Did prophet Soloman slaughter his horses? Confusion in Interpretation!
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Salamun alaikum
I provide below the confusion of Shakir and Pickthall in interpreting verse 3833 and the beauty of the exposition of the meaning by Parwez.
PICKTHALL And he said Lo! I have preferred the good things (of the world) to the remembrance of my Lord; till they were taken out of sight behind the curtain, (Then he said) Bring them back to me, and fell to slashing (with his sword their) legs and necks.
SHAKIR Then he said Surely I preferred the good things to the remembrance of my Lord-- until the sun set and time for Asr prayer was over, (he said) Bring them back to me; so he began to slash (their) legs and necks.
YUSUF ALI And he said, "Truly do I love the love of good, with a view to the glory of my Lord,"- until (the sun) was hidden in the veil (of night) "Bring them back to me." then began he to pass his hand over (their) legs and their necks.
PARWEZ "Once while he was inspecting the horses, he asked his companions if they knew the reason why he loved the horses so much? It was simply because they were a source of great strength in Jihad and were engaged in the defence of the Divine Order. He used to tell such facts to his companions while inspecting the horses, till all the steed moved ahead and were out of sight. (However the discussion about Jihad and the fact that the horses were the protectors of the Divine Constitution moved his heart so much that) He ordered, "Bring them back to me." (And when they came) He started stroking their legs and necks and wiping off their dust. (That is how Solomon displayed his love for Jihad in Allah?s way, although this was usually done by the trainers.)
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Peace aabdul.
This translation may make more sense than the ones above
One day he became preoccupied with beautiful horses, until the night fell.
He then said, "I enjoyed the material things more than I enjoyed worshiping my Lord, until the sun was gone.*
"Bring them back." (To bid farewell,) he rubbed their legs and necks.
Solomon missed his afternoon prayer because of his horses. To nullify Satan's possible claim that Solomon loved his horses more than loving God, he got rid of his horses.
Peace. -
From my understanding, it would be simply, "petting the horses"...
The verses 443, 56, 3833 all contain the same root that makes up the Arabic word meaning ~ "to rub, pet etc".Solomon was not ordered to kill horses, that would be a traditional understanding, not from the Quran.
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Peace aabdul.
This translation may make more sense than the ones above
One day he became preoccupied with beautiful horses, until the night fell.
He then said, "I enjoyed the material things more than I enjoyed worshiping my Lord, until the sun was gone.*
"Bring them back." (To bid farewell,) he rubbed their legs and necks.
Solomon missed his afternoon prayer because of his horses. To nullify Satan's possible claim that Solomon loved his horses more than loving God, he got rid of his horses.
Peace.Peace good logic,
Logically and contextually your explanation lack clarity. You have translated;
He then said, "I enjoyed the material things more than I enjoyed worshiping my Lord, until the sun was gone.*
This is not proper translation of the verse in the context. Alkhair (ِ means anything which is favored or liked by all also useful thing it is the opposite of shar alkhair means all type of goods; Arab horses due to their usefulness used to be called alkhair. The term is used in different meanings in Quran. In verse 5570 khairatun hisaan has been used to mean women with proportionate limbs and moderate character. It is actually Solomon's immense love of horses that is referred here. You can grasp this point very easily going through the previous verses and also some other places in Quran discussing Solomon's army.
Now the next word . Here the meaning is not "more than I enjoyed worshiping my lord". It is a contradition. Prophet Solomon will never ever like horses or material things, under any circumstances, more than he liked worshipping or remembering Allah. In this context kindly note the word is used in Quran under different shades of meanings. One of the meanings is ?because? or ?due to?;
They said, 'O Hud, thou hast not brought us any clear proof, and we are not going to forsake our gods merely because of thy saying, nor are we going to believe in thee; 1153
Pleas note, it is used in the meaning of through as in ma yantiqu unil hawa 533 i.e. he doesn?t say anything (in the Quran) because of his own thoughts or motions.....also it is used as "those who go against His command" (2463)....in short this term has different shades of meaning.
Therefore, the correct meaning in the word here in the context is "because" or "due to". It means Solomon had great love for the horses because of or due to the fact that it was a source of inspiration for him to fight in the course of Allah. The word has got vast meaning, it is not just ritual prayer or any afternoon prayer as you seem to interpret. You are relying on secondary sources that even prompted some of the scholars to suggest slashing with sword the legs and necks of horses!!!
Now look again look at the expostion of Quran by Parwez (kindly note Parwez does not do word by word translation due to valid reasons....you can download his exposition from www.resurgentislam.com (first post) and read for yourself the reasons in the introduction pages).
(Parwez) "Once while he was inspecting the horses, he asked his companions if they knew the reason why he loved the horses so much? It was simply because they were a source of great strength in Jihad and were engaged in the defence of the Divine Order."
"Bring them back." (To bid farewell,) he rubbed their legs and necks.
The following is the correct explanation
(Parwez) (However the discussion about Jihad and the fact that the horses were the protectors of the Divine Constitution moved his heart so much that) He ordered, "Bring them back to me." (And when they came) He started stroking their legs and necks and wiping off their dust."
Kind regards
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Salam,
In my reading of the Quran, I am trying to address these verses but the explanations in this thread don't make sense to me especially the one that has relied on information outside of the Quran and also based on the fact in the following verses Solomon repents.
Do I need to start a new topic about this?
Thanks
Ed -
Salam,
In my reading of the Quran, I am trying to address these verses but the explanations in this thread don't make sense to me especially the one that has relied on information outside of the Quran and also based on the fact in the following verses Solomon repents.
Do I need to start a new topic about this?
Thanks
EdPlease do
And you if you are able to actually cite the verse completely in Arabic transliteration so you can analyze each word, would be a good way to present information and study as well -
Salam,
http//quransmessage.com/articles/did%20solomon%20really%20slaughter%20his%20horses%20FM3.htm
I have seen the site before - I am personally not sure about this site as it uses a lot of Hadithist evidence whilst saying that the author is a Quran-Only Muslim.
The conclusions of the author often seem to align closely to the Hadithist narratives.I do still look at this site from time to time but am weary of parts of it - for example the fact that the author finds evidence in the Quran for 5 daily Salat "prayers" (as the site refers to them) is something that I personally do not understand.
Ed
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Please do
And you if you are able to actually cite the verse completely in Arabic transliteration so you can analyze each word, would be a good way to present information and study as wellSalam
Here goes - some of the veterans on this forum (and I mean this in a broad sense) could be welcome for being a bit more gentle on the newbies - we don't want to get to a point where people arrive on this site and are repelled away by harshness - which they had probably been trying to escape from (ie from the Hadithists)
Here is the new thread
https//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9609482.0Looking forward to all views.
Ed
