The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 490
CH. 27 what answer they return. '2832 AN-NAML 30. The Queen said, “Ye chiefs, there has been delivered to me a noble letter, PT. 19 NJ QUEE كِتُبُ كَرِيمٌ إِنَّهُ مِنْ سُلَيْمَن وَإِنَّهُ بِسمِ اللهِ It is from Solomon, and it. 31 الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ is: ‘In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful;2 2833 2832. Commentary: In the words, "then withdraw from them," "Hudhud" had been taught proper etiquette which he had to observe while presenting Solomon's letter to the Queen. Even if it be conceded that David and Solomon could understand the language of birds, there is nothing in the Quran to show that the Queen of Sheba also understood their language and yet "Hudhud" was entrusted with the mission to take Solomon's letter to her and to have a talk with her on Solomon's behalf and as his representative. 2833. Commentary: is Some Christian orientalists, as their wont, have vainly sought to impugn the Divine origin of the Quran by trying to show that the expression Bismillah has been borrowed from earlier Scriptures. Wherry in his "commentary" says that it has been borrowed from Zend-Avesta. Sale has expressed an identical view, while Rodwell is of the opinion that Pre-Islamic Arabs borrowed it from Jews and subsequently it was incorporated in the Quran by the Holy Prophet. To say that because this expression was to be found in some former Scriptures, therefore it must have necessarily been borrowed from one of them by the Quran does not stand to reason. According to Muslim belief Prophets were raised among every people (35:25) and those Prophets like the Holy Prophet of Islam also received Divine revelation and therefore there can be, and there actually are to be, found in the Quran expressions of identical import with those in other Divine Scriptures. This fact, if anything, only proves that the Quran has originated from the same Source from which those Scriptures had originated. In the verse under comment the expression Bismillah is shown to have been used by Prophet Solomon. So there can be no question of its being borrowed or plagiarized by the Quran. What the Quran claims is only this that no other Scripture has used this expression in the form and manner in which it has done. And the charge is also belied by facts of history that the Holy Prophet took this expression from pre-Islamic Arabs. The Arabs had never used it before it was revealed in the Quran. On the contrary, they had a special aversion for the use of the Divine attribute 2404