“Quietness” Of The Soul Requires A “Dwelling”
If the “quietness” of the soul requires a “dwelling” to shelter it, it is because this state of being is not given from the outset: it is acquired, even conquered, precisely by the construction of this resting place. The three monotheisms symbolize this haven of peace with the “Ark of the Covenant”, a gold-covered acacia wood chest containing the “Tables of the Law”. The Qur’ân evokes the episode when the Israelites found this ark that had been taken from them:
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ ءَايَةَ مُلْكِهِۦٓ أَن يَأْتِيَكُمُ ٱلتَّابُوتُ فِيهِ سَكِينَةٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَبَقِيَّةٌۭ مِّمَّا تَرَكَ ءَالُ مُوسَىٰ وَءَالُ هَـٰرُونَ تَحْمِلُهُ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةُ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةًۭ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ ٢٤٨
[And their prophet said unto them: “Behold, it shall be a sign of his [rightful] dominion that you will be granted a heart endowed by your Sustainer with inner peace and with all that is enduring in the angel-borne heritage left behind by the House of Moses and the House of Aaron. Herein, behold, there shall indeed be a sign for you if you are [truly] believers.]
(Qur’ân 2:248).
It is therefore not surprising that sakînah is found in another Qur’ânic episode of the covenant, the so-called “Covenant Pact”, which Rasulullahﷺ’s followers, on their way to Makkah, concluded with him under a tree during the famous meeting of Hudaybiyya in the year 6/628:
[Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, [O Muhammad], under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquility upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest.]
(Surah Al Fath: Ayat 18)
The heart, shelter of the inner sakînah
In this last verse, a new, more interior “place of rest” appears, where the sakînah is housed: the “heart,” which is found in several other verses, for example in:
هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ فِى قُلُوبِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ لِيَزْدَادُوٓا۟ إِيمَـٰنًۭا مَّعَ إِيمَـٰنِهِمْ ۗ وَلِلَّهِ جُنُودُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًۭا ٤
[He it is who sent down sakînah into the hearts of the believers, that their faith may be strengthened.]
[Surah Al Fath: Ayat 4]
The “heart” is thus to man what the “Ark of the Covenant” – that is, the Law – is to society: heart and Law both constitute a maskan, a “dwelling place”, for the sake of sakînah, that is, social peace and inner peace respectively.
The Sakînah, or comfort after effort.
But the peace of heart is not acquired without pain. It should be noted that it is often, paradoxically, in a context of war or conflict that the sakînah of the heart is mentioned in the Qur’ân, a conflict against the Makkah during the meeting of Hudaybiyya:
۞ لَّقَدْ رَضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأَنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَـٰبَهُمْ فَتْحًۭا قَرِيبًۭا ١٨
(Surah Al Fath:Ayat 18)
or during the battle of Hunayn :
ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُۥ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِۦ وَعَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَأَنزَلَ جُنُودًۭا لَّمْ تَرَوْهَا وَعَذَّبَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ جَزَآءُ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ ٢٦
(Surah Taubah, : Ayat 26).
The sakînah is seen as a divine helper that God “brings down” on the “hearts” of Rasulullahﷺ and his companions to lead them to “victory”. However, this help appears there, on several occasions, in a very particular form, by the sending not of human warriors but of “invisible armies”, as when Rasulullahﷺ, fleeing Makkah, takes refuge with Saiyiduna Abû Bakr As Sidique رضي الله عنه in a cave:
[It does not matter˺ if you ˹believers˺ do not support him, for Allah did in fact support him when the disbelievers drove him out ˹of Mecca˺ and he was only one of two. While they both were in the cave, he reassured his companion, “Do not worry; Allah is certainly with us.” So Allah sent down His serenity upon the Prophet, supported him with forces you ˹believers˺ did not see, and made the word of the disbelievers lowest, while the Word of Allah is supreme. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise. ]
(Surah Taubah : Ayat 40).
What meaning can be given to these “invisible armies” that is still relevant today? Far from calling for violence, they teach on the contrary that the real battle is never against an external enemy but against an internal one. This is because a human army, even as powerful as that of Rasulullahﷺ in the year 8/630, never provides the sakînah of the heart.
So on the day of Hunayn, when Muslims were gathered together in great numbers, which then did not protect them at all, and the earth, however wide it was, was narrow to you … Then God sent down His sake on Rasulullahﷺ and on the believers, and He sent down armies which they did not see.
[Surely Allah has succored you before on many a battlefield, and (you have yourselves witnessed His succor to you) on the day of Hunayn when your numbers made you proud, but they did you no good, and the earth, for all its vastness, constrained you, and you turned your backs in retreat.]
(Surah taubah: Ayat 25)
"Then Allah caused His tranquility to descend upon His Messenger and upon the believers, and He sent down hosts whom you did not see, and chastised those who disbelieved. Such is the recompense of those who deny the Truth.”
(Surah Taubah: Ayat 26)
The Word here makes it clear that the “vast land” and its bellicose conflicts are too narrow a dwelling place, and therefore inappropriate, to hope to find “shelter” for “quietness”. This is why the “invisible” character of these armies, descending upon the “hearts” of the faithful, has led the mystics of Islam to give a spiritual meaning to sakîna, interpreting it as the “Great Peace”, a deep divine tranquility that comes to inhabit the heart of the believer:
“It is the security that the heart feels when it receives the word of God in it“, says the Sufi Tirmidhi. We will thus remember that, according to a famous prophetic hadith, the true jihad is the “Great Jihad”, i.e. the “effort upon oneself”. It should therefore be remembered that peace of heart is not given at once, it is acquired and even conquered. It supposes a struggle, not against others, nor even against oneself, but rather within oneself: the evening rest supposes the work of the day, the peace of the soul requires the overcoming of inner conflicts. In other words, comfort comes after the effort.
