Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/266

Rh are, of course, recited many hundreds of times over, and the changes we have described account for the variations of sound and motion of the body described by Eastern travellers who have witnessed the performance of a zikr.

The following is a zikr-i-khafí, or that which is performed in either a low voice, or mentally.

1. Closing his eyes and lips, he says, "with the tongue of the heart,"

Al-la-ho-samiʾun, "God the hearer."

Al-la-ho-baswírun, "God the seer."

Al-la-ho-ʾalimun, "God the knower."

The first being drawn, as it were, from the navel to the breast; the second, from the breast to the brain; the third, from the brain up to the heavens; and then again repeated stage by stage backwards and forwards.

2. He says in a low voice, "Allah," from the right knee, and then from the left side.

3. With each exhalation of his breath, he says, "lá-ildáha," and with each inhalation, "il-lal-lá-ho."

This third zarb is a most exhausting act of devotion, performed, as it is, hundreds or even