Part 8

Almighty and His power. He was thankful to Allah for His bless­

ing upon him and asked Him to give him success in performing

. In giving Sulayman a kingdom greater than He had gave to any

. other human being, Allah wanted to call our attention to two

important truths. The first is that the power of Allah in His exis­

tence is unrestrictedand absolute. Allah Almighty has created

creatures of different species and from different elements, which

does give some species power and strength over others; but He

wants us to know that everything happens by HIs power alone. He

is the Almighty Creator who can make forces possessing greater

power subject to someone who, by reason of the nature of his cre­

ation, has less innate power and strength than themselves.

He subjected to Sulayman things that Sulayman, because he

was human, would never have been able to subject to himself.

Allah placed them under his control and subject to his command to

do whatever he wished. No one can claim power by his own right.

Every kind of strength and power obtained by any creature is from

Allah Almighty. Allah Almighty wanted us to see that what

Sulayman obtained was not by his own power but was from Allah

alone. He even gave to someone in the kingdom of Sulayman

more knowledge than Sulayman himself had! The Noble Quran

relates what happened between Sulayman and the hoopoe. When

he reviewed his kingdom, Sulayman found that the hoopoe was

absent and threatened to punish it. When the hoopoe did come to

him, what did it say? Read the words of Allah Almighty:

"I have encompassed something you have not and bring

to youfrom Sheba definite news." (27:22)

So we see that Allah - glory be to Him and may He be exalted!

- gave the hoopoe, who was one of the troops of Sulayman, some

knowledge which He had not given to Sulayman himself, in order

that we should know that all knowledge truly is from Allah

Almighty and that we do not possess anything unless Allah wishes

it. So Sulayman, to whom Allah had given all that kingdom, did

not know what the hoopoe knew. It was the same with Musa,

peace be upon him, he who spoke to Allah and was also His

Messenger. Did he not go to a man whom Allah had given knowl­

edge and" ask him to teach him some of it? Allah Almighty says:

"They found a slave of ours whom We had given mercy

from Our Presence and also given knowledge direct from

Us. Musa said to him, 'May I follow you and you teach me

some of the right guidance you have been taught?'"

Allah - glory be to Him and may He be exalted! - told us this so

that we could know with certainty that everything is from Allah

and that the absolute and unrestricted power of Allah in the uni­

verse is what actually governs it and not any power possessed by

any of Allah's creatures, however. close they might be to Allah

Almighty; so that we know with certainty that all strength and

The Kingdom of Sulayman and People's Belief

The second truth Allah Almighty wants to call our attention to

is that He sent Prophets and Messengers and some people opposed

them and the forces of evil resisted them and some people rejected

them. It is vital, however, for us to realise that all this did not con­

stitute some kind of rebellion against the will of Allah Almighty. It

was simply rebellion against the religion of Allah, making use of

the freedom of choice which Allah has given us in respect of fol­

Allah sent human Messengers and He sent a Messenger and

king called Sulayman. He gave him a kingdom which he had not

given to any other human being and made him obeyed as kings are

obeyed. Allah gave him the power to punish all who failed to fol­

low his commands - among men, jinn and others. That is why

there were those who believed in Sulayman of their own volition

and others who believed out of fear of Sulayman's punishment.

Did not Sulayman say this when he reviewed his kingdom and did

not see the hoopoe among those present?

"I will certainly punish him most severely or slaughter

him, or he must bring me clear authority." (27:21)

So Allah Almighty is able to send a Prophet and give him a

kingdom and subjugate people by the force of his power so that

they believe, just as He could compel the whole of His creation to

"If We willed We could send down a sign from heaven to

them, and then their necks would be lowered to it in sub­

In other words Allah Almighty wants to call our attention to the

fact that He has the power to force people to believe by sending a

- Prophet and giving him a kingdom. He also has the power to com­

pel all of His creation to believe. However, He - glory be to Him

and may He be exalted! - wants His slaves to enter the deen of

Allah out of love and from their own choice and so He sent

Messengers who were His slaves so that people would come to

Him in belief out of love.

We have seen in this chapter that Allah - glory be to Him and

may He be exalted! - is He who sent down the science of magic by

means of two angels and sent it down to test people in their belief.

Those two angels carried out their task, as Allah Almighty had

commanded them. They taught whatever people they taught and

then warned them that magic is a trial and that it leads to disbelief.

We seek refuge with Allah!

All that has been said about Sulayman, peace be upon him, tak­

ing his kingdom by way of magic and the power of magic is lies

and disbelief. All strength belongs to Allah Almighty. None of the

forces of the earth possesses any power to benefit or harm them­

selves,' nor of life or death or resurrection, except as Allah wills.

The shaytans, the rebellious jinn who have left the Path of Allah,

used to have seats in the heaven where they would eavesdrop on

what was descending to earth. They used to exploit this hearsay

with their friends among the soothsayers and magicians in order to

make alterations in the religion of Allah and to spread disbelief

The ayats concerning this matter mention certain effects which

the use of magic has. How does magic separate a man from his

wife? How does it cause harm to people? How are the magicians

the first to be harmed by magic? We will examine these matters in

Magic Harms and Does Not Benefit

We spoke earlier about magic, how it is the eye which is

bewitched, and how it sees things that do not really exist. Magic

does not change reality nor alter anything. The magician induces

terror in the person bewitched and makes him imagine things. His

will becomes subject to that of the the magician who then makes

him do whatever he wants. This being the case, how does it follow

that magic is able to separate a man from his wife and cause other

"From the two of them people learned how to separate

a man from his wife. They do not harm anyone by it,

except with the permission ofAllah." (2:102)

To begin with, it should be made quite clear that it is better for

no one to learn magic in the first place. People will only be tempt­

ed by it, thinking to gain benefit from it when it will do nothing

but harm them. We have already likened this to someone who

owns a weapon among people who do not carry any weapons. The

special advantage this gives him will inevitably cause him to

oppress the others and lead him to c~mmit injustice and cause cor­

ruption. Since magic is a science which enables man to subjugate

the power of the jinn to "his service, someone might say, "I will

learn magic, but I will only use it for good." We say to anyone

who says this, "You say this at a moment when you are tranquil.

You like this possibility of knowledge which will give you superi­

ority over other people. But can you guarantee that when you have

this power, you will not use it for purposes of oppression?"

Let us suppose a young man asks his father to buy him a gun,

but his father refuses to grant the request. The young man thinks

about the failure to grant his request and thinks his father does not

desire good for him. But the truth is that his father only desires

good because he knows very well that his son will not be able to

control himself if he gets angry. It is for this reason that Allah

"They have learned what will harm them and bring

Allah Almighty Himself has said that magic brings no benefit.

So no one can say that he will learn magic in order to use. it for

good, because Allah's knowledge is far greaterthan that of man.

Allah says that only harm comes from magic and benefit does not

come from it. Therefore anyone who claims otherwise is definitely

lying and in fact wants to obtain an advantage by which he can

cause oppression. Do not then deceive yourself or others by saying

that. You are merely exposing yourself to a trial which will lead

All who practise magic come to a bad end and die poor, humili­

ated, denounced and hated. When you examine the lives of people

who do these deeds, you fmd that their end is evil in every case.

Allah - glory be to Him and may He be exalted! - warns us in the

Noble Quran about that. He informs us of the fate of those who

seek the help of jinn and use them to obtain superiority over other

people or to frighten them. Allah says:

"Certain men among mankind used to seek refuge with

certain men among the jinn and they increased them in

Seeking the Help of the Jmn Does Not Bring Good

So seeking the help of the jinn never brings people any good. It

only exposes them to evil. If we were to study those who practise

magic, we would find that despite their seeking the help of jinn, all

those around them are in fact better than them. The practitioners of