Surah Sad (Sad) 38 : 36

Explanatory Note

God answered his prayer. That God made the wind subservient to one of His servants, is nothing extraordinary because the wind is undoubtedly subservient to His will: it runs by His command in accordance with His laws. If at any time God facilitates one of His servants to express His will, in this case allowing the wind to run with ease wherever Solomon wished, it is nothing strange for God Almighty. Similar things occur in a variety of ways. God also said to the Prophet Muĥammad in the Qur’ān:

“If the hypocrites, those who are sick at heart and those who spread lies in the city do not desist, We will rouse you against them, and then they will not be your neighbours in this city except for a little while.” (33: 60)

What does this mean? It means that unless they change their ways, Our will is going to give you power over them so as to drive them out of Madinah. This will take the form of making you desirous to fight and drive them out. Thus, our will concerning them will be made to take effect through you. This is one way of making God’s will and the Prophet’s will identical, but it is through God’s will that it is done. We, however, see it through what the Prophet wishes and does. In this way we can also understand how the wind was made subservient to Solomon as this was identical with God’s command.