34:10 Saba (Sheba)

أي: ولقد مننا على عبدنا ورسولنا, داود عليه الصلاة والسلام, وآتيناه فضلا من العلم النافع, والعمل الصالح, والنعم الدينية والدنيوية، ومن نعمه عليه, ما خصه به من أمره تعالى الجمادات, كالجبال والحيوانات, من الطيور, أن تُؤَوِّب معه, وتُرَجِّع التسبيح بحمد ربها, مجاوبة له، وفي هذا من النعمة عليه, أن كان ذلك من خصائصه التي لم تكن لأحد قبله ولا بعده, وأن ذلك يكون منهضا له ولغيره على التسبيح إذا رأوا هذه الجمادات والحيوانات, تتجاوب بتسبيح ربها, وتمجيده, وتكبيره, وتحميده, كان ذلك مما يهيج على ذكر اللّه تعالى.ومنها: أن ذلك - كما قال كثير من العلماء, أنه طرب لصوت داود، فإن اللّه تعالى, قد أعطاه من حسن الصوت, ما فاق به غيره, وكان إذا رجَّع التسبيح والتهليل والتحميد بذلك الصوت الرخيم الشجيِّ المطرب, طرب كل من سمعه, من الإنس, والجن, حتى الطيور والجبال, وسبحت بحمد ربها.ومنها: أنه لعله ليحصل له أجر تسبيحها, لأنه سبب ذلك, وتسبح تبعا له.

يخبر تعالى عما أنعم به على عبده ورسوله داود عليه الصلاة والسلام مما آتاه من الفضل المبين وجمع له بين النبوة والملك المتمكن والجنود ذوي العدد والعدد وما أعطاه ومنحه من الصوت العظيم الذي كان إذا سبح به تسبح معه الجبال الراسيات الصم الشامخات وتقف له الطيور السارحات والغاديات والرامحات وتجاوبه بأنواع اللغات وفي الصحيح أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم سمع صوت أبي موسى الأشعري رضي الله عنه يقرأ من الليل فوقف فاستمع لقراءته ثم قال: لقد أوتي هذا مزمارا من مزامير آل داود وقال أبو عثمان النهدي ما سمعت صوت صنج ولا بربط ولا وتر أحسن من صوت أبي موسى الأشعري رضي الله عنه ومعنى قوله تعالى " أوبي " أي سبحي قاله ابن عباس ومجاهد وغير واحد وزعم أبو ميسرة أنه بمعنى سبحي بلسان الحبشة وفي هذا نظر فإن التأويب في اللغة هو الترجيع فأمرت الجبال والطير أن ترجع معه بأصواتها وقال أبو القاسم عبد الرحمن بن إسحاق الزجاجي في كتابه - الجمل - فى باب النداء منه "يا جبال أوبي معه " أي سيري معه بالنهار كله والتأويب سير النهار كله والإسآد سير الليل كله وهذا لفظه وهو غريب جدا لم أره لغيره وإن كان له مساعدة من حيث اللفظ في اللغة لكنه بعيد في معنى الآية ههنا والصواب أن المعنى في قوله تعالى " أوبي معه " أى رجعي معه مسبحة كما تقدم والله أعلم وقوله تعالى: " وألنا له الحديد " قال الحسن البصري وقتادة والأعمش وغيرهم كان لا يحتاج أن يدخله نارا ولا يضربه بمطرقة بل كان يفتله بيده مثل الخيوط ولهذا.

The Favors which Allah bestowed upon Dawud

Here Allah tells us how He blessed His servant and Messenger Dawud (David), peace be upon him, and what He gave him of His great bounty, giving him both prophethood and kingship, and huge numbers of troops. And He blessed him with a mighty voice. Such that when he glorified Allah, the firm, solid, high mountains joined him in glorifying Allah, and the free-roaming birds, who go out in the morning and come back in the evening, stopped for him, and he was able to speak all languages. In the Sahih it is recorded that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard the voice of Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari, may Allah be pleased with him, reciting at night, and he stopped and listened to his recitation, then he said:

«لَقَدْ أُوتِيَ هذَا مِزْمَارًا مِنْ مَزَامِيرِ آلِ دَاوُد»

(This man has been given one of the sweet melodious voices of the Prophet Dawud.) Abu `Uthman An-Nahdi said, "I never heard any cymbal, stringed instrument or chord that was more beautiful than the voice of Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari, may Allah be pleased with him."

أَوِّبِى

(Glorify) means, glorify Allah. This was the view of Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and others. The root of this word Ta'wib means to repeat or respond, so the mountains and birds were commanded to repeat after him.

وَأَلَنَّا لَهُ الْحَدِيدَ

And We made the iron soft for him. Al-Hلasan Al-Basلri, Qata0dah, Al-A mash and others said, He did not need to heat it in the fire or beat it with a hammer؛ he could simply twist it in his hands, like a thread. Allah said:

أَنِ اعْمَلْ سَـبِغَـتٍ

Saying: Make you perfect coats of mail... , which means chain mail. Qata0dah said, He was the first person ever to make chain mail؛ before that, they used to wear plated armor.

وَقَدِّرْ فِى السَّرْدِ

(and balance well the rings of chain armor Sard,) This is how Allah taught His Prophet Dawud, peace be upon him, to make coats of mail. Mujahid said concerning the Ayah:

وَقَدِّرْ فِى السَّرْدِ

(and balance well the rings of chain armor Sard,) "Do not make the rivets too loose that the rings (of chain mail) will shake, or make them too tight that they will not be able to move at all, but make it just right." `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported that `Ibn `Abbas said, "Sard refers to a ring of iron." Some of them said, "Chain mail is called Masrud if it is held together with rivets."

وَاعْمَلُواْ صَـلِحاً

and work you (men) righteousness. means, with regard to what Allah has given you of blessings.

إِنِّى بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ

Truly, I am All-Seer of what you do. means, watching you and seeing all that you do and say؛ nothing of that is hidden at all.

And verily We bestowed on David a great favour from Us — prophethood and scripture — and We said ‘O mountains repeat with him in praise by making glorifications and the birds too!’ read wa’l-tayra in the accusative as a supplement to the syntactical locus of jibāl ‘mountains’ in other words and We also called on them to glorify God with him. And We made iron malleable for him so that it was as dough in his hands.

Commentary

The preceding verses have addressed the arguments of those who denied the possibility of the life after death, and believed it to be irrational that a person may be revived after he has died and the parts of his body are decomposed and turned into dust. Now the stories of Sayyidna Dawud and Sulayman (علیہما السلام) have been narrated in the present verses to show that Allah Ta’ ala has already demonstrated His power by the miraculous acts that were deemed by people to be impossible, like making iron as soft as wax, subjugating the wind and making copper as liquid as water.

The word: فَضل (fadl) in the opening sentence of verse 10: وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ مِنَّا فَضْلًا (And surely We bestowed grace from Us on Dawud) means excess, favor or grace. The reference is to particular attributes bestowed on him in excess of others. Allah Ta’ ala has blessed every prophet with some unique attributes that are considered to be their distinctive excellence. Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) was given a few of his own. Besides being a prophet and messenger of Allah, he was also blessed with power over the world of his time. Then there was his gifted voice. When he was busy with the dhikr of Allah or the recitation of Torah, the birds flying above would converge over him to listen. He was blessed with similar other miracles which find mention a little later.

The word: أَوِّبِي (awwibi) in the direct address appearing next: يَا جِبَالُ أَوِّبِي (ya jibalu awwibi) is a derivation from: تَاوَیب (ta'wib) which means to return or repeat. The sense is that Allah Ta’ ala had commanded the mountains that once Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) starts making Dhikr and Tasbih (the glorification of Allah), the mountains too should start reciting the same words after him.

Similar to this is the tafsir of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ who has explained: أَوِّبِي (awwibi: return, or repeat after) as being in the sense of: سَبِّحِی (sabbihi: glorify, recite the praise of Allah). (Ibn Kathir)

This Tasbih (glorification of Allah) the mountains used to do along with Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) is in addition to the universal Tasbih done by the entire creation of Allah that goes on everywhere, all the time, in every age - as said in the noble Qur'an: وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَلَـٰكِن لَّا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ (And there is not a single thing that does not extol His purity and praise, but you do not understand their extolling - 17:44). The tasbih mentioned here has the status of a miracle shown at the hands of Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) . For this reason, it is obvious that common listeners would be hearing and understanding this Tasbih. Otherwise, it would have just not been a miracle.

From here we also learn that the mountains synchronizing their voice with the voice of Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) and repeating the Tasbih after him was not in the manner sound reverberates, something commonly heard when someone calls inside a dome or well or elsewhere and the voice reverberates or returns. The reason is that the noble Qur'an has mentioned the manifestation of this phenomenon as a special gift and grace bestowed upon Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) . The reverberation of sound is a physical thing. It has nothing to do with someone's excellence. It will work for anyone, even for a disbeliever. At a place where sound reverberates, his or her voice too will shoot back.

The word: وَالطَّيْرَ‌ (wattair: and you too 0 birds) refers to the phenomenon of birds joining up in the air at his voice and doing tasbih like the mountains - as it has been mentioned in another verse of the Qur'an: إِنَّا سَخَّرْ‌نَا الْجِبَالَ مَعَهُ يُسَبِّحْنَ بِالْعَشِيِّ وَالْإِشْرَ‌اقِ وَالطَّيْرَ‌ مَحْشُورَ‌ةً (We had subjugated the mountains to join him (in) making tasbih (i.e. pronouncing Allah's purity) at evening and sunrise, and the birds as well mustered together 38:18).

We gave David bounty from Us. In the reports about David, it has come that he used to read the Psalms, and the name of sinners came up a great deal. Because of jealousy and solidity in the religion, he said, “O God, do not forgive those who misstep!” Lord God, do not forgive the sinners! It was said to him, “O David, such lack of tenderness toward the sinners! Wait, until MuḤammad the Arab sets foot into the circle of existence and asks forgiveness for the only one of his community not to sin: 'Forgive me for what I did before and what I will do after!'” Then the tongue of destiny said to David, “O David, you have remained in the bonds of your own purity. Wait until you are slapped by the hand of the decree and destiny. Then you will know what you said and where you stood.” Gabriel came to the road and said, “O David, the arrow of the decree has been loosed from the bow of destiny. Be careful, watch out for yourself if you can!” David sat in the prayer-niche in bewilderment and regret, his eyes fixed on the Psalms, busy with remembrance and worship, until the episode happened with the bird and his eyes fell on the wife of Uriah. This story will be given in detail in the Surah of Sād [38], God willing. In the end, David was saying, “O God, forgive the sinners-perhaps You will forgive David along with them.”