Sad · Makki · ayah 17 of 88

Sad 38:17

ٱصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَا يَقُولُونَ وَٱذْكُرْ عَبْدَنَا دَاوُۥدَ ذَا ٱلْأَيْدِ ۖ إِنَّهُۥٓ أَوَّابٌ

“Be patient over what they say and remember Our servant, David, the possessor of strength; indeed, he was one who repeatedly turned back [to Allāh].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Mocked by his people, the Prophet ﷺ is told to hold firm and remember Dawud: a king called 'Our servant', strong because he kept returning.

A reflection

The strength the ayah explains

Imagine being told, while you are mocked, to remember a powerful man. You might expect the point to be his armies. The ayah calls Dawud dhā al-ayd, the possessor of strength. Then it gives the reason in two words: innahū awwāb, he was ever-returning.

The commentators noticed what that 'for' does. One asks how we know the strength meant is strength in faith. His answer: because 'he was ever-returning' is given as its cause. Repentance does not explain big muscles. So the strength praised is strength to obey, to worship and to keep turning back to Allah. Another adds that Dawud was strong in body too, but that is not the point here.

A third makes the argument plainly. Allah praised him for strength, so it must be a strength worth praising. The only strength that earns such praise is the strength to do what is commanded and leave what is forbidden. He compares it to 'O Yahya, take the Book with strength' (19:12).

The root of ayd has a homely picture. The iyād was the bank of earth heaped round a tent or a watering-trough. It braced the structure and kept the rain off. Strength, in this picture, is not a fist. It is a rampart that holds something up and keeps harm out.

Picture two neighbours on one street. One is a young builder who can carry two bags of cement up a ladder without stopping. The other is a retired tailor of seventy-eight who has walked to the mosque for Fajr through forty winters. Ask the street who is strong, and they will point at the builder. Ask this ayah, and it points at the tailor.

In both Sahihs, the Prophet ﷺ describes that strength. Dawud fasted every other day, prayed through part of each night, and did not flee when he met the enemy.

Which kind of strength are you building this year? The kind that lifts weight, or the kind that holds a life up?

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.