,4g8 ON THE ROSHENIAH SECT AND ITS FOUNDER, 



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;but the molestation of the body, by trouble^ and affliction. Ali, howevers 

 proceeded a step beyond all his predecessors, and boldly abolished the 

 .authority of the law, and its ejiternal ordinances. The speech which he 

 .made on that occasion, in a. h= 559) is celebrated ; and is to the follow- 

 ing .effect. *'i 9:miheJmd.m of the age, .and I hereby release the inhabit 

 tants of the earth, from the 'burden of the ordinances, and the prohibi- 

 tions of the Iaw„ Let all created beings, therefore, be mystically united 

 to God, and let every one live openly as he pleases." The anniversary 

 of this occasion, was afterwards celebrated under the name of the id al 

 l^jyiw, -which, in their idiom, signifies the festival of the divim union; and 

 the occurrence v\^as assumed as an aera. The analogy which these pro- 

 ceedings bear to the abolition of the ordinances by Ba'yezid, and the 

 institution of the Rozeh cull, or general fast, is very remarkable. In 

 fact, it is only in the use of some new-coined mystic terms and expres- 

 sions, that Ba'yezid can be said to have differed from the general straim 

 •of the hmailiyah se^t. 



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