وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا سُلَيْمَٰنَ وَأَلْقَيْنَا عَلَىٰ كُرْسِيِّهِۦ جَسَدًا ثُمَّ أَنَابَ · قَالَ رَبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِى وَهَبْ لِى مُلْكًا لَّا يَنۢبَغِى لِأَحَدٍ مِّنۢ بَعْدِىٓ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّابُ
Wa laqad fatannā Sulaymāna wa alqaynā ʿalā kursiyyihī jasadan thumma anāb · Qāla rabbi'ghfir lī wa hab lī mulkan lā yanbaghī li-aḥadin min baʿdī, innaka anta'l-Wahhāb
"And We tested Solomon too, and cast a body upon his throne; then he turned back. He said: 'My Lord! Forgive me, and bestow on me a kingdom that will not befit anyone after me. You are indeed the great giver.'"
The root ف-ت-ن was used of David in the twenty-fourth verse and was treated there: to put gold into the fire and separate out the pure.
| Verse | Expression | Who knows |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | wa ẓanna Dāwūdu annamā fatannāhu | David understood — the test is perceived from inside |
| 34 | wa laqad fatannā Sulaymān | The text announces it — the test is reported from outside |
This is a difference of construction that can be verified, and I record it as my own reading: in the account of David it is David who perceives the test; in the account of Solomon it is the text itself that announces the test to the reader. Two tellings give the same event from two different places.
A great many explanations are transmitted for this half-verse in the classical commentaries. These explanations:
- have no common ground;
- rest for the most part on report, and the soundness of the reports is disputed;
- some of them go back to narratives held to be of Israelite provenance.
The detail of those explanations is not entered into in this commentary, and no preference is made among them. The note entered in Qāf at 50/1 for the "Mount Qāf" explanation holds here too: to convey and to adopt are two different things, and an explanation with no ground is not elaborated even while it is being conveyed.
كُرْسِىّ — root ك-ر-س: to pile a thing up and make it firm; and from there a throne, a seat. There is a fixedness and a being piled up at the root of the word.
جَسَد — root ج-س-د: a body, a frame. And the distinguishing side of the word is recorded by the lexicographers: jasad is a body without a soul. For a living body jism or badan is used; jasad conveys what is lifeless or motionless. The Qurʾān uses this word of the image of the calf as well (al-Aʿrāf 7/148; Ṭāhā 20/88 — ʿijlan jasadan lahū khuwār).
أَلْقَيْنَا — root ل-ق-ي. In Qāf the four different works of this root in Sūrat Qāf were tabulated. Form IV: to throw, to cast.
ثُمَّ أَنَابَ — thumma here conveys sequence and an interval: "then". And the verb is the very one used of David in the twenty-fourth verse: anāb.
The same word, at the knot of both accounts. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.
| David (24-25) | Solomon (34-35) | |
|---|---|---|
| The verb | fa'staghfara rabbah — he asked forgiveness | rabbi'ghfir lī — the wording of the prayer is given |
| The answer | fa-ghafarnā lahū dhālik (25) | (Not separately announced in the verse; 36-40 count what was given) |
The same root (غ-ف-ر) is at the knot of both accounts. And the root will come once more in the sūra, in the sixty-sixth verse, as a name: al-ʿAzīzu'l-Ghaffār.
This sentence calls for careful reading, because at first glance it looks like a request for a privilege.
لَا يَنۢبَغِى — root ب-غ-ي. And this is the very root that occurs in the twenty-second and twenty-fourth verses of the sūra (baghā, la-yabghī — to wrong).
Form VII (infiʿāl): inbaghā — to be fitting, to befit, to be suitable. And in the negative: lā yanbaghī — it does not befit, it is not fitting.
| Pattern | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Form I | baghā | To seek → to seek beyond one's bounds |
| Form VII | inbaghā | To be fitting — for the seeking of it to be in place |
The same root, that is, conveys "to seek out of place" in the one and "to be in place" in the other. The common point is a measure of fittingness: baghy is to seek by going outside the measure; inbighāʾ is to be inside it.
| Verse | Wording | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | baghā baʿḍunā ʿalā baʿḍ | The litigants |
| 24 | la-yabghī baʿḍuhum ʿalā baʿḍ | Partners (a general verdict) |
| 35 | lā yanbaghī li-aḥadin min baʿdī | Solomon's prayer |
| View | What lā yanbaghī li-aḥadin min baʿdī means |
|---|---|
| Let it be given to no one after me | Understood as a request for a monopoly; some exegetes explain it as a sign of prophethood, in the form of a request for a miracle |
| Of a kind that will not befit anyone after me | What is asked for is a kingdom of a quality that would not be fitting in another's hands — that is, a qualification about its nature, not a wish that it be given to no one |
| That no one can seize | A kingdom whose firmness is guaranteed, that no one afterwards can usurp and take over |
But an observation can be recorded, and it rests on the wording: the first request of the prayer is forgiveness, and its last sentence is innaka anta'l-Wahhāb. The request, that is, is enclosed by a qualification on both sides: before it a plea for pardon, after it the name of the giver.
And this note joins with the ninth verse of the sūra: there the other side was asked "are the treasuries of mercy with you?" Here a prophet asks, knowing that the treasury is not with him.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two verses use the same name: the question in the ninth verse was a question of authority. The prayer in the thirty-fifth verse is a prophet's answer to that question: the authority is not mine but Yours — and that is why I ask.