{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_034_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_034_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_034_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/034.htm","summary":"This is Surah 34 (\"Saba/Sheba\") from the Quran, a Meccan chapter of the Islamic scripture belonging to the tradition of Arabic prophetic revelation. Its central argument is the absolute sovereignty and omniscience of God, pressed against the disbelief of those who deny resurrection and the coming Day of Judgment. The chapter weaves together two narrative examples \u2014 the divinely gifted reigns of David (given mastery over iron and nature) and Solomon (granted command of wind and jinn) \u2014 as demonstrations of God's power dispensed to the grateful, contrasted with the people of Seba, a prosperous civilization destroyed for ingratitude when they spurned God's blessings and were swallowed by flood. A recurring rhetorical pattern has Muhammad instructed to \"Say\" direct challenges to polytheists: their gods control nothing, intercede for no one, and will themselves disavow their worshippers on Judgment Day. Distinctively, the chapter stages a scene of mutual blame in the afterlife, where the prideful elite and their followers accuse each other of leading one another astray \u2014 framing social hierarchy and peer pressure as mechanisms of unbelief. The surah closes by insisting the Prophet seeks no personal reward, that truth will extinguish falsehood, and that those who mock now will find no escape when reckoning arrives.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"034","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":1687}