An-Naml · Makki · ayah 32 of 93

An-Naml 27:32

قَالَتْ يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلْمَلَؤُا۟ أَفْتُونِى فِىٓ أَمْرِى مَا كُنتُ قَاطِعَةً أَمْرًا حَتَّىٰ تَشْهَدُونِ

“She said, "O eminent ones, advise me in my affair. I would not decide a matter until you witness [for] me."[1076]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Holding the gravest letter of her reign, the queen asks her chiefs for counsel; she has never cut a matter without them.

A reflection

A queen who would not cut alone

The queen does not only ask for advice. She describes a habit: she never cuts a matter until they are present. One commentator notes the force of kuntu, I was: this is how she had always governed. Not once, in a crisis, but as a rule.

Another commentator draws the conclusion. If she consulted in every ordinary matter, how much more in this, the greatest event of her reign? He adds that the exchange that follows was a fine one on both sides.

The Quran sets the same habit before the Prophet ﷺ himself: 'consult them in the matter' (3:159). And it describes the believers as people whose 'affair is consultation among them' (42:38).

Picture a harbour master on a grey afternoon. A storm is forecast. She has the authority to close the port alone. Instead she calls the skippers into the harbour office. The old ones know which swells this harbour mouth cannot take. The young ones know which boats have new engines. She closes the port at six, and nobody sails out against her word.

Authority lets you decide alone. It does not make deciding alone wise. The leaders who last are rarely the ones who know most. They are the ones who never forget how much they do not know.

The queen had a throne the hoopoe called great. Her greatness, in this ayah, is a sentence of humility.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.