Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/208

Rh Jew. 'It is the holder of a soul,' he replied, 'from which we should take warning and fear. This rule is said to have been abrogated, for, "on one occasion the Prophet sitting on the road when a bier passed, and the Prophet disliked that the bier of a Jew should be higher than his head, and he therefore stood up." Notwithstanding these contradictory traditions, we believe that in all countries Muhammadans are wont to pay great respect to the funerals of both Jews and Christians. Not long ago, about sixty Muhammadans attended the funeral of an Armenian Christian lady at Peshawur, when the funeral service was read by the Native clergyman. In the procession the Muhammadans took their turn with the Native Christian converts in carrying the bier, and assisting in lowering the coffin into the grave. During the reading of the service, some few seated themselves on the grass, but the majority listened attentively to the funeral office, which was impressively read by the Native pastor, himself a Christian convert from Muhammadanism.

The Muhammadan funeral service is not recited in the graveyard, it being too polluted a