The Favors which Allah bestowed upon Dawud

Here Allah tells us how He blessed His servant and Messenger Dawud (David), peace be upon him, and what He gave him of His great bounty, giving him both prophethood and kingship, and huge numbers of troops. And He blessed him with a mighty voice. Such that when he glorified Allah, the firm, solid, high mountains joined him in glorifying Allah, and the free-roaming birds, who go out in the morning and come back in the evening, stopped for him, and he was able to speak all languages. In the Sahih it is recorded that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard the voice of Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari, may Allah be pleased with him, reciting at night, and he stopped and listened to his recitation, then he said:

«لَقَدْ أُوتِيَ هذَا مِزْمَارًا مِنْ مَزَامِيرِ آلِ دَاوُد»

In the last sentence of verse 10 and the first sentence of verse 11, it was said: وَأَلَنَّا لَهُ الْحَدِيدَ أَنِ اعْمَلْ سَابِغَاتٍ وَقَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (And We made the iron soft for him (saying to him) " Make coats of armour, and maintain balance in combining (their) rings,' - 34:10). This is another miracle that iron was made soft for him. Early tafsir authorities - Hasan Basri, Qatadah, A'mash, and others - said that Allah Ta’ ala had, by way of a miracle, turned iron soft as wax for him. To make something out of it, he needed no fire, or hammer, or any other tools. The part of the statement appearing in verse 11 goes on to state that the iron was made soft for him so that he could easily make coats of mail with iron. In another verse, it has also been mentioned that Allah Ta’ ala had Himself taught him the making of coats of mail: وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ صَنْعَةَ لَبُوسٍ لَّكُمْ (And We taught him making of armour as dress for you - 21:80). And what appears later in this very verse وَقَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (and maintain balance in combining (their) rings) also leads to the final stage of training in this craft. The word: قَدِّرْ‌ (qaddir) is derived from: تَقدِیر (taqdir) which means making on a certain measure while the word: سَرد (sard) literally means to weave. The sense thus released is to make a coat of mail in a manner that its links come out balanced and proportionate without one being small and the other being big, so that it turns out strong as well as looks good when seen. This tafsir of: قَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (and maintain balance in combining (their) rings) has been reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn ` Abbas ؓ . (Ibn Kathir)

Special Note