Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/269

 248 ting in the exercise of a zikr-i-jalí to a religious devotee, who seldom stirs out of his mosque; and we have often been told by Maulavís, that they find the performance of a zikr keeps evil thoughts from the mind; but as some of the most devoted zákirs (i. e. those who perform the zikr) are amongst the most immoral men, the religious exercise does not appear to have any lasting effect on the moral character.

As a curious instance of the superstitious character of this devotional exercise, the Chishtía order believe that if a man sits cross-legged and seizes the vein called Kaimás, which is under the leg, with his toes, that it will give peace to his heart, when accompanied by a zikr of the "nafí isbát," which is a term used for the first part of the Kalimah, which forms the usual zikr, namely:—

Lá-iláha-il-lal-laho, "There is no deity but God."

The most common form of zikr is a recital of the ninety-nine names of God; for Muhammad promised those of his followers who recited them, a sure entrance to Paradise.