| ۞ وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ مِنَّا فَضْلًا ۖ يَا جِبَالُ أَوِّبِي مَعَهُ وَالطَّيْرَ ۖ وَأَلَنَّا لَهُ الْحَدِيدَ |
| Asad | : | AND [thus], indeed, did We grace David with Our favour:10 "O you mountains! Sing with him the praise of God! And [likewise] you birds!"11 And We softened all sharpness in him,12 |
| Malik | : | We bestowed Our blessings on Dawood and commanded: "O mountains! Join him in singing My rhymes," and a similar command was given to the birds. We made iron soft for him |
| Mustafa Khattab | : | Indeed, We granted David a ˹great˺ privilege from Us, ˹commanding:˺ “O mountains! Echo his hymns! And the birds as well.” We made iron mouldable for him, |
| Pickthall | : | And assuredly We gave David grace from Us, (saying): O ye hills and birds, echo his psalms of praise! And We made the iron supple unto him, |
| Yusuf Ali | : | We bestowed Grace aforetime on David from Ourselves: "O ye Mountains! sing ye back the Praises of Allah with him! and ye birds (also)! and We made the iron soft for Him 3799 3800 |
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Lit., "did We bestow upon David a favour from Ourselves". This connects with the elliptic reference to repentance in the preceding verse: David is singled out for special mention in view of the allusion, in surah {38}, to his having suddenly become aware that he had committed a sin, whereupon "he asked his Sustainer to forgive him his sin... and turned unto Him in repentance" (38:24). |
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Lit., "for him". The term hadid denotes, primarily, something that is "sharp" in both the concrete and abstract senses of the word: for the latter sense, cf. the Qur'anic phrase "sharp (hadid) is thy sight today" (50:22), or the many idiomatic expressions like rajul hadid, "a man of sharp intellect", hadid an-nazar, "one who looks boldly [at others]", ra' ihah hadidah, "a sharp odour", etc. (Lisan al-'Arab). As a noun with a definite article (al-hadid), it signifies "all that is sharp", or "sharpness", as well as "iron". God's having "softened all sharpness" in David is evidently an allusion to his exalted sense of beauty (expressed in the poetry of his Psalms) as well as to his goodness and humility. - An alternative rendering of the above phrase would be: "We caused iron to become soft for him", which might be an allusion to his outstanding abilities as poet, warrior and ruler. |
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Cf. xxi. 79-80, and notes 2733-34. David had the gift of song and sacred music, and this is shown in his Psalms. All nature-hills and birds-sing and echo back the Praises of Allah. |
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Iron or steel is hard stuff: but in the hands of a craftsman it becomes soft and pliable, and with it can be made instruments for the defence of righteousness. These, in the literal sense, are coats of mail, and defensive armour, and the manufacture of them is traditionally attributed to David. |
