Tafsir of An-Naml 27:34

When she sensed their inclination toward war, she saw that the soundest opinion was to incline toward peace and to initiate with what is better. She structured her response by first refuting what they had mentioned, showing them the error in it:

{Indeed, kings, when they enter a city, they ruin it}—meaning they destroy it (hence why they call ruin al-khirba). {And they make the most honored of its people abased}—they insult its nobles, kill, and take captives. Thus, she reminded them of the consequence of war and its evil outcome. Then she said: {And thus do they do}—meaning: this is their constant, established habit that does not change. Because she had been raised in the house of an ancient king, she had heard and seen such things. She then mentioned the matter of the gift and the sound opinion she had formed.

It is said: This is a confirmation from God of her statement. Those who strive for corruption on earth might cling to this verse as an argument for themselves, but whoever deems the forbidden lawful has disbelieved; if he uses the Quran as an argument for this through distortion, he has combined two acts of disbelief.

{But indeed, I will send to them a gift}—meaning: I will send messengers with a gift by which I will bribe them away from my kingdom. {And I will wait [to see] what the messengers will return with}—so that I may act accordingly.

It is narrated that she sent five hundred youths dressed as maidens, with their jewelry, bracelets, collars, and earrings, riding horses covered in brocade, with bridles and saddles adorned with gold and jewels. She sent five hundred maidens on horses in the guise of youths, a thousand bricks of gold and silver, a crown studded with pearls and rubies, musk and amber, and a casket containing an unpierced pearl and a curved, drilled bead. She sent two of her people's nobles, al-Mundhir ibn ‘Amr and another man of wisdom. She said: "If he is a prophet, he will distinguish between the youths and the maidens, pierce the pearl straight through, and thread the bead." She told al-Mundhir: "If he looks at you with the gaze of an angry man, he is a king; do not be intimidated. If you see him smiling and gentle, he is a prophet."

The hoopoe arrived and informed Solomon. He ordered the jinn, and they laid out bricks of gold and silver in a field before him, seven farsakhs long. They built a wall around the field, crenelated with gold and silver. He ordered the finest beasts of land and sea to be tethered on the right and left of the field upon the bricks. He ordered the children of the jinn—a vast multitude—to stand on the right and left. Then he sat on his throne with chairs on either side. The devils stood in rows for farsakhs, the humans in rows for farsakhs, and the beasts, predators, insects, and birds likewise.

When the delegation approached and saw this, they were stunned. They saw the beasts defecating on the gold bricks, so their souls felt diminished, and they cast aside what they had brought. When they stood before him, he looked at them with a cheerful face and said: "What is behind you? Where is the truth?" Gabriel (peace be upon him) had informed him of the contents, so he told them: "It contains such and such." He then ordered a termite to take a hair and pass it through the pearl, and he assigned its sustenance to the tree. He took a white worm, put the thread in its mouth, and it passed through the bead, and he assigned its sustenance to the fruits. He called for water; the maiden took the water in her hand, put it in the other, and struck her face with it, and the youth did the same. Then he returned the gift and said to al-Mundhir: "Return to them." She said: "He is a prophet, and we have no power against him." So she set out toward him with twelve thousand kings, under each king were thousands.

{Do you provide me with wealth?}—In the reading of Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him): "When they came, atamuddunani." It is also read by omitting the ya and sufficing with the kasra through assimilation, like the saying: atuhajjunni, and with one nun: atamudduni.

"Gift" (al-hadiyya) is the noun for the one who is gifted, just as "gift" (al-‘atiyya) is the noun for the giver. It is attributed to both the giver and the receiver. The meaning here is: "What I have is better than what you have." That is, God has given me the religion which contains the greatest share and the most expansive wealth, and He has given me of the world that which cannot be exceeded. How could one like me be satisfied with being provided with wealth to be bribed?

{Rather, you}—are a people who know only the outward aspect of the worldly life; therefore, {you rejoice} in what you are given and what is gifted to you, because that is the extent of your ambition. My state is different from yours; I am not satisfied with anything from you, nor do I rejoice in it, except for faith and the abandonment of Magianism.

If you ask: What is the difference between saying "Do you provide me with wealth while I am wealthier than you?" with the waw versus the fa? I say: If you say it with the waw, you have made the addressee aware of your superiority in wealth, yet he still provides you with wealth. If you say it with the fa, you have made him one to whom your state was hidden, and you are now informing him of that which makes you have no need for his provision, as if saying: "I rebuke you for what you have done, for I am independent of it." Upon this comes His saying: {But what Allah has given me...}.

If you ask: What is the aspect of the idrab (turning away/transition)? I say: When he rebuked them for the provision and explained his rebuke, he turned away from that to explain the reason that drove them to it: that they do not know a cause for satisfaction or joy except that a share of the world—which they know nothing else of—is gifted to them. It is also permissible to attribute the gift to the giver, meaning: "Rather, you rejoice in this gift of yours that you have presented, out of pride over other kings, that you were able to gift something like it." It may also be an expression of rejection, as if he said: "Rather, it is your right to take your gift back and rejoice in it."

{Return to them, for we will surely come to them with soldiers that they have no power to face, and we will surely expel them from there in humiliation, and they will be debased.}