Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 78 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:78

وَدَاوُۥدَ وَسُلَيْمَـٰنَ إِذْ يَحْكُمَانِ فِى ٱلْحَرْثِ إِذْ نَفَشَتْ فِيهِ غَنَمُ ٱلْقَوْمِ وَكُنَّا لِحُكْمِهِمْ شَـٰهِدِينَ

“And [mention] David and Solomon, when they judged concerning the field - when the sheep of a people overran it [at night],[896] and We were witness to their judgement.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A vineyard stripped in one night by stray sheep, two prophets deliberating over it, and Allah present in the room as they judge.

A reflection

Every hearing has a Witness

Wa kunnā li-ḥukmihim shāhidīn: and We were witnesses to their judgement. Two prophets, one of them a king, are hearing a case. And the ayah reminds us who else was in the room.

The root of shāhid joins three things, and the first hearers felt all of them. Being present. Knowing. And declaring what you know. A mashhad was a place where people gathered. A wife was mushhid when her husband was at home, and mughīb when he was away. The tongue was called al-shāhid, the one that tells what the eye saw. So shahāda is never hearsay. It is what you say because you were there. These are established usages. The concise commentaries gloss the phrase plainly: nothing of their judgement was hidden from Us.

Picture an HR manager running a grievance hearing on a video call. Six faces in six boxes. She holds all the power in this meeting. She sets the agenda, decides when people may speak, and will write the outcome letter. It is easy, in that seat, to start feeling like the final word.

The ayah dismantles that feeling. Dawud was a king and a prophet. Sulayman was a prophet. And still the ayah's last word is not about their authority but about Allah's presence. Whoever sits in the judge's chair, at work, in a family or in a court, is also being watched. The decision is not the last word. It is evidence.

That should shrink any ego that grows behind a desk. It is also strangely freeing. You are not the final authority, so you do not have to carry the whole weight of being right alone.

Does Allah need to tell us He was watching, as if to impress us? He needs nothing. We need to know. A judge who remembers the Witness judges differently. So does a parent, a teacher or a manager.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.