Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 34060 — Reports on the affair of Dawud

Khalifah reports from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: It occurred to the heart of Dawud (peace be upon him) that if he were put to trial, he would remain safe. He was told: "You will soon be put to trial, and you will come to know the day on which you will be tried, so be on your guard." Then he was told: "Today you will be tried." So he took the Zabur, held it under his arm, closed the door of the prayer chamber, seated a servant at the door and said: "Do not let anyone come in today." While he was reading the Zabur, a beautiful golden bird came, in which there were many colours. It began to come toward him and drew near, until he was able to pick it up. He meant to take it in his hand, but it hopped away behind him. So he closed the Zabur and stood up to catch it, but it flew and perched on the skylight of the prayer chamber. He went near it, and it settled on a hut. He looked down over it to see where it had gone, and suddenly his sight fell upon a woman beside her pool, taking the ritual bath after menstruation. When she saw his shadow, she moved her head and covered her body with her hair. Dawud (peace be upon him) said to the servant: "Go and tell such-and-such woman to come to me." He went and said to that woman: "The Prophet of Allah is calling you." She said: "What business do I have with the Prophet of Allah? If he has some need, let him come to me; as for me, I will not go to him." The servant came to him and told him what she had said. He went to her, and she shut the door and said: "O Dawud (peace be upon him), what has happened to you? Do you not know that whoever does this, you people stone her?" And she admonished him, so he went back. Her husband was a fighter in the path of Allah, so Dawud (peace be upon him) ordered the commander of the expedition: "Put Awriya among the 'Bearers of the Ark'." The 'Bearers of the Ark' were the troops who would either gain victory or be killed. So he placed him among the 'Bearers of the Ark' and sent him forward, and he was killed. When that woman's waiting period ended, he sent her a proposal. She set the condition that if she bore a son, he would make him caliph after himself, and she made fifty people of the Children of Israel witnesses to that and wrote a document concerning it. He did not even sense his trial until she gave birth to Sulayman (peace be upon him) and he grew into a young man. Then two angels came to him, climbing over the prayer chamber, and Allah has related their story in the Qur'an. Dawud (peace be upon him) fell down in prostration, and Allah forgave him and accepted his repentance. Then he divorced her and kept Sulayman (peace be upon him) away. During that time he was once passing through an open field when he reached some of his boys who were playing and saying: "O Ladin! O Ladin!" Dawud (peace be upon him) stopped and asked: "Why has this one been named Ladin?" Sulayman (peace be upon him), who was off to one side, said: "If he were to ask me, I would tell him." Dawud (peace be upon him) was told: "Sulayman is saying such-and-such." He called him and said: "Why has this boy been named Ladin?" He said: "I will tell you about it." Sulayman asked the boy about the story of his father, and he was told that the boy's father had gone on a journey with his companions and was very wealthy. They resolved to kill him, so he left them this instruction: "I have left my wife pregnant. If she bears a son, tell her to name him Ladin." So Sulayman summoned his companions, and when they came he took one of them aside and kept speaking with him until he confessed, and he took the others aside and kept speaking with them until they had all confessed. He then sent them to Dawud (peace be upon him), and he had them killed. After this he became somewhat kind toward him. There was a devout woman among the Children of Israel who had adopted a life of monastic seclusion. She had two beautiful slave girls, and that woman kept no connection with men. One of the slave girls said to the other: "This hardship of ours has gone on for a long time. She does not want men, and as long as we stay with her we will remain in a bad state. How good it would be if we were to disgrace her, so that she is stoned and we get to men." So they took egg white and came to her while she was in prostration. They lifted her garment off her, sprinkled the egg white on her backside and cried out: "She has committed fornication!" Among them the prescribed punishment for whoever committed fornication was stoning. So she was brought to Dawud (peace be upon him) with the egg white on her clothes, and he meant to have her stoned. Sulayman said: "If he were to ask me, I would inform him." Dawud was told: "Sulayman is saying such-and-such." He called him and said: "What is the matter with this woman? What is her case?" He said: "Bring me fire. If it is the fluid of men, it will scatter, and if it is egg white, it will gather together." So fire was brought, and he placed it on the fluid, and it gathered together. So he averted the stoning from her, and he became somewhat kind toward him and came to love him. Then after that came the case of the owners of the field and the owners of the sheep. Dawud (peace be upon him) gave judgment granting the sheep to the owners of the field. They went out, and the shepherds went out with them, with their dogs. Sulayman said: "How was the judgment made between you?" They told him. He said: "If their matter had been entrusted to me, I would have judged between them differently from this judgment." Dawud was told: "Sulayman is saying such-and-such." He called him and said: "How would you judge?" He said: "Hand over the sheep to the owners of the field for this year. Their young, their ghee, their milk and their benefits will belong to them for this year. And these others will sow the like of their field, and when the field reaches the state it was in, these will take back the field and those will hand back the sheep to them." He said: So he became kind toward him.