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THE
QUR'ANIC DOCTRINE OF SALVATION |
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conception akin to the Christian doctrine of the
Holy Spirit, he was at a complete loss for any mode
of expression whereby he could explain how these operations
of grace could be carried out.
The operations are recognized, the result of them
is acknowledged, but the manner of them remained incomprehensible.
They were not, to Muhammad's mind, simple acts of God
in no way to be distinguished from His acts of creative
power whereby He brought into existence the world and
all that it contains: for while he clearly saw, on the
one hand, that they were the operations of the will
of God, he acknowledged, on the other hand, that they
were conditioned by the acts of men.
In this, Muhammad, while being very much at one with
a great deal of the teaching of the Old Testament, yet
fell very far short of the conception of the Old Testament
as to the manner of the working of God's Spirit.
In the Old Testament, the 'Spirit of God' is the means
whereby Jehovah has dealings with men. From its operations
men receive wisdom, skill, understanding, insight into
divine truth. Through its workings in their hearts men
are sanctified. Throughout the Old Testament, it is
true, the Spirit is never personal; yet Jehovah acts
personally through the Spirit.
The Qur'an, on the other hand, simply attributes to
God directly all these operations of the Spirit, without
being in any way able to explain how they are carried
on. There seem at times to be gleams of light breaking
through the darkness, but they are not sufficient to
light up the path of the seeker after truth. Thus we
find a remarkable expression: 'It is He who sendeth
down |
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| THE
ATTAINING OF SALVATION |
55 |
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a spirit of secure repose (al-sakinata) into
the hearts of the faithful, that they may add faith
to their faith.' 1 And we read, 'Thus did
God sent down His spirit of repose (sakinatahu)
upon His Apostle, and upon the faithful, and He sent
down troops which ye saw not.' 2
On Sura ix. 26, Sale comments in a note as follows,
'The original word is sakinat, which the commentators
interpret in this sense (tranquility); but it seems
rather to signify the divine presence, or Shechinah
appearing to the Moslems.' 3
In this connexion we cannot do better than quote from
Geiger's Judaism and Islam (pp. 36, 40). 'Sakinat
the Presence of God — 'In the development of Judaism
in order to guard against forming too human an idea
of the Godhead, it was customary to attribute the speaking
of God, when it is mentioned in the Scripture, to the
personified Word of God, as it were embodying that emanation
from the Deity which came in Christianity to a veritable
incarnation. In like manner also when in the Scriptures
the remaining stationary, or the resting of God is mentioned,
something sensibly proceeding from Him is to be thought
of. This is especially so in the case of God's dwelling
in the Temple; and this "emanation of the Godhead,"
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,
namely, that of the |
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