Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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DAVID. Arabic Dāwud, or Dāwūd. A king of Israel and a Prophet, to whom God revealed the Zabūr, or Book of Psalms. [ZABUR.] He has no special title or kalimah, as all Muslims are agreed that he was not a law-giver or the founder of a dispensation. The account of him in the Qurʾān is exceedingly meagre. It is given as follows, with the commentator’s remarks translated in italics by Mr. Lane:—

“And God gave him (David) the kingship over the children of Israel, and wisdom, after the death of Samuel and Saul, and they [namely these two gifts] had not been given together to any one before him; and He taught him what He pleased, as the art of making coats of mail, and the language of birds. And were it not for God’s repelling men, one by another, surely the earth had become corrupt by the predominance of the polytheists and the slaughter of the Muslims and the ruin of the places of worship: but God is beneficent to the peoples, and hath repelled some by others.” (Sūrah ii. 227.)

“Hath the story of the two opposing parties come unto thee, when they ascended over the walls of the oratory of David, having been prevented going in unto him by the door, because of his being engaged in devotion? When they went in unto David, and he was frightened at them, they said, Fear not: we are two opposing parties. It is said that they were two parties of more than one each; and it is said that they were two individuals, angels, who came as two litigants, to admonish David, who had ninety-nine wives, and had desired the wife of a person who had none but her, and married her and taken her as his wife. [One of them said,] One of us hath wronged the other; therefore judge between us with truth, and be not unjust, but direct us into the right way. Verily this my brother in religion had nine-and-ninety ewes, and I had one ewe; and he said, Make me her keeper. And he overcame me in the dispute.—And the other confessed him to have spoken truth.—[David] said, Verily he hath wronged thee in demanding thy ewe to add her to his ewes; and verily many associates wrong one another, except those who believe and do righteous deeds: and few indeed are they.—And the two angels said, ascending in their [proper or assumed] forms to heaven, The man hath passed sentence against himself. So David was admonished. And David perceived that We had tried him by his love of that woman; wherefore he asked pardon of his Lord, and fell down bowing himself (or prostrating himself), and repented. So We forgave him that; and verily for him [was ordained] a high rank with Us (that is, an increase of good fortune in this world), and [there shall be for him] an excellent retreat in the world to come.” (Sūrah xxxviii. 20–24.)