XU INTRODUCTION 



" The Ansdr^ (oaay Grod be gracious to them) asked the Chosen 

 Prophet (the Peace and Blessing of God on him) what action was 

 most pleasing to God. In reply the following verse was sent down 

 from heaven : ' Verily God loves those that fight for Him in lines, 

 as though they were a compact wall.' " 



" AUah^ has also said : ' Horses — good is knotted in their fore- 

 locks till the Judgment-Day' [i.e., as long as they exist], and, 

 again : ' How excellent is the horse, for its rider is honoured and 

 its owner is evidently not in want.' " 



" It is, too, said that in a religious war, when a Muslim rider 

 repeats the Tahbir and Tahlil,^ his horse repeats them with him in 

 his heart, and the merit so obtained is written down on the credit- 

 side of the rider in the ' Book of his Actions.' There is a tradi- 

 tion, too, that any owner who makes a nose-bag for his horse, will 

 have entered by God, in the ' Book of his Actions,' merit equal in 

 amount to the measure of barley that the bag contains. Imam 

 Abu Hanifah of Kufah (God's mercy on him) has said : * The 

 flesh of the horse is unlawful, for it is a most noble animal and a 

 cause of victory to Islam in fight ; therefore, too, it is preferable to 

 avoid selling horses to those foreign nations with whom war may 

 arise.' Buraq,* the animal sent from heaven for the Prophet's 

 Ascension {mi' raj), was a species of horse." 



Horse Created of Air. — "According to a Muslim tradition, 

 the horse was created from air, as was man from dust. First God 

 addressed the South Wind : * O South Wind I desire to create 

 out of thee a being ; so collect thyself.' The wind did so. Then 

 God created out of it a bay horse and said, ' I have called thee 

 Faras [Arabic for horse] and fixed Arabia as thy dwelling place, 

 and bestowed on thee the colour of bay, and attached to the hair 

 over thy forehead — that which falls over thine eyes — Good- 

 Fortune.^ Thou art the chief over animals. Where thou goest, 

 there man will follow thee. In pursuit or in flight alike, thou wilt 



^ Ansdr, " Helpers,'* are those of Medinah that helped the Prophet 

 after his Flight. 



2 These are sayings of Muhammad. 



3 Takbir, " God is Great." " Tahlll, " There is no God but God." 



* In pictures, Buraq is represented as a winged animal with a 

 woman's face, 



^ Perhaps this tradition accounts for the objection many saises, 

 Muslim and Hindu, have to cutting off the forelock of polo-ponies. 



