S̤IQAH (ثقة). “Worthy of confidence.” A term used in the study of the Ḥadīs̤ for a traditionist worthy of confidence.
ṢIRĀT̤ (صراط). Lit. “A road.” The word occurs in the Qurʾān thirty-eight times, in nearly all of which it is used for the Ṣirāt̤u ʾl-Mustaqīm, or the “right way” of religion. In Muslim traditions and other writings it is more commonly used for the bridge across the infernal fire, which is described as finer than a hair and sharper than a sword, and is beset on each side with briars and hooked thorns. The righteous will pass over it with the swiftness of the lightning, but the wicked will soon miss their footing and will fall into the fire of hell. (Mulla ʿAlī Qārī, p. 110.)
Muḥammad appears to have borrowed his idea of the bridge from the Zoroastrian system, according to which the spirits of the departed, both good and bad, proceed along an appointed path to the “bridge of the gatherer” (chinvat peretu). This was a narrow road conducting to Heaven or Paradise, over which the souls of the pious alone could pass, whilst the wicked fell into the gulf below. (Rawlinson’s Seventh Oriental Monarchy, p. 636.)
The Jews, also, believed in the bridge of hell, which is no broader than a thread, over which idolaters must pass. (Midrash, Yalkut, Reubeni, sect. Gehinnom.)
AṢ-ṢIRĀT̤U ʾL-MUSTAQĪM (الصراط المستقيم). “The right way,” i.e. the Muḥammadan religion; e.g. Qurʾān, [Sūrah iii. 44]: “Fear God and obey me; of a truth God is my Lord and your Lord: Therefore worship Him. This is the right way.” It occurs in about thirty other places.
SIRIUS. Arabic ash-Shiʿrā (الشعرى). “The dog-star.” The Almighty is called in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah liii. 50], Rabbu ʾsh-Shiʿrā, the “Lord of the Dog-star.”
The Kamālān say that before the time of Muḥammad this star was worshipped by the Banū K͟huzāʿah, hence the reference to it in the Qurʾān.
SITTING. Arabic julūs (جلوس). The traditionists are very particular in describing the precise position in which Muḥammad used to sit.
Ibn ʿUmar says: “I saw him sit with his knees up and the bottom of his feet on the ground, and his arms round his legs.”
Jābir says: “I saw him sitting reclining upon a pillow which was put under his arm.”