You say you believe in the supernatural yet you also seem keen to try and explain things in a logical or rational manner when it suits you? So I'm just a little curious why?
For example you find the fact that birds and ants can talk, think and behave like humans, acceptable. Yet they don't possess the vocal chords or brain size etc...? Which means that this is an example of a supernatural event that defies the laws of nature - something that God just made happen.
Yet you felt the need to try and explain Sulayman's death in a rational and logical way that did not defy the laws of nature?
I didn't... I just was speculating as to why his subjects didn't do anything about him being immobile and mute for days.
(btw you asked where did I get the horse from - that is from tafseer as the Jinn saw him watching them as they were working and so it can be inferred that he would be outside - and as a king, he would not be standing watching them, but would be on a horse as befits a king - all logical - and all related in tafseer. I'm curious where you got chair from?
Like I said.. I didn't read either horse or chair in the Quran... but when I read the verse, I imagined him sitting on a chair.
I thought you liked to stick to the text? Or do you infer things when it suits you and reject others inference when it suits you? Aren't you being illogical?
I already explained Hassan in my previous post... I didn't say he MUST have been sitting on a chair... I simply said that's what came to mind when I read the verse.
Also, sitting on a chair would suggest he was inside and that seems illogical if he was watching the Jinn? Unless perhaps he was watching the "House" Jinn doing stuff like sweeping and odd jobs like fixing the plumbing. If you are not going to include horse then you cannot include chair.
The fact is no king stands watching over his servants to make sure they're doing their job... when I read the verse, the picture I saw was Solomon was sitting on his chair/throne while his servants (demons) were doing their routine daily work... anyway, the whole point of the verse is: demons didn't know the unknown... Solomon was dead (for days) and they kept doing their chores thinking he was still alive.
It seems the only reason you do is that you want to explain it in a logical or rational way. If we are to stick to the text then we can only say for certain that he was leaning - dead - on this stick for days - at the very least - some tafseers say a year! Doesn't that sound very weird? And I mean weird as in defies the laws of gravity etc...)
why would anyone riding a horse need to lean on a staff? I honestly think that leaning on a staff while riding a horse doesn't belong in the picture... Someone sitting on a chair might use a staff and lean on it too. Solomon STANDING and leaning on his staff, for example seems OK to me too.
As for Tafsirs, I didn't read them, but my experience with them and other verses and the wildly variant contradictory and usually amazingly stupid speculations have put me off reading their brilliant work numerous many times. (just one example is how Jesus was not crucified and someone else was... very, very stupid).
So why is it you are not happy to accept that as a supernatural event yet accept others as supernatural?
Ok, I finally see the misunderstanding... I DO believe that Solomon not falling the second he died as a supernatural event... it's just that I didn't envision this involving a horse, but rather a chair (or even him standing, but not a horse).
Topic: The Story of Sulayman