(29)
She [the queen] said, “O you Nobles! Verily there has been sent to me an eminent epistle.”
قَالَتْ يَا أَيُّهَا المَلَأُ إِنِّي أُلْقِيَ إِلَيَّ كِتَابٌ كَرِيمٌ
Notice the difference between the queen, who starts out by consulting with her inner circle, the lords of the realm, and Sulaiman (peace be upon him), who begins by praising GOD and then turns to address all of humanity – “O People!”*
*Who we think our audience is constitutes a leading determinant of what our intellectual frame will be and what person or persons rule our minds as authorities or sources of value and order. In this book, my first concern is that it be acceptable to GOD, given what I know, however little, of His love of those who strive in His path to know Him truly.
My second ‘readership’, guiding me in my choice of topics and style, is myself. In other words, what you see here is what I would want to discover if I were only a reader, looking for the ideas that would fill my mental void.
I tried many times to write a book like this with ‘other’ readers in mind – scholars, journalists, young persons, adults, Muslims, non-Muslims, etcetera – but I could never be confident that it would satisfy their demands, let alone those of the Only One Who deserves my respect and fear. So I gave up on that tertiary goal, and now only write for Him, or rather according to my understanding of Him, and then for myself, whom I hope to know better as a result of this exercise.
The queen never once mentions her people, nor do her magnates, and yet their power and authority must be ‘for’ someone other than their own selves. One would think so, but sadly, as we will soon see, rulers generally consider only themselves and their narrow interests – which is as true today as it was then.
A legitimate ruler, which in the individual is the active intellect, is constantly aware of all the members that constitute his kingdom – not only his faculties or departments of communication, application, and judgement but also the various participants in and contributors to the general welfare, including even the ‘ants’ of his realm. These could be the family members who are unwilling or unable to understand him, or his economic and social responsibilities, or his material conditions – food, drink, clothing, and the like. The active intellect is the controlling centre of a responsible, integrated, and comprehensive self, rather than a court of posturers and flatterers of the type every little egotist can cultivate in his or her own present-day social media echo chamber.
(30)
It is from Sulaiman, and truly it is [worded as] “In the Name of GOD, the Gracious, the Compassionate,”
إِنَّهُ مِنْ سُلَيْمَانَ وَإِنَّهُ بِاِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
The queen may have referred in the previous verse to an eminent epistle because of this introductory phrase, In the Name of GOD, the Gracious, the Compassionate. The body of the message derives its power to persuade from this initial reference to the Authority it invokes. The Qur’an, likewise, bases its authority on the Identity and hence the Name of its Author, which is why every surah but one begins with this invocation. What is missing from Suratit-Taubah, the ninth Surah, is made up for and supplied here, in this verse.
Consider the following diagram: 1
1) The queen addresses her nobles, who occupy a position signified by the ‘Virtue Values’ in the diagram. This may be another reason why she refers to the missive from Sulaiman (peace be upon him) as eminent, since eminence is their core concern.
2) As the active intellect, Sulaiman, on the other hand, is the symbol of ‘Wisdom Values’ – a higher tier in the Hierarchy – while invoking the authority of ‘Transcendent Values’, which are those of GOD Himself.
3) The queen’s throne is based on neither wisdom nor nobility, but on keeping power, i.e., some of everything, and worship of the sun. In this case, the sun is not seen as a sign of GOD or a symbol of rationality, but rather as the source of what people need to stay alive, namely the heat and light that all living things require for growth, which are ‘Utility’ and ‘Sensual Values’.
In the same way, I would argue, the modern worship of science is not really about the love of truth, one of the highest immaterial values, but rather the prestige, advantages, and comforts that ‘science’ claims to provide. Philosophy is literally the ‘love of wisdom’, but who cares about that nowadays, or says that ‘they believe in philosophy’? Would science be as popular as it is if it had not sucked up all the credit for our relatively better health, affluent lifestyle, and lethal military might? People respect it as a methodology (as they should), but many also idolize it as an authority. Sun- and fire-worshippers of previous millennia made similar calculations about how their interests were being served, attributing their good fortune to a sun or fire god rather than the GOD Who created the sun, fire, and all the regularities that science can only discover, but is powerless to invent.
(31)
“Do not act haughtily with me, but come to me submissively.”
أَلاَّ تَعْلُوا عَلَيَّ وَأْتُونِي مُسْلِمِينَ
This is the speech and the tone one would expect from a recognizable authority – from a husband to a wife, or a father to a child.* But the queen and her kingdom are but newly discovered, and have had no contact with Sulaiman (peace be upon him) prior to this message. How could they, in such circumstances, act haughtily? And by what authority does Sulaiman command an independent sovereign to come to him submissively? If we apply a literal or historical framework to this passage, it jars with our modern sense of diplomatic norms and international relations.
* If contemporary readers find this offensive, I can only shrug. GOD did not reveal the Qur’an to appease (nor to inflame) modern sensitivities about gender equality, the rights of children, or the supposed evils of patriarchy. I intend to discuss these issues in greater detail later, in this book or its successor. It suffices now to observe that if the authority of the Qur’an is to mean anything for this generation, it must mean what is clearly stated in Q4:34 regarding the obedience wives owe to husbands, and in Q17:23 regarding the respect children owe to parents.
It is precisely the oddity of this verse, however, that convinces me of the deeper psychological and spiritual truths that are to be found beneath the surface of the entire narrative. Sulaiman is confronting a confused intellect – his own. Remember the tradition I quoted earlier in this chapter regarding the jinn who was the companion of the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace): AL-LAH aided me to overcome him. He submitted and does not order me to anything but good. Or the confession, also cited earlier, of Yusuf (peace be upon him): And I do not absolve myself of sin. Indeed the self incites to wickedness, except for that on which my Lord has mercy. The active intellect has encountered for the first time a challenge to its authority within its own realm – an alternate intellect with its own throne and a different set of priorities. Here we have the issue of cognitive dissonance laid out symbolically in the form of two monarchs whose proximity has suddenly become apparent. The intolerability of the situation is clearly expressed by the only intellect that has a valid mandate to rule.
Sulaiman (peace be upon him) asserts his natural authority without compunction or vacillation. By virtue of the knowledge granted him from GOD, he has not only the right but also the duty to command obedience, like a general confronting mutinous troops or an intellect seeking the mental consistency it needs to function. I challenge any critic who thinks otherwise to live with the day-to-day prospect of holding two contradictory thoughts within his mind at the same time and giving them equal voice. No, the active intellect must assert its authority if it is to be both active and intellectual. This is why the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) was repeatedly (Q2:147, 6:114, and 10:94) told:
The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubtful. (Q3:60)
الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ فَلاَ تَكُنْ مِنْ الْمُمْتَرِينَ
The confused intellect, meanwhile, has no standing nor even a life without the leniency granted it for an appointed term (Q30:8) by an Authority it has yet to recognize. It, like all unsanctioned authority in this world, is operating on the assumption that somehow its temporary power is valid, that the mere fact of its existence legitimizes it, and that there is no active intellect to take control of it.
1 https://twitter.com/evekeneinan/status/1012822131112136704
The GOD You Already Know 