In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (Biblical Hebrew: שַׁבָּת [ʃa'bat]) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest as God rested in the Genesis creation narrative. Sabbath observance is commanded in the Ten Commandments: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" in the Masoretic text contrasting with the Samaritan Pentateuch which says "Keep the Sabbath day to keep it holy." A day of rest is observed in Islam (Friday), Judaism (Saturday), and Christianity (Sunday). Observances similar to or descended from the Sabbath also exist in other religions. The term may be used more generally to describe similar weekly observances in other religions. The Sabbath might have been influenced by Babylonian mid-month rest days and lunar cycles, though its origins remain debated.
Origins
Some scholars propose a cognate Akkadian word šapattu or šabattu, which refers to the day of the full moon. A lexicographic list found in the library of Ashurbanipal glosses šabattu as "[the gods'] day of the heart's rest" (ūm nûḫ libbi), although this probably refers to the appeasement of the gods' anger. Other scholars doubt that there is a connection between the biblical Sabbath and the Akkadian šapattu/šabattu, as the two words may not have a common etymology and šapattu refers almost exclusively to the fifteenth day of the month or the phenomenon of lunar alignment, not to the seventh day of a week. However, different studies found evidence that the biblical sabbath indeed sometimes had a monthly, rather than weekly, meaning. Connection to Sabbath observance has been suggested by the designation of the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of a lunar month in an Assyrian religious calendar as 'holy day', also called 'evil days' (meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited activities). The prohibitions on these days, spaced seven days apart (except the nineteenth), include abstaining from chariot riding and the avoidance of eating meat by the King. On these days, officials were prohibited from various activities, and common people were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest-day". This theory has also been challenged because the 'evil days' did not always fall every seven days and did not entail a general cessation of work. The earliest extrabiblical attestation of Sabbath might occur in a 7th-century BCE ostracon discovered at the ancient fortress of Mesad Hashavyahu, which could refer to a servant doing certain kinds of work "before Sabbath" (lpny šbt). However, there is some dispute over whether šbt does indeed refer to the Sabbath or just to the act of quitting work.
Biblical Sabbath
The verbal and nominal forms of shabbat are first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative, where the seventh day is set aside as a day of rest and made holy by God (Genesis 2:2–3).
On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken: [God] ceased on the seventh day from doing any of the work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, having ceased on it from all the work of creation that God had done. Observation and remembrance of Shabbat is one of the Ten Commandments: the fourth commandment in Judaism and Samaritanism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and most of Protestantism, and the third in the Catholic Church and Lutheranism. Most Jews who observe Shabbat regard it as having been instituted as a biblical covenant between God and the Israelites in Exodus 31:13–17 as a sign of two events: the day God rested after having completed Creation (Exodus 20:8–11) and because of the Exodus (Deuteronomy 5:12–15). Most Sabbath-keeping Christians regard the Sabbath as having been instituted by God at the end of Creation and that the entire world was then, and continues to be, obliged to observe the seventh day as Sabbath. Observance in the Hebrew Bible was universally from sixth-day sundown to seventh-day sundown according to Nehemiah 13:19 and Leviticus 23:32 in a seven-day week. The Sabbath was considered a day of joy in Isaiah 58:13 and an occasion for consultation with prophets in 2 Kings 4:23. Sabbath corporate worship was not prescribed for the community at large, and the Sabbath activities at holy sites were originally a convocation of priests to offer divine sacrifices, with family worship and rest at home. Originally, Sabbath desecration was cause for cutting off from the assembly or a capital crime according to Exodus 31:15.
Islam
The Quran shares the six-part Abrahamic creation narrative (32:4, 50:38) and the Sabbath as the seventh day (yaum as-Sabt: 2:65, 4:47, 154, 7:163, 16:124), but God's mounting the throne after creation is taken in contradistinction to Elohim's concluding and resting from his labors. The Quran states that since the Sabbath was only for Jews, Muslims replace the Sabbath rest with jumu'ah (Arabic: جمعة). Also known as "Friday prayer", jumu'ah is a congregational prayer (salat) held every Friday (the Day of Assembly), just after midday, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer; The Quran states: "When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday, hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business: That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). The next verse ("When the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land ...") leads many Muslims not to consider Friday a rest day, as in Indonesia, which regards the Sunday as Sabbath; but many Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh, do consider Friday a nonwork day, a holiday or a weekend; and other Muslim countries, like Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates count it as half a rest day (after the Friday prayer is over). Jumu'ah attendance is strictly incumbent upon all free adult males who are residents of a locality (excluding the travelers ).
Judaism
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