ASH-SHAKŪR (الشكور). “The Acknowledger of Thanksgiving.” One of the ninety-nine special attributes of the Almighty. Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxv. 27]: “Verily He (God) is forgiving, and an acknowledger of thanksgiving.” When used for anyone but God it means one who is grateful, e.g. Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiv. 12]: “Few of my servants are grateful.”
ASH-SHAʾM (الشام). Lit. “That which is on the left-hand (looking to the rising sun),” i.e. the northern country to Makkah. Syria.
ASH-SHAMS (الشمس). “The Sun.” The title of the XCIst Sūrah of the Qurʾān, which begins with the word.
SHAQQU ʾṢ-ṢADR (شق الصدر). Lit. “The splitting open of the heart.” Anas relates that “the Angel Gabriel came to the Prophet, when he was playing with boys, and took hold of him, and laid him on the ground, and split open his heart, and brought out a little bag of blood, and said to Muḥammad, ‘This is the devil’s part of you.’ After this, Gabriel washed the Prophet’s heart with zamzam water, then sewed it up and replaced it. Then the boys who were with the Prophet came running to his nurse, saying, ‘Verily Muḥammad is killed.’ ” Anas also says that he “had seen the marks of the sewing in the Prophet’s breast.” (Mishkāt, book xxiv. ch. vi.)
According to the commentators al-Baiẓāwī, al-Kamālān, and Ḥusain, the first verse of the XCIVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān refers to this event: “Have we not opened thy breast for thee, and taken off from thee thy burden, which galled thy back?” But it seems probable that this simple verse of one of the earliest chapters of the Qurʾān refers merely to the enlightenment of Muḥammad’s heart, and that his followers afterwards invented the miracle in order to give a supernatural turn to the passage. [[MUHAMMAD].]
SHARʿ (شرع). [[LAW].]
SHARĀB (شراب). In its original meaning, “that which is drunk.” A drink. Always applied to wine and intoxicating drinks. In mystic writings, sharāb, “wine,” signifies the dominion of Divine love over the heart of man.
SHARḤ (شرح). Lit. “Expounding.” A term used for a commentary written in explanation of any book or treatise, as distinguished from tafsīr, which is used only for a commentary of the Qurʾān. These expositions are written either in the text, or on the side of the book or treatise they attempt to expound. The term, however, generally used for marginal notes is ḥāshiyah. For example, the Tanwīru ʾl-Abṣār is the matn, or text, of a great work on Muḥammadan laws, written by Shamsu ʾd-Dīn Muḥammad, A.H. 995; the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār is a sharḥ, or commentary written on that work by ʿAlā ʾd-Dīn Muḥammad, A.H. 1088; and the Ḥāshiyah, or marginal notes on these two works, is the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār, by Muḥammad Amīn.
SHARĪʿAH (شريعة). The law, including both the teaching of the Qurʾān and of the traditional sayings of Muḥammad. [[LAW].]
SHART̤ (شرط). The conditions of marriage, of contracts, &c.