Az-Zubur is interpreted in five ways:
1. Az-Zubur is used in the sense of the hadiths/reports (aḥādīth/akhbār) of past communities and their deeds and states as recorded in their books; this is the case in the following verse:
Clear proofs [that is, the verses brought by the prophets to their peoples], zubur [that is, the hadiths/reports and admonitions of the (divine) books before them], and the enlightening Book (that is, the Book that illuminates with its commands and prohibitions)... (Āl ʿImrān 3:184)
Similar expressions are also found in the surahs Fāṭir and Naḥl.
2. Az-Zubur is used in the sense of (divine) books, as in the following verses:
Indeed, it {that is, the description of Muhammad and his community} is in the former scriptures {that is, in their books}. (ash-Shuʿarāʾ 26:196)
And We have already written in the Zabur {that is, in all (divine) books} after the [previous] mention {that is, after the Preserved Tablet (Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ)}... (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:105)
3. Az-Zubur is used in the sense of the Preserved Tablet (Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ), as in the following verse:
Everything they did is in the zubur {that is, in the Preserved Tablet (Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ)}. (al-Qamar 54:52)
4. The word zuber is used in the sense of masses or pieces, as in the following verses:
Bring me pieces of iron (zubur, that is, masses)! (al-Kahf 18:96)
But the people divided their affair among themselves into zubur (that is, into sections, into pieces/parts). (al-Muʾminūn 23:53)
5. Az-Zabur is used in the sense of the book given to David, as in the following verse:
And to David We gave the Zabur (that is, We gave a book to David). (an-Nisāʾ 4:163)
A similar expression is also found in the surah al-Isrāʾ.