In Surah Suleiman, there is a mention clearly that when Princess As-Sabah was coming to meet Hazrat Suleiman, so Hazrat Suleiman said to all of his people, you know, sitting with him, he said, is there anybody who can bring her throne so quickly? One jinn, he said, yes, I can do it. Before you finish your meeting, I can bring it. With my, I have that power. He uttered these words, I have that strength. So he said, no.
Then another person, he said, yes, I can do it. Who had some, who had knowledge of Quran. He said, yes, if you twinkle an eye, in twinkling of an eye, I can bring it. And he brought it. And what about the bird, Hudhud, who started the whole process in motion? Why don’t you mention him? Sir, I actually, I wanted to be clear on this. Are you clear on Hudhud? No, sir. So why don’t you start from there? And what about the end? Yes, sir. You see, he said, you know, from the beginning. Yes, sir. And he heard all of this. Yes, yes. Start from the beginning. And the ant said, and the ant said that he would trample. Yes, trample. His forces are coming. Yes, sir. You know, the hiding places below the earth and so on.
So when you look at it in the totality, then you understand that this is all a symbolic description. Symbolic description. Of course. If you read it, start from the ant and the Hudhud, then you understand that these animals are mentioned and this is not what happens in the ordinary world. And the ants do not run to their hiding places, seeing an army marching upon a place. And they don’t talk like this. Yes, sir. Because you know it.
So obviously, the Holy Quran cannot discuss anything nonsense. But when you suddenly give it a different twist and consider the entire description to be symbolic, then you begin to understand the message. Then in every case you have to apply symbolism and decipher things instead of taking it on its face value. This is true because about the rest of the prophets, you don’t find this style. So this is also a way of, I mean, this is, let me say, a branch of rhetoric that the style of the language changes from the situation to situation. Sometimes it becomes simple and flowing and easy to understand, easy to understand.
Sometimes when it describes a very colourful event, then the whole language becomes very colourful and heavy and difficult sometimes, and also picturesque. So because the glory of Solomon is being discussed, his great power and everything, so it is in fitness of things to use a language to suit that situation, particular situation. So because he also had been turned into legend and tales, so the Holy Quran, describing his age, adopts this style, but also leaves positive indications that what is being discussed is discussed in symbols, not in literal sense. It should not be taken, you know, too literally. Yes, it happened like that. Yes, it has to be understood as symbols.
For instance, the same jinn, as mentioned elsewhere, in the same context, now in a different context, but the same jinns, are mentioned in the Holy Quran, that they dived into water, into sea, to fetch pearls for Hazrat Salim, Hazrat Dawood and Hazrat Solomon, etc. And also it is said, in connection with the same stories or tales, that the jinns were made of fire, were they not? Yes, sir.
So how could the fire dip into the water and come out whole? Yes, sir. So there are not only this, there are so many other indications, what of ants and what of hoodood and what of all other things, that the entire description is symbolic. You understand this, and then there is the key in your hand that you will turn and open every lock mentioned there. That’s right, sir.
