Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter IV
CHAPTER IV.
THE FIVE RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF ISLAM.
1. Prayer. Mohametans have five daily prayers, which are nothing but mechanical repetition of some portions from the religious books, in appointed times and in certain manner.
At first Allah demanded forty daily prayers from the Moslems, but through the intercession and wise counsel of the Greatest Prophet, he was willing to reduce the number to five. The time for first prayer is at one hour before sunrise, the second at noon, the third two hours before sunset, the fourth at sunset, and the last about two hours after sunset.
Prayers must be preceded by ablution, the ceremonious washing of the hands, arms, nostrils, mouth, face, ears, forehead and feet.
Each time of prayer a crier called "muezzin" ascends to the top of the minaret, the slim, high tower attached to the mosque, to invite the believers to worship. He must cry as eagerly and loudly as he can, by which he will be able to reach more people, and also secure a larger space in paradise, as large as the distance of his voice.
To pray with the congregation is regarded more virtuous, but in case of necessity the believer may perform his prayer at home, in the shop, in any public place, or on the wayside. The Friday noon prayer, the evening prayers of the fasting month and the morning prayers of the Great Festival days are expected to be performed in the mosque.
At prayer Kabeh, the sacred temple of Mecca, must be faced. If a traveler confuses the directions he may face any direction by uttering "My intention is the Kabeh." Shoes must be taken off, but hats kept on. The various positions during the worship are standing erect, the eyes fixed low upon the ground, then partial bending of the body and kneeling, then touching the floor with the forehead, which is repeated several times. While in these attitudes the worshiper will repeat certain passages from the Koran in a low, muttering way. The very act of looking around, talking, laughing, coughing, spitting , sneezing, or rubbing the flesh in consequence of a fly-bite, renders the unfinished prayer null and void and obliges the worshiper to begin his devotion anew.
The Mohametans never pray in a place where any picture may be found. You can not see pictures or photographs in Moslem houses, except in those of a very few liberal minded officers. Mohamet used to say that "the angels would not enter a house in which pictures are found, and that those who made them would be commanded in the last day to give souls to them, or be punished in the fire of hell." Some carry this piety to the degree that they scratch the necks of the pictures on foreign coins with a knife, as if to kill or nullify them. There are Napoleons, Victorias, czars, kaisers and Austrian emperors—all intimate friends of the Sultan and protectors of his throne—that circulate with scratched necks in Moslem markets, especially in the interior of the Ottoman empire, where the actual scratch-necks has been so freely going on by the order of "the most gracious father of the empire," and before the eyes of his great allies.
2. Fasting During' the Month of Ramazan (lunar calendar). During the twenty-nine days of this month all the adult Moslems must fast from dawn to sunset, after which they are let loose to eat and drink and smoke and do all kinds of carnal deeds all the night. The sick and the travelers are allowed to omit this duty upon the condition that they perform it at another convenient time. Any man who fails to keep the fast is disgraced and punished publicly, occasionally by being seized and put on a donkey seated backwards and the tail in his hand for the bridle, and carried all over the market places, followed by a shouting multitude. Sometimes as an additional attraction to this religio-maniacal parade the face of the person is dyed black.
In this sacred month of prayer and humiliation their religious feelings—namely, their carnal desires, their laziness and their enmity and brutality against Giaours—reach to the highest pitch. Poor Christians suffer more in this single month than in the other eleven months. Every Christian must be very cautious not to excite the "long-faced" Moslem by demanding his debt, or by eating or smoking in his presence, or by disturbing his ear with songs or church bells.
Ramazan is believed to be the month in which the Koran descended from the seventh to the first heaven, and in which Mohamet had a nights journey to heaven. In the fourteenth night of that month the archangel Gabriel aroused him by gently touching his side and led him out of his house, where a winged mule waited for them. They both rode the animal, which took them in a moment to the top of Mount Sinai; the next moment they were in the Temple of Jerusalem, at the gate of which they left the mule, and Gabriel, carrying Mohamet upon his wings, put him on the threshold of heaven. After visiting all the seven stages of heaven he approached to the throne of the Almighty and saw the eternal plate upon which "the Word of Ages" was written. Mohamet testifies that upon each gate of heaven he saw the Arabic inscription, "There is no deity but Allah, and Mohamet is the Apostle of Allah." After this miraculous visit and glorious vision he was taken home by the same route. In this illustrious night, "El Kadr," there was an extraordinary calmness on the earth, so that the roaring streams kept still, the winds did not blow, the poisonous serpents and the ferocious animals were motionless in their dens, the robbers could not go out to their business, and the diseases and the evil spirits were controlled.
3. Pilgrimage to the Sacred Kabeh at Mecca. This is a duty put upon those who can afford the expenses and bear the troubles of the long and tiresome journey. If one can not go himself he may send a substitute, the virtue being the same. The day when the sacred caravans start towards the holy city of Mecca is regarded as a great occasion, both for those who will make the pilgrimage and those who are sending them. Almost all the Moslem population of the town or city are gathered in one place, dervishes with their drums and holy banners, large turbaned and wide-robed mollahs, with their yellow slippers, followed by a great multitude of men, women and children, some howling and singing, others talking and crying, some swearing, others trading, all on foot, forming a scene of Babylonian confusion and Sodomite rage. The chief motive of this tumult is two-fold: one is to make a great religious demonstration against the Christians, and the other for their belief that every Moslem who accompanies the sacred caravan even seven steps in its journey will be regarded in the sight of Allah as acceptable as those who perform the whole pilgrimage.
Many of the pilgrims die during this journey, partly from the effect of unfavorable climate of Arabia and partly from Asiatic cholera, the germs of which are proved to be always found in the water of Zemzem, the sacred well of Ishmael, which is asserted to have the supernatural power of cleansing all diseases and sins of the believers. Those who die during this journey are sure to be enrolled among the blessed martyrs and to enjoy the immediate reward of the heavenly presence.
It is believed that every year 80,000 pilgrims visit the Holy Temple; if the number be less than that the angels descend from heaven and complete it. Mohamet permitted the pilgrims to be engaged in commerce on their way to and from Mecca. This attract many people from Persia and India and other parts of the Mohametan world to profit themselves from these yearly religious fairs and bazars. The chances of highway robbery attract many believers to rub their faces on the threshhold of the house of Allah and make seven circuits a day around the Kabeh, each time kissing the angel stone fallen from heaven.
4. Alms and Tithes. Alms is an important duty demanded from a Moslem. "Oh! merchants," says Mohamet, "falsehood and deception are apt to prevail in traffic; purify it, therefore, with alms; give something in charity as an atonement, for God is incensed by deceit in dealing, but charity appeases his anger." By observing the lives of Mohametans one can easily see that they plunder and steal with one hand and give alms with the other. Such teachings as the above-quoted passage encourages them to robbery. A copper to a wayside beggar or a morsel of bread to a dog is regarded the very means of purification of the soul. The most bloody tyrant may erect a mosque or a bridge with one part of the money he has plundered from the Christians, and he is noted as one of the benefactors of the human race. On his funeral day his coffin is carried over the shoulders of thousands, and every believer passing by his grave stops a moment with high reverence and deep admiration and repeats his prayer for the illumination of that grave, the owner of which is already enrolled among the saints and authorized to mediate for the mortal creatures here below.
Two angels are said to accompany every Moslem, one on his right hand to record his good works and the other on his left hand to record his evil deeds. God is so tolerant for his chosen people that he permits one good action to be written ten times, while each bad action is not recorded for seven hours, which is an opportunity for repentance. By this holy decree a Moslem may steal ten dollars and give one dollar as alms and have his account all right in the book of the heavenly clerks, even without repentance.
5. The Words of Testimony or the Creed of Islam. This is very brief and decisive. "La ilahe illallah, Muhammed er Resulullah." There is no deity but Allah. Mohamet is the apostle of Allah. So much power is attributed to this creed that one single utterance of it in a whole lifetime will be sufficient to secure Paradise. If a Moslem can not perform five daily prayers he is allowed to perform the Friday noon prayers. If he can not do it fifty times a year he may perform the two yearly prayers of the great festivals. In case he omits the same during his life he can utter the above-mentioned creed; if he can not do even that he may raise the forefinger of his right hand as a sign of this creed, and he is sure to be saved.
Mohametans assert that many Giaours, however obstinate in their lifetime, are compelled to submit at last to the true religion and make this significant sign of the finger on their death-bed without letting their friends know anything about it, and many are so afraid of the flames of hell that they are obliged to cry aloud, "There is no deity but Allah, Mohamet is the apostle of Allah!" Some angels, whose special service is to carry corpses from the graves of Giaours to the graves of Moslems, come by night and take the bodies of these converted believers to their respective places. We know .othing about such kind of conversions, but positively testify to the fact that over 100,000 Christians were willing to be butchered during these last two years because of their unwillingness to utter that single expression.