486 Notice of the Tenets held by [Nov. 



departed from the general and deep-rooted usages of their Mahomme- 

 dan brethren in India. Occasionally their pious zeal impels them to 

 remove altogether such dangerous temptations to what they consider a 

 violation of the Unity of the Godhead, as the tombs of Saints, by for- 

 cibly pulling them down. The word Fatiha, which denotes originally 

 the first chapter of the Qoran, is commonly used to signify the whole 

 ceremonies performed and prayers offered in behalf or in honour of 

 the deceased, on the anniversary of their death or other fixed periods. 

 Such ceremonies are observed in honour of relations or of any venerat- 

 ed Saint, and as practised by the vulgar, they go much beyond the 

 simple form described in the queries. At celebrated shrines, they are 

 kept up with great pomp and solemnity ; and what are mentioned in 

 the queries as offerings, distributed for the benefit of the spirits of the 

 Saints, are in reality ordinarily regarded as propitiations presented to 

 secure their favour and protection. Saints are in effect commonly 

 made direct objects of worship. Against the customary abuses of this 

 ceremony, therefore, Syed Ahmed's instructions and denunciations 

 were peculiarly directed ; long arguments, exposing their impious ten- 

 dency and character, are contained in the Sirat-ul-Mustaqim, and 

 they are a leading object of invective in all the writings of the sect. 

 A good account of the ceremonies at shrines, with a notice of several 

 of the most venerated InJian Saints, is to be found in the numbers of 

 the Asiatic Journal for December, 1831, and January and February 

 1832, abridged from an article in the Journal Asiatique, on the pecu- 

 liarities of Mahommedanism in India, by M. Garcin de Tassy. 



Queries 12 and 13. " Is it unlawful, or unattended with reward or 

 benefit, to repeat prayers sanctioned by the example of Mahommed 

 (Sunun)y whether of fixed forms or numbers, or occasional and supere- 

 rogatory prayers, when unobjectionable seasons are chosen for them ? 

 And is any one privileged to prohibit the giving of blessings to Ma- 

 hommed, (that is, the expression by men, of blessings upon him,) or re- 

 peating from books in which such blessings are set forth? (It appears 

 from the answers to these queries, that Syed Ahmed denied that 

 there was any excellence or virtue in the practices adverted to.) 



Queries 14 to 18. " Have the leaders in the path of religious con- 

 templation held it admissable to receive men indiscriminately as dis- 

 ciples into several of the Sufi schools at the same time, or to receive 

 as a disciple one who has already adopted a religious instructor or 

 guide, of a virtuous and pious character ; such instructor being living 

 and present, and not having given his consent ? And is it not prohi- 

 bited that any one, for his own corrupt and interested purposes, and 



