Sūratu ʾl-Miʿrāj [(xvii.) 57]: “And Psalms (zabūran) we gave to David.”
Sūratu ʾl-Ambiyāʾ [(xxi.) 105]: “And now, since the exhortation (ẕikr) was given, have we written in the Psalms (fī ʾz-zabūri) that my servants the righteous shall inherit the earth.”
Both Sale and Rodwell take this last to be a quotation from [Psa. xxxvii. 29] (it appears to be the only direct quotation from either the Old or New Testament in the whole of the Qurʾān), and they have both translated the Arabic ẕikr “the law,” meaning, of course, the Taurāt. Amongst Muslim commentators, there is considerable difference of opinion as to what is meant in this verse by ẕikr and zabūr.
The commentator al-Baiẓāwī says there are three views. Said ibn Jubair and Mujaiyid explained the word zabūr to mean all inspired books, and that by ẕikr was meant the Preserved Tablet (al-Lauḥu ʾl-Maḥfūz̤). Ibn ʿAbbās and aẓ-Ẓaḥḥāk said by zabūr was meant the Taurāt, and by ẕikr those books which came after. And Shaʿbī said the zabūr was the Book of David, and the ẕikr that of Moses.
Al-Bag͟hawī and al-Jalālān decide in favour of the first interpretation, Ḥusain decides in favour of the third, whilst al-Baiẓāwī leaves it an open question.
Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī gives the word zabūr as one of the fifty-five titles of the Qurʾān.
ZACHARIAS. Arabic Zakarīyāʾ (زكرياء). [[ZAKARIYAʾ].]
ZAFĪR (زفير). Lit. “Drawing back the breath because of distress; groaning.” In the Qurʾān, for the groans of hell. [Sūrah xi. 108]: “In the Fire, there shall they groan.”
ẔAʿFIRĀNĪYAH (ذعفرانية). A sect of Muslims, who say the Qurʾān is a created thing, the orthodox school maintaining that the Word of God is uncreated. (Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt, in loco.)
ZAḤF (زحف). Lit. “A swarming multitude.” An army; a military force arrayed for battle.