and we judge nothing concerning them.
The course of the verse gives no outward indication whatsoever of what they said. As for their finding support for their interpretation in His saying, “We tried Solomon” [Sad 38:34], that was not the trial. If its object was necessarily the horses, his trial when seeing them would be: does he love them from My mentioning them, or does he love them for themselves?
He, blessings and peace be upon him, reported that he loved them from his Lord’s mentioning them, not for themselves, despite their beauty, loveliness, and his need for them. They were part of the kingship he asked should belong to no one after him. The Real answered what he asked concerning the whole and removed restriction from him.
He said to him, “This is Our gift: bestow or withhold without reckoning,” and, “For him with Us” [Sad 38:39–40]—meaning in the Hereafter—“are nearness and a beautiful return.” This kingship diminishes nothing of his kingdom in the Hereafter, unlike His treatment of another, whose bliss in the Hereafter He diminishes in proportion to the enjoyment he had in this world. God the Exalted said concerning a people, “You exhausted your good things in your worldly life and enjoyed them” [al-Ahqaf 46:20].
Patience received from God, with this interpretation, is the greatest kind of patience. Patience in separation from God, as the common people imagine patience apart from something through leaving it, does not belong to God’s people.
(The Station’s Incoming and the Locus’s Strength)
When al-Shibli fainted at the young man’s saying that patience received from God is the greatest patience, he fainted
Notes
Translator’s note TN4142-1: The Arabic does not restate the personal name after ‘reported,’ and its pronouns are retained. The passage explicitly identifies the horses as what disappeared and rejects supplying an unmentioned sun or prayer; that interpretive distinction is maintained.
