The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 485
PT. 19 AN-NAML CH. 27 E حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَوْا عَلَى وَادِ النَّمْلِ قَالَتْ Until when they came to the. 19 Valley of An-Naml, a Namlite نَمْلَةٌ يَايُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسْكِنَكُمْ said, “O ye Naml, enter your لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَنُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُم لَا يَشْعُرُونَ habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you, while they know not. '2825 tribe just as Māzin (s) which means the eggs of ants is the name of an Arab tribe. In Arabia it was not an uncommon practice that tribes were named after animals and beasts such as Banu Asad, Banū Taghlab, Banū Kalb, Banū Naml, etc. Moreover, the use of the words (enter) and The word denoting swift-footed horses may represent Solomon's cavalry. This meaning of the word finds corroboration in 38:32-34 where Solomon has been stated to possess great love for horses. Thus whereas (jinn) and (men) represented two sections of Solomon's infantry, ✗(birds) stood me (your habitations) in the verse for his cavalry. But if may be taken to mean 'birds' then it would signify birds which Solomon employed for carrying messages. Thus they also formed a very useful and necessary adjunct to his army. But these three words may also have been used in a metaphorical sense signifying respectively "big men," "ordinary men" and "highly spiritual men. " In this sense of the words the verse would mean that while on military expeditions Solomon had all these three classes of men with him because they all had their usefulness. 2825. Commentary: (Naml) being a proper noun, », Ja (the valley of Naml) does not mean the valley of ants as is generally misunderstood but the valley where a tribe named Naml lived. In Qāmūs الابرقة من مياه under the world we have aladi. e. Abriqah is one of the springs of Namlah. So Naml is the name of a 2399 lends powerful support to the view that Naml was a tribe, since the former word is used only for rational beings and the expression (your habitations) has been used in the Quran exclusively for human habitations (29:39; 32:27). Thus als means a person of the tribe of Jad; a Namlite. The said Namlite was possibly their leader and had ordered the people to get out of the way of the army of Solomon and enter their houses. According to some authorities this valley is situated between Jibrīn and 'Asqalān. 'Asqalān is a town on the sea coast, twelve miles to the north of Gaz, near Sinai (Taqwīmul-Buldān). Jibrin is a town in the north, situated in the vilayat of Damascus. This shows that the Valley of Naml is situated near the sea coast, opposite to or near Jerusalem, lying on the route from Damascus to Hijaz, at a distance of about a hundred miles