Prophets Dāwūd and Sulaymān: Part 1 — A Kingdom Like No Other
Section 6 of 25 · Lives of the Prophets
The Field and the Sheep
We will start with the story of Sulaymān (peace be upon him). Allah (swt) says:
وَدَاوُۥدَ وَسُلَيْمَـٰنَ إِذْ يَحْكُمَانِ فِى ٱلْحَرْثِ إِذْ نَفَشَتْ فِيهِ غَنَمُ ٱلْقَوْمِ وَكُنَّا لِحُكْمِهِمْ شَـٰهِدِينَ
“And (remember) Dawūd (David) and Sulaimān (Solomon), when they were adjudicating about the tillage in which the goats of other people wandered at night (and trampled it), and We were witness to their judgment.” (21:78)
Allah (swt) says: and remember Dāwūd and Sulaymān, when they gave judgement in the case of the field in which the sheep of certain people had pastured at night; and We were witnesses to their judgement.
These were two neighbours. One of them had a farm, and the other had sheep. The owner of the sheep forgot to lock his gate at night-time, so the sheep went into the farm and enjoyed themselves, and they destroyed everything in the farm. The owner of the farm wakes up in the morning and sees that his farm has been eaten by his neighbour's goats or sheep.
They went to Dāwūd to ask him to give his ḥukm, his judgement. Dāwūd listened to both sides, and his judgement was that the owner of the farm takes over the sheep — because it was due to the carelessness of the owner of the sheep. The owner of the sheep should give up his sheep to the owner of the farm as compensation: you damaged his farm; give up the sheep; give them to him.
Sulaymān (peace be upon him) was outside the court. When they came out, he asked them what had happened, and they told him what the judgement was. Sulaymān said — he took them back, and he told his father: I have another ḥukm. My ḥukm is that the owner of the sheep should give the owner of the farm the sheep; the owner of the farm will keep the sheep with him and make use of their milk — he will drink from the milk — while the owner of the sheep fixes the farm. And as soon as the farm is fixed and returned to the normal state it was in, then the owner of the sheep takes back his sheep again.
So the fatwā of Sulaymān is that the sheep are given to the owner of the farm for a while, so that he can live off the milk of the sheep, while the owner of the sheep fixes the problems caused by his sheep; and as soon as the problem is fixed and the farm is back to the state it was in before, then he takes his sheep, and the owner of the farm goes back to his farm. And Dāwūd realised that this was the right ḥukm, so he approved it.