Sūrah Sabaʾ

Overview

Sūrah Sabaʾ is a Makkan sūrah with 54 āyāt. The name of the sūrah comes from the Arabic word for Sheba, a land within Yemen which once hosted a great kingdom. Allah speaks about Sheba’s people and the consequences of their thanklessness in a powerful passage in the sūrah (34:15-21), hence the name.

Sūrah Sabaʾ begins with ḥamd of Allah—an important theme for the rest of its content. To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-Wise, the All-Aware. He affirms His omniscience and omnipotence in the opening passages, along with the disbelievers’ arrogant denial—they especially belittle the idea of resurrection and mock the Prophet ﷺ. A severe warning is served to such defiance. The discourse then shifts to Dāwūd and Sulaymān. Among the messengers, they are distinct in that they were given worldly sovereignty and eminence. Allah speaks about the favours He has bestowed upon the house of Dāwūd. He specifically mentions the echoing birds and mountains who sang along to Dāwūd’s recitation of the Zabūr, as well as the iron-casting and smithing which he employed for warfare. Sulaymān—Dāwūd’s son and successor—had even more pronounced kingship. He was given control over the wind and a fountain of molten brass. Most otherworldly among the divine gifts he received was power over the jinn—they built mighty structures at his command. Allah emphasises gratitude here, the true test in times of plenitude. Those among the jinn whom Sulaymān had punished were only made aware of his passing after bugs had gnawed away at his staff which he was leaning against as he sat on his throne. The ordeal exposed the jinn’s ignorance of the Unseen, knowledge of which belongs solely to Allah.

It is through this that a transition takes place to the kingdom of Sheba: a people given fertile pastures and abundant fruits. Yet, they disregarded Allah. As a result, Allah caused the dam which kept torrents against them to fail, and their lush orchards were replaced with thorny, fruitless weeds; and those that bore fruits only bore bitter, unsavoury ones. Such is the end of the ingrates. Allah proclaims His divinity, unicity, and power in the wake of this story. Who else provides other than Him? Who can intercede in His court without His permission? He alone is Lord above all, and He will gather His creatures before Him for judgement in a most harrowing scene. He recounts a back-and-forth of disavowal and regret between the wrong-doers—the followers among them blame the leaders for their misguidance, while the leaders disown and renounce the followers. None of it matters on that day but that it increases both parties in torment.

Some universal truths with regards to social hierarchies follow off the back of this. Allah has sent a prophet to every nation, and it is almost always the affluent who deny His message. This is the recurring pattern—the rich forget where their riches originated, and use it as a force to demean the less fortunate. Allah is the one who sustains—He extends provision to whomever He will of His slaves. The concluding section of the sūrah is dedicated to affirming the honesty and integrity of the Prophet ﷺ. He has come with a profound, irresistible truth which shall conquer all and ultimately prevail.

Context

Sūrah Sabaʾ was likely revealed towards the end of the Makkan period, after Sūrah Luqmān. There is little known as to the occasion of its revelation. It is said that Farwah ibn Musayk al-Ghaṭafānī asked the Prophet ﷺ about the people of Sheba, so Allah revealed, “Verily, there was a sign for [the people of] Sheba in their abodes…” (34:15-19). It is also said that two fellow merchants parted ways—one staying in the vicinity of Makkah and the other heading to the Levant—for some business, and during that period the Prophet ﷺ was sent. The former messaged the latter regarding this claimant to prophecy, so he asked who his followers were, and he responded it was the lower classes of society and the commonfolk. He travelled back and sought the Prophet ﷺ, spoke to him, and accepted Islam. The Prophet ﷺ asked him what made him confident this is the truth, and he said that no messenger was ever sent but that his followers were the downtrodden and destitute. The Prophet ﷺ told him that Qur’an was revealed confirming his conviction:

“Never have We sent a warner to any town except that its affluent said, ‘Surely we are in what you have been sent with disbelievers.’” (34:34).

Themes

• Gratitude: praising Allah and thanking Him for His bounties.
• The temporality of life and the inevitability of resurrection.
• The truthfulness of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ: the greatest bounty gifted to humanity.

Unique Features

• Sūrah Sabaʾ is the fourth sūrah in the Qur’an to begin with ḥamd.
• The Qur’an starts with praise of Allah, then again after a quarter of the Qur’an with Sūrah al-Anʿām, then in the middle with Sūrah al-Kahf, and now after three quarters with Sūrah Sabaʾ (and Fāṭir which follows next).
• Many of Allah’s names and attributes often appear in twos at the end of āyāt. The names al-Ghafūr and al-Raḥīm are a popular example, and they appear together dozens of times in the Qur’an. They always appear with maghfirah preceding rāḥmah, except in the second āyah of this sūrah, where the order is al-Raḥīm al-Ghafūr.

Lessons

• The best way to show gratitude is not just to utter words of thanks, but to show one’s thankfulness through good deeds and actions: “Work, O family of Dāwūd, in gratitude” (34:13).
• We take too much for granted. Allah’s favours surround us at all times and in more ways we can enumerate, yet for the most part we are heedless and ungrateful. It is Allah’s chosen few who perpetually and frequently praise Him for His majesty and thank Him for His blessings. Ask Allah to be counted among them, and when you find yourself uttering His praise, that itself is a another gift worthy of thanks! “Few among My slaves are the constantly thankful” (34:13).
• Wealth, power, and status are not inherent evils. However, they are often a gateway to arrogance and denial of truth: “Never have We sent a warner to any town except that its affluent said, ‘Surely we are in what you have been sent with disbelievers’” (34:34). If Allah has blessed you with abundance, take Dāwūd and Sulayman as your examples and role models.

Virtues and Valuable Information

On the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, when Allah’s Messenger ﷺ returned to Makkah as a conqueror, there were some 360 idols standing around the Kaʿbah. He ﷺ continued to prod and strike one after the other with a stick in his hand till they fell, saying, “Truth has come and falsehood has perished, falsehood is ever perishing” (17:81); “The truth has come, and falsehood can neither originate nor restore” (34:49).