and his army would destroy you. They would run you over. They are not going to be aware of you." The wind carried the voice of this ant to Solomon(as). He smiled when he heard her. He called upon the ant and asked her" Do not you know that I am a just leader?"
- " Yes, I do. I know that, o' prophet of God" She said
- "So, why were you worried I am going to crash you? Why did you call your tribe to hide?"
- "I got worried that if my tribe of ants witnesses you with your entire huge army, they would start forgetting about Allah and thinking of you. They would be taken by your great kingdom. I did not want them to have doubts in their minds."
(What a faithful ant!!!)
- " O' my lord, grant me the ability and the blessing to thank you"
The great kingdom and the huge army meant nonsense to prophet Solomon(as). He did not care about them at all unless he pleased Allah.
" و أن أعمل صالحاً ترضاه و أدخلني برحمتك في عبادك الصالحين"= " O' Allah, make me do good deeds that you will be pleased with and make me enter into your mercy among the good doers of your servants."
Imam Ali bin Abi-Talib (as) was on his way to the battle of Siffeen which was against Moawiah. One of his companions came by his tent and found Imam Ali was busy fixing his shoe. The shoe had so many holes and he was fixing each one and everyone of them. Imam Ali(as) asked his companion" How much do think this shoe is worth?" The companion looked at the shoe and said" This shoe is full of holes. It is worthless." Imam Ali said" Be aware that this shoe of mine that you were saying it is worthless actually is worth more to me than being the caliph of Muslims, unless I establish justice and stop evil and fight oppression. That is my goal. Being a caliph is not my goal."
Unlike Moawiah, when Moawiah became the leader, the first sermon he said,
"أيها الناس إني ما قاتلتكم لتصوموا, و لا لتصلوا, و لا لتحجوا, قاتلتكم لأتأمر عليكم"
" People, I did not fight you so that you can go and pray or fast or do hajj.. I do not really care about that.. I fought against you to become your leader and now I have achieved my goal. So, whomever is going to be pleased with us and accept me as the leader, we will bless him and shower him with our blessings, and whomever is going to go against us, he......."
This is the people who do not follow Allah and do not care about His message.
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