Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/141

MOULVEES. become a Wullee, or saint. Now it is the thirteenth centurv, and the Mahomedan world, according to prophecy, is gone astray and is wandering in darkness.

Is the Moulvee for all this a bad member of general society'? By no means. If he will not progress in intelligence and liberality of sentiment, he cannot be forced into them; and he does no one harm but himself Hindoos do not fear him, nor Christians either; and if he can hold his ground between them, it is all he can do. For the rest he is a peaceable member of the general body of people, useful to some, indifferent to most; and to the last he will cherish those principles of, and earnest longing for, the supremacy of the faith of the Prophet, in which he was brought up, in which he will die, and which have been the hereditary profession of his family for centuries. The old man in the centre of the Photograph has hung over him two framed texts, which are his professions of faith. That over his proper left hand, is " Soobhan Ulla"—"Glorifying God;" that over his right, "La illa-ul-Ulla, Mahomed rasool Ulla"—"There is no god but God, and Mahomed is the prophet of God." He is a "Soonee," or "orthodox"—as he believes—Mahomedan; and he hates Shiahs and Rafzees of his own creed, with, if possible, a deeper hate than he does a Hindoo or a Christian.