Nor do these await aught but a single cry, there being no delay in it. 15 And they say, "Our Lord, hasten for us our share [of the punishment] before the Day of Account" 16 [But] bear thou with patience whatever they may say, and remember Our servant David, him who was endowed with [so much] inner strength! He, verily, would always turn unto Us: 17 Indeed, We subjected the mountains [to praise] with him, exalting [Allah] in the [late] afternoon and [after] sunrise. 18 and the birds, too, gathered each obedient to him. 19 We made his kingdom strong and gave him wisdom and decisive speech. 20 ۞ And did the news of the two disputants reach you? When they scaled over the wall into Dawud’s mosque. 21 As they came upon David, and he shrank back in fear from them, they said: "Fear not! [We are but] two litigants. One of us has wronged the other: so judge thou between us with justice, and deviate not from what is right, and show [both of] us the way to rectitude. 22 "This man is my brother: He has nine and ninety ewes, and I have (but) one: Yet he says, 'commit her to my care,' and is (moreover) harsh to me in speech." 23 (David) said: "He has undoubtedly wronged thee in demanding thy (single) ewe to be added to his (flock of) ewes: truly many are the partners (in business) who wrong each other: Not so do those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, and how few are they?"... and David gathered that We had tried him: he asked forgiveness of his Lord, fell down, bowing (in prostration), and turned (to Allah in repentance). ۩ 24 So We forgave him that, and verily, for him is a near access to Us, and a good place of (final) return (Paradise). 25 (And it was said unto him): O David! Lo! We have set thee as a viceroy in the earth; therefor judge aright between mankind, and follow not desire that it beguile thee from the way of Allah. Lo! those who wander from the way of Allah have an awful doom, forasmuch as they forgot the Day of Reckoning. 26