The Magic Laid at His Door

Let us move on to another part of the story of Sulaymān (peace be upon him). In the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and until now, a lot of things have been attributed to Sulaymān which are untrue — one of which is magic. There are some of the Jews who attribute magic to Sulaymān; and the whole story of the temple is also attributed to Sulaymān (peace be upon him).

For example, the Jews, or the people of the book, associate Sulaymān with someone called Asmodeus. This Asmodeus was the chief of the devils, and they associate him with Sulaymān, and they say that this devil, the chief of the devils, was the one who assisted Sulaymān in building and constructing, and he is the one who used to tutor and teach Sulaymān magic — and to teach him many of the skills that they say Sulaymān had.

And you would find that many cults and movements attach themselves to Sulaymān. Many of these secret orders claim that they go back to Sulaymān, and the most famous of them is the Masonic movement, the Freemasons. You would find that the concept of the temple — the temple of Sulaymān — is something that is central, or very influential, in the ideology of the Freemasons. Also, movements like the Kabbalah, and some of these other mystical Jewish cults, practise magic which they claim they have learned from Sulaymān, and they claim that the lineage goes back to Sulaymān.

The other point: the issue of the temple. This temple of Sulaymān is a myth; there is no such thing called the Temple of Sulaymān. The one who built the masjid was who? Yaʿqūb (peace be upon him) — by the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): that Abū Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Messenger of Allah and said: what was the first house established for the worship of Allah? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, the Kaʿbah. And then he said: and then what? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, wa baynahumā arbaʿūna ʿām — then the masjid of al-Aqṣā, Jerusalem, and between them was forty years. Forty years is the time between Ibrāhīm and Yaʿqūb (peace be upon them). So Yaʿqūb is the one who built the masjid, or established it.

What was the role of Sulaymān? Sulaymān (peace be upon him) is the one who expanded the masjid and built it in its great form. Sulaymān is the one who erected the masjid and expanded it during his kingdom. It was not a temple; it was a masjid, established for the worship of Allah (swt). It is a masjid, a mosque. So this myth of the temple of Sulaymān — and all of this mythology attached to it, and superstition, and power — is unreal. There was a masjid.