The Qur’an, Dajjal and the Jasad
APPENDIX 5
Muhammad Asad’s Comments
on the Jasad and Dabbat al-Ard
The Jasad:
His translation of the verse:
“But [ere this], indeed, We had tried Solomon by placing upon his throne a [lifeless] body; and thereupon he turned [towards Us; and] he prayed: “O my Sustainer! Forgive me my sins, and bestow upon me the gift of a kingdom which may not suit anyone after me: verily, Thou alone art a giver of gifts!” (Qur’an, Sad, 38:34-5)
His Commentary:
To explain this verse, some of the commentators advance the most fantastic stories, almost all of them going back to Talmudic sources. Razi rejects them all, maintaining that they are unworthy of serious consideration. Instead, he plausibly suggests that the “body” (Jasad) upon Solomon’s throne is an allusion to his own body, and—metonymically—to his kingly power, which was bound to remain “lifeless” so long as it was not inspired by God-willed ethical values. (It is to be borne in mind that in classical Arabic a person utterly weakened by illness, worry or fear, or devoid of moral values, is often described as “a body without a soul”.) In other words, Solomon’s early trial consisted in his inheriting no more than a kingly position, and it rested upon him to endow that position with spiritual essence and meaning. (Qur’an, 38:34)
Trial is a means for polishing the soul and getting nigh to Allah.
These verses explain another part of Solomon’s life story, and show that how much high the power of a man may grow, again he has nothing from his own and whatever exists is from the side of Allah Almighty. Here, the Qur’an says:
“And certainly We did try Solomon, and We cast on his throne a (mere) body; then he repented.”
The Arabic word kursi means a throne with short legs. It seems such that the ancient kings had two kinds of throne: one was for ordinary times, which had short legs, and a throne for their formal meetings and official ceremonies which had long legs. The former was called kursi and the latter was called ‘arš.
The Arabic word jasad means a body without soul, and as Raqib says in Mufradat, it has a concept more limited than the concept of body, because the word jasad is not used for anything other than man (but scarcely) while the word jism (body) is general.
It is understood from this verse that Solomon’s trial had been through a soulless body which was on his throne before his eyes, the thing which he did not expect, and he hoped for something other than it. The Qur’an has delivered no more explanation on this matter.
The commentators and traditionists have mentioned some news and commentaries on this field.
The most fitting and clear of all of them is that Solomon desired to have some brave and fruitful children who could help him in running the country and specially in struggling against the enemy, but since he did not say the holy phrase: ‘If Allah wills’, the same sentence which shows the man’s reliance to Allah Almighty in all circumstances, at that time, he got no child from his wives except a handicapped child like a soulless body that was brought and put on his throne.
Solomon thought very much and became inconvenience that why he neglected Allah Almighty for a moment and relied on his own power. Then he repented and returned to Allah.
In the next verse, the Holy Qur’an reiterates Solomon’s repentance in more details. It says:
“He said: ‘My Lord! Forgive me and grant me a dominion such as shall not be fit anyone after me, verily You are the Bounteous (without measure).”
Dabbat al-Ard
His translation of the verse:
Yet [even Solomon had to die; but] when We decreed that he should die, nothing showed them that he was dead except an earthworm that gnawed away his staff. And when he fell to the ground, those invisible beings [subservient to him] saw clearly that, had they but understood the reality which was beyond the reach of their perception, they would not have continued [to toil] in the shameful suffering [of servitude]. (Qur’an, Saba, 34:14)
His Commentary:
This is yet another of the many Solomonic legends which had become an inalienable part of ancient Arabian tradition, and which the Qur’an uses as a vehicle for the allegorical illustration of some of its teachings. According to the legend alluded to above, Solomon pbuh died on his throne leaning forward on his staff, and for a length of time nobody became aware of his death: with the result that the jinn, who had been constrained to work for him, went on labouring at the heavy tasks assigned to them. Gradually, however, a termite ate away Solomon’s staff, and his body, deprived of support, fell to the ground. This story—only hinted at in its outline—is apparently used here as an allegory of the insignificance and inherent brittleness of human life and of the perishable nature and emptiness of all worldly might and glory.
Al-ghayb, “that which is beyond the reach of [a created being’s] perception”, either in an absolute or—as in this instance—in a relative, temporary sense. i.e., because they would have known that Solomon’s sway over them had ended. In the elliptic manner so characteristic of the Qur’an, stress is laid here, firstly, on the limited nature of all empirical knowledge, including the result of deductions and inferences based on no more than observable or calculable phenomena, and, secondly, on the impossibility to determine correctly, on the basis of such limited fragments of knowledge alone, what course of action would be right in a given situation. Although the story as such relates to “invisible beings”, its moral lesson (which may be summed up in the statement that empirical knowledge cannot provide any ethical guideline unless it is accompanied, and completed, by divine guidance) is obviously addressed to human beings as well.
The Message of the Qur’an, Muhammad Asad,
Dar al-Andalus Limited, 1980
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