moohey] THE DERVISHES 949 



willing mind and body of tile disciple. How the sheikh can produce such strange 

 results on a distant and nnconscious person is left to the admiral ion and imagination 

 id' the faithful disciple, as an incentive to exertions in the same true path as that of 

 his sheikh. 



To exercise the power of the will, it is necessary to con tract the thoughts suddenly 

 upon the object designed to be affected so perfectly as to leat e no room for the mind 

 to dwell, possibly, upon any other. The mind must not doubt for an instant of the 

 success of this effort, nor the possibility of failure; it must, in fact, be completely 

 absorbed by the one Bole idea of performing the determination strongly taken and 

 firmly relied upon. The persons must, from time to time, practice this; and as they 

 proceed, they will be able to see how much propinquity exists between themselves 

 and the Hazret i Asma (God?) and how much they are capable of exercising this 

 power. 



As an example, the author of the Reshihat narrates the following: 



In ray youth, 1 was ever with our Lord Molana Sa'eed ed Deen Kashgbareeat Hereed. It happened 

 that, we, one day, walked out together and fell in with an assembly of the inhabitants of the place 

 who wcr< engaged in wrestling. To try our powers we agreed to aid with our "powers of tin- will" 

 one of the wrestlers, so that the other should he overcome by him, and alter doing so, to change our 

 design in favor of the discomfited individual. So we stopped and, turning toward the parties, gave 

 the full influence of our united wills to one, and immediately lie was aide to subdue his opponent. 

 As the person we chose, each in turn, conquered the other, whichever we willed to prevail became t be 

 most powerful of the two, the power of our own wills was thus clearly manifested. 



On another occasion two other persons possessed of these same powers fell in with 

 an assembly of people at a place occupied by prize fighters. ■' To prevent any of 

 the crowd from passing between aud separating us we joined our hands together. 

 Two persons were engaged fighting; one was a powerful man, while the other was 

 a spare and weak person. The former readily overcame the latter; and seeing this 

 I proposed to my companiou to aid the weak one by the power of our wills. So he 

 bade me aid him in the project, while he concentrated his powers upon the weaker 

 person. Immediately a wonderful occurrence took place; the thin, spare man seized 

 his giant-like opponent and threw hint on the ground with surprising force. The. 

 crowd cried out with astonishment as he turned him over on his back and held him 

 down with apparent ease. No one. present except ourselves knew the cause. Seeing 

 that my companion was much affected by the effort which he had made, I bade him 

 remark how perfectly successful we had been, aud adding that there was no longer 

 any necessity for our remaining there, we walked away." (Pages 129—132. 



Many individuals who have, seriously wrouged and oppressed his friends received 

 punishments through the powersof thesheikh. Several instances are related wherein 

 some such even fell sick and died, or were only restored to health by open declara- 

 tions of repentance and imploring his prayerful intercession with God. His spirit 

 seems to have accompanied those in whose welfare he took an active interest, and 

 enabled them to commune with him, though far distant from him. His power of 

 hearing them was well known to his friends, and several instances are cited to prove 

 the fact. His power of affecting the health of those who injured him or his friends 

 was greatly increased while he was excited by anger, and on such occasions his 

 whole frame would be convulsed and his beard move about as if moved by elec- 

 tricity. On learning details of cruelty done to innocent individuals, the sheikh 

 would be strangely affected, so much so that no one dared to address him until the 

 paroxysm was passed ; and on such occasions he never failed to commune spiritually 

 with the sovereign or prince in such a mysterious manner as to inspire him to deal 

 justly with the guilty person and secure his merited punishment. 



Through his "mystical powers" many persons were impressed with the unright- 

 eousness of their course, and, having repented of the same, became good and pious and 

 firm believers in his spiritual influences. These powers were always connected with 

 his prayers, and it was during these that he was enabled to assure the parties inter- 

 ested of their salutary results and the acceptation of their desires. It scarcely needs 



