Tafseer of The letter Saad · Saad · 38:22
When they entered upon David and he was alarmed by them? They said, "Fear not. [We are] two adversaries, one of whom has wronged the other, so judge between us with truth and do not exceed [it] and guide us to the sound path.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
His saying ( إِذْ دَخَلُوا عَلَى دَاوُدَ ) [when they entered upon Dāwūd]: He repeated "idh" (when) twice. Some of the Arabic grammarians said concerning this: the meaning of the two may be as one, like your saying: "I struck you when you entered upon me, when you were insolent," where the entering is the very same as the insolence. And it is also possible that one of the two be taken in the sense of "lammā" (when, at the moment that), as though He had said: "when they climbed over the wall of the prayer-chamber, at the moment they entered." He said: and if you wish, you may place "lammā" first. Whether "lammā" comes first or last, it follows its companion, as you say: "I gave it to him when he asked me" — the asking precedes the giving, whether it be mentioned earlier or later.
His saying ( فَفَزِعَ مِنْهُمْ ) [and he was startled by them]: one might ask: and what was the reason for his fright at the two, when they were two disputing parties? Well, his fright at the two was because they entered upon him by a way other than the customary way of access to him, and their entering in that manner startled him. And it has been said: his fright was on account of them, because they entered upon him by night, at a time other than that at which he used to judge among the people. They said ( لا تَخَفْ ) [do not fear]: Allah, exalted be His mention, says: the disputing party said to him: do not fear, O Dāwūd. That was when the two of them saw that he had been startled by their entering upon him by a way other than the door. And in the saying something is elided, because the plain meaning of what is apparent in the saying renders it superfluous, namely: "we are two disputing parties who litigate, and that is us." It was permissible to omit making that explicit, despite the fact that the two disputing parties require the pleading pronoun, because His saying ( خَصْمَانِ ) [two disputing parties] is a predicate for the speaker. The Arabs omit, for the speaker, the addressee, and the one addressed, that which puts their verbs in the nominative, and they scarcely do so with any other than these. Thus they say to a man whom they are addressing: "[Are you] upon the road, O so-and-so?", and the speaker says to his companion: "[I shall] do good to you and deal kindly with you." They do that only so with the speaker and the addressee, because those two are present and the hearer knows the speaker's intent when the noun is omitted. And most of that occurs in the interrogative form, though it is also permissible in the non-interrogative form, as one says: "[Are you] a seated rider?" To this belongs His saying ( خَصْمَانِ ). And to this belongs the saying of the poet:
And say to the two of you, when you have passed the land of ʿĀmir
and you have passed the two tribes Nahd and Khashʿam:
["We are] two who are removed from Jarm ibn Rabbān, indeed they
refused, in the terrors, to let a bloodletter go forth."
And the saying of another:
The daughter of al-Kaʿbī says on the day I met her:
"[Are you] upon the road in the army, or [are you] one who stays behind?"
And to this belongs their saying: "[She is] a doer of good, so leave her be." And the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: "[We are] returning ones, repentant ones." And his saying: "[He] comes on the Day of Resurrection while between his eyes is written: '[He is] one who despairs of the mercy of Allah'" — all of this with a pronoun that puts it in the nominative. And His saying, mighty and exalted is He ( بَغَى بَعْضُنَا عَلَى بَعْضٍ ) [one of us has wronged the other] means: one of us has transgressed against the other without right ( فَاحْكُمْ بَيْنَنَا بِالْحَقِّ ) [so judge between us with the truth] means: so judge between us with justice ( وَلا تُشْطِطْ ) [and be not unjust] means: and be not unjust and do not go beyond measure in your judgment, through inclination on your part toward one of us against the other. There are two linguistic forms of this: "ashaṭṭa" and "shaṭṭa." To the [form] "ishṭāṭ" belongs the saying of al-Aḥwaṣ:
Indeed, O people, my women rebukers have become excessive
and they claim that my falsehood has nullified my right.
And from some of them has been heard: "shaṭaṭta ʿalayya fī al-sawm" (you have been excessive against me in bidding). As for the [verb in the sense of] being far removed, most of their speech is: "shaṭṭat al-dār" (the dwelling has become far), "fa-hiya tashiṭṭu," as the poet said:
Tomorrow the dwelling of our neighbors will become far,
and the dwelling will be farther still the day after tomorrow.
His saying ( وَاهْدِنَا إِلَى سَوَاءِ الصِّرَاطِ ) [and guide us to the midst of the path] means: and direct us to the way of the midst of the straight path.
And in accordance with what we have said in the explanation of His saying ( وَلا تُشْطِطْ ), the scholars of exegesis have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda ( وَلا تُشْطِطْ ): that is, do not incline [toward injustice].
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī ( وَلا تُشْطِطْ ), he says: do not do injustice.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His saying ( وَلا تُشْطِطْ ): do not deviate from the truth. And in accordance with what we have also said concerning His saying ( وَاهْدِنَا إِلَى سَوَاءِ الصِّرَاطِ ), they have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda ( وَاهْدِنَا إِلَى سَوَاءِ الصِّرَاطِ ): to his justice and his goodness.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī ( وَاهْدِنَا إِلَى سَوَاءِ الصِّرَاطِ ): to the justice of the judgment.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His saying ( وَاهْدِنَا إِلَى سَوَاءِ الصِّرَاطِ ), he said: to the truth which is the truth: the straight path ( وَلا تُشْطِطْ ): do not go to anything other than that.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of some of the scholars, on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih: ( وَاهْدِنَا إِلَى سَوَاءِ الصِّرَاطِ ): that is, lead us upon the truth and do not turn aside with us to anything else.
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[Footnotes, deriving from the page margin and concerning the sources of the verses of poetry in al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān and in Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān, omitted as illegible marginal source-material — illegible.]
