An-Naml · Makki · ayah 37 of 93

An-Naml 27:37

ٱرْجِعْ إِلَيْهِمْ فَلَنَأْتِيَنَّهُم بِجُنُودٍ لَّا قِبَلَ لَهُم بِهَا وَلَنُخْرِجَنَّهُم مِّنْهَآ أَذِلَّةً وَهُمْ صَـٰغِرُونَ

“Return to them, for we will surely come to them with soldiers that they will be powerless to encounter, and we will surely expel them therefrom in humiliation, and they will be debased."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Sulayman sent the envoy home with his gift and a plain warning: forces they could not face would come, unless they came in submission first.

A reflection

Her own word, handed back as a choice

Three ayat earlier, the queen warned her chiefs what conquering kings do. They make the honoured of a town adhilla, lowly (27:34). Now Sulayman's warning reaches her, and the same word is in it. We will drive them out adhilla, humbled.

The Quran lets the word return. Her fear has come back to her, almost in her own voice.

She had been right about what force does. Sulayman does not pretend otherwise. If armies come, the honoured will be brought low, exactly as she said. The difference is that his warning carries a door. The commentators explain that the threat hangs on a condition left unspoken because it was obvious. Return to them: let them come to me in submission, or else we will come.

Her letter had said the same at the start: do not exalt yourselves against me, and come to me yielding (27:31). So the word adhilla is not a sentence already passed. It is one of two roads, and she is still standing where they part.

There is a pattern here worth noticing in our own lives. The thing we fear most is often described to us plainly, in advance, with a way out attached. A manager's word about our lateness. A spouse's quiet 'I can't keep doing this'. A reminder from the Quran about where arrogance ends. We hear the threat and miss the door beside it.

The queen heard both. She had predicted the humiliation. She chose the road that avoided it.

When a warning reaches you this week, look for the condition inside it. What would let this never happen? Then take that road while it is still open.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.