Prophet David [Dawud] (A.S.)

David, or Dawud is recognized in Islam as a prophet, messenger (Rasul),[1][2] and lawgiver of God, and as a righteous king of the United Kingdom of Israel, which itself is a holy country in Islam. He similarly figures prominently in the Torah and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. David is perhaps most famous in Islam for defeating the Philistine giant Goliath, when he was a soldier in the army of King Saul's (Tālūt).

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 Quran 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 generally 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 thus rejected in later commentaries, although the earliest ones do impute the crime of murder to David.