Islamic Views On David

Islamic Views On David

Islamic views on David (Arabic: داود, Daud or Dawud‎) (circa 1043 BC - 937 BC?) are unified in his status as appointed prophet, messenger ("Rasul"), and lawgiver of God, and as a righteous King of the United Kingdom of Israel, which itself is a holy country in Islam. David is perhaps most famous in Islam for defeating the Philistine giant Goliath, when he was a soldier in King Saul's army.

His genealogy goes back through Judah, the son of Jacob (Ya'qub), to Abraham (Ibrahim). The figure of David is of extreme importance in Islam because he was one of the few prophets to receive a named revealed book. It says in the Qur'an that the Zabur, the Biblical Psalms, were given to David. David's son, Solomon (Sulaiman), took over the task of prophecy after his death and he was made the subsequent King of Israel.

The Judeo-Christian and Islamic views of David, however, differ in some aspects. Muslims do not accept the sins of adultery and murder attributed to David in the Hebrew Bible, as they feel that prophets - in their belief the utmost chosen and elect of God - would never commit such grave crimes. The story of Bathsheba and Uriah is also absent in David's Qur'anic narrative and plays no role in Islamic tradition.