1832.] the followers of Sged Ahmed. 487 



not possessing the requisite purity of heart and spirit, should deceive 

 the vulgar with false stories of his soul having ascended into the 

 heavens, and conversed with angels and the souls of the Prophets ? 

 Is not the using frauds in religion, and the turning the heads of the 

 vulgar from the fixed and certain way, a thing of fatal consequence, 

 and an obstruction to union with the Deity, (the mystical union with 

 the divine Spirit is meant ?) And is it proper or possible for any one 

 justly to claim such an union with the Deity, who has abandoned the 

 established rules and methods of the Ahl-i-Shariyat wa Tariqat, 

 the teachers both of the external institutes of religion, and of the 

 more refined and contemplative devotion ?" (These concluding queries 

 refer exclusively to Syed Ahmed's pretensions to eminent success 

 as a religious enthusiast and devotee, and sufficiently explain them- 

 selves.) 



5. The Siratul Mustaqim, which was composed before its hero, 

 (as he may fairly enough be termed,) had proceeded with its author on 

 pilgrimage to Mecca, and was printed in Calcutta during their absence 

 at Mecca, by an active member of the sect, Moulavi Mohammed 

 Ali of Rampiir, discloses little or nothing of the designs which the 

 party entertained of stirring up a war of religious fanaticism against 

 the numerous infidels of India, though it breathes, in treating of the 

 duty of religious war, a sigh of pious regret over the darkness which 

 has in these later days overspread the land. Compare, it says, the state 

 of Hindustan with that of Rum and Turkn ! Compare it even with its 

 own condition two or three hundred years ago. Alas ! where are now 

 the Oulia and Ulama of those times ? But the subject is only inci- 

 dentally touched upon, and the part of the treatise which relates to 

 external duties of piety and morality includes it in a very general 

 review of those duties in all their branches. This review is contained 

 in the second chapter of the treatise, where it is inserted to shew the 

 preparation necessary before any real benefit can be gained by enter- 

 ing on the exercises of religious contemplation. The chapter is thus 

 entitled, u On the avoiding innovations in religion, and the mode of 

 performing acts of religious duty and worship ; on the purifying of 

 the heart from vices, and adorning it with virtues." In much of this 

 chapter, there is nothing peculiar beyond the degree of extreme purity 

 and fervent zeal, which is insisted upon as indispensable for an aspir- 

 ing devotee, though it is expressly stated as being in excess of what is 

 required for acceptance as a true Mahommedan. The denunciations 

 against innovations are all that it is interesting to notice ; and these, illus- 

 trated by more detailed explanations of the generally prevalent abuses 



2 Q 



