Transliteration:( Isbir 'alaa maa yaqooloona wazkur 'abdanaa Daawooda zal aidi innahooo awwaab )
17. Do not give a reply to their nonsensical talks until the command for Jihad (holy war) is not revealed. All the verses of patience against the infidels have been abrogated from the junctions of Jihad.
18. He was given the guidance to perform the highest form of worship. He would fast on every alternate day. He would spend two-thirds of the night in worship. He would rest in the middle portion (Khazainul Irfaan).Â
Here, Allah Almighty has first mentioned the high degree of worship of Hazrat Dawood (On whom be peace), then about his error. then granting repentance from it.
 29. He turns to his Lord under every condition.
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17.And remember Our slave Dawud, endued with Al-Ayd. Verily, he was ever oft-returning in all matters and in repentance. 18. Verily, We made the mountains to glorify Our praises with him in the `Ashi and Ishraq. 19. And (so did) the birds assembled, all obedient to him. 20. We made his kingdom strong and gave him Al-Hikmah and sound judgement in speech and decision
Al-Ayd means strength in knowledge and action. Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, As-Suddi and Ibn Zayd said, “Al-Ayd means strength.” Mujahid said, “Al-Ayd means strength in obedience to Allah.” Qatadah said, “Dawud, peace be upon him, was given strength in worship and the proper understanding of Islam.” He told us that he, peace be upon him, used to spend a third of the night in prayer, and he fasted for half a lifetime. This was reported in the Two Sahihs, where it is recorded that the Messenger of Allah said:
(The most beloved of prayer to Allah is the prayer of Dawud, and the most beloved of fasting to Allah is the fasting of Dawud. He used to sleep for half of the night, stand in prayer for a third of the night, then sleep for a sixth of the night, and he used to fast alternate days. He never fled from the battlefield, and he always turned to Allah.) which means that he turned to Allah with regard to all of his affairs.
(Verily, We made the mountains to glorify Our praises with him in the `Ashi and Ishraq. ) means, Allah caused the mountains to glorify His praises with him at sunrise and at the end of the day. This is like the Ayah:
(O you mountains. Glorify (Allah) with him! And you birds (also)!) (34:10). The birds also used to glorify Allah’s praises with him. If a bird flew by him and heard him chanting the Zabur, it would not go away; instead it would stay hovering in the air, glorifying Allah along with him. And the lofty mountains would respond to him and echo his glorification of Allah. Ibn Jarir recorded from `Abdullah bin Al-Harith bin Nawfal that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, did not pray Ad-Duha. ﴿`Abdullah said:﴾ “So I took him to Umm Hani, may Allah be pleased with her, and said to her, `Tell him what you told me.’ She said, `The Messenger of Allah entered my house on the day of the conquest of Makkah. He called for water to be poured into a large bowl, then he called for a garment which he used as a screen between me and him, and he washed himself. Then he sprinkled water around the house and prayed eight Rak`ahs. This was Ad-Duha, and its standing, bowing, prostration and sitting were all equal in brevity.’ Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, left, saying, `I have read the Qur’an from cover to cover, and I never knew about Salat Ad-Duha until now!’ Then he recited:
(glorify Our praises with him in the `Ashi and Ishraq.) I used to say, “What is Salat Al-Ishraq, but now I know what it is.”
(And (so did) the birds assembled,) meaning, hovering in the air.
(all obedient to him.) means, they obeyed him and followed him in glorifying Allah. Sa`id bin Jubayr, Qatadah and Malik said, narrating from Zayd bin Aslam and Ibn Zayd:
(all obedient to him.) means, “Following his commands.”
(We made his kingdom strong) means, `We gave him complete dominion with all that kings need.’ Ibn Abi Najih reported that Mujahid said, “He was the strongest and most powerful of the people of this world.”
(and gave him Al-Hikmah) Mujahid said, “This means understanding, reason and intelligence.” Qatadah said, “The Book of Allah and following what is in it.” As-Suddi said:
(Al-Hikmah) “Prophethood.”
(and sound judgement) Shurayh Al-Qadi and Ash-Sha`bi said, “Sound judgement is testimony and oaths.” Qatadah said, “Two witnesses for the plaintiff or an oath on the part of the defendant is meaning of sound judgement.” This is the sound judgement which the Prophets and Messengers judged and the believers and righteous accepted. This is the basis of this Ummah’s judicial system until the Day of Resurrection. This was the view of Abu `Abdur-Rahman As-Sulami. Mujahid and As-Suddi said, “It means passing the right judgement and understanding the case.” Mujahid also said, “It is soundness in speech and in judgement, and this includes all of the above.” This is what is meant, and this is the view favored by Ibn Jarir.
(38:17) (O Prophet), bear with patience what they say,[16] and call to mind Our servant David,[17] who was endowed with great strength[18] and who constantly turned (to Allah).
16. The allusion is to the absurd conversation of the disbelievers of Makkah, as narrated above, to the effect that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was a sorcerer and a liar, and to their objection whether he was the only fit person in the sight of Allah to be appointed as a Messenger, and to their some accusation that he had vested interest in preaching the doctrine of Tauhid to the people and not any religious mission.
17. “Remember Our servant David”. It would mean: There is a lesson in this story for these people. Or it would mean: The remembrance of this story will help you too, to have patience. As the narrative is meant to serve both purposes, comprehensive words have been used as contain both meanings. For the story of the prophet David (peace be upon him), see (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 251); (Surah Bani-Israil, Ayat 55); (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayat 78-81); (Surah An-Naml, Ayat 15) and the E.Ns thereof, and (Surah Saba, ayat 10-11) note 14-16.
18. The words in the original are: dhal-ayd (possessor of the hands). The word “hand” is used metaphorically for strength and power not only in Arabic but in other languages also. When as an attribute of the Prophet David (peace be upon him) it is said that he was a “possessor of the hands”, it will necessarily mean that he possessed great powers. These powers may mean the physical strength which he displayed during his combat against Goliath, military and political power by which he crushed the neighboring idolatrous nations and established a strong Islamic empire, moral strength by which he ruled like a poor king and always feared Allah and observed the bounds set by Him, and the power of worship by virtue of which, besides his occupations in connection with rule and government and fighting in the cause of Allah, he fasted every alternate day and spent a third of the night in worship according to a tradition of Bukhari. Imam Bukhari in his History has related, on the authority of Abu- Darda, that whenever the Prophet David (peace be upon him) was mentioned, the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say: He was the greatest worshiper of God.
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