The Story of Prophet Solomon( as) -1-

Lecture No. 1Note: This is a transcription of a lecture by Sayyed Usama Alattar. You can listen to it from here:http://www.4shared.com/audio/I57dv_bU/soleimanpart1.html



The holy Quran is full of stories which contain so much wisdom and blessings for us to take a look at and reflect upon their content. Upon one of the most interesting stories in the holy Quran is the story of prophet Solomon( pbuh). prophet Solomon was very unique and he had very unique circumstances that did not exist to any other prophet before him, nor any other prophet after him. These circumstances are what we shall be looking at and examining over the course of few parts.

If we take a look at the Holy Quran with regards to prophet Solomon(as), we find four parts where the Quran discusses him. He was mentioned by name seventeen times in seven suras in the Holy Quran. If we put them all together, we will come up with a beautiful picture of his life. An interesting picture that implies so much knowledge about things happened in the past, happening currently, and will happen in the future. That is the beautiful style of the Holy Quran.
The four parts discussing prophet Solomon(as) are the following:1- The first part is about his life with his father, prophet David(as).
2- The second part is about his own life after his father. When his father died, he became the messenger of the time and the leader.
3- The third part is about him leaving this world( his death). The Quran rarely talks about the death of the prophets. Usually, we know the deaths of the prophets from Ahadeeth. Prophet Mohammad(pbuh) and the Imams told us about how certain prophets died, yet the Holy Quran mentioned the death of prophet Solomon(as) explicitly which is again quite interesting.
4- The fourth part is about what happened after his life.
As we go over these parts , we will discuss some of the wisdoms, great aspects and accomplishments of this great prophet.
The first part:
This part is mentioned in Surat Al-anbiya:
" و داود و سليمان إذ يحكمان في الحرث إذ نفشت فيه غنم القوم و كنَّا لحكمهم شاهدين( 78) ففهمناها سليمان و كلاّ آتينا حكماً و علماً و سخرنا مع داود الجبال يسبحن و الطير و كنَّا فاعلين(79)" الأنبياء.There is a beautiful incident that took place during the time of prophet David and Solomon(as):There was a shepherd whose sheep escaped and managed to get into a farm and ate everything there. All the crop was destroyed; whatever seeds or fruits that the farmer was growing was all destroyed by these sheep. The next day, the farmer got up and saw what happened and said" Oh my God.. what has happened?! My farm..! my food..! my living..! my business..! all have been destroyed.."

So, he came to Prophet David(as) and said to him: " O' David, the prophet of Allah.. This is what has happened.. This shepherd's sheep came to my land and ate everything. I would like you to judge between me and that shepherd."

prophet David(as) said:" Well, if we calculate the total damage that was done to your farm, it will be equal to the amount of the sheep the shepherd owns. So, what I claim to do is I ask the shepherd to pass on his sheep to you and that will be equivalent in the amount of the crops destroyed"

Prophet Solomon(as) was there at that time and he was still a young man. At that stage, he turned to his father and said: " O' prophet of Allah, why do not you take it easy a little bit from this shepherd?" Prophet David(as) said:" What do you recommend, my son?" Prophet Solomon(as) said: We want to compensate him for the loss of his crops.. Instead of giving all the sheep and turning the ownership of the sheep to the farmer, we shall give the sheep to the farmer for one year only to benefit from their wool, milk, and their business.. whatever business comes from the sheep for one whole year will be equivalent to the amount of damage that was done to the crops"

So, there were two possibilities and the end result is the same end result. Both prophet David and Solomon(as) wanted to compensate the farmer for the amount of loss. Using prophet Solomon's suggestion; the shepherd can work in the farm trying to fix it and within one year, he can return the farm back to the farmer and the farmer will return the sheep back to the shepherd.
- David(as) was a prophet.. Solomon(as) suggested something to him.. Did this mean that David(as) made a mistake in his judgment???The answer is NO. This is for two reasons:
First, Allah (SWT) said " و كنا لحكمهم شاهدين" which means" We are witnessing their judgments". In Arabic language, David and Solomon is dual, not plural. Whereas, the word" لحكمهم" is plural. So, the pronoun" their" refers not to prophet David and Solomon, but to all prophets. Allah is overlooking the prophets and guiding them.

Second, as Imam Albaqir, the fifth Imam ,mentioned, prophet David( as) who was the prophet and the king of that time wanted to discuss the issue with his son to tell people that the best and appropriate person to come after him is his son, Solomon. He is most knowledgeable and what proves this is that the way that he judged the situation is the way prophet David( as) would have judged the situation as well guided by Allah(SWT).

All prophets demonstrated who will follow them. Even Moses(as) informed people that Aaron(as) is the one who takes care of people's affairs after him. This leads us to an interesting question:
If prophets David, Solomon and Moses appointed a successor after them, would prophet Mohammad(pbuh) not appoint a successor after him??! Did the prophet fail in demonstrating to people who will be coming after him??!Actually, if we read the history carefully without bias, we find that indeed the prophet has indicated to people several times in many occasions that Ali bin Abi-Talib(as) will be his successor to the extent that the question was not IF Ali bin Abi-Talib(as) is going to be made the successor of the prophet and declared as a successor. The question was WHEN the prophet declared Ali bin Abi-Talib(as) as his successor. Thus, on the day of Ghadeer, people were not shocked because they knew that.

So, this is about the first part in which David( as) used to bring Solomon(as ) towards his court. He used to get him to participate and have discussions with him. And this is to pave the way after him, Solomon(as) will be the next leader and indeed that happened and Solomon became the next caliph.The Second part:The second part is about the life of prophet Solomon himself which was unique and fascinating.

" و وهبنا لداود سليمان نعم العبد إنه أوَّاب(30)" سورة ص.In this verse, Allah(SWT) described Solomon as a great worshiper and a one who used to return to Allah . The Quran beautifully claims this because some people, unfortunately, tried to say that David(as) committed adultery and the result of that unlawful relationship was Solomon(as). Allah (SWT) wants to deny that because prophets of God do not commit sins. They are all pure. Secondly, you cannot have Solomon who is a prophet to be a son of a sin. That does not make sense. That is why Allah( SWT) said'' We have granted Solomon to David and he was a great worshiper'' , he is not a sinner or a son of a sinner.

."إذ عرض عليه بالعشيِّ الصافنات الجياد(31)" سورة ص
After his father's death, Solomon became the leader and he tried to prepare an army to fight a war to spread the message of God and peace. At that time, the best tool for fighting was horses. Those horses have two characteristics: they are in a shape that they are ready to fight and they run very fast.

" فقال إني أحببت حب الخير عن ذكر ربي حتى توارت بالحجاب(32)" سورة ص.In this verse, Solomon(as) said" I love this great blessing( the horses), but not for the sake of them. I loved them because Allah would like me to use these horses to spread His message."

حتى توارت بالحجاب means" until it was gone". This verse created a debate among the scholars. What was IT gone??There are two stories:1- Some people said that Solomon (as) was sitting down observing the horses. There was a trainer massaging them to make them feel comfortable . Solomon(as) enjoyed seeing the show of the horses feeling comfortable. So, he asked the trainer to repeat the show because he would like to thank Allah(SWT) for giving him such great tools that can help him to spread His message.

2- The second story: Solomon (as) was so fascinated by these horses until the sun started to come down and set, and yet he prayed his salat. So, he requested Allah to bring back the sun to be able to do his salat.This second idea is not accepted because you cannot find a prophet who would
forget about his salat. Prophets are sinless, pure. So, the probability of the second story happening is not likely. The most probable is the first one. He enjoyed the show so much so he asked for them to come back.

" و لقد فتنا سليمان و ألقينا على كرسيه جسداً ثم أناب(34)" سورة ص.
It is said that one day, one of prophet Solomon's wives was pregnant with a son. She gave birth to a child, but unfortunately the child was born dead. And it is said that the reason for that is that Solomon(as) said" I am going to have relationships with my spouses and each of them will deliver a boy for me and I am going to use that boy for the sake of Allah to help me fight and spread His message."

What he forgot to say is the phrase" Inshallah"= if Allah wills. Then Allah(SWT) wanted to tell him " Solomon.. You do not make that decision, I make it for you..Yes.. When you pray to me, I help you and give you.. If you want to have sons, I give you, but it is not you who makes the decision. I make it.."

" قال رب اغفر لي و هب لي ملكاً لا ينبغي لأحد من بعدي إنك أنت الوهاب(35)" سورة ص.Then, he said" o' my God. Forgive me and grant me a kingdom that cannot be achieved by anyone else. Indeed, you are the one who grants( You are the giver)" Again, he did not sin. Prophets in general ask for forgiveness from Allah if they feel that they have done less than what Allah(SWT) expected from them.

Solomon(as) prayed to Allah to give him a kingdom that no one have the same. Why did he ask for that?- He wanted people around him to feel that he is not one of those tyrant, mighty leaders like Pharaoh who had a large kingdom, a huge army, money, and everything, but he was doing that by force. He was forcing the other slaves to work for him, to build his castle, etc. Solomon(as) did not want people to feel the same way as if he is the king and they are the slaves. He wanted people to believe in his message, to believe in him as a prophet, not just as a mighty king.

- He did not want anyone else to have a power that was so strong to oppose him. He wanted to control all those who wanted to misguide other people like Pharaoh. Thus, they all submit to Allah.

It is said in Ahadeeth that Allah (SWT) said to prophet Solomon (as) " I am going to give you that kingdom. However, there shall be somebody else after you who will have a kingdom greater than yours." Prophet Solomon (as) wondered" O' my lord. Who is that person?" "That will be the twelfth descendent of the last prophet( Mohammad bin Alhassan Almahdi)"

This shows that the kingdom of Almahdi is great. Thus, Allah(SWT) indicates the kingdom of prophet Solomon (as) to tell people that if he made this kingdom once, he can make it twice for Almahdi (as).
May Allah(SWT) hasten the reappearance of Imam Mehdi(as)