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qālat yā-ʾayyuhā l-malaʾu ʾaftūnī fī ʾamrī mā kuntu qāṭiʿatan ʾamran ḥattā tashhadūni
She said, ‘O [members of the] elite! Give me your opinion concerning my matter. I do not decide any matter until you are present.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
27An-NamlالنملVerse 32 of 93
The Ant27. An-Namlالنمل
Al Naml
The Ants
MeccanVerse 32 of 93
Surah An-Naml - Verses 32-33
32. “She said: ‘O chiefs! Pronounce to me respecting my affair; no affair have I decided except in your presence’.”
33. “They said: ‘We possess force and we possess great might. The affair rests with you; so see what you will command.”
The Queen of Sheba, Bilqiys, was a wise intelligent one and possessed a high standard of the ability of recognition. She had also some men and counselors with whom she used to propound the news and events of the locality. Therefore, after being aware of the content of Solomon’s letter and informing it to her people, she, addressing them, said as follows:
By this action of hers, she wanted to attract their attentions to her and, thus, strengthen her situation among them. By the meantime, she wanted to estimate and study the amount of their agreement with her decisions. The Arabic holy word /’aftuni/ is derived from /fatwa/ which originally means ‘the proper and correct judgment in complicated affairs’. By this means, the Queen of Sheba both told them the complexity of the issue, and made them attentive to this matter that they should take care of expressing their views, so that they might not go a wrong way.
The Qur’anic word /tašhadun/ is derived from /šuhud/ in the sense of ‘presence’, a presence which is accompanied with cooperation and consultation. Then, in the next verse it says:
Thus, they not only showed their submission to her and to her commands, but also their willing to relying on power and their participation in the battlefield, since Bilqiys was the commander of the armed forces of her time.