Death, the Undeniable Reality - 30 Verses For 30 Days 22/30

Salamun alaykum, dear brothers and sisters, and welcome to the 22nd Tafsir clip of this month of Ramadan. InshaAllah in this clip, we are gonna be delving into one of the verses of the Qur'an that has to do with the story of Sulayman, alayhi as-salam. We know that Sulayman was given this Kingdom and he was in a position where he had power. He had also some supernatural powers that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala had granted to him. And so the story of Sulayman is a very special story.

The verse we want to focus on in particular is verse 14 of Surat Saba. Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is explaining to us those final moments of the life of Sulayman. And in these moments, the way Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala shows how other people found out about the death and the passing of Sulayman highlights for us: number one, how inevitable death is itself. And number two, how it comes and takes everybody. Whether you are poor or you are rich, whether you are strong or you are weak, young or old, death comes and it takes everybody.

So the verse of the Qur'an says this: "Falamma qadaina 'alayhi al-mawt" (34:14), when Sulayman's life came to an end, finally, "ma dallahum 'ala mawtihi illa dabbatu 'l-ardhi ta'kulu minsa'atah" (34:14), the Qur'an says: nobody knew actually that Sulayman had left this world. What happened was he was leaning on his staff, and the ants, they started to eat away because he was there for so long, the ants started to eat away at the staff, "falamma kharra tabaiyanati 'l-jinn" (34:14), when finally the staff, they ate away at it enough where it collapsed. The body of Sulayman also collapsed on the ground. And this is where the Jinn who are working for Sulayman realised that Sulayman has left this world.

The beautiful point about the verse is what? That Sulayman, and we know Sulayman was a Prophet of God and he was a wonderful individual. And yet the Qur'an says even the Sulayman of ours, who was so wonderful in our eyes, number one, and who was so powerful that the Jinn were working for him, and he could understand the language of animals and all the stories that the Qur'an tells about Sulayman. Even this Sulayman who had a Kingdom, what happened to him after he left this world and after we wanted to take his soul away? This Sulayman's body, the moment we took the soul away from it, "Kharra", it fell on the ground. And this really shows how powerless the human being is.

Whether you are rich or you are poor, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, that is the final destination. And when it comes to that point, everyone is hopeless. Everyone is powerless except for the One. As Surat Ibrahim says, "Illa man ata' Allaha bi qalbin saleem" (26:89), except for the one who comes to Allah with a pure heart.

So you and I, if we are granted some beauty, some fame, some wealth, we are not to assume that we are now invincible. No. When the time of death comes and our soul is taken away from us, we also will leave. Hopefully this is a lesson for all of us inshaAllah.