Sad: David, Solomon and Job

Sad, 88 Meccan verses opening with the letter Sad, answers the Meccan chiefs who rejected the message and recounts the trials and repentance of David, the kingdom and horses of Solomon, and the patience of Job restored to health. It returns to the refusal of Iblis to bow to Adam (38:71-85).

David's trial, narrated through two litigants who enter his private chamber to test his judgement with a parable of ninety-nine ewes against one (38:21-25), is read by commentators as prompting David's own moment of self-examination and repentance rather than describing any specific sin stated explicitly in the text, since the Quran leaves the nature of his error largely unspecified, in contrast to fuller biblical detail about David and Bathsheba that Islamic exegesis generally treats with caution or rejects outright as unreliable material absorbed from other traditions. Solomon's episode with the horses, so absorbed in reviewing them that he missed the time of prayer before ordering their return and, in most readings, offering an act of contrition (38:31-33), is read variously by classical commentators, some taking the passage to describe Solomon slaughtering the horses in penance, others reading a gentler reference to stroking their legs and necks in review. The surah's closing return to Iblis' refusal to prostrate before Adam (38:71-85) closes the chapter on the same note that opened surahs such as Al-Hijr and Al-Araf, and commentators read the repetition across several Meccan surahs as underscoring how central the episode was considered to the Quran's account of the origin of human trial and temptation.