Tafseer of Sheba · Saba · 34:14
And when We decreed for Solomon death, nothing indicated to the jinn his death except a creature of the earth eating his staff. But when he fell, it became clear to the jinn that if they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in humiliating punishment.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The statement concerning the explanation of the words of the Exalted: فَلَمَّا قَضَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ الْمَوْتَ مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَى مَوْتِهِ إِلا دَابَّةُ الأَرْضِ تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ فَلَمَّا خَرَّ تَبَيَّنَتِ الْجِنُّ أَنْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ مَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِينِ ("And when We had decreed death for him, nothing pointed them to his death except the crawling creature of the earth that gnawed at his staff; and when he fell down, it became clear to the jinn that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment") (34:14).
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: and when We had carried out Our decree of death upon Sulaymān, so that he died, مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَى مَوْتِهِ ("nothing pointed them to his death") — He says: nothing pointed the jinn to the death of Sulaymān إِلا دَابَّةُ الأرْضِ ("except the crawling creature of the earth"), and that is the woodworm (al-aruḍa) which got into his staff upon which he leaned and which it ate. That is the statement of Allah, Mighty and Exalted: تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("that gnawed at his staff").
And in the sense of what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn al-Muthannā and ʿAlī related to me, both of them saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement إِلا دَابَّةُ الأرْضِ تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("except the crawling creature of the earth that gnawed at his staff"), he said: the woodworm gnaws at his staff.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to us, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("that gnawed at his staff"), he said: his staff.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to me, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement إِلا دَابَّةُ الأرْضِ ("except the crawling creature of the earth"), he said: the woodworm, تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("that gnawed at his staff"), he said: his staff.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl informed us, on the authority of Abū Yaḥyā, on the authority of Mujāhid: تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("that gnawed at his staff"), he said: his staff.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUthma related to us, saying: Saʿīd ibn Bashīr related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("that gnawed at his staff"): it ate his staff until he fell down.
Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: al-minsaʾa means "the staff" in the language of the Abyssinians.
Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: al-minsaʾa is the staff.
The reciters (al-qurrāʾ) differed over the reading of His statement مِنْسَأَتَهُ. Most of the reciters of the people of Medina and some of the people of Basra read it مِنْسَاتَهُ without hamza. Whoever among the people of Basra defended such a reading claimed that al-minsāt means "the staff," and that its origin lies in nasaʾtu bihā al-ghanam ("I drove the sheep onward with it"). He said: and it belongs to the hamza which the Arabs have dropped, just as they also dropped the hamza in al-nabī, al-bariyya and al-khābiya. And as proof for the dropping of the hamza therein, he recited a line of verse from one of the poets:
"When you shuffle along leaning upon the staff out of old age, your amusement and dalliance have already departed far from you." (11)
And al-Farrāʾ mentioned, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar al-Rawāsī, that this man questioned Abū ʿAmr about it, whereupon he said: مِنْسَاتَهُ without hamza.
Most of the reciters of Kūfa read it مِنْسَأَتَهُ with hamza, as though they understood it in that way to be a mifʿala form from nasaʾtu al-baʿīr ("I drove the camel onward"), when one urges it to go faster, as one says nasaʾtu al-laban ("I diluted the milk") when one pours water upon it, and that is called al-nasīʾ; and as one says: nasaʾa Allāhu fī ajalik ("may Allah lengthen your term of life"), that is to say: may Allah prolong the days of your life (13).
Abū Jaʿfar said: they are two readings, both read by scholars among the reciters, with one and the same meaning. Whichever of the two the reciter reads with, he is correct. Yet I prefer the reading with hamza, because that is the original form.
His statement فَلَمَّا خَرَّ تَبَيَّنَتِ الْجِنُّ ("and when he fell down, it became clear to the jinn") — Allah, Mighty and Exalted, says: and when Sulaymān fell down because his staff broke, it became clear to the jinn أنْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ ("that, had they known the unseen") — of which they claimed to have knowledge — مَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِينِ ("they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment") — the humiliating punishment — for a full year's term after the death of Sulaymān, while they supposed that Sulaymān was still alive.
And in the sense of what we have said about this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn Masʿūd Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: "Sulaymān, the prophet of Allah, when he prayed, would see a plant sprouting up before him, and then he would say to it: 'What is your name?' Then it would say such-and-such. Then he would say: 'What do you serve for?' If it was suitable to be planted, it was planted, and if it served for healing, it was recorded. One day, while he was praying, he saw a plant before him, and he said to it: 'What is your name?' It said: 'The carob tree (al-kharrūb).' He said: 'What do you serve for?' It said: 'For the destruction of this house.' Then Sulaymān said: 'O Allah, conceal my death from the jinn, so that mankind may know that the jinn do not know the unseen.' Thereupon he cut from it a staff and leaned upon it for a full year while he was dead, while the jinn continued working. Then the woodworm ate it, so that he fell down, and it became clear to mankind that the jinn, had they known the unseen, would not have remained for a year in the humiliating punishment." He said: and Ibn ʿAbbās used to read it thus. He said: and the jinn showed their gratitude to the woodworm, and for that reason it brought it water.
Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, in a report which he mentioned on the authority of Abū Mālik and from Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and from Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and from a number of people among the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said: "Sulaymān used to seclude himself in Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) for a year or two years, a month or two months, or less or more than that; his food and drink were brought in to him. He went in on the occasion in which he died, and that was so, because no day would break but a plant would grow, and he would then ask it: 'What is your name?' Then the plant would say: 'My name is such-and-such.' Then he would say to it: 'For what have you grown?' Then it would say: 'I have grown for such-and-such.' Then he would command that it be cut; if it had grown to be planted, he planted it, and if it had grown for healing, it would say: 'I have grown as a healing for such-and-such', and then he would make it for that. Until a plant sprouted that was called the carob tree (al-kharrūba), and he asked it: 'What is your name?' It said to him: 'I am the carob tree.' He said: 'For what have you grown?' It said: 'For the destruction of this mosque.' Sulaymān said: 'Allah will not destroy it as long as I live; you are the one by whose agency my downfall and the destruction of Bayt al-Maqdis will come.' Then he uprooted it and planted it in a garden of his. After that he entered the prayer niche (miḥrāb) and remained standing in prayer, leaning upon his staff, and he died, without the devils (al-shayāṭīn) knowing it at that moment. They worked for him, fearing that he would come out and punish them. The devils gathered around the miḥrāb, and the miḥrāb had window openings in front of him and behind him. The devil who wished to shirk the labor said: 'Am I not clever enough, if I go in on one side and come out again on the other?' One of those devils went in and passed through, and no devil used to look at Sulaymān in the miḥrāb without being burned. He passed through and did not hear the voice of Sulaymān — peace be upon him; then he turned back and heard nothing; then he turned back and entered the house, and he was not burned, and he looked at Sulaymān, who had fallen down. He went out and informed the people that Sulaymān had died. Then they opened the space for him and took him out, and they found his minsaʾa, that is the staff in the language of the Abyssinians, eaten by the woodworm. They did not know since when he had died, so they placed the woodworm on the staff, and it ate of it a day and a night; then they reckoned by that measure and found that he had died a year before." And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it reads: "Thus they remained toiling, working for him after his death for a full year, and by that mankind then became certain that the jinn had lied to them, and that, had they known the unseen, they would have known of the death of Sulaymān and would not have remained for a year in the punishment working for him." That is the statement of Allah مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَى مَوْتِهِ إِلا دَابَّةُ الأرْضِ تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ فَلَمَّا خَرَّ تَبَيَّنَتِ الْجِنُّ أَنْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ مَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِينِ ("nothing pointed them to his death except the crawling creature of the earth that gnawed at his staff; and when he fell down, it became clear to the jinn that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment"). He says: their condition became clear to mankind, namely that they had lied to them. After that the devils said to the woodworm: "Had you eaten food, we would have brought you the best food, and had you drunk drink, we would have given you the best drink to drink, but from now on we shall bring you water and clay." So that which is found in the interior of the wood, that is what the devils bring to it, out of gratitude to it.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: the jinn used to inform mankind that they knew certain matters of the unseen and that they knew what would happen tomorrow. Then they were put to the test with the death of Sulaymān. He died and remained a year upon his staff, while they were unaware of his death, and during that year they remained subjugated, working without cease. فَلَمَّا خَرَّ تَبَيَّنَتِ الْجِنُّ أَنْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ مَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِينِ ("and when he fell down, it became clear to the jinn that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment"). And they indeed remained a full year toiling and working for him.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His statement مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَى مَوْتِهِ إِلا دَابَّةُ الأرْضِ تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("nothing pointed them to his death except the crawling creature of the earth that gnawed at his staff"), he said: Sulaymān said to the angel of death: "O angel of death, if you are commanded to take me, let me know." Then he came to him and said: "O Sulaymān, I have been commanded to take you; there remains for you only a short while." Then he summoned the devils and they built for him a pavilion of glass without a door. He stood up to pray, leaning upon his staff, and then the angel of death came in to him and took his soul while he was leaning upon his staff, and he did not do that in order to flee from the angel of death. He said: and the jinn worked for him and looked at him, supposing that he was alive. He said: then Allah sent the crawling creature of the earth — he said: a creature that gnaws at woodwork, which is called al-qādiḥ — and it went into the staff and ate it, until, when it had eaten the interior of the staff, it weakened and became too heavy for him, and he fell down dead. He said: and when the jinn saw that, they scattered and departed. He said: that is His statement مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَى مَوْتِهِ إِلا دَابَّةُ الأرْضِ تَأْكُلُ مِنْسَأَتَهُ ("nothing pointed them to his death except the crawling creature of the earth that gnawed at his staff"). He said: and al-minsaʾa is the staff.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, he said: Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd was praying, and he died while he was praying standing, while the jinn worked without knowing of his death, until the woodworm ate his staff and he fell down. And His statement أَنْ لَوْ كَانُوا ("that, had they") stands in the position of the nominative through tabayyana ("it became clear"), because the meaning of the sentence is: and when he fell down, it became clear and came to light, that, had the jinn known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment.
As for the interpretation which Ibn ʿAbbās gave to it, namely that the meaning is: "mankind perceived the jinn clearly" (tabayyanat al-insu al-jinna), for that the [word al-jinn] would have to stand in the position of the accusative, by the verb passing over onto al-jinn; and likewise this reading requires that al-jinn be in the accusative. Only, I know of no one among the reciters of the cities who reads that with al-jinn in the accusative, and if it were placed in the accusative, then in His statement تَبَيَّنتِ ("it became clear") there would be concealed a hidden pronoun referring to mankind.
