“In 1830 A.D. the Sultan Mahmud, and in 1873–75 A.D. the late ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz, repaired the Dome, and the latter period was one specially valuable for those who wished to study the history of the place.
“Such is a plain statement of the gradual growth of the building. The dates of the various inscriptions on the walls fully agree with the circumstantial accounts of the Arab writers who describe the Dome of the Rock.” [[JERUSALEM].]
SAKĪNAH (سكينة). A word which occurs in the Qurʾān five times. (1) For that which was in the Ark of the Covenant, [Sūrah ii. 249]: “The sign of his (Saul’s) kingdom is that there shall come to you the Ark (Tābūt) with the sakīnah in it from your Lord, and the relics that the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left, and the angels bear it.” With reference to this verse, al-Baiẓāwī, the great Muslim commentator, says: “The ark here mentioned is the box containing the Books of Moses (Arabic Taurāt, namely, the Torah, or Law), which was made of box-wood and gilded over with gold, and was three cubits long and two wide, and in it was ‘the sakīnah from your Lord.’ The meaning of which is, that with the Ark there was tranquillity and peace, namely, the Taurāt (Books of Moses), because when Moses went forth to war he always took the Ark with him, which gave repose to the hearts of the children of Israel. But some say that within that Ark there was an idol made either of emerald or sapphire, with the head and tail of a cat, and with two wings; and that this creature made a noise when the Ark was carried forth to war. But others say that the Ark contained images of the prophets, from Adam to Moses. Others assert that the meaning of sakīnah is ‘knowledge and sincerity.’ Others, that the Ark contained the tables of the Law, the rod of Moses, and Aaron’s turban.” (Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, Fleischer’s ed., vol. ii. p. 128.)
(2) It is also used in the Qurʾān for help and confidence or grace. [Sūrah xlviii. 26]: “When those who misbelieved put in their hearts pique—the pique of ignorance—and God sent down His Sakīnah upon His Apostle and upon the believers, and obliged them to keep to the word of piety.” Al-Baiẓāwī says that in this verse the word sakīnah means the tranquillity and repose of the soul, which is the meaning given in all Arabic dictionaries.
The word occurs in three other places in a similar sense:—
[Sūrah ix. 26]: “God sent down His Sakīnah upon His Apostle and upon the believers, and sent down armies which ye could not see, and punished those who did not believe.”
[Sūrah ix. 40]: “God sent down His Sakīnah upon him, and aided him with hosts.”
[Sūrah xlviii. 2]: “It is He who sent down the sakīnah into the hearts of believers, that they might have faith added to faith.”
None of the Muslim commentators seem to understand that the Arabic سكينة Sakīnah is identical with the Hebrew שְׁכִינָה Shechinah, a term which, although not found in the Bible, has been used by the later Jews, and borrowed by the Christians from them, to express the visible Majesty of the Divine Presence, especially when resting or dwelling between the Cherubim on the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle, and in the Temple of Solomon. Rabbinical writers identify the Shechinah with the Holy Spirit, and some Christian writers have thought that the three-fold expression for the Deity—the Lord, the Word of the Lord, and the Shechinah—indicates the knowledge of a trinity of persons in the God-head.
For the Talmudic views regarding the Shechinah, the English reader can refer to Dr. Hershon’s Talmudic Miscellany (Trübner & Co., London).