Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/58

 40 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

Godhead 3 to adopt the speech of the Gnostics, was called on this account the Shekinah, the resting. From this derivation Shekinah came to be the word for that side of Divine Providence which, as it were, dwells among men and exerts an unseen influence among them. In the original meaning, viz. that of the Presence in the Temple over the Ark of the Covenant between the Cherubim, 1 the word is found in Snra II. 249. In the sense of active interposition and visible effectual rendering of aid it occurs in Sura IX. 26, 40 ; 2 in the sense of supplying peace of mind and at the same time giving spiritual aid it is found in Sura XLYIII. 4, 18, 26.3 It is remarkable that the word appears in three Snras only, (but several times in the two last mentioned,) and with a somewhat different meaning in each ; and it seems here again, as we remarked above on the word damsa, as though outside influence had been at work, i.e., that the use of this word by other people seems to have influenced Muhammad at the time of the composition of these Suras.

Tdghtit 4 error. Though this mild word for idolatry is

1 Ex. XXY. 22,

2 Arabic commentators do not seem willing to recognise this mean- ing. Elpherar on Sura IX. 26 says the word means &uUi>J\j security and rest ; and on Sura XL VIII. 4 he says distinctly ;

" Ben 'Abbas says this word Satinat in the Quran always means rest except in the second Sura." But even if &u}li> does mean inward peace of mind, still the meaning of outward security need not be excluded,

3 Elpherar uses the expression jVSj5\ j &u>U!aS \ to explain verse 4, and U J\. &i*5USa5\ to explain verse 18. In the same way D'Herbelot (Biblio- 'theque Orientals under Thalout, page 862) gives in the name of the commentators the explanation j*\^\ yt&^S i.e., tranquillity of the

mind.