and he answered, “Who is this that has interrupted my repose?” David said, “It is I, David.” He said, “O Prophet of Allah, have I not already pardoned you?” He replied, “Yes, but I did this to you because of your wife, and I married her.” Uriah fell silent and did not answer him. David called him, but he did not answer; then he called him again, but he did not answer. So David stood over his grave and began casting dust upon his head. Then he cried out:

“Woe to David—then long-lasting woe to David! Glory be to the Creator of light. Woe to David when the scales are set up with justice! Glory be to the Creator of light. Woe to David—then long-lasting woe to him—when he is seized by his beard and delivered over to the wronged man! Glory be to the Creator of light. Woe—then long-lasting woe to him—when he is dragged upon his face with the sinners into the Fire! Glory be to the Creator of light.”

Then a call came to him from heaven: “O David, I have forgiven your sin, had mercy on your weeping, answered your supplication, and pardoned your lapse.” He said, “My Lord, how can that be, when my companion has not pardoned me?” He said, “O David, on the Day of Resurrection I shall give him such reward as neither his eyes have seen nor his ears have heard. Then I shall say to him, ‘Is My servant satisfied?’ He will say, ‘My Lord, how could this be mine, when my deeds did not attain to it?’ I shall say, ‘This is compensation from My servant David. I ask him to grant you to Me, and he grants you to Me.’” David said, “My Lord, now I know that You have forgiven me.” (1)

That is the meaning of His saying, exalted is He: “So he sought his Lord’s forgiveness and fell down bowing”—that is, prostrating. Bowing is used here to refer to prostration, since each involves bending.

Al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl said: Abdullah ibn Tahir asked me about His saying, “and fell down bowing”: “Is it said of one who is bowing that he fell down?” I said, “No. Its meaning is that he fell down after having been bowing—that is, he prostrated—and turned in repentance,” meaning that he returned and repented.

“So We forgave him that; and indeed, for him with Us is nearness and an excellent return.” (25)

“So We forgave him that” means: that sin. “And indeed, for him,” after forgiveness, “with Us,” on the Day of Resurrection, “is nearness”—that is, closeness and high rank—“and an excellent return,” meaning an excellent place of return and final abode.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: When Allah accepted David’s repentance, he wept over his sin for thirty years; his tears never ceased, by night or by day. He had committed the sin when he was seventy years old. After that sin, he divided his time into four days: one day for judging between the Children of Israel, one day for his wives, one day in which he would glorify Allah in the open deserts, mountains, and along the shores, and one day in which he would seclude himself in a dwelling that contained four thousand places of worship. The monks would gather around him, and he would lament with them over himself, while they would assist him in this.

Whenever it was the day of his lamentation, he would go out ⦗102/a⦘ into the open deserts and raise his voice in melodious recitation. He would weep, and the trees, sands, birds, and wild beasts would weep with him, until their tears flowed like rivers. Then he would come to the mountains and raise his voice in melodious recitation, and he would weep while the mountains, stones, beasts, and birds wept with him, until the valleys overflowed from their weeping. Then he would come