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Climbing Into The Champer and Straying of Sheeps
Into The Farm
In the chapter of Al-Anbiyâ': And David and Solomon, when they gave
judgment concerning the field, when people's sheep had strayed and browsed
therein by night; and We were witnesses to their judgment. And We made
Solomon to understand (the case); and unto each of them We gave judgment
and knowledge(Al-Anbiyâ':78-79) and in the chapter of Sâd:
And hath the story of the litigants come unto thee? How they climbed the
wall into the royal chamber; How they burst in upon David, and he was afraid
of them. They said: Be not afraid! (We are) two litigants, one of whom
hath wronged the other, therefor judge aright between us; be not unjust;
and show us the fair way. Lo! this my brother hath ninety and nine ewes
while I had one ewe; and he said: Entrust it to me, and he conquered me
in speech(Sâd:21-23).
Here we have to cases: the straying of the sheeps into the field and
the climbing into the royal champer. The first is shared by David and his
son Solomon (PUT) and the second is special for David, and about the case
of the straying of sheeps it is as attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH) about
this holy phrase is that the rules of prophets before David upto his time
was that the sheeps and other domestic animals like camels and cows, if
they grazed upon some plants then the owner of these plants or agriculture
will be the owner of them and the straying is only done at night for the
owner of the farm must guard his farm at daytime and the owner of the sheep
must guard his sheeps at night time, so David judged with what the prophets
had judged with before him, so then God inspired to Solomon and he was
eleven years old at that time, as it was mentioned: any sheep that graze
in other's farm, then the owner of the farm has only the right to get what
is formed in their bodies, and this is how it went (for judges) after Solomon,
so Solomon ordered to get the sheeps back for the owner of the farm and
get benefit of their milk and their offsprings and their wools, and the
farm shall be in the hands of the sheeps owners to fix it and get it back
as it was before it was grazed upon, and then after that everything gets
back to how it was and the sheeps get back to their owners and the farm
to its owner and this is the judgement of Solomon that God made him understand,
so everyone of them, David and Solomon, judged with the commands of God
and they did not disobey the commandments of God, and it is by God's saying:
and unto each of them We gave judgment and knowledge(Al-Anbiyâ':79).
In another narration it is mentioned that God inspired to David to
make a successor for himself from his family because I knew in My ancient
knowledge that I do not send a prophet except with a successor from his
own family, and David had many children that time and the one that was
assigned to be by God was Solomon, and then directly two men came to David
to judge for their farm and sheeps and then God inspired to David to gather
all his sons and whoever judges with a rightful judgement in this case
then he is your successor, so then David gathered all his sons and when
the two men told their stories Solomon said to the farmer: O farmer, when
did this man's sheeps go into your farm? He answered: they went into it
by night, then he said: I judge you O owner of the sheeps to give the offsprings
of your sheeps and their milk and their wools for the owner of the farm
in this year, and then David said to him: how come you did not judge with
giving the sheeps and the scholars of the Israelites did assure that before
and the price of the eaten plants is the price of the sheeps? Then said
Solomon: the plants were not taken out from the roots but the sheeps did
eat its top and this would return back in the future, and then God inspired
to David that the judgement in this case is what Solomon did judge with.
There are other narrations of the Household (PUT) with the same meaning
and some of them include the addition of the two judgements together where
the sheeps did eat the root and the branch then the farm owner would have
the sheep, or otherwise it is as Solomon did judge with. Solomon also judged
to keep the sheeps by their owners at night and to keep the farm by its
owners at daytime, as it was mentioned before. Meditate!
As for the case of the climbing into the royal champer they said: David
divided his time and made one day for worshipping and a day for advising
and sermons and a day to judge for the people and a day for his ownself,
and he put some guards on his door so that no one could go inside without
his permission and no one would dare to go inside except by his agreement.
In the day of his worshipping while he stayed away from the people and
praying in his champer, then two men climbed the wall and got inside while
he thought he is in safe from anyone that desires to go inside because
there were guards, so they went down to him from the roof or the ceiling
and he got afraid and they said to him then: do be afraid we are two men
in fight that one had wronged the other so judge between us with just and
do not wrong, meaning do not wrong us with your judgement, and guide is
to the righteous path of just, this is my brother he has ninety nine ewes
and I have only one ewe, and it is the female of the sheep, and he said
to me: entrust it to me, meaning to be of my own, so that I would have
a complete one hundred ewes, and he conquered me in the speech, so that
he won against me and defeated me and I couldn't do anything, and then
David said to the owner of one ewe: he wronged you by asking you for your
only ewe, and David denied the greed of the owner of many ewes and he described
him as a wrong-doer and made it as a great awful thing is to attack the
owner of the one ewe and he said: many partners oppress one another, save
such as believe and do good works, and they are few(Sâd:24), and
then David looked back to the two of them and found them as angels and
not human beings and that God sent them to him to warn him for something
he had done.
God had tested him with their imaginary fight and in fact there were
no fight and they had nothing but to warn him for what he had done: And
David guessed that We had tried him(Sâd:24), meaning We tested him
by that case and he was aware, and he sought forgiveness of his Lord, and
he bowed himself and fell down prostrate and repented(Sâd:24), meaning
he prostrated to his Lord with humiliation and he felt that he judged so
fast for the owner of the one ewe and called the owner of many ewes as
a wrong-doer and did not ask the man under the charge and did not ask for
clues from the claiming man, and he felt that he did something wrong against
the regulations and what the sacred law did regulate. For this he did prostrate
with regret and humiliation for his Lord and asking for forigveness. This
what happened with him and from him since the time of angels revelation
while he was in his champer. They said about the reason for revealing these
holy phrases is that David was inclined to marry a woman that her husband
died and she completed her mourning period. The situation is that he is
in no need to marry her because he already had many wives, and for the
Israelites that was prohibited before the time of David but God made it
legal for him. What happened with him is that he married the wife of Uriah
after his death and after she completed the time of mourning , and Uriah
was a faithful man and the neighbour of David and he was killed in the
camp of David, so David married his wife after she had completed the time
of her mourning but the Israelites denied doing this as we mentioned before.
It is mentioned by Al-Ridhâ (PUH) in a speech for him about the
infallibility of prophets and he mentioned David and made him infallible
and away from any wrong doing and mentioned him with great deeds and then
the Imâm (PUH) asked someone that was attending and he (PUH) knows
better what he is asking about but that was only to make a way for the
speech to come and to obtain the things. So he (PUH) said: what do people
say about the case of David and his mistake? They said: they say that David
was praying in his champer when Iblis (Satan) had the shape of a bird that
no other bird had its beauty, so David then cut off praying and went to
the bird trying to catch him, but the bird went out into the house and
he kept on behind it, but the bird flew to the roof and he went up there
trying to catch him and the bird down to the house of Uriah (ben Hayyân)
and David looked at him there and he found the wife of Uriah washing herself
and she was naked and when he looked at her he loved her and desired her,
and at the time he (David) sent Uriah for some invasions, so he sent to
his friend and the high commander of the army to make Uriah at the front
of the ark, and so he did and he defeated the enemies and that was hard
for David, so he sent again and commanded to make Uriah at the front again,
and so he did and he was killed then and David married his wife. The narrator
then said: then the Imâm struck his holy forehead with his hand and
said: Innâ Lillâh Wa'Innâ Ilayhi Raji`un (we are for
God and to God we will return) [a phrase said when something horrible happens]
you claimed that a prophet of God took his praying with easiness for a
bird and then he commited adultery and then killed someone. Then they said:
O son of the prophet what was his mistake then? Then he (PUH) said: woe
to you! David only thought that God did not create someone wiser than him
so God sent down for him the two angels and they climbed the wall of the
champer and said to him: two men fought against each other...etc, and David
then made a fast decision against the charged man and said to him (the
man claiming): he had wronged you for asking you for your only ewe, and
he did not ask the claiming man for clues and did not ask the charged man
for explanations, and that was the mistake of David and not what others
do say, didn't you hear God's saying: O David! Lo! We have set thee as
a viceroy in the earth; therefor judge aright between mankind..etc(Sâd:26).
Then they asked the Imâm (PUH): O son of prophet of God then what
is the story of David with Uriah, so Al-Ridhâ (PUH) then said: the
woman at the time of David was never to be married after the death of her
husband, and the first man that God allowed him to marry a woman that her
husband was killed was David, so he married the wife of Uriah when he was
killed and her mourning was over, and for this was hard for the people.
For this it is mentioned by Al-Sâdiq (PUH): the satisfaction of people
is not to be owned and their tongues are not to be fixed, did not they
claim that David followed the bird until he looked at the wife of Uriah
and loved her and he made her husband at the front of the ark until her
husband got killed and he married her then after? They mentioned that the
prince of believers (PUH) said: who talked about the narration of David
as the narrators say it shall be whipped one hundred and sixty times for
claiming killing with attacking the high place of prophecy. It was one
punishment with emphasis on attacking the prophet's name with lies.
It is narrated that David (PUH) climbed up a mountain and there was
a prophet called Ezekiel on it and he used to worship God there, so David
took a permission from Ezekiel and God inspired him (Ezekiel) to go and
meet him so he went down to him and took him from his hand and climbed
with him up, and then David said: O Ezekiel, ever thought of doing a sin?
He answered: no, then he (David) said: are you wondering about your own
worshipping for God? He answered: no, then he (David) said: ever thought
of life and desired some of its ornaments? He answered: yes, maybe that
was in my heart, then said he (David): and what do you do then? He answered:
I go into that room and think about what is inside, so then David went
into the room and found a bed made of iron with an old skull on it and
old bones and there were a plate of iron with a scripture: I am Uri ben
Sâlim, ruled for one thousand years and built one thousand cities
and deflowered one thousand maidens, and my end was that my bed was to
the dust and the stones were my pillow and snakes with worms were my neighbours,
and whoever sees me let him never be tricked by this life.
It is mentioned before that David married the woman of Uriah after
her husband's death and ending her mourning, and she gave birth to Solomon
for him, and that was mentioned for sure. In God's speech: So We forgave
him that; and lo! he had access to Our presence and a happy journey's end(Sâd:25),
as it is mentioned by Al-Tabarsi: they differed in what was the purpose
of this forigveness, and for why David did ask for forgiveness, so it was
said that he got that by isolation to God and humiliation to Him by worshipping
as it did happen with Abraham as God did tell it: And Who, I ardently hope,
will forgive me my sin on the Day of Judgment(Al-Shu`arâ':82), and
this is the most probable for the high level of infalliblity of prophet
in all conditions and against all sins as it was proved before, while some
said: it is allowed to say that they (prophets) do the little sins as it
is apparent from God's saying: and he sought forgiveness of his Lord, and
he bowed himself and fell down prostrate and repented(Sâd:24), and
then from God's acceptance for his forgiveness' seeking: So We forgave
him that(Sâd:25), and according to this they differed also in the
case of David, some said: it is that Uriah asked for proposal to a woman
and her family accepted that marriage but David then went and ased for
proposal to her after him (Uriah) and because of his holiness they made
him marry the woman instead of Uriah, and that was a sin and he was blamed
for it, another saying is that David sent Uriah to some place and he was
killed but he didn't turn sad for him because he was inclined to marry
his wife, and that was a sin so he was blamed by sending down on him the
two angels. A third saying is that when a man was to be dead and leave
a woman then his masters are the ones to take care of her, and thus when
Uriah died, David married his wife and her family did not forbid him from
doing so because of his high place, and that was a sin and so he was to
be blamed, and a fourth saying is that he was blamed for his fast decisions
in judging people when the two men came to him and this is what was explained
afore, and there are other sayings that are needless to say and what we
had mentioned has enough for you, and God is the Bringer of sucesss.
Next: Some of What Was Inspired to David (PUH) and Some of What Was
Copied From His Sermons