Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/198

 on this day. The faithful are therefore advised to take a ceremonial bath and to fast on the day Achura.

Hikayat Dari (LXXX).

Dari (written Dahri ) is the name of an impious, ungodly heretic, who silenced all the Moslim teachers by his unequalled powers of reasoning, so that the creed was in danger. Happily there still remained one great teacher to withstand him, named Ahmat. A disciple of the latter, Imeum Hanapi (i. e. Abu Hanīfah, after whom one of the four orthodox schools is named), though no more than a child, begs his master to let him measure his strength in open discussion with this enemy of God. Should he fail, Ahmad could then be appealed to.

Imeum Hanapi succeeded in making such brilliant replies to the two catch-questions given him that Dari was covered with shame and compelled to retire for good from the theological arena. The two questions were: "How can God exist without occupying space?", and "What is God doing at this present moment?"

The Kisah Abdōlah Hadat (LXXXI) of Chèh Marahaban can hardly be regarded as a biography of Sayyid Abdallah al-Ḥaddād, the great saint of Ḥadramaut. The learned author, who also translated for the Achehnese a poetical version of the teaching of al-Ḥaddād, has confined himself to drawing attention to the excellences of that wali (saint), and the rich blessings given forth by him while yet alive and even after his death from his grave at Trīm (Ḥadramaut).

Surat kriman (LXXXII).

The inhabitants of the meanest class in the sacred cities are in the habit of occasionally distributing among unsophisticated pilgrims the "Last Admonitions of the Prophet to his people", The purport is