SABʿATU-AḤRUF (سبعة احرف). [[SEVEN DIALECTS].]
SABAʿU ʾL-MAS̤ĀNI (سبع المثانى). Lit. “The Seven Repetitions.” A title given to the Introductory Chapter of the Qurʾān by Muḥammad himself. (Mishkāt, book viii. ch. i.) There are three reasons assigned for this title:—
(1) Because it is a chapter of seven verses, which is said to have been revealed twice over.
(2) Because it contains seven words twice repeated, namely, Allāh, God; Raḥmān, Compassionate; Raḥīm, Merciful; Iyākā, Thee and to Thee; Ṣīrāt̤, Way; ʿAlaihim, to whom and with whom; G͟hair, Not, and Lā, Not.
(3) Because the seven verses are generally recited twice during an ordinary prayer. (See Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār, in loco; and ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq.)
SABBATH. The term used in the Qurʾān for the Jewish Sabbath is Sabt (سبت), a corruption of the Hebrew שַׁבָּת Shabbāth. It occurs five times in the Qurʾān:—
[Sūrah ii. 61]: “Ye know, too, those of you who transgressed on the Sabbath, and to whom We (God) said, ‘Become scouted apes.’ ”
[Sūrah iv. 50]: “Or curse you as We (God) cursed the Sabbath breakers.”
[Sūrah iv. 153]: “We (God) said to them (Israel), ‘Break not the Sabbath.’ ”
[Sūrah vii. 163]: “And ask them (the Jews) about the city that stood by the sea when its inhabitants broke the Sabbath; when their fish came to them appearing openly on their Sabbath-day, but not to them on the day when they kept no Sabbath.”