Ṣād

قَالَ لَقَدْ ظَلَمَكَ بِسُؤَالِ نَعْجَتِكَ إِلَي نِعَاجِهِ وَاِنَّ كَثِيراً مّـِنَ الْخُلَطَآءِ لَيَبْغِي بَعْضُهُمْ عَلَي بَعْضٍ إِلاَّ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَقَلِيلٌ مَا هُمْ وَظَنَّ دَاوُدُ أَنَّمَا فَتَنَّاهُ فَاسْتَغْفَرَ رَبَّهُ وَخَرَّ رَاكِعاً وَأَنَابَ

فَغَفَرْنَا لَهُ ذَلِكَ وَإِنَّ لَهُ عِندَنَا لَزُلْفَي وَحُسْنَ مَأَبٍ

24. “(David) said: ‘Indeed he has been unjust to you in demanding your ewe to add her to his own ewes; and verily many of the associates are wrongfully unto one another, save those who believe and do good deeds, and few are they!’ And David perceived that We had tried him, so he sought forgiveness of his Lord, and he fell down bowing, and he repented.”

25. “So We forgave him that (lapse), and verily for him, with Us is a nearness and an excellent resort.”

Man can own a lot of properties. David (as) did not criticize for having ninety nine ewes, but he criticized the brother’s oppressive avariciousness. The verse indicates that before hearkening to the statement of the opposite party, as it is understood from the apparent of the verses of the Qur’an, David turned to the complainant and spoke as follows:

But this is not a new thing and many of the friends and persons who work with together are unjust to each other. The verse continues saying:

Yes, those who observe the right of others perfectly in association and friendship and do not have the least oppression to their friends are few, and only those who have got enough share of the capital of faith and righteous deed can usually pay the rights of their friends and familiar ones perfectly and justly. However, it seems that the two parties of conflict were convinced by hearing this statement and left the David’s meeting. But here David began thinking, and though he knew he had made a just judgment, and his silence was the best evidence that the problem was the same that the complainant had mentioned, yet the manners of the meeting of judgment required that David would not hasten in his speech, and first he should personally ask the opposite party and then arbitrated.

Therefore, because of this action of his, he became regretful very much and, as the verse says:

The Qur’anic term /xarra/ is derived from /xarir/ in the sense of ‘falling from a height accompanied with a sound’, like the sound of a waterfall, and since the persons who fall in prostration are as if they fall from a height, and at the time of prostration they pronounce glorification, this meaning has been used as to prostrate. The application of the Arabic word /raki‘an/ in the verse under discussion is either for the sake that the Arabic word /ruku‘/ (bowing) has also been used in vocabulary in the sense of prostration, or bowing is a premise for prostration.

In the second verse the Qur’an implies that Allah favoured His mercy over him and forgave his lapse in this leaving the better, as the Qur’an in this verse says:

The Arabic term /zulfa/ is in the sense of ‘rank and nearness with Allah’, and the Qur’anic phrase /husna ma’ab/ refers to Paradise and bounties in Hereafter.