Q229 :In a recent discussion concerning
Prophet Suleman and the Queen of Sheba, you referred to a
threat of Prophet Suleman to expel her and her people from
their own land. The justification for this threat of the use of
force seems to be simply the difference of religion between
Prophet Suleman and the queen. You have pointed out that there
are many lessons to learn from a study of this episode.
However, some of these lessons do not appear to be positive. I
do not believe that any of the great religions of the world
condones the use of force as a means of religious conversion.
It is hard to look kindly on those who resort to this. Could
you please netment on whether the use of such conversion
tactics today might be deemed acceptable.
A229 : The short answer to your question is
decidedly no. It is not acceptable to use force in order to
netpel people to hold any belief or religion, no matter what
justification may be given for such use of force. This applies
today, in our modern world which we like to consider civilized,
and it applies to all ages. Islam declares clearly in the
Qur’an: “Compulsion is inadmissible in matters of faith.”
(2;256). With this clear order given in the Qur’an, we know the
reason why Islamic history has been distinguished for
tolerance, freedom of belief and absence of netpulsion. Not
only so, but we claim that the same message of freedom of
belief was preached by all prophets and messengers, beginning
with Adam and ending with Muhammad (peace be upon them all).
We, Muslims, believe that Suleman was a prophet sent by God to
the Children of Israel. Even though the Jews refer to him as
King Solomon, he and his noble father are mentioned in several
clear references in the Qur’an among the prophets that preached
the message of the Oneness of God. Hence, King Solomon could
not have been guilty of using force, or even the threat of
force, to netpel people to convert to his faith. Far be it from
a prophet sent by Allah, Merciful Allah, to employ such
tactics. When we consider the story of Suleman with the Queen
of Sheba as mentioned in the Qur’an, we find that the threat by
Suleman to use force was in no way related to the queen’s faith
or his desire that she should convert to his religion. To
netment on the story as related in the Qur’an and give a full
explanation of its events will take much more space than can be
allowed to a single question. I will, therefore, refer only the
relevant passages. The reader may wish to refer to the story as
related in Surah 27, entitled, “The Ants”, or, “An-Naml”. The
first we learn in the story about the Queen of Sheba and the
fact that she and her people worshipped the sun is when the
bird known as the hoopoe explains his long absence to the
Prophet Suleman, who is described in the Qur’an as being able
to netmunicate in the language of the birds. The hoopoe states
that he went to Sheba and saw the queen there and her people
worshipping the sun in place of God. Suleman states first that
he is not going to take action on the basis of the hoopoe’s
statement until he has verified it. He said: “We shall see
whether you have been truthful or are a liar.” (27;27). Suleman
then sent the hoopoe back to Sheba with a letter, giving him
instructions to bring a reply. Suleman’s letter is indicative
of his likely course of action. For its contents, we have the
Queen’s statement when she calls in her advisers to consider
the letter and their reply. She says: “Councilmen, a gracious
letter has been delivered to me. It is from Suleman and it
reads: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent. Do not
exalt yourselves above me but nete to me in submission.” (Verse
31) There are three points to be emphasized about this letter.
Firstly, its description as “gracious” by the queen herself.
She did not feel threatened by the letter, but she realized
that its delivery by a hoopoe which dropped it to her
personally, was of a serious nature. Secondly, the letter
emphasizes the qualities of beneficence, netpassion and mercy
as attributes of God. Thirdly, it requires that the queen and
her advisers should go to Suleman netmitting themselves not to
go to war against him. So, the letter highlighted differences
of faith and required the queen to pay a visit to Suleman for a
peaceful dialogue. The queen understood it as a political
gesture, and she was well aware of Suleman’s power. Therefore,
she wanted to test Suleman’s attitude with a political ploy.
She declared to her advisers: “I am sending them a gift and
shall be watching for what reply my emissaries bring back.”
(Verse 35). It was at this point that Suleman took a very
strong attitude and threatened to use force. When he received
the queen’s reply he declared that “what God has bestowed on me
is far better than what He has given you. Yet, it is you who
seem happy with your gift.” He then netmands the hoopoe to
carry back his new message warning them that he will march to
them “with armies they can never resist. We shall expel them
from it, humiliate it and condemn it.” (Verse 37). Commentators
also mention that when Suleman received the Queen of Sheba’s
emissaries, he put on a great show to give them a very clear
impression of his great wealth and far superior power. Let us
now consider the threat he made. From the angle of religious
beliefs, there is no hint whatsoever in the whole account given
in the Qur’an of the dealings between Suleman and the Queen of
Sheba and their subsequent encounter that she or anyone else
was forced to accept Suleman’s faith. The threat to drive them
from their land is largely a political stance. His initial
condition was that the queen and her chiefs should nete to him
in submission. When they used delaying tactics and tried to win
his approval with a gift, he issued a threat. In his
threatening words, as reported accurately in the Qur’an, there
is nothing to suggest that they could avoid expulsion only by
adopting his religion. It is important to explain the serious
attitude the divine faith adapts with regard to political
power. This attitude is made clearest in Islam, and it is clear
from this account of the events that took place between Suleman
and the Queen of Sheba that it also applied then. It is well
known that the faithfuls and the prophets are certainly the
ones whose example should be followed by believers, and they
are required to convey the message of the Oneness of God to all
the people. They should call on them to believe that there is
no deity save God. However, it is often the case that political
power makes of itself a barrier between its subjects and
learning about the divine faith. In the case of the Queen of
Sheba, her people worshipped the sun because she did so. That
was accepted as the true religion because the queen and her
chiefs and nobles worshipped the sun. There was no way Suleman
could address her people and inform them about the divine
faith, and at the same time they would feel free to follow it
unless agreement to freedom of speech and belief was achieved
between Suleman and the Queen. That was the thing he required
when he wanted them to nete to him “in submission”. It is
worthy to note that Dr. Irving, who produced the first American
translation of the Qur’an, translates Suleman’s first letter as
follows: “In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful.
Do not act haughtily toward me, and nete to me netmitted to
(live at) peace.” So, when the queen’s reply was to send him a
gift, he realized that she was employing political tactics in
the hope that he would let her continue in the same way as
before. She would still rule, having gained his friendship, and
she would continue to lead her people in their pagan faith.
That meant that Suleman would abandon his role as a prophet
required to convey God’s message to people. That was not to
be., Hence, he threatened to remove her and her chiefs, and
drive them out of their land humiliated so that he could
address the people directly and call on them to believe in God.
Whether they would do so or not is a matter of personal choice.
There would be no netpulsion to make an individual feel forced
to adopt the monotheistic faith. The expulsion of the queen
from her land would have been a fitting punishment for her
depriving the people of the chance to listen to God’s message
and the freedom to adopt it if they wanted to do so. Thus, the
deprivation of power would be a fitting punishment for using
that power to turn people away from the divine faith. What I
am saying is confirmed by every statement in the rest of the
story, and by the tactics employed by Suleman when the queen
finally arrives in his capital. She was his guest, staying in
his palace and she continued in her worship of the sun. He did
not impose on her an obligation not to continue with her
practices, but he declared that he himself had submitted
himself to God. We are told that Suleman had her throne
fetched from Sheba to his palace and ordered his assistants to
make changes in that throne to disguise it in order to test
whether she would know it. That was a big test for the queen,
because she could not figure out how the throne was carried to
Suleman’s palace when it was safely lying in her own palace
back in Yemen. Her final conversion to Suleman’s faith came as
a result of his explanation of the monotheistic faith and his
demonstration of how God provides guidance and gives His
servants the means to utilize all resources in order to improve
the quality of their lives and achieve happiness in this world
and in the life to nete. He had ordered a structure to be built
of glass with water running underneath. He then asked her to go
in, and she did not for a moment doubt that he asked her to go
through the water. She pulled her dress up in order to walk
along in the water, but he told her that it was all made of
glass. She recognized the truthfulness of every word Suleman
had said to her, and declared that she submitted herself to
God. This is a translation of the last three verses in the
story, after her arrival in Suleman’s palace and just when she
was shown her disguised throne: “When she came, she was asked:
‘Is your throne like this?’ She replied, ‘It looks as though it
were the same.’ (Suleman) said: ‘Before her we were endowed
with knowledge, and before her we surrendered to the Lord’.
What she had been worshipping instead of God distracted her,
she belonged to disbelieving folk. She was bidden to enter the
palace, and when she saw it she thought it was a pool of water,
and (tucked up her skirt and) bared her legs. He said: ‘It is a
palace paved with glass.’ She said: ‘My Lord, how I have
wronged myself. Now I submit with Suleman to God, the Lord of
the Universe.” (Verses 42-44) The question of faith and its
acceptance by any human being is very much related to a
personal experience leading to a moment when an individual,
indeed every individual, realizes with all clarity that all the
basic principles of the divine faith are true and that he or
she must adopt that faith in order to be at peace with himself
or herself, and with the universe at large. To the Queen of
Sheba, a powerful queen in her own land, that moment came when
she saw some aspects of far superior power that could not have
been achieved by human beings at that time without God’s help
in revealing some of the secrets of the universe. Recognizing
that Suleman did not use his extra power to tyrannize or to
subjugate other people, but ruled in all fairness and declared
his own position as an obedient servant of God who submitted
himself totally to the Lord of the universe, she felt that his
was the right faith, and the way of life that goes with it is
certain to bring happiness to her as a queen and to her people
as well. Hence, she took the right step and accepted the divine
faith. No force was used to bring her round, and no use of
force was even threatened to netpel her to make that choice.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )