David · Dawud
David in Islam
David is Dawud in Arabic, written دَاوُد. The two names belong to the same person, and the two traditions tell his story differently enough to be worth reading side by side.
- English
- David
- Arabic
- دَاوُد
- Read as
- Dawud
- Status
- Prophet in Islam
- Where the English comes from
- Hebrew Dawid, beloved.
- What the Arabic carries
- Dawud, the Quranic form; the same root sense of beloved.
- Full name page
- Dawud on AsrNaam
Is David the same as Dawud? Yes. David is the English form and Dawud the Arabic form of one name. He is prophet and king in the Quran, given the Zabur, the scripture known elsewhere as the Psalms.
Dawud in the Quran
Dawud is both prophet and king in the Quran, a combination it treats as unusual enough to mention. He is given the Zabur, the scripture Jewish and Christian readers know as the Psalms, and the Quran says the mountains and the birds joined him when he praised God, which is the closest the book comes to describing a singing voice.
He is also the young man who killed Jalut, the Goliath of the Hebrew Bible, in Surah Al-Baqarah. Iron was made soft in his hands and he was taught to make armour. Surah Sad gives the parable of the two litigants and his judgement, a passage read as being about the responsibility of anyone who decides between people.
The fasting pattern attributed to him, a day on and a day off, is described in hadith as the most beloved fast to God, and is still followed. As a given name Dawud, Dawood and Daud are all in wide use.
Using the name
The full entry for Dawud carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.
Questions about David and Dawud
Is David the same name as Dawud?
Is Dawud the same as David?
What is the Zabur?
Can a Muslim family use the name Dawud?
Other names the two traditions share
Every one of these is one figure under two names.
Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.