Chapter Sa’d – Part 9

Part 9

38:32 He said, “I love to love good things because of remembrance of my Lord.” [and when] the horses disappeared from sight,

When we love something from this world, if we love it to remember their Creator, therefore our Creator, then we should respect them, and revere their beauty.  We shouldn’t say that I don’t love the things but just its Creator, rather, the thing was a means to remind us of our Creator, for God is the beautiful One. That is, He creates by making the thing beautiful, so we may recognize His quality of being a Beautiful One.  In this world we must respect the creatures to appreciate their Beauteous Creator.

There is a certain type of communication between a certain type of animals and human beings (most of the domestic animals, cats, dogs, sheep, birds…). If we show our love to animals, then we must also show our love to human beings for they are all created things, and importantly, they are witnessing to us and reminding us of our Creator. We must respect all created things because they are created by a beautiful Creator.  Other created things and creatures are also always reminding us of who our Creator is.

38:33 “Send them back to me. He then rubbed their legs and necks”.

We must appreciate the beautiful creatures because they are created beautifully.  I appreciate my Creator through these beautiful means, and I desire more of these things so that I will  express more of my appreciation and gratitude to my Creator.

38:34 “And We Indeed tried Solomon and We put on his throne a lifeless body, then he turned to God.”

The throne represents authority.  When “Throne” is used it means that godhead is manifested in every single piece of the universe.  Solomon’s throne represents his authority over people.  God demonstrates that to make it clear that your authority over people is not your power, as you may first think it as such, rather, your being granted authority over people belongs to the Creator, not to you.  God says that you have no power, it is a lifeless power, will you accept that?  Solomon (or I) then turned to God, expressing that he acknowledged that his power is nothing but God’s manifested Power.  The beauty from the horses is not from the horse but from the Creator of the horse.  How about my feelings?  How about my authority?  This is the most important mission here.  Yes, my feelings belong to God, when someone does something that I don’t like, I get furious.  How do I defend my authority over my capacity? Example: I claim to know some subject matter to the highest level, you challenge me, and I defend myself.  It is a test whether you are going to own it, or you will acknowledge that it is a lifeless body, i.e. I have no authority of itself.

• I have no power, and everything belongs to You!

38:35 “He said, O my Lord, forgive me and grant me sovereignty that will not be suitable for another after me.  You are the Most Generous Provider.”

We must try to get as much as we can from God’s bounties, however it does not legitimize us to get more goods, because, at the end you will die so what is the point?!  Solomon loves the horses because they remind him of His Creator. That is, he realized that his worldly power belongs to God: “Please give me more opportunities so I will appreciate You more”.  If we appreciate God’s benevolence and generosity to us, we can ask God to give us more.   At the same time, we must know that we have no right over things.  As far as our authority over the things or throne is concerned, it represents a lifeless body.  As far as our recognition of our Creator is concerned, the more we appreciate the Creator through the bounties He gave us, we should ask God to give us more.  My authority over things is nothing more than a lifeless body.  “Please give me more, for I think that I am using it in the right way or at least I want to use it in the right way.”  We must ask to give us more of this world, ONLY if we are sure that we are going to appreciate its Creator and use it as a means of acknowledging His qualities. Otherwise, if we get lost in the worldly good, then that is the end of our responsibilities.  Solomon is working to get more and more of His Creator’s beautifying things, to recognize His Creator’s majesty.  That is what we must be careful about. We must be careful not to fall into the trap of satisfying and fulfilling our egoistic desires.

Give me the most possible way that you can to a human being.  It takes me to the realization of the love of God. Solomon is very thirsty for realizing the truth of God to the utmost capacity that a human being can attain.  “Give me as much as a creature can ask” is the best way to express oneself.

• “Please God, Give me strength of belief at the highest level possible.”  

• When you ask your Creator, don’t limit yourself to the bare minimum because what you ask is Absolute!

38:36 “So We subjected to him the wind, blowing gently at his command to wherever he pleased,”

A human being must be representing the qualities of their Creator in the best way.  We must see the Prophets as employed teachers to represent God’s qualities through their actions. Why was the Prophet so generous? Because he wanted to represent the generosity of the Creator. The sick people are needy, and they understand that only God can save them.  The Prophet visited the sick and needy people to demonstrate to human beings that the Creator pays more attention to sick and needy people.  That is the first function of the Prophet to teach us who He is, that is an extremely important point while we are reading Hadiths.  For example, the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) asked people that if they are ill, they should seek a remedy.  We must understand that the Prophet is informing us that God has created the illness and at the same time the healing and cure for them in this world. We must be careful not to deviate from the mission of the Prophets by reducing and limiting it to do’s and don’ts only.

If you ask God to give you more and more to use them to become aware of Him, love Him and acknowledge Him, not to appropriate it to yourself, then you are fulfilling the purpose of your existence.  Solomon was asking because he was taught that His Creator is peerless, and now he will teach us that everything is under His Creator’s control, but he will not claim ownership over them.

The main mission of the prophet is to introduce my Creator to me.  Then, you will understand that the practices of the prophets are nothing more than representing God’s qualities to human beings, i.e., we should look at the narrations of the Prophet to understand how he represents our Creator to us.  When I look for a medicine, I should be aware that for the cure of my medicine, I am searching for the Healer, then, you can ask God to give you more examples of appreciating His Healing Power and Quality. The more examples I see, the better I become close to my Creator.  Unfortunately, we reduce the Prophet to the aspect of what looks to this world, and as a result, we are suffering in our spiritual lives.  Solomon is using any means to spread the message of the Creator to the people as much as possible. 

38:37 “as well as the Satans, every builder and diver.”

That is the mission of Satan to deviate people from the right path by offering baseless options. Without Satan we cannot be human beings. Without whisperings of Satan, we cannot understand our reality. Things in reality are either angelic or satanic, there is no gray area. If I am not careful about it, I am not able to distinguish what is right and wrong.  The main message of the Quran is belief and unbelief.  Satan comes to the human beings, i.e., with the idea that the tree grew “naturally” like this for example is a satanic idea. “Natural” means “by itself.” We all know that nothing can come into existence “by itself.” Therefore, it is a baseless, made up vocabulary.

To be clever is different from being wise, i.e., tying the right with its origin, “‘aql” is connecting it to its Creator. Cleverness is the magician’s qualities, making up things. Some scientists are smart/clever people, but they are not reasoning according to human capacity, they are not tying the creatures to their Creator. 

The main subject in this verse is how Satan is subjugated to him. To appreciate the beauty of the reality of the truth, I need the opposite of it. That is, if we don’t compare something to its opposite, then I can never know the truth for sure.  Satans or their followers are needed because they always suggest to us what is wrong, and baseless.  As a result, I understand, and my choice really makes sense.  We need Satan, but Satans are very smart and know how to deviate people from the truth, so you must make sure how Satans work. Satan presents to me something of this universe as god, however, I understand comfortably that this presentation never makes sense to me.  I believe lailaha (nothing of this universe has the ability to give existence to anything for we are all in need to be created), therefore, illallah (I wholeheartedly conclude the existence of an Absolute Source, not of the nature of this universe).   

We must keep asking these questions to make use of Satanic ideas and confirm lailaha illallah: How can a being in this world create itself?  How come the beautiful creatures exist in this world? The whole universe with its entirety with its component parts must be under the control of Someone who is the source of existence of this universe. This one must not be describable within the conditions of this universe.  There must be a Creator who has a power not describable within the limitations of this universe, it means if it was not by comparison it would  be beyond our comprehending limitations.  Confirming lailaha illallah means that you are sure to believe in the necessary existence of “ghaib” or Absolute Source. That is why lailaha is a rejection of the Satanic whisperings mentioned in the Quran.

• Lailaha is not falsifiable.

• No one on earth can ever show or prove that anything of this universe has any quality of giving existence to a being which did not exist before .

38:38 “and others bound together in chains.”

If we have this understanding of lailaha illallah, then we can benefit from everything in this universe.  My heart desires more of getting to know Him. Whatever is given in this world, must be bound together in chains, and help me to acknowledge You. Everything must be used to acknowledge You, i.e., I must return everything to You as recognitions and expressions.