An-Naml · Makki · ayah 42 of 93

An-Naml 27:42

فَلَمَّا جَآءَتْ قِيلَ أَهَـٰكَذَا عَرْشُكِ ۖ قَالَتْ كَأَنَّهُۥ هُوَ ۚ وَأُوتِينَا ٱلْعِلْمَ مِن قَبْلِهَا وَكُنَّا مُسْلِمِينَ

“So when she arrived, it was said [to her], "Is your throne like this?" She said, "[It is] as though it was it." [Solomon said], "And we were given knowledge before her, and we have been Muslims [in submission to Allāh].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Shown her disguised throne in another king's hall, the queen neither claimed nor denied it; those who knew first called their knowledge a gift.

A reflection

Neither yes nor no: the honesty of "as though"

A woman reports her bicycle stolen. Three weeks later the police lost-property office rings. On the rack is a bike in a different colour, with new handlebar tape and a new saddle. The officer asks, "Is this yours?" She looks a long time. "It looks like mine," she says. Then she turns it over and reads the frame number.

Qālat kaʾannahu huwa: she said, it is as though it were it. The question put to her was careful too. It was not "Is this your throne?" but a-hākadhā ʿarshuki, "Is your throne like this?" The commentaries point out why. A direct question would have fed her the answer. The throne had been altered on purpose: colours swapped, jewels removed, the top set where the bottom was.

She had good reason to say yes. The shape was familiar, the workmanship was hers. She had better reason to say no. She had left it far away in her own land, behind locked doors. So she said neither. One early commentator praised her for this: she did not say yes for fear of lying, nor no for fear of denying the truth.

A rhetorical commentary adds a finer point. "Like this" would have meant: these are two things, and they resemble each other. "As though it were it" is what you say when the likeness is so strong you almost doubt they are two at all. Her words matched exactly what she knew.

Most of us round up. "I'm sure" when we are fairly sure. "Definitely" when we half remember. A great deal of harm in families and workplaces begins in that rounding: a rumour passed on as fact, a guess reported as a finding.

The queen had a kingdom's pride riding on this moment, and she still refused to round up. Speak only as far as you know. Then, like the woman at the bike rack, go and check the number.

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.