The Desert gateway, Biskra and thereabouts . n of their God. Allah Akbar!(God is Great!). La ildha ilia lldhuH (There isno God but God !) Several times the Prayer, with the prostrations,was repeated, with a concentration and a fervourwhich brought tears to the eyes of many of the on-lookers, who were deeply moved both by the spokenadoration of God and by the impressive attitudes ofhumility and abasement, which ended by every fore-head being placed in the dust. It was obvious, aseveryone felt, that the worshippers were totallyabsorbed in their devotions, bearing themselves withan entire aloofne
The Desert gateway, Biskra and thereabouts . n of their God. Allah Akbar!(God is Great!). La ildha ilia lldhuH (There isno God but God !) Several times the Prayer, with the prostrations,was repeated, with a concentration and a fervourwhich brought tears to the eyes of many of the on-lookers, who were deeply moved both by the spokenadoration of God and by the impressive attitudes ofhumility and abasement, which ended by every fore-head being placed in the dust. It was obvious, aseveryone felt, that the worshippers were totallyabsorbed in their devotions, bearing themselves withan entire aloofness for the time being from any otherclaims of life, and displaying the calm dignity ofthose who realised that they had access to AlmightyGod. When the Prayer was over the worshippers roseand grouped themselves closely round the pulpit, nowoccupied by the Imam, who was to preach to of my photographs shows this scene—the listen-ing multitude, the frail figure of the preacher, andthe Arab collector (just under the pulpit, in a black. PRAYER WITH FAITH 5i burnous), who is gathering alms for the poor, thisbeing specially a feast of almsgiving. Once or twice the preacher, who all through hisdiscourse leaned on his staff, flagged, and had tosit for a few moments on the top step of the custom of leaning on a staff was instituted byMohammet himself, who frequently preached to hisfollowers. The staff, too, is always used as a re-minder of the early days of Islam, when it was oftenneeded by the preacher for defence. The sermon was not long. One of the pithiestsayings of the Prophet is that the length of a mansprayers and the shortness of his sermons are signsof his common sense. The sermon being ended, everyone rose; theImam began a prayer, and all hands, both of Arabworshippers and of onlookers, even to the smallestchild, were raised, cup-like, to the breast, to catchthe blessings from heaven for which the Imam nowsupplicated—the remission of sin, recovery of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectislam, bookyear1910
