Tafsir of Surah Saba' - Verse 10

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.

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).

When a believer who is fully absorbed in the remembrance of God recites the praises of God, he is in fact in consonance with the entire Universe; all things in heaven and on the earth join him in chorus, albeit in silent language. But, God had so specially blessed David that the hills, mountains and birds used to audibly join him when he recited the praises of God. Similarly, God taught David (through angels) the skills to make use of iron. He developed the technique of melting and moulding iron to such an extent that he could make the very fine links of which chain mail is composed. The suits of armour made from this could be worn like ordinary clothes. At that time, this technique was unknown to the world. A believer can make great advances in the fields of industry and science. But, it is essential that he should direct this human progress towards peace and goodness. Whatever he accomplishes should be done with the realization that, finally, he has to appear before God and be answerable to Him.