وَدَاوُۥدَ وَسُلَيْمَٰنَ إِذْ يَحْكُمَانِ فِى ٱلْحَرْثِ إِذْ نَفَشَتْ فِيهِ غَنَمُ ٱلْقَوْمِ وَكُنَّا لِحُكْمِهِمْ شَٰهِدِينَ · فَفَهَّمْنَٰهَا سُلَيْمَٰنَ وَكُلًّا ءَاتَيْنَا حُكْمًا وَعِلْمًا وَسَخَّرْنَا مَعَ دَاوُۥدَ ٱلْجِبَالَ يُسَبِّحْنَ وَٱلطَّيْرَ وَكُنَّا فَٰعِلِينَ
Wa Dāwūda wa Sulaymāna idh yaḥkumāni fi'l-ḥarthi idh nafashat fīhi ghanamu'l-qawm, wa kunnā li-ḥukmihim shāhidīn · Fa-fahhamnāhā Sulaymān, wa kullan ātaynā ḥukman wa ʿilmā, wa sakhkharnā maʿa Dāwūda'l-jibāla yusabbiḥna wa'ṭ-ṭayr, wa kunnā fāʿilīn
"And David and Solomon, when they were giving judgement about the tilled field into which a people's sheep had strayed by night; and We were witnesses to their judging. · We made Solomon understand it. To each We gave judgement and knowledge. And with David We made subservient the mountains, glorifying, and the birds. It was We who did this."
Nafashat — root ن-ف-ش. This root is analysed here for the first time in this commentary, and it occurs only here in the Qurʾān.
The sense most of the lexicographers record: nafsh is the grazing of livestock at night without a herdsman, the flock's scattering and spreading out. And the lexicographers distinguish it from a sister word: grazing loose by day is called haml. That is, the word conveys by itself that the event happened at night.
Another derivative of the same root completes the picture of the word: manfūsh — wool that has been teased out and fluffed up. It is used of the mountains at al-Qāriʿa on 101/5: ka'l-ʿihni'l-manfūsh. The root carries the picture of "scattering and swelling out".
I give this as a note about the word: the verse does not say that the sheep were let loose on purpose. The word conveys a time when control had slackened.
And a point of grammar must be recorded: those judging are two (yaḥkumāni, dual), but the pronoun is plural: li-ḥukmihim.
| View | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 1 | The litigants are included as well — the judging is named together with the parties |
| 2 | In Arabic two is sometimes rendered with a plural pronoun |
| 3 | The pronoun covers both those judging and those who hear the judgement |
Fahhamnā — Form II (tafʿīl), root ف-ه-م. The burden of the form: to make a thing understood, to bring about its being grasped. Fahima is to understand; fahhama is to make understand.
And immediately afterwards the verse sets down a note — and this note carries the whole weight of the sentence:
Kullan is in the accusative and has been brought forward as the object. In Arabic fronting conveys prominence.
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the fronting: immediately after telling of an understanding given to one man in a single matter, the verse says with a fronted word that both had judgement and knowledge.
That is, the sentence does not set up a ranking of superiority. Getting a single matter right is not counted a ruling about the whole of a person.
And this connects with the sūra's seventy-fourth verse: the same two words (ḥukman wa ʿilmā) were used there of Lot. That is, in this sūra the expression is an attribute of a prophet; it is not a privilege peculiar to the David-and-Solomon scene.
The verse does not say what the two judgements were. Neither David's judgement nor the solution Solomon grasped appears in the text.
In the classical commentaries there are reports that fill this gap. The verse does not give it; nor do I.
And what can be read from the text is this — I give it as my own reading: what concerns the verse is not the content of the decision but its source. Fa-fahhamnāhā — the understanding was given. Wa kunnā li-ḥukmihim shāhidīn — the process was seen. The whole weight of the telling is in these two sentences.
This detail was treated at Ṣād on 38/18-19. I rely on that treatment and set the two sūras side by side:
| Ṣād 38/18-19 | al-Anbiyāʾ 21/79 | |
|---|---|---|
| The verb | innā sakhkharna'l-jibāla maʿahu | wa sakhkharnā maʿa Dāwūda'l-jibāla |
| The time | bi'l-ʿashiyyi wa'l-ishrāq — at evening and at sunrise | Not given |
| The birds | wa'ṭ-ṭayra maḥshūra, kullun lahu awwāb | wa'ṭ-ṭayr — without an attribute |
| The close | wa shadadnā mulkahu | wa kunnā fāʿilīn |
Ṣād is detailed, al-Anbiyāʾ a summary. And the only thing al-Anbiyāʾ adds is the last sentence: wa kunnā fāʿilīn — "it was We who did this."
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the difference between the two sūras: al-Anbiyāʾ shortens the description of the event and stresses its doer. And this fits the whole of the sūra's series: the series does not tell stories, it records the source.
Yusabbiḥna — the feminine plural in nūn (of the mountains). The root س-ب-ح was treated at the twentieth and thirty-third verses; it occurs here for the third time. In the sūra the root is in three places: 20 (those who are with Him), 33 (the heavenly bodies), 79 (the mountains). It is a countable fact.