74 THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

were carefully noted down and have been imitated by the Faithful ever since."

The natural consequence of all this formalism is the development of hypocrisy. In their

Hypocrisy
and
Pharisaism.

ceremonial washings and purifications, their fasts, their prayers in the streets and in public places, and many other similar practices, the resemblance between the devout Muslims of the present time and the Pharisees of our Lord's day is so striking that it has often occurred to Muhammadan inquirers when reading the Gospels with me. Prayer and ceremonial rites, when conducted in the way we have described, have no good effect upon the heart and conscience. It all becomes a meaningless formality in too many cases,1 persisted in from habit and perhaps from superstition—the fungoid growth which tells of the death of true Religion in the soul of Man. "The2 merchant lies and cheats,—then the Muezzin's voice interrupts him: he offers up his prayer, and turns back once more to his lying. At a feast the revellers listen to equivocal songs,—they pray, and then they recover the broken thread of their subject."

1 Even Bosworth Smith is unable altogether to deny this. He writes: "Some of the characteristics of Musalman prayer are almost peculiar to it, and render it sometimes, perhaps, more profoundly devotional (! !), and sometimes more purely mechanical, than is to be found amongst the followers of any other creed." ("Mohammad and Mohammedanism," p. 164.)
2 Hauri, "Der Islam," p. 81.
THE WEAKNESS OF ISLAM. 75

The amount of merit which attaches to a prayer, though not affected by the devotedness or the comprehension of the worshipper, is greatly increased if it be offered in a specially holy place.

Merit acquired
by prayer in
particular
places.

"A prayer in this mosque of mine," said the "Prophet,"1 "is better than a thousand prayers anywhere else except in the Holy Mosque (at Mecca)." At another time he said, "A2 man's prayer in the congregation doubles in value twenty-five times over his prayer in his own house or in his bazaar." In consequence of this Tradition—(so we are told by Ibn Khallikan,3)—a celebrated jurist, Al Muzani, whenever he was unavoidably prevented from attending service in a mosque, used to repeat his prayers twenty-five times over in his own house, striving thus to gain the same degree of merit that he would have attained had he been present in the mosque. A great deal of merit is also supposed to be acquired by the repetition of the Divine Names, or even by saying the word "Allah" many hundreds of times. In

1 Mishkat, ibid., p. 59 (Arabic ed.):
قال رسول الله صلعم ـ صلوة في مسجدي هذا خير من الفِ صلوة في ما سواه الاّ المسجد الحرام
2 Ibid., p. 60:
قال رسول الله صلعم ـ صلوة الّرجل في الجماعة تُضَعَّفُ على صلاتِهِ في بيتهِ وفي سوِقِه خَمْسًا وعشرين ضعْفًا
3 Ibn Khallikan, vol. i., p. 201 (quoted by Osborn, ut sup., p. 9, note).