even wrote a book on the subject as to when the hands might be lifted in prayer. There is no doubt regarding the origin of the Qunut prayer. We learn from Yusuf as Safti in his commentary on Ibn Turki's well-known book on Fiqh (p. 157): "The reason for the legislation concerning the Qunut is as follows: One day there came to the Prophet certain unbelievers who pretended that they had become Moslems and asked him that he would give them aid from among his Companions as a troop against their enemies. So he granted them seventy men from among the Companions; when they departed with them, however, they took them out to the desert and killing them threw them into the well Mayrah. This became known to the Prophet and he mistrusted them and was filled with wrath and began to curse them saying: 'O God, curse Ra'ala and Lahyan and Beni Dhakwan because they mocked God and his Apostle. O God, cause to come down upon them a famine like in the days of Joseph and help el-Walid ibn el-Walid and the weak company of Mecca.' Then Gabriel came down to him and told him to keep quiet, saying, ' God did not send you a reviler and a curser but verily he sent you as a mercy. He did not send you as a punishment. The affair does not concern you; for God will either forgive them or punish them. They are the transgressors.' Then he taught him the Qunut aforementioned, i. e., the prayer now used." In spite of the assertion of God's unity there are many other things connected wih Moslem prayer which show pagan magic, such as the power through certain words and gestures to influence the Almighty. These practices were prevalent before Islam. Professor Goldziher mentions the custom of incantation (Manashada) similar to that practiced by the heathen Kahins. Of certain leaders in the early days of Islam it was said: "If so and so would adjure anything upon God he would doubtless obtain it." Not only in formal prayer (Salat) but also in the Du'a (petition) there are magical practices, especially in the prayer for eclipse by the raising of the hands. We are told (alBukhari) that on one occasion the Prophet while praying for raih raised his hands so high that one could see the white skin of his arm-pits. In the case of Du'a therefore, the Kibla is said to be heaven itself and not Mecca. Another gesture used in Du'a is the stroking of the face, or of the body with the hands. This custom, borrowed from the Prophet, also has magical effect. At the time of his death the Prophet put his hands in water and washed his face with them, repeating the creed. Goldziher refers especially to magical elements in the prayer for rain,26 and against eclipses of the sun or moon. These, like excessive drought, were explained and combated by the pagan Arabs in a superstitious manner. Mohammed forbade them to recognize in such phenomena anything more than special manifestations of the omnipotence of the Creator, yet ordained in this case also certain ritual prayers, to be continued as long as the eclipse lasted. No Mohammedan questions for a moment that the omnipotence of God reveals itself in these eclipses—indeed no doctrine is more popular than that of the omnipotence of God and predestination—yet in the ranks of the people all kinds of superstitions prevail in regard to such phenomena. In these temporary obscurations of sun and moon they discern the action of malignant spirits and do not regard the performance of a simple service of prayer as a sufficient protection. "In Acheh, as in other Mohammedan countries, these prayers are left to the representatives of religion, the teunkus and leubes, while the people of the gampong keep up a mighty 26 See al Bukhari who gives certain chapters on magical formulas to be used on this occasion. Certain of the companions of the Prophet were celebrated as rain-makers. uproar beating the great drum of the meunasah, and firing off guns and sometimes even cannons in order to frighten away the enemies of the sun and moon. Various sorts of rates are also held in order to relieve the suffering heavenly body." 27 That Moslem prayer has become paganized among the Malays is well known. The whole ceremony of sowing rice and reaping the first crop is thoroughly animistic, and yet it is carried on with Moslem-pagan prayers and invocations. Among many examples we give the following from Skeat.28 He describes how a woman gathers in the first fruits. 66 Next she took in one hand (out of the brass tray) the stone, the egg, cockle-shell and candle-nut, and with the other planted the big iron nail in the center of the sheaf close to the foot of the sugar-cane. Then she took in her left hand the cord of tree-bark, and after fumigating it, together with all the vessels of rice and oil, took up some of the rice and strewed it round about the sheaf, and then tossed the remainder thrice upwards, some of it falling upon the rest of the company and myself. "This done, she took the end of the cord in both hands, and encircling the sheaf with it near the ground, drew it slowly upward to the waist of the sheaf, and tied it there, after repeating what is called the 'Ten Prayers' (do'a sapuloh) without once taking breath: "The first, is God, The second, is Muhammad, The third, Holy Water of the five Hours of Prayer by Day and Night, The fourth, is Pancha Indra, The fifth, the Open Door of Daily Bread, The sixth, the Seven Stories of the Palace-Tower, The seventh, the Open Door of the rice-sifting Platform, 27 Hurgronje's "The Achenese," pp. 285-6. 28 Skeat's "Malay Magic," p. 240. The eighth, the Open Door of Paradise, The ninth, is the child in its Mother's Womb, The tenth is the Child created by God, the reason of its creation being our Lord, Grant this, 'Isa! Grant this, Moses! Grant this, David! Grant me, from God (the opening of) all the doors of my daily bread, on earth, and in heaven." In Algeria the usual posture used in prayer for rain is standing upright with the elbows bent and palms turned upwards. Prayers for rain must only be done out of doors and with old clothes on, the burnous being worn inside out to express distress and need. For eclipse of the sun a long prayer is made standing with hands down at the side, fingers extended, then a long prayer while the hands are bent on the knees. These two positions are repeated with each prayer. In Yemen, at the first of the year, if there is a drought five cows are brought to a special mosque and each one in turn is driven around the mosque three times by a huge crowd of young men, who constantly pray or recite the Koran. In case of an eclipse water is put in large trays in the open air and the people peer into this water searching for the moon's reflection, but in this prayer also is not forgotten. In 1917 there was a total eclipse of the moon visible in Egypt. As might well be expected the eclipse greatly excited the Egyptian masses, who were very much impressed by the fact that it coincided with Ramadan and the war. Pans and drums as well as other noise-making appliances were beaten by them as long as the phenomenon was visible, and even after its disappearance, many servants refused to go to sleep on the roofs. Among the Turkish Moslems there is a superstition regard ing the value of "rain stones" called Yada Rashi, or in Persian Sangi Yada. This superstition dates from before their conversion to Islam but still persists and spread to Morocco. In Tlemcen the Moslems in time of drought gather 70,000 pebbles which are put in seventy sacks; during the night they repeat the Koran prayers over every one of these pebbles, after which the bags are emptied into the wady with the hope of rain.29 This service of prayer is also occasionally held in Java, under the name istika; but a more popular method of rainmaking is "giving the cat a bath," which is sometimes accompanied by small processions and other ceremonies. "In Acheh, so far as I am aware," says Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, "the actual custom no longer survives, though it has left traces of its former existence in sundry popular evpressions. 'It is very dry; we must give the cat a bath and then we shall get rain,' say the padi-planters when their harvest threatens to fail through drought." "In Tunis and Tripoli," Major Tremearne tells us, "if there is no rain, and the crops are being ruined, the Arabs go in procession outside the city with drums and flags, and pray for rain, and, according to Haj Ali, cows are made to urinate and the roofs of the houses are wetted with water by the Arabs and Hausas with them as a means of bringing down rain. But if there is no result the negroes are summoned to use their magic." "In Northern Algeria, amongst the Magazawa of Gobir, the rain was made to fall and to cease in the following manner, according to Haj Ali. The rain-makers were nine in number and would go round with wooden clubs to a tsamiya (tamarind) or a ganje (rubber) tree near the gate of the town, and sacrifice a black bull, the blood being allowed to 29 Goldziher in the "Nöldeke Festschrift," Zauber Elemente im Islamischen Gebet, p. 316. |